Troubles with Disc Burning

[osirisX]

OK, to start off I have a Core2Duo 20" iMac. Everything has been great except for disc burning. I seem to get about a 50% failure rate with burning DVDs and it is annoying me. I'm not sure if it is the disc drive or the DVDs themselves.

I am using TDK DVD+RW.

These are the apps I've tried:

Disk Utility: Works half the time.
Toast: Tried 3 discs. 1 came out perfect, 1 didn't write properly but was recoverable after erasing it in Disk Utility and 1 was a coaster.
Disco: 2 discs turned into 2 coasters.
Burn: 1 disc that didn't write properly but was recoverable.

Most of the time the errors seem to pop up during verification. Should I bother verifying the discs? Is the iMac disc drive picky with the discs that you feed it? Any suggestions on the brand of discs I should use would be great.

 

[siurpeeman]

are you burning at full speed? i have better luck burning at a slower rate.

 

[osirisX]

Yes, I have been burning at full speed.

 

[JAT]

All DVD drives are picky, burning them has been an issue since day one. FWIW, Taiyo Yuden are generally regarded as the most compatible media. I don't know about +RW specifically, though. I have had zero problems with my Mini and Taiyo DVD-Rs.

Why are you using the term coaster for rewritables? Is it actually damaging the discs to where you can't erase and reuse?

Generally, it's best to stick to 4x burning for CD or DVD-+R if you need to figure out compatibilty or if your drive is busted. For RW, maybe try 1x speed for a bit to test. If you decide it's compatibility rather than a busted drive, start speeding up once you find good media.

 

[osirisX]

All DVD drives are picky, burning them has been an issue since day one. FWIW, Taiyo Yuden are generally regarded as the most compatible media. I don't know about +RW specifically, though. I have had zero problems with my Mini and Taiyo DVD-Rs.

Why are you using the term coaster for rewritables? Is it actually damaging the discs to where you can't erase and reuse?

Generally, it's best to stick to 4x burning for CD or DVD-+R if you need to figure out compatibilty or if your drive is busted. For RW, maybe try 1x speed for a bit to test. If you decide it's compatibility rather than a busted drive, start speeding up once you find good media.

Yes, I used the term coaster because they became unreadable afterwards. I'm now using Toast and burning at 2x and not verifying and they seem to be coming out fine. Thanks for the help.

 

[astarling06]

I was having problems with burning DVDs and came here to get help. I was using iMation dvd-r discs and they only worked once. I switched to Memorex and they have been really good and not more expensive than the imation discs. I would go with DVD-R discs because they work more often than DVD+R. What are you burning on the discs?

 

[JAT]

Yes, I used the term coaster because they became unreadable afterwards. I'm now using Toast and burning at 2x and not verifying and they seem to be coming out fine. Thanks for the help.

That's pretty bad, +RW is a very nice tech. Weird. Glad something is working for you.

 

[osirisX]

I was having problems with burning DVDs and came here to get help. I was using iMation dvd-r discs and they only worked once. I switched to Memorex and they have been really good and not more expensive than the imation discs. I would go with DVD-R discs because they work more often than DVD+R. What are you burning on the discs?

I've been burning music, photos, files etc. Average stuff.

 

[JAT]

Is this for temporary usage? Some of that sounds like it could easily be permanent storage. I ask because the RW formats are far less compatible than the R formats. Not to mention more expensive.

 

[osirisX]

Is this for temporary usage? Some of that sounds like it could easily be permanent storage. I ask because the RW formats are far less compatible than the R formats. Not to mention more expensive.

Nah, stuff that I'm backing up changes from week to week. I'm just gonna save up for an external hard drive. Should be hassle free.

 

[Artful Dodger]

When I bought my 20" I had to bring it in to get the drive replaced (had it a day and couldn't finish installing stuff ) since then the drive works great. I burn at max speed all the time but I use only two brands of media, TDK -R and Verbatum -R as I had a lot of issues with Memorex. Also I have an external drive that does the heavy burning duties at 16X.
I'd say that if it happens with a good amount of different media that it's the drive and not your choice of media. However I have seen half of a spindel of dvds that were bad quality (poor dye at the edges). Rare but it does happen.
Good luck