DVD-Rs or +Rs for PowerMac?

[yg17]

Hello, I just got a Dual 1.8 PowerMac G5 last night at my local Apple store and absolutley love the thing. Something I haven't figured out yet is which types of blank DVDs the SuperDrive can write to? I know it's 8x, but does it use DVD+Rs or DVD-Rs?

Also, can it write and erase DVD-RWs or DVD+RWs? Thanks

[James Craner]

Hello, I just got a Dual 1.8 PowerMac G5 last night at my local Apple store and absolutley love the thing. Something I haven't figured out yet is which types of blank DVDs the SuperDrive can write to? I know it's 8x, but does it use DVD+Rs or DVD-Rs?

Also, can it write and erase DVD-RWs or DVD+RWs? Thanks

The disks you need are DVD-R, the drives will can also use DVD-RW, but I don't believe these -RW disks are supported in iDVD. You can use -RW with Roxio's Toast disk burning program.

[yellow]

I don't know if iDVD will use + media, but I'm pretty sure that your SuperDrive will write/rewrite to either one as data. The way to find out for sure is to do this in the Terminal:

drutil info

yellow% drutil info
Vendor Product Rev
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-816 DXJ3

Interconnect: ATAPI
SupportLevel: Apple Shipping
Cache: 2048k
CD-Write: -R, -RW, BUFE, CDText, Test, IndexPts, ISRC
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, BUFE, Test
Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO


As you can see, my PowerBook does not write to + media. Ultimately, - media will always work.

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says...this is what I get on my Dual 2.5:
Vendor Product Rev
HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082B C039

Interconnect: ATAPI
SupportLevel: Apple Shipping
Cache: 2048k
CD-Write: -R, -RW, BUFE, CDText, Test, IndexPts, ISRC
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, BUFE, Test
Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
I don't recall Apple saying the DVD+R and +RW were supported but the hardware (and Toast) definitely does....oh yeah!

[yellow]

Duff-Man says...this is what I get on my Dual 2.5:
I don't recall Apple saying the DVD+R and +RW were supported but the hardware (and Toast) definitely does....oh yeah!

They were VERY quiet about it. But it was "officially" supported with Panther.

Vendor Product Rev
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-108 1.04

Interconnect: ATAPI
SupportLevel: Unsupported
Cache: 2000k
CD-Write: -R, -RW, BUFE, CDText, Test, IndexPts, ISRC
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, BUFE, Test
Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO


Unsupported, yay! :)

[djbahdow01]

Duff-Man says...this is what I get on my Dual 2.5:
I don't recall Apple saying the DVD+R and +RW were supported but the hardware (and Toast) definitely does....oh yeah!


So Duff-Man what kind of Superdrive is that. I have the same one in mine, i thought Apple used Pioneer??

[neilrobinson]

i think you will find it is a LG - an upgrade of my 4081B

[djbahdow01]

Yup its an LG just found it posted on another thread after searching for like a half hour. Figured it would be a Pioneer, guess the LG costed less.

[Rod Rod]

Finder / iTunes / iDVD burning is all -R.

In that sense, Panther does not officially support burning to +R... but as has already been noted, one can use Toast to burn to +R/+RW.

The only "news" is that Apple started using dual-format (meaning + and -) DVD burners in desktops, the first being the Pioneer 106. This coincided with Panther and that's all it is, a coincidence in timing.

I'm pretty sure you can write to +R/+RW from Toast in Jaguar.