iDVD spectacularly slow burn speed - over 11 hours

[Attonine]

I am trying to burn a 45 minute home movie created in iMovie. Nothing special, 8 chapters, a few transitions, opening and closing templates, a little bit of imported music from iTunes.

I have exported it to iDVD, chosen magic DVD to keep things easy. Selected my template, moved the movie accross, clicked to make DVD.

The rendering goes fine, takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour. However, so far the burn stage has taken 11 hours, and is still going. I am using an Imation DVD-RW 4x DVD, and a USB Lacie Porsche designed external DVD burner, because the drive in my MBP will not recognise the Imation DVD. This burner is connected through a Belkin USB hub, and is being powered through the hub.

Activity Monitor says that both Thumbnailserver and Encoderserver are not responding.

This is the second attempt at burning this movie with the same results. The disc I made yesterday took just as long. When it had completed and ejected iDVD was still running, I can't remember exactly what process it said was running, but I clicked cancel amd it moved to cleanup, did nothing for ages, at which point I force quit. The disc made yesterday did work, but the opening menus are very jumpy for a few seconds.

I am open to any suggstions as to what is happening here and how to speed things up.

 

[mkaake]

I am trying to burn a 45 minute home movie created in iMovie. Nothing special, 8 chapters, a few transitions, opening and closing templates, a little bit of imported music from iTunes.

I have exported it to iDVD, chosen magic DVD to keep things easy. Selected my template, moved the movie accross, clicked to make DVD.

The rendering goes fine, takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour. However, so far the burn stage has taken 11 hours, and is still going. I am using an Imation DVD-RW 4x DVD, and a USB Lacie Porsche designed external DVD burner, because the drive in my MBP will not recognise the Imation DVD. This burner is connected through a Belkin USB hub, and is being powered through the hub.

Activity Monitor says that both Thumbnailserver and Encoderserver are not responding.

This is the second attempt at burning this movie with the same results. The disc I made yesterday took just as long. When it had completed and ejected iDVD was still running, I can't remember exactly what process it said was running, but I clicked cancel amd it moved to cleanup, did nothing for ages, at which point I force quit. The disc made yesterday did work, but the opening menus are very jumpy for a few seconds.

I am open to any suggstions as to what is happening here and how to speed things up.

Save as a disc image instead, and burn it through Disc Utility (in your Utilities folder). That way, you don't need to encode each time. Also, you'll get more feedback from Disc Utility on what's going wrong with the process...

 

[AlBDamned]

I am using an Imation DVD-RW 4x DVD, and a USB Lacie Porsche designed external DVD burner, because the drive in my MBP will not recognise the Imation DVD. This burner is connected through a Belkin USB hub, and is being powered through the hub.

The USB throughput could be an issue but it really depends if it also happens when trying to burn through another program.

Have you tried just having the Lacie hooked up directly without being connected to the Belkin hub? No guarantees but it might make a difference.

 

[Attonine]

UPDATE.

If anyone is interested, I got hold of a DVD-R today that my MBP would recognise, and the project burnt very smoothly in about 2 hours or so. I had to take an afternoon nap, so I'm not sure exactly how long it took, but certainly in the realms of normal.

So the problem appears to be with either the Lacie external and/or the Imation DVDs. I couldn't be bothered to troubleshoot anymore, but I suspect one issue may have been powering the Lacie drive from the USB hub, I know this reduces performance. I guess the permanent fix is to only use DVDs the MBP can recognise, which you nly discover after buying them. I try to buy good branded products, from what is available in my location, in this case it was a cheap chinese generic brand that worked, so it's a bit of a crap shoot.

 

[t1937r0]

This link might be useful in finding quality media...

 

[AlBDamned]

UPDATE.

If anyone is interested, I got hold of a DVD-R today that my MBP would recognise, and the project burnt very smoothly in about 2 hours or so. I had to take an afternoon nap, so I'm not sure exactly how long it took, but certainly in the realms of normal.

So the problem appears to be with either the Lacie external and/or the Imation DVDs. I couldn't be bothered to troubleshoot anymore, but I suspect one issue may have been powering the Lacie drive from the USB hub, I know this reduces performance. I guess the permanent fix is to only use DVDs the MBP can recognise, which you nly discover after buying them. I try to buy good branded products, from what is available in my location, in this case it was a cheap chinese generic brand that worked, so it's a bit of a crap shoot.

Glad you got it sorted Attonine. I've had a semi-related issue recently with CDs that work in my car having been burnt from my laptop. Now using some Sony CD-RWs that actually work after a bad experience with some cheaper ones. It's a a result as the iPod connector is $800 fitted!

 

[Attonine]

This link might be useful in finding quality media...

I don't want to appear too much of a geek, but I found this link really interesting. I had no idea there was duch a difference in quality of DVDs. However, armed with this info, you still do not know if the media will actually work in your drive until you try it. Maybe a table like this should be made based on media that works in the various models and generations of Mac.

A point of note is that the disc that worked for me (Pinco) is rated at a lower quality than the disc that didn't work (Imation).

 

[janey]

I don't want to appear too much of a geek, but I found this link really interesting. I had no idea there was duch a difference in quality of DVDs.

Oh hell YES there is! However, don't despair at the price difference between Imation (crap) vs. Verbatim (really good). You can find Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden media for relatively cheap.

I get 100pack Verbatim DVD+R and DVD-R media for ~$15-35 from Newegg depending on sales and rebates. Sometimes with rebates the Verbatim media can be significantly cheaper than any of the cheaper less-reliable brands. Personally for me, both brands are extremely reliable and I have no coasters (except ones created by user error) out of all...probably dozen DVD burners I use in all sorts of hardware, including my macs (like the ones in my sig below)

verbatim 16x dvd+r: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817507003

verbatim 16x dvd-r: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817507005

taiyo yuden 16x dvd-r: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817294007

edit: you should really shop around for these, regardless of how cheap they look on newegg (or not..). Often times you can find those same taiyo yudens on sale for half the newegg price of $40 currently from other retailers. however, newegg can be vastly cheaper than brick and mortar shops like Best Buy if they even offer such quality media

 

[ReanimationLP]

I've had the best luck with Sony media personally, though the brands Janey recommended are also very decent.

I work at a Best Buy, and we do stock Verbatim, but not Taiyo Yuden.

I prefer the Sony because they burn rather quickly, my burner doesnt spit them out and get bitchy about it, never gotten a coaster, plus then, with the coating they use on the bottom, they hold up exceptionally well aganist scratches and smudges, which is good, because I'm kinda rough with discs, and these are used for archiving content.

Burning for 11 hours is insane though. Theres definitely something wrong with that disc. 4X takes around a half hour to burn, 8X 15 minutes or so, 16X 8-10 minutes.

Make sure your USB hub is 2.0, and not 1.1

 

[Attonine]

I've just started another thread about this, but I have now discoverd that my internal drive is refusing to see all DVDs, any brand (Imation, Fuji, Benq, Memorex and Maxell at least), any type, even ones I have watched before using the same drive. Using the external drive my machine can see the discs but will not play them, it just keeps staggering and freezing up.

I've tried the discs on a colleagues powerbook and he has no problems, and the external works OK with him too.

However, original movie DVDs work fine on my internal drive.

I have found another thread with someone who had a similar problem, but it seemed to clear up by itself. Mine is just getting worse.

Although I started another thread, if you have any ideas just post them as I will chack back here anyway.

I'm using 10.4.9 by the way.

Oh, and with regard to getting hold og branded discs, I'm in the unfortunate position of having to be able to buy what is in the shops, at the moment it's Imation and a myriad of generics, and if I'm prepared to drive for 6 hours to the nearest city, I can get Roco or Sony, until the next container ship arrives anyway!

EDIT: I did a lot of web searching to try to solve my optical drive problem yesterday. On Apple's own site, there are many people with MBPs who have similar problems, it appears that the Matsushita drive used is plagued with problems. Many suggested that Apple now uses Hitachi/LG optical dtives which have been more reliable. If you google Matsushita 846, you can find many sites with pages of peole complaining about this drive in bot MBPs and PCs. The odd thing is that not amny Macrumors users appear to have had similar problems.

 

[t1937r0]

I usually buy Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs with an inkjet printable surface.
Haven't had a problem with the first 250 I've burned.
I generally purchase them at SuperMedia, but the previous advice to shop around is a good idea. Prices can vary considerably.

Another useful piece of information, if you didn't get it from the DVD media quality link I posted previously, is a piece of software that will help you determine the company, factory, and/or country of origination. Here it is.

Enjoy!

 

[jadenw]

I am having the same prob

UPDATE.

If anyone is interested, I got hold of a DVD-R today that my MBP would recognise, and the project burnt very smoothly in about 2 hours or so. I had to take an afternoon nap, so I'm not sure exactly how long it took, but certainly in the realms of normal.

Reading about a later post of yours, I decided to see what dvd burner I have in my MBP. I found that I have the MATSHITA DVD-R. I also found that this disk burner uses -R and -RW for both CDs and DVDs. I went out and bought some -R disks (all I had was +R), and now it burns much quicker! I dont think the problem is with the dvd burner.