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sigamy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 7, 2003
1,392
181
NJ USA
I'm confused about the Superdrive in the latest iMacs. When you view the iMacs in the online store it says:
"8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)"

Why is DVD-R not listed? Or is it just assumed that because -RW is listed that -R is also supported?
 

Dopeyman

macrumors 6502a
Sep 5, 2005
613
48
Los Angeles!
sigamy said:
I'm confused about the Superdrive in the latest iMacs. When you view the iMacs in the online store it says:
"8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)"

Why is DVD-R not listed? Or is it just assumed that because -RW is listed that -R is also supported?

Which iMacs are you talking about? The new ones or the older-new ones? :p

I personally have the 20" that came out back in January... And it does support DVD-R.....

It doesn't support DVD-R DL... But it does support DVD+R DL....
 

BurtonCCC

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,005
0
Wheaton/Normal, IL
If it helps at all, my PowerBook doesn't take -R. I tried them and then tried the same exact manufacturer discs, except the +R this time, and they worked fine.

Daniel.
 

Cinematographer

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2005
900
4
far away
sigamy said:
I'm confused about the Superdrive in the latest iMacs. When you view the iMacs in the online store it says:
"8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)"

Why is DVD-R not listed? Or is it just assumed that because -RW is listed that -R is also supported?

The tech spec site says:

"Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

* Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed
* Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
* Writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed
* Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
* Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
* Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
* Reads CDs at up to 24x speed"

So that shouldn't be any problem.
 

~Shard~

macrumors P6
Jun 4, 2003
18,377
48
1123.6536.5321
afornander said:
whats the diffrance between DVD-r and DVD+r?:confused:

The DVD-R/RW standard was developed by Pioneer, and is used primarily by Apple and Pioneer. These “minus” discs can only be written to in one layer on the discs surface. In addition, this format is supported by the DVD forum, but is in no way an industry standard.

The DVD+R/RW format is supported by Philips, Dell, Sony, HP, and Microsoft. These discs can be written to in multiple layers, giving them slightly better and more disc storage than the “minus” format.
 

BurtonCCC

macrumors 65816
May 2, 2005
1,005
0
Wheaton/Normal, IL
Cinematographer said:
The tech spec site says:

"Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

* Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed
* Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
* Writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed
* Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
* Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
* Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
* Reads CDs at up to 24x speed"

So that shouldn't be any problem.
You mean:
"Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

* Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed
* Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
* Writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed
* Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
* Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
* Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
* Reads CDs at up to 24x speed"
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
sigamy said:
I'm confused about the Superdrive in the latest iMacs. When you view the iMacs in the online store it says:
"8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD+R DL, DVD±RW, CD-RW)"

Why is DVD-R not listed? Or is it just assumed that because -RW is listed that -R is also supported?

What do you mean? DVD-R is listed there clear as day. ± means "plus or minus."
 

sigamy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 7, 2003
1,392
181
NJ USA
Chundles said:
What do you mean? DVD-R is listed there clear as day. ± means "plus or minus."

Ah, no it's not....read it again. The ± listing is for the RW (rewriteable) media, which is different than "R" (record once) media. I'm well aware that ± means plus and/or minus.

Regardless, it looks like -R is supported. Just not listed on the store pages.
 

stuh84

macrumors member
Aug 19, 2006
35
0
But would you assume seeing CD-RW means you can only write to CD-RW's, or would you take it that it can do CD-R's too?

Its the same convention. Not having a go, just spreading the knowledge.
 

lpstudio2

macrumors newbie
Sep 2, 2008
1
0
i've tried using 8x DVD+R DL on my new imac (2 of them actually, 3 days after purchase I was given a new one, it was freezing on boot up everytime with a purple screen, white lines over the apple logo and then a blue screen with a purple mouse cursor and getting stuck there) and neither of them have had any success burning data to the disk. i keep getting that "cannot calibrate laser power level for this media." i've officially given up.
 
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