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agentphish

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 7, 2004
1,140
0
As title says,
I can't seem to get any Dual Layer DVD+R discs burned with Disc Utility on a G5 to read in my 1.5ghz powerbook (with superdrive) or my 1.25ghz MDD G4 (with recently added superdrive)

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas?

Thanks.
 
click on about this mac.... click on More Info... click on Disc Burning.... and if next to DVD-Write it doesn't say -R DL and +R DL along with -R, -RW, +R, +RW then you can't write to dual layer discs
 
READ.

I can't get it to READ the disc... no where in my question did I ask anything about why I can't write a dual layer disk... duh, I know i don't have a dual layer drive...
 
Go to About this Mac -> More Info and then look under ATA to see what type of DVD drive you have...then all you should have to do is google the model number and see if it supports DVD +R.
 
Hollywood DVDs are Dual Layer, but their booktype is set to DVD-ROM, whereas you're trying to access a DVD whose booktype is DVD+R...that could also be the source of the problem.
 
I have the same issue with my powerbook. Useless I say and I've been looking long and hard for DVD-R dual layer with no provail.
 
Yeah it doesnt make any sense... All hollywood DVD's are dual layer capacity and all dvd drives can read those so what is truly the difference.

I wouldn't think you would need a DL capable WRITER to READ a Burned and finalized DL Disc.

Oh well... screwed again.
 
^The difference is what I stated above...those factory DVDs are of DVD-Rom booktype, which every DVD player made will support. You're trying to read a DVD +R, which not every drive/player out there supports. You may want to check to see if there is a bitsetting utility for a mac that allows you to do this.

I found this, this might be of some help:

http://www.plak.net/dvdplustool/
 
Thanks I'll give that a shot.

What is strange is that I have a copy of iLife 06.dmg that was burned for me onto on a DL disc...The very first time i ever put the disc in to install it 2 years ago, it worked, Flawlessly...
Every time after that it never worked again.

Strange
 
ressurecting this because there's absolutely no information about this problem on the net. I've been searching for two days and have found the exact same thing: one person asking the question, and a bunch of uninformed people responding.

My setup is a dual boot leopard and win7 desktop and a powerbook g4 1.5 ppc i'm working on for a customer.

Tiger burns fine on a dvd-r and boots and installs.
The powerbook won't recognize blank dual layer dvd's and spits them out.
The matsushitu uj-825 drive doesn't support burning of dual layer discs, but it is indeed capable of reading them. Yes EVEN +R burnt dual layer discs, as i've known several people to back up leopard and run it on even OLDER revisions of the superdrive.

The problem does indeed lie within the bitsetting but that's not all. The utility posted above doesn't work for every mac either. But saving the image as a decompressed .cdr and burning it in windows with imgburn set to bitset as a dvd-rom WILL allow any of these drives to access the disk MORE EASILY. My powerbook even mounts the disc 1 out of 5 tries with this method.

The problem is that over the years the laser goes in these drives. Typically the first thing to go is the capability to read +dl and +r disks. -R are second to last to go and -rom is the last. This isn't always so systematical, but it is typical. Opening up the drive and bumping up the dvd voltage by lowering the resistance on the potentiometer for the dvd laser will allow it to more easliy read +r and +dl disk for a few months to a year before it dies a horrible death.

Best bet. Install from target disc mode on another mac, or order a newer superdrive off ebay. (or pop the hard drive out and use an adapter to put in a mac desktop.) i went through 5 discs before i realized it was simply failing hardware that was the problem.
 
Sorry I didn't read your post carefully enough.

They are cheap now.

Do you know the best Powerbook drive you can get? I stopped paying attention at the UJ 846 DL.
 
Do you know the best Powerbook drive you can get? I stopped paying attention at the UJ 846 DL.

roger that. The uj-846 was one of the most widely manufactuered drives and came in both the powerbooks and the macbook pro. Next was the uj-85j for the core2duo versions of the macbook pro, which i think will still connect to the end of the adapter. Theoretically those should be the cheapest +DL drives but i haven't done my ebay research to confirm.

Here's a nice list of every drive model and firmware revision. Just make sure you get one with the right data connection eg. ide vs sata.

http://www.powerbook-fr.com/dossiers/dvd_region_free_en_article30.html

and the ebay link

http://computers.shop.ebay.com/item..._odkw=superdrive+macbook+uj-846&_osacat=58058
 
I've got the UJ-846 in my PowerBook G4 (1.67 GHz DLSD/HD). It runs very well despite being nearly 12 years old and burning hundreds of discs. Reliable, I'd highly recommend it.
Not sure why you are responding to a 9 year old thread which hasn't seen activity since 7 years ago...
 
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