What type of DVD to get?

[tech4all]

Not so new to Macs here, but pretty new to DVD media types.

Anyways, I have a Rev. B Power Mac G5 without the dual layer SuperDrive. What type of DVD media types can I use with it? Either with iDVD or data in general. I've seen so many different types like: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, etc. (not sure if some of those are actual types). What's the differences? (besides R writes only once and RW can be erased)

I was just reading some info regarding this at this site I found via Google. I'm sorta confused here. There's so many different types, which one(s) are compatible with Macs (Rev. B Power Mac G5 to be exact).

 

[DeSnousa]

Go into system profiler and click on Disk burning. There should be lists of what DVD's you can use. I believe your rev b. is of DVD-R nature. It should say in system profiler though.

 

[tech4all]

Go into system profiler and click on Disk burning. There should be lists of what DVD's you can use. I believe your rev b. is of DVD-R nature. It should say in system profiler though.

I didn't even know about. My "Disc burning" wasn't in the left pane but rather inside the ATA section under the appropriate bus for the Pioneer drive. It says for Disc Burning: CD-RW/DVD-RW. So I guess I have to be sure it has a "-" in it? And I assuming CD-R/DVD-R work as well, correct?

Also does it matter which one I get, R or RW if I want to use it for date or movies such as iDVD? And what brands of DVD media would be a good choice?

Thanks again

 

[DeSnousa]

Yer that means that you can use either DVD-R or DVD-RW for burning. So don't buy any dual layers and DVD+.

DVD-R Can only be written on once (IMO better for your movies because you can't accidentally re-write it)

While DVD-RW can be written multiple times and cost more.

Same can be applied to DVD+R and DVD+RW and CD's.

Dual layer is just new technology that has more space. So from 4.7gb to 8.5gb.

 

[tech4all]

Yea I'm not concerned about the dual layer DVDs (including the new ones with the PMs) especially since I have about 30GB of data, which would be too big even for a dual layer DVD. Although the new "16x" SuperDrive would probably be nice to have for faster speed.

But is that what the "+" indicates (and "-" indicates regular/single layer)? Dual Layer? Or would it say Dual Layer on the box?

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciated it!

 

[DeSnousa]

The '+' and '-' is just what different companies support. Apple in the begining choose '-' as there standard while other companies choose what they wanted. Its like the HD-DVD and Blu-ray competition at the moment.

Edit: Here is the DVD+ alliance, with companies like Sony, Dell etc supporting it. Link

 

[FoxyKaye]

Apple tech specs say...

8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) installed; writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed, writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed, writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed, writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Link: http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html

Not as fast as the Pioneer DVR108/109 drives, but respectible nonetheless.

 

[tech4all]

Thanks all!

 

[wiseguy27]

Apart from the difference between the '+' (plus) format and '-' (dash) format, you should also look at the write speed of your drive and buy discs that are the same speed or lesser. The price of discs goes up exponentially with the write speed, so you'd be wasting your money if you were to buy 8x discs for a 4x drive.

I highly recommend going for good brands instead of cheap discs - you could get DVD-R discs for even 10 cents (US) or so a disc but they may not last long. Currently the best price for good quality DVD-R discs would be around 30 cents (US) or less and the price of DVD-RW is around 80 cents to a dollar. These prices are for the common single layer discs (4x write speed).

 

[DaftUnion]

I have a iMac G5 (as seen in signiture) and I've previously tried to burn some dvd-r's at school on the PowerMac G5's they have. Some certain brands didn't turn out, so I was wondering if somebody had some good name brand suggestions that were mac friendly...I really don't want to drop $35 on Apple brand DVD-R's if I can get something just as reliable for less--also I was using Roxio to do these (Toast Titanium 6), but I'd probably just use the built in burn feature for OS X.4 so I'm not sure if this would make any difference either.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

DVD Technical Information @ Wikipedia

When it comes to brands, I've actually been very happy with one of the cheapest brand I've found: That's Write.

I've used the 4x DVD-R type with an external firewire 4x LaCie burner, and since upgrading to Toast 7 and enabling the buffer underrun protection, I've not made any coasters, even when burning at best speed (with Toast 6 and Finder/iTunes burning I used to burn at half speed to avoid buffer underruns and coster making).

 

[carpe diem]

I thought mac's support all types. Well just get the apple DVD's they MUST work.

 

[iEdd]

I like TDK discs the best out of all. I bought a 50 pack the other day from a JB HIFI store for $48 (~US$32).
Another hi qual brand apparently is ritec, and a lot of media uses their dye.

 

[Kalinatek]

dont get the apple blanks they r way overpriced , am using TDK DVD-R 4.7GB (8x) they work great i did some backups of dvds that i own , i also burned some software on one and its 100% working.


all dvd brands will work as long as ur drive supports them.

 

[DaftUnion]

dont get the apple blanks they r way overpriced , am using TDK DVD-R 4.7GB (8x) they work great i did some backups of dvds that i own , i also burned some software on one and its 100% working.


all dvd brands will work as long as ur drive supports them.

Maybe I just had bad luck than with one brand--I think it was Verbatim media with a Sony 4x DVD-R drive in the PowerMac. The drive made two coasters in a row of the media I tried on it...but when I popped in a Sony DVD-R, it worked just fine. I guess it was just a bad experience

 

[Kalinatek]

Maybe I just had bad luck than with one brand--I think it was Verbatim media with a Sony 4x DVD-R drive in the PowerMac. The drive made two coasters in a row of the media I tried on it...but when I popped in a Sony DVD-R, it worked just fine. I guess it was just a bad experience

yeah it happens , sony blanks used to have errors when i used them on my old P4 computer , but it seems that they work great 4 u .

i've been using TDK cd-r blanks since like 1997 and now am using their dvd-r's they r quality blanks.

here is a link for the dvd's am using right now:

TDK 4.7 GB DVD-R http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...4/104-1728136-8610361?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance

 

[Sdashiki]

When you get a coaster from burning DVDs, try to lower the burning speed.

If you burned at 16x, got a coaster, try again at 12x or 8x. It will prolly work.

Sometimes burning to quickly ruins the data, I dont know why, but if you ever tried to backup an XBOX game you know, the slower the better.

 

[jmufellow]

DVD+R works just fine for me

The consensus seems to be that DVD-R is the ones macs use, but my emac and my ibook work great with DVD+R. Kinda weird. Can anyone else verify this??

 

[apple-licious]

same weird experience

The consensus seems to be that DVD-R is the ones macs use, but my emac and my ibook work great with DVD+R. Kinda weird. Can anyone else verify this??

This morning I had the same weird experience. I strongly believed I could only write -dvd's on my 1,25ghz Ibook G4 that I bought 1 year ago. So this morning I decided to give it a try. +Dvd's go just as well!! And a +dvd is much cheaper to buy than a -dvd. What I do not understand is how is it possible that even though my system profiler claims I have a - dvd writer, i can write + as well?! Does anyone have an explanation?

 

[jmufellow]

I strongly believed I could only write -dvd's

Ditto