how can I tell if my Mac can burn DL DVDs?

When I click to the drive info it indicates it can burn DL DVD +R discs. But I just failed with a laser error message. (Don't ask what the message was - I can't remember.) Is there another way to find out if things are as reported in About This Mac?

Arthur

Arthur7258 said:

When I click to the drive info it indicates it can burn DL DVD +R discs. But I just failed with a laser error message. (Don't ask what the message was - I can't remember.) Is there another way to find out if things are as reported in About This Mac?

Arthur

Click to expand...

Go to:

- Apple Menu
- choose "About this Mac"
- click on the "More Info" button
- in the window that pops up click on "Disc Burning"
- look to the right & it lists all possible disc burning options your computer has

If the Mac you're trying to "burn" discs with has a "Superdrive"...you should be able to burn DL DVD +R discs.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

Regardless of how I try, I can never get my iMac to burn DL +R, it always comes with an error as it gets to the layer change.
I have tried Toast and Disk Utility.
I want to test DL -R but they are much harder to find and more expensive.

Do a Google on 'notebook DL burner problems'.

Wonder if the compact optical drives in laptops and iMacs have a problem with DL discs anyone know?

harryb2448 said:

Do a Google on 'notebook DL burner problems'.

Wonder if the compact optical drives in laptops and iMacs have a problem with DL discs anyone know?

Click to expand...

I have tried 3 different brands in mine (Imation, Verbatim and a no name supermarket brand) and every time I get a message in Disk Utility that says incompatible media despite the burner stating it can burn DL +/- discs.
Toast will burn one layer and then spit the disc out.

This is another reason to do serious burning from within Windows. I don't know whether it's the hardware or OS X (probably a combo of both) but getting dual layer burning to work consistently seems to be a magic art.

Dual layer burning works fine when I switch to Window 7 and use the free Ashampoo Burning Studio application. Also (and this really annoys me) I can not do multi-session recording to DVD media in OS X. Yet, this has been supported in Windows for years.

We all love our Macs but there are some things that could be improved.

Regards.

Also works just fine in a tower, whether G4, G5 or Mac Pro. I was asking about laptop optical drives as we see so many reports of them failing. Is it because everything is so downsized this presents problems?

thanks again for the answers, but...

They didn't really help this time. I do know that in windows some computers could preform better with +R discs versus -R discs. I hadn't though of that option. So far the only video project (for my own pleasure) that I've had required a DL. All the rest have fit on a regular +R DVD. I'm only using that because it's the spindle closest to me when I started burning. I can't remember if we have a -R DVD spindle in the apartment. I'll have to look, but, I've not seen -R DL DVDs available! What gives, do I have to do a web search to find a pricy item and then hope it works?

If you have the answer, start an aside, but quote me so I can track this thread!

Thanks for the response I've seen so far!

Arthur

I burn DL discs every so often -- no problems here. Have you checked the Apple support boards?