Burning in Finder. Superdrive is recognizing DVDs as CDs

The machine is recognizing inserted blank DVDs as CDs and shows the available space on disk as 249Mb. I have reinstalled the system software recently (I'm actually attempting to burn a back-up of the previous system folder). The problem seems to have started since the most recent install and Software update. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Hi and welcome to Discussions,
is your iMac the 17" 1.83GHz Core2Duo with a price of around 999,00 USD ?
If so, than your Optical Drive is not a Superdrive but a Combo Drive, capable of reading DVD but only capable or writing CDs.
Stefan

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IMac will not play the DVD that I have made on imovie and burned on iMac SuperDrive ?? (DVD plays fine on household DVD player and also play fine in Toshiba laptop ) Why not on the iMac - anyone know???

iMac will not play the DVD that I have made on imovie and burned on iMac SuperDrive ?? (DVD plays fine on household DVD player and also plays fine on Toshiba laptop ) Why not on the iMac - anyone know???

There are many reasons this could be the case but whether an optical disc can be read or not is a function of:
The reflective media layer of the disc
Whether the burned disc was a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW
The brand, model, and production lot of the disc
The specific frequency of the Write lasers that burned the disc
The specific frequency of the Read lasers that are attempting to read the disc
Are the Read lasers in the drive working (it is common for one set of lasers in a drive to fail while others continue to work)
How old are the Write and Read drives (laser frequencies change with age)
Is there dust on the read laser
Is there dust on the read lens
etc.
At one time it was estimated that fewer than 80% of all burned discs were readable in 90% of the drives. That has, I believe improved over time but at the same time it seems the faillure rate of lasers in the drives has increased but that may simply be the result of how many different read and write lasers there are in today's superdrives. Fortunately todays drives are a lot less expensive the replace -- now that Apple no longer installs optical drives in their computers.

Superdrive not recognising DVD or CDs

my superdrive no longer recognises CDs or DVDs of any sort.
Hasn't been able to do this since Snow Leopard. Carried on into Lion.
Any ideas?

Hi Paula
Apparently different wavelengths are used to read DVDs and CDs. I found a lot of stuff out by reading other postings on this site, plus some extra bits from the response to this posting.
Meantime, I upgraded to 10.4.8 to no avail. Then a friend recommended booting in Safe Mode and lo and behold, the offending DVDs were read. Unfortunately, because this mode uses limited extensions, it wouldn't actually play those that were movies, but at least I could get some data from some. The DVDs also played when I booted in OS9.
They also recommended creating a new user in OSX, which I did but had the same problem. Which tends to make me believe there is some offending extension, rather than a cleaning issue - a bit of a nightmare to sort out!
May just opt for a new drive - reluctantly.
Cheers
Mrs Dynamic

Idvd 5-when try to burn it says superdrive not recognized

tried to copy a handycam tape to DVD-it does everything but then just as it should burn to disc it says the superdrive is not recognized-even though i have installed software which makes it recognized on G4-it shows up in blue apple info.Any suggestions please ?
thanks
rick

Hi Rick:
Which burner did you install? You may need to go to the manufacturer's website and see if there is any firmware that you need to install.
Sue

Superdrive not recognizing dvd-rw

can someone please help me? I am trying to make a copy of a movie that is on a dvd-rw. When I stick the dvd-rw in the drive, it's telling me that I just inserted a blank dvd. Why is it doing this and how can I correct it? It reads and writes everything else just fine. Thanks in advance.

OH Thanks BD- coming from a master too! hahaha Now I can sleep comfortably...which reminds me- I am falling down tired.... I do enjoy reading all the posts... so much info.
While here- I must say- in the several days since I got agnes back, even if I cannot read my saved to disk emails from 10.3 days (yet)- I am so joyous that safari has not quit once. NOT ONCE! It had been thrice a day on the better days... to like twenty on the bad ones... OY!
Ok I go. Good luck and peace friends!

Why won't the superdrive read my dvds or cds

I have a mac book pro and the super drive won't read any dvds or cds

SUGGESTION FOR INTERNAL SUPERDRIVE
This might help. If you haven't done so yet, try installing Apple's SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0, which is on Apple's support site at http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201953 to see if that resolves it. Although it's not specifically for that problem, the firmware update seems to be important for making external SuperDrives work in Yosemite, and it is one step I used to get my SuperDrive to work in a USB external case when plugged into my MacBook Pro.
External SuperDrive DVD player fix - RESOLVED!
This solution worked for my Superdrive, which I had installed in a USB external case, so now it can play movies using Apples DVD Player App, but additional steps may be needed, as I outline below. I had removed the SuperDrive from my mid-2009 Macbook Pro 15" 2.53 ghz to install a second hard drive with Other World Computing's "Data Doubler" adapter, and mounted the SuperDrive in an OWC Value Line SuperSlim external case.
I don't know if the first two steps below are necessary, but I had done them first, because others suggested them as fixes before I found the solution in the 3rd step.
1) I installed Apple's SuperDrive Firmware Update 3.0, which is on Apple's support site at http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201953 (Note: I had already done this step before removing my SuperDrive, which worked fine as in internal drive in Yosemite. However, when I first used the SuperDrive after installing it in an external case, it worked fine for data DVDs, but not for playing movies with Apples DVD Player.)
2) Then I applied a fix on this page, http://www.hardturm.ch/luz/2011/10/how-to-make-the-macbook-air-superdrive-work-w ith-any-mac/comment-page-12/#comment-106449, using Text Wrangler to edit the preference file at /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist by adding code mbasd=1 between the two string values. However, that still did not resolve the problem. I left the preference file with the code “mbasd=1″ included, as outlined on that site.
3) Then, I used the fix at http://macriot.com/mcrt/?p=2294 which requires modification of some code embedded into OS X’s DVDPlayback framework; essentially replacing the words “internal” with “external”
That did it! Now my external Superdrive plays movies using DVD Player.

Superdrive Automatically Ejects DVDs and CDs!?!?! HELP!!!

Can't begin to tell you how frustrating this upgrade has been (as opposed to the Tiger upgrade, which was a piece of cake).
Anyway, I'm running a 1.5 GHz, 15" PowerBook g4. I did a fresh install of Leopard from an erased HD. Other than a couple glitches, everything seems to be working OK with one major exception - my Matshita Superdrive now spits out literally every CD and DVD I try to put in! Totally bizzare. I tried holding down CMD-Opt-P-R on the reboot, rebooting to safe mode then back to regular, and no change! I thought it might have something to do with a missed driver or firmware update for my particular superdrive (Matshita DVD-R UJ-825), but everywhere else says that I probably just have a failed drive. Seems pretty odd that it would coincidentally fail at the same time I did the new OS 10.5 install, especially since I installed from an external firewire drive and .dmg image of the install DVD.
Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this mess???

Was there a specific reason you did not install from your built-in optical drive?
In the MBP optical drive forum, there were reports of many drives of your type that failed and were replaced by Apple. It was concluded that the drives were bad.

After installing ITunes my notebook stopped recognizing DVDs and CDs

maybe you had the same problem. how can i manage it?

maybe you had the same problem. how can i manage it?

How do I find out if my DVD burner is compatable???

I would like to buy iDVD 6 but the description says"Burning DVDs requires an Apple SuperDrive or compatible third-party DVD burner". How do I find out if my DVD burner (OWC Mercury Firewire/USB2 D109 DVD+/-RW) is compatable??? It shows up as a Pioneer in iDVD3 and is not supported. I don't want to buy iLife 06 and find out I cant use it with my burner.

The Pioneer 109 should work. My Pioneer 107D and 108
work fine; and the 108 is recognized as DL.
You should really upgrade to Tiger and 10.4.4 in
particular before installing iLife '06. Several new
features don't install on Panther. Ask my PowerBook.
I forgot to mention that I want to but my videos from my digital camcorder on to DVD. I currently can copy data and photos to DVD, no problem.

Both Superdrives won't burn DVDs or CDs

Hello everyone. I'm having a serious problem. Both of the Superdrives in my MacPro (1.1) will not burn DVDs or CDs. They read discs just fine. They just won't burn -- in ANY program (DVD Studio Pro, Finder, iDVD).
I have scoured the forums to answers to this problem, and NOTHING has worked. I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue.
Here is a list of things I've tried:
Disc cleaner
Reducing burning speed
Different DVD media. I've tried every brand and speed out there. Verbatim, Memorex, Sony, generics, etc.
Re-install operation system. The issue started on Leopard. A reinstall didn't help. I'm not on Snow Leopard and having the same problem.
Checked connections. (all plugs are snug)
Some thoughts:
I find it hard to believe that this is a case of bad superdrives. They both stopped working at the same time.
I have an external firewire burner that works just fine.
Thanks for whatever help or advice you can provide!

I'm not sure if we can post links to other mac forum threads, but I found this:
Open System Preferences.
Click on "International"
Under "Languages": Drag any of the other languages to the top,
then drag English back to the top.
Set "Order for sorted lists" to English
Set "Word Break" to English (United States, computer)
Close System Preferences
Restart computer
What you can try is typing the exact phrase of the error message into google... in parentheses, and you will find a lot of hits, and maybe the answer. Good luck!
PS... I know the "fix" above sounds like nonsense, and it might be, but several claimed it worked...

DVD / CD's won't burn in finder

SONY DVD RW DW-U10A
First: It doesn't acknowledge I've put a DVD in. Nothing. It keeps asking me to insert a disk.
Second: CD's won't burn in finder. They start for a couple of seconds and then they are rejected saying it's a "Power calibration area error 0x8002006D The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."
- I can't find anything on that error code from Apple or Sony. I assume it can't read the disc for some reason and try a (2) cleaning discs. That didn't work.
- Disc utitilty says all my permissions are fine and I've got the disc space.
- I try different brands of discs - nope again (Sony, Maxell, Verbitim).
- Then I deleted the plist, rebooted. Not it either.
- Followed that with Onyx, deleted plist & rebooted again. Now I have to turn the power off to get it to reject. I can't delete 'untitled CD.fpbf' folder either.
- So then I try to burn a disc in ITunes and it works, but very slowly (4X).
- I figure the drive is starting to give out and just before I buy a new one, I sign into a guest account and guess what? It burns perfectly from finder and fast.
Now, why would a guest account make a difference?
I have no idea what to try next.
Thx for any suggestions.

replying to mandelinjo
no problem. happens to a number of folks (especially people used to the earlier versions of iTunes that didn't have so many diagnostics options.)
okay ... i'd like you to check in with Dell to confirm precisely which kind of Dell you have. there's updates available for the 2400 and the 2400C, and the updates for one may not be compatible with the updates for another. i don't want you to be installing incompatible updates.
these are the two different download areas:
Dimension 2400
Dimension 2400C
you also appear to have three different drives showing up on the same bus address:
IDE\DiskWDCWD800BB-75CAA0_____________________16.06V16, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
IDE\CdRomHL-DT-STCD-ROM_GCR-8481B_______________1.06___, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
IDE\CdRomHL-DT-STCD-RW_GCE-8483B________________B105___, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [1,0]
SCSI\CdRomVO0524SEYM602D________2.0B, Bus Type SCSI, Bus Address [0,0]
... so it might be worth investigating with Dell whether or not that could be an issue on the PC. (they would be the authority on shifting bus addresses on your model of PC, if that is what is called for.)

The main reason i bought a Mac was to edit and burn my own videos. I now find i cant burn any of my videos to DVD, What am I supposed to do?

The main reason i bought a Mac was to edit and burn my own videos. I now find i cant burn any of my videos to DVD, What am I supposed to do?

Why can't you do this? There's plenty of third-party software that can do the job. Download a few from
MacUpdate or CNET Downloads and try them out before choosing one to purchase.

Mac DVD Superdrive not recognized in Encore CS5

I'm trying to burn a DVD using Encore CS5 on my new Mac Pro. I already spoke with Apple to troubleshoot to see if it was the drive. It was not the drive. Therefore, there is a problem with Encore not recognizing the drive. In the destination window in Encore, where it says "Recorder" in the build tab, it says "None Found". Anyone know what the problem is?

Well, in the WINDOWS world some software will cause Encore to not be able to "see" a drive, so read the links below... I don't know if the same kind of thing happens in the MAC world
Things and Software to AVOID when authoring/burning a DVD
Start --> http://forums.adobe.com/thread/608660?tstart=0
#2 here has WHY Explained http://forums.adobe.com/thread/607390
Plus http://forums.adobe.com/thread/562941?tstart=0
Again in the Windows world, if the user can't or won't remove the offending software for some reason, the solution is to have Encore build the project to hard disk (folder or create an ISO) and then use 3rd party software to burn the folder or ISO to DVD
Added
In fact, just go ahead and tell Encore to write the project to your hard drive and then use other software to write that output to a DVD... if that works, you know that "something" is getting in the way of Encore being able to communicate with your drive

I have a 2011 MacbookPro. I'm trying to burn an iMovie trailer onto a DVD that will work on a TV. When I go to "share" as instructed, it prepares the movie but then can't find iDVD on my computer. Help!

I have a 2011 Macbook Pro. I'm trying to burn an iMovie trailer onto a DVD that will play on a TV. When I follow the directions and go to share, my computer can't find iDVD. Help?

iDVD is no longer supported by Apple and does not come pre-loaded on new Macs.
If your computer did not come with iDVD and iWeb preinstalled, you can ask Apple for a free copy here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/idvd.html
Alternatively, you can purchase a boxed version of iLife '11 from Apple, Amazone, etc. Boxed versions come with iDVD and iWeb still on the disk.

Cannot burn an iMovie project to a DVD because the computer can't find iDVD. Anyone know how to accomplish this task.

Cannot burn an iMovie project to a DVD because the computer can't find iDVD. Anyone know how to accomplish this task.

Macs don't come bundled with iDVD anymore. If you have an older Mac that came with an iLife disk, you can install iDVD from that.
If your Mac didn't come with iDVD, you can still find iLife '11 disks in some stores.
There are other programs that can create DVDs, but I've never used them. From what I've heard, they're not as good as iDVD.

Burning in Finder. Superdrive is recognizing DVDs as CDs

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