Mac Superdrive limitations....
Ken Rutherford
that they do NOT read DVD+R disks. Well, I can live with that, but now, I am
facing the reality that they do not read DVD-RW disks either. This DVD burning
venture is turning out to be an expensive hobby! Blank DVD's are $4-$5 each.
Not as easy to throw one away as a CD. I believe this was poor planning on
Apple's part. I could have saved $$ if the Superdrive could read DVD-RW that I
could use as a "test" disk. Anyone else agree? Curious if the current
Superdrive could be patched or upgraded to read DVD-RW, or is this possible?
Ken
Anthony Lawrence
Panasonic recently announced drives that can read and write DVD-RAM,
DVD-RW, DVD-R, CD-R and CD-RW. Whether they will be compatible with
Macs I do not know - they seem to be concentrating on IDE interfaces but
see http://www.consumerdvreviews.com/news/1102/11182002_01.asp for more.
DVD+R is a different thing entirely BTW. However, DVD-RW and DVD+RW
both share the ability to be over-written 1,000 times (DVD-RAM can be
written 100,000 times!). That takes the sting out of the cost, but
unfortunately DVD-R is (as you know) write once.
--
Tony Lawrence
Free Linux Skills Test: http://aplawrence.com/skillstest.html
Matthew Sylvester
news:20021215120417...@mb-md.aol.com...
The superdrive reads and writes DVD-RW just fine. Are you referring to the
fact that iDVD doesn't recognise -RW disks? If so there is a way to fool it,
by giving it a -R disk to start off with then ejecting it and replacing it
with a -RW once it has gone away to do the encoding.
You also seem to be overpaying for you DVD-R blanks. We can get them here in
the UK for the equivalent of around $0.75, so I guess that similar prices
should be available elsewhere.
- Matthew
Greg Weston
Rutherford <k96...@aol.com> wrote:
> Anyone else using a G4 Superdrive? I have a Mac 1ghz DP and recently found
> out that they do NOT read DVD+R disks.
Correct. They are DVD-R (and, silently, -RW) drives. +R(W) and -R(W)
are distinct formats pushed by (mostly) distinct groups to serve
different needs.
> Well, I can live with that, but now, I am facing the reality that they do
> not read DVD-RW disks either.
Actually, they can. They're not marketted that way, and it's not
supported by Apple, but 3rd-party software will, readily, deal with -RW
discs. What you're seeing is not a hardware shortcoming, it's a
software design decision.
G
Ken Rutherford
fact that iDVD doesn't recognise -RW disks? >>
Hmmm, really? Yes, I was using iDVD when I got the message that it does not
recognize the disk, which was a DVD-RW. I'll try this little trick you
mentioned to see if I can fool it. You say eject it and replace it once it
starts encoding. Can you do that? When do you know that it started encoding?
Ken
David C.
>
> Anyone else using a G4 Superdrive? I have a Mac 1ghz DP and recently
> found out that they do NOT read DVD+R disks.
Correct. +R and +RW are completely incompatible.
> Well, I can live with that, but now, I am facing the reality that they
> do not read DVD-RW disks either.
Not true, unless Apple has chosen a new model drive recently. Check the
Apple System Profiler (in the Apple menu for OS 9, in
/Applications/Utilities for OS X) for the drive's model. Mine is a
Pioneer DVR-104. It supports DVD-RW at 1x speeds.
Note that Apple's software does not support DVD-RW. This means iDVD and
the Finder won't burn them. But other programs (including Dantz
Retrospect and Roxio Toast) do support them just fine.
-- David
Doug Brown
Greg Weston <gwesto...@CAPSattbi.com> wrote:
> Actually, they can. They're not marketted that way, and it's not
> supported by Apple, but 3rd-party software will, readily, deal with -RW
> discs. What you're seeing is not a hardware shortcoming, it's a
> software design decision.
I'm pretty sure that Disc Burner in OS X does support DVD-RW discs, at
least in 10.2 or newer. Disk Utility specifically mentions them in the
erase tab, so I would be very surprised if they weren't supported.
Doug
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David C.
> Greg Weston wrote:
>>
>> Actually, they can. They're not marketted that way, and it's not
>> supported by Apple, but 3rd-party software will, readily, deal with
>> -RW discs. What you're seeing is not a hardware shortcoming, it's a
>> software design decision.
>
> I'm pretty sure that Disc Burner in OS X does support DVD-RW discs, at
> least in 10.2 or newer. Disk Utility specifically mentions them in the
> erase tab, so I would be very surprised if they weren't supported.
Interesting. I just tried it now (just upgraded from 10.1.5 to 10.2.2
this weekend) and it appears that Disc Burner support for DVD-RW now
exists, even though Apple still doesn't officially support it.
I just burned a data DVD-RW from the Finder. On 10.1.5, it wouldn't let
me. It worked on 10.2.2, although it took a _LONG_ time. I think it
wrote the entire 4.7GB surface of the disc, even though I only burned a
single 2K test file. Erasure from Disk Utility also worked.
I still prefer using Toast to do this sort of thing, but it appears that
some amount of DVD-RW support exists in 10.2. Apple still does not
publish -RW capability when talking about the SuperDrive, however.
-- David
David C.
>
> Panasonic recently announced drives that can read and write DVD-RAM,
> DVD-RW, DVD-R, CD-R and CD-RW. Whether they will be compatible with
> Macs I do not know - they seem to be concentrating on IDE interfaces
> but see http://www.consumerdvreviews.com/news/1102/11182002_01.asp for
> more.
IDE's not too bad. If you have one of the new "mirror door" models, you
can install it in the second drive bay. If you have an older G4, you
can replace the Apple-supplied drive (although iDVD won't run with a
third-party drive installed, so you won't want to remove a factory
installed SuperDrive.)
You can also get external cases that will allow you to convert an
internal IDE drive into an external FireWire drive. Here's one such
product:
http://www.scsipro.com/catalog/pg23_firewireidecasekits.htm
(Note that I have no idea what the quality of this product is or how
well the result might be compatible with MacOS. I have never bought or
used one before. This was just the first hit I found on a web search for
FireWire-IDE cases.)
The cases from this web site are a bit pricey, but I have seen cheaper
ones at computer shows. I have no idea what the quality of those cases
might be either.
> DVD+R is a different thing entirely BTW. However, DVD-RW and DVD+RW
> both share the ability to be over-written 1,000 times (DVD-RAM can be
> written 100,000 times!). That takes the sting out of the cost, but
> unfortunately DVD-R is (as you know) write once.
The big advantage to DVD-RAM is that MacOS will let you use one like a
generic removable media drive. Like a giant floppy. The other forms of
optical media (CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW) work like eraseable -R media,
which isn't nearly as convenient.
A drive that combines -RAM and -RW in one drive is definitely
appealing. I don't think I have a need for one at this time, but it's
definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
-- David
Anthony Lawrence
>
> The big advantage to DVD-RAM is that MacOS will let you use one like a
> generic removable media drive. Like a giant floppy. The other forms of
> optical media (CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW) work like eraseable -R media,
> which isn't nearly as convenient.
Correct. The ability to do random access is what makes DVD-RAM ideal
for removable filesystems and even for backup if you use a program smart
enough to index the archive. The backup isn't any faster, of course,
but you can very close to instantly seek to where you want to restore
from. I've been using (commercial) backup software on Linux and SCO
Unix boxes for some time now with DVD-RAM. See
http://aplawrence.com/Reviews/dvdram.html
>
> A drive that combines -RAM and -RW in one drive is definitely
> appealing. I don't think I have a need for one at this time, but it's
> definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
The next improvement is greater capacity - that's what I'm waiting for.
4.7 GB just insn't much nowadays :-)
Geoffrey Anderson
I burn DVD-RW's in the finder all the time (OS-X) and hove never had
trouble. The consumer tools (iDVD) will not recognize the RW disks as
they are commonly not readable in commercial DVD players (there is also
some media tax thing as well). However, there are ways to "fool" iDVD
to burn to an RW disk.
The new Powerbook with Superdrive does not support DVD-RW disks at all
either. It is purely a DVD-R drive.
>
> -- David
>
Geoff
David C.
>
> The new Powerbook with Superdrive does not support DVD-RW disks at all
> either. It is purely a DVD-R drive.
Do you know what model drive Apple's using in there? I haven't seen
one of the new Powerbooks up close, so I haven't yet been able to run
Apple System Profiler to find out.
-- David
Jason A. Fager
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-815, revision D0C4, according to Apple System Profiler.
I have not been able to get it to accept DVD-RW media; the drive just
ejects it. I think it's safe to assume the drive is DVD-R only, but
given the availability of cheap DVD-R media, that's not the end of the
world.
My main annoyance with the Superdrive is the slooooow CD burning speed.
When you live with a 32x/10x burner for a while, going back to 8x/4x is
a bit of a culture shock <g>.
jafager
David C.
> David C. wrote:
>> Geoffrey Anderson writes:
>>>
>>> The new Powerbook with Superdrive does not support DVD-RW disks at
>>> all either. It is purely a DVD-R drive.
>>
>> Do you know what model drive Apple's using in there? I haven't seen
>> one of the new Powerbooks up close, so I haven't yet been able to run
>> Apple System Profiler to find out.
>
> MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-815, revision D0C4, according to Apple System
> Profiler.
Thanks. I can search on this. Unfortunately, Matsushita's web site
doesn't seem to mention the drive. But did find the following
discussion (regarding making it region-free):
http://forum.firmware-flash.com/viewtopic.php?t=9077
The important thing here is a photo of the drive and an advertising sign
for it (all in Japanese, unfortunately) that seems to describe it as
supporting DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM and CD-ROM.
The discussion does, however, mention that the Apple version of this
doesn't seem to accept DVD-RW. This might be due to customized
firmware.
Unfortunately, this is all I can dig up on this drive.
> My main annoyance with the Superdrive is the slooooow CD burning
> speed. When you live with a 32x/10x burner for a while, going back to
> 8x/4x is a bit of a culture shock <g>.
I can agree here. It's not a killer for me, however, since I mostly
burn audio discs, and I always burn them at 2x, since I've found that
faster-burned audio discs sometimes have problems when played in audio
players.
-- David
Matthew Sylvester
<cma...@there.com> wrote in message
news:20021215201800.358$2...@newsreader.com...
> "Matthew Sylvester" <mss...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> > You also seem to be overpaying for you DVD-R blanks. We can get them
here
> > in the UK for the equivalent of around $0.75, so I guess that similar
> > prices should be available elsewhere.
I use http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/ whose cheapest disk is 45p in a
spindle of 25. (sorry for the late reply - have been moving house).
cma...@there.com
Thanks.