A bit more digging through myriad similar issues I found this bug
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eject/+bug/412527 which had a
suggestion to change the SCSI setting in the BIOS. I did this and my
system is now back recognising blank media. As mentioned by someone
else in the thread - n
I have a similar issue too. Brasero worked fine this morning to burn an ISO
file to a blank DVD. This afternoon I have tried to do the same process to
burn a different ISO file and my laptop is no longer recognising media in the
drive. The media is the same type of Verbatim 4.7gb blank disk.