A rant/information on DVD-R drive in iMac Rev. B

[DaftUnion]

Ok, so I thought I'd let everyone know, to hopefully save them some trouble when burning DVD-R discs. So I decided to buy some Sony DVD-R's 1-8x compatible for my iMac Rev. B because I figured Sony were very compatible dvd-r's and would work fine. Long story short, they didn't work. The same error message kept coming up...and I even got online with Apple Chat and they said to reset the PRAM and NVRAM. Did that, and for the first disc afterwards the Sony DVD-R's worked. However, the second one I tried (third, fourth, fifth ect.) and I was back to the same error message. Got back online with Apple Chat, and I didn't want to believe them by them saying to try a different brand of DVD-R...especially since one already worked from the bunch...but I decided to give it a whirl. Lo and behold, the first disc I tried lying around the house (a Memorex DVD-R) right after I had tried a sony dvd-r worked like it was gold. So apparently, the brand of dvd-r drive in the computer makes all the difference. These sony dvd-r's work fine on the Powermac's at school (because of the sony dvd-r burner in the computer) but they sure don't get along with my iMac.

Point of the story...don't buy Sony DVD-R's for an iMac rev. b computer, because you'll have a lot of trouble with them. They may work fine on other mac's but not this iMac and not this revision. End of my rant.

 

[Bear]

Interesting. I have not had any problem with Sony DVD-Rs.

I have had major problems with Memorex DVD media.
1) On the newer memdia (in a 4x drvie) the layers started seperating while burning the disc. When I pulled it out after burning the disc was malformed.
2) On the older media (burned on a 2x drive) stuff that is 2 years old is basically unreadable. Other brands of media I have made at the same time on that computer work perfectly fine.

I use Fuji, TDK, Sony & Maxell DVD media with no issues.

Memorex and CompUseless (store brand and generic) are apparently made in the same factory as they had the same issues. I'm glad I used these first in a tray loading drive and not a slot loading one.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Yep, the drive is iffy as to what media it will take and more so what it may burn at, i.e. 1-8x will burn slower than 8x media, if given the choice.
I only use TDK, Verbatium dvd/cds after bad media from as Bear said: Memorex and CompUseless. Most of those dvds are now bad but at the start of my burning days I didn't read around enough.
So far my iMac Rev B has been fine with burning at the max speed but to be honest I use my LaCie external dvd burner for most stuff.
For media info try here: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia If I had read this it would have saved me a great deal of money/time.

 

[devilot]

This thread has been very helpful to me... I still don't have a method of backing up (I know, I know, please don't kill me) and was thinking about the whole backing up on DVDs/CDs. So aside from brands of the actual media, what about the, hmm, is it called, format? Does it matter if it is -R or +R?

 

[Bear]

...
Does it matter if it is -R or +R?

It depends on what your drive supports. Looking up the drive in the Apple System Profiler will list what the drive supports.

Also, due to everything that could happen... get 2 different brands of media and then this week use one brand for the full backup. And when you do the next full bakcup switch to the other brand. This covers you in case one of the brands had a defective batch.

Is using multiple brands overkill? Not really as the media is the same price. It's just protecting your data as best you can at a given price point.

 

[devilot]

It depends on what your drive supports. Looking up the drive in the Apple System Profiler will list what the drive supports.

Also, due to everything that could happen... get 2 different brands of media and then this week use one brand for the full backup. And when you do the next full bakcup switch to the other brand. This covers you in case one of the brands had a defective batch.

Is using multiple brands overkill? Not really as the media is the same price. It's just protecting your data as best you can at a given price point.

Sniff... Your post has just reaffirmed my faith in the MR community! Thanks so much for your very well-written reply/advice!

 

[DaftUnion]

Thanks everybody for your replies/advice. I'm going to check out that link, and probably won't go with Memorex media. There cd-r's work great, I've burned 100's of that brand of cd's and they work fine, but if those DVD's are that bad and the layers come apart then Maybe a bad disc, b/c as I mentioned, the Memorex DVD-R that I tried worked great. If Apple only priced there DVD-R's competitively these brand decisions would be so much more simpler.

 

[DaftUnion]

By the way, anyone hear using a Rev. B iMac and have suggestions on what works for them? Apparently Verbatim and TDK look like the best best from that VideoHelp.com site, but personal opinions would be great too.

 

[DaftUnion]

Well end of story apparently. I'm going to try out the DVD-R's tomorrow to make sure they work obviously, but I went with the Maxell DVD-R's with the gold color to them. Made in Japan, not Taiwan (good thing) and apparently the media code is the same as the Apple DVD-R's themselves from the site suggested in this thread. I'm not sure where I heard it from, but I heard Apple's discs use the same dyes found on the Maxell DVD-R's, so it's pretty much the same thing as the Apple disc w/o the branding. I'll find the link though to back up my evidence though.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Side note: TDK 25pk on sale @ Circuit City for $7.50 +/-R, just not sure what speed they are.

 

[Counterfit]

All drives have some media that they won't work well with, and the brand isn't the important part. Sony and most others don't manufacture the discs, they just brand them (just like how Apple and Dell don't make the LCD panel, but the case and probably some electronics).
The best choice for regular, complete, and local backups is a FireWire harddrive. Less expensive, and takes less of your time, as backups can be scheduled for early morning. It's good to do a backup that you can put off-site every so often though.

 

[DaftUnion]

Ok, I think someone mentioned it on Amazon.com about them being the same brand (yes, I know comments on Amazon.com are not very reliable) BUT, and a big but indeed (no pun intended) I found something curious with that VideoHelp.com. The media code that Apple has for their DVD's--Maxell has the same exact code! The only two brands with that code too...so this seems like pretty supporting evidence to me. Picture below.

 

[DaftUnion]

Also, looks like it's going to be tomorrow...again before I get to try the DVD-R media (not that I'm worried about coasters) but I'll let you know devilot when I try the media out myself to make sure it works perfect. But from the picture above, it seems clear to me that Maxell looks like the next best thing next to Apple DVD-R's for compatibility.

 

[shidoshi]

Just thought I'd chime in - I've got a rev. B iMac G5, and I'm having a hell of a time burning DVD-Rs. DVD+Rs work fine, but with DVD-Rs, mostly they don't work, and then occasionally they do. I haven't had a chance to try different types of DVD-R media yet, but the two brands I tried - silver Memorex and some no-names - both give crap results.