I can't play burned DVDs on my Mac pro

[lewisabeach]

Hello

I'm quite new here so I hope I'm posting this in the right section.

Before I start let me clarify that I'm operating a OS X 10.9.4 Mac Pro

For the last week or so I've been developing a good work flow for my video and film work. However I seemed to have gotten stuck on the very last phase; burning the DVD.

Whenever I use one of few DVD authoring programs that I've purchased in an attempt to combat the problem; I find that after formatting and burning has been successful and the freshly burned DVD ejected, on inserting again to test if it plays it simply says that I've entered a blank disk.

However, after playing on a PS4 and two different Windows PC laptops; one running Windows 7 and the other 8, the DVD plays with no issues.

I've also tested other DVD+Rs (which is the disk I'm using, initially thinking that not using a DVD-R was the problem) that were burnt on a PC some years ago they play as they should on my Mac pro.

I burned a DVD very early in the year with the same DVD+R disks and it played on my Mac and in other players again with no issues. I haven't burned a disk now for a few months but now when I need to they won't play on my Mac Pro.

I'm fairly sure now, after visiting other forums and watching tutorials, that it's not a DVD authoring software problem. I've tested burning on DVD Studio Pro 4 (My preferred software) Toast Titanium 11 and even iDVD and all DVDs play on the other platforms I've listed above but won't play on my Mac pro.

I'm wondering if anyone might have any ideas as to why this is so, again DVDs I've burned in the past will play fine on my Mac pro but not the ones I've been trying to burn the last few days.

Thank you very much

 

[Draeconis]

What software are you using to play the DVDs? DVD Player? VLC?

 

[lewisabeach]

I mainly use the built in DVD player, as that opens automatically when I insert a DVD. However, if it's unresponsiveI will try VLC player.

However, when I insert the DVDs that I've burnt that can play on other platforms into my Mac pro and it says that it's a blank disk, I cannot get it to play in anything as it has nothing on it. No files or anything, my Mac simply thinks it's blank.

 

[kwarwick43]

From your symptoms I'd say your DVD drive isn't writing the disks correctly, perhaps because the laser is failing or dirt is obscuring some of the laser light.

When you tried Toast did you let it do a verify after burning the disk? I would expect it to fail at that stage.

 

[lewisabeach]

I'm not sure if I know how to make Toast verify, I don't think that I've seen an option for it.

Would you suggest buying an external DVD burner? This is an option that I've thought about myself.

 

[kwarwick43]

I'm not sure if I know how to make Toast verify, I don't think that I've seen an option for it.

Would you suggest buying an external DVD burner? This is an option that I've thought about myself.

If I recall correctly Toast pops up a dialog box after finishing the DVD burn asking if you want to perform a verify, but if you don't respond it automatically does the verify. The verify phase takes pretty much as long as the burn phase, so you'd definitely notice if it was being done.

You could certainly use an external DVD burner or replace the internal drive with new mechanism... I replaced mine with a LG Blu-ray/DVD burner... relatively trivial to do.

 

[lewisabeach]

I'd like to thank everyone for their help, by simply switching from DVD+R to DVD-R my problems have been solved!

It was a lot of headache over nothing which nearly ended with me buying a new DVD writer!

Thank you all for your help

Lewis

 

[kwarwick43]

I'd like to thank everyone for their help, by simply switching from DVD+R to DVD-R my problems have been solved!

It was a lot of headache over nothing which nearly ended with me buying a new DVD writer!

Thank you all for your help

Lewis

That's certainly possible... I've mostly stuck to DVD-R because of compatibility problems in the past with certain DVD players. Depending on the particular drive mechanism in your Mac Pro there could be newer firmware that improves compatibility with the disks you're using.