Buy DVD-R or DVD+R??

Sorry this is so basic, and I looked everywhere for an answer and can't find. I have a new (Intel based) iMac with Leopard and iDVD 08 on it. Just getting my feet wet and went to buy some blank DVD's to burn a movie I'm working on. So which do I buy? The plus or the minus? Can anyone tell me what the difference is? Which should I use for my computer?
I feel like an idiot asking this...sorry people...
Nancy

I feel like an idiot asking this...sorry people...
No need to feel sorry Nancy. The topic often generates comments and 'debates'.
There are many opinions as to the 'best' choice, but in general, with single layer media, for maximum compatibility with set top DVD players use good quality DVD-R media (Maxell or Verbatim) and burn at 4x or lower (iDVD '08 finally allows you to adjust burn speed in Preferences>Advanced). With double-layer media DVD+R seems to work well.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_recordable for a little more info.)
F Shippey

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IDVD problem burning and multiplexing - gets stuck but ejects the DVD and the DVD doesn't play

I am having trouble burning DVDs. Everything seems to be working fine during the iDVD project creation. I can watch the movie and select scenes within iDVD. Then, when I go to burn the DVD, it gets stuck at the burning/multiplexing stage - the wheel just keeps spinning and says there is about a minute left. Yet it ejects the DVD and the DVD won't play when inserted into a DVD player. It will show the intro and the scene selection pages but when you click on one of the scenes, it gets stuck and doesn't play. I have already uninstalled and reinstalled iDVD. The problem persists. It seems like the burner itself is the problem. What can I do to fix it? I have Mac OS X Version 10.6.8 with a 2.8 GHzintel Core 2 Duo and iDVD version 7.0.4.

Hi
Multiplexing error is a very complex problem due to many things (long long list following) - one common but not obvious reason is that material on the iDVD menu goes outside the TV-Safe area (or just touching it).
So first - turn on TV-Safe area and move any object well inside of this.
Wide screen stretched - usually (as I think) it is due to making a 4x3 movie in a 16x9 wide-screen project OR the other way around. This forces one to on flat-screen TV (or other) set the presenting view right - My has 4x3, wide-screen, zoom and auto-wide-screen and I have to switch this by my remote for some DVD I've made "wrong" way.
Now my long long list on Multiplex Error
LONG LONG LONG LIST
Multiplexing Error
PART One.
Use of strange video/audio material e.g. .avi, .wmv, .mp3 etc.
I only use.
Video - StreamingDV (miniDV tape via FireWire) and
Audio - .aiff (as on audio-CDs) (else converted to this .aiff 48KHz)
Photo - .jpg (.bmp known problematic)
Chapters !
A. Using strange letters in video project name e.g. +,/; etc. keep to a-z and 0-9 strange letters in project name e.g. +
as described by Donnyboy69. Does the title of your project have any symbols or decimal points in it. If so, that is why you are getting the error. I had a project that had a + sign which caused the same problem. I renamed it without the symbol and low and behold, it worked.
B. Location of Chapters
• Can’t be at start or end of movie (Skip first/start one - iDVD sets this by it self. At the End - no need)
• Not in a transition (or within 2-3 seconds from it)
Important when from iMovie HD6 or previous - Now also observed when using FCE 4
PART Two.
from Robert Modero.
"Multiplexing Error. Problem during initialization of tracks"
Simply remember to add subtitles to your Quicktime files and menu buttons.
Once I did that, I was back in business.
from Boise Jim
Do a safe reboot (by holding down the shift key until you see the spinning gear on gray background, then release, then restart when your start-up screen appears).
I always makes a DiskImage first and test this so that it runs OK
I use only - Verbatim DVDs
I use only - DVD-R
I burn at an as slow speed possibly e.g. x1
This gives good DVDs
PART Three.
Multiplex Error
Chuck, Chicago 2/7/2009.
Back again. Here is what I have found to work. I also have and use a LaCie DVD-R/RW DL external drive and a LaCie external hard drive as well. Since yesterday I have tried a few ways to burn a themed iDVD project having four 56 minute movies on it, amounting to 226 minutes onto a DVD DL disc, capacity 240 minutes. Apple tech support really didn't know what to do but gave me a very good tip. I had two options left. Apple tech support's tip was to try disc image. One of the replies on a thread with this subject said not to, but my experience today is good. Put your project onto "Burn to disc image," under "iDVD, file." Yesterday encoding took me 23 1/2 hours. Overnight for iDVD disc image, encoding took 21 1/2 hours (again) while I slept. This morning I tried to copy/burn disc image to a DVD with Roxio Toast 7, and it stopped near the end of the burn with some kind of "error" message. So then I tried Utilities> Disc Utility> Burn icon, and followed it through. Be sure to click the DVD DL drive in the window "Burn disc in.". I had one other problem though. At the end of a 46 minute copy, it started to verify, and at the end of verify it rejected the burn. So I tried again, and when "verify" appeared, I clicked on "Skip." The disc finished burning and is doing fine and well. A long and tortuous process, but at last something works. I made several additional copies using Disc Utility. Best wishes. Chuck, Chicago.
2. Disconnect any other external devices not absolutely needed.
e.g. external USB/USB2 hard disks, other FW hard disks etc.
3 Chapter marks in transitions - minimum 2 sec from
FROM Bev.
(Not a 'guy' but I will answer!)
First, I do not think that mixing wide-screen and standard makes a difference in iDVD.
Second, you should use a better brand of DVD disk. Also, many of us have experienced fewer problems on playback with DVD-R disks. Recommended brands here are Verbatim, Maxell and Taiyo Yuden. Memorex and TDK are not consistent and may not give you a correct burn. They apparently have fewer layers in the composition of the disk. I have always used Verbatim DVD-R disks and have not had any burn problems.
Also, choose a slower burn speed, 4x or less.
Third, to determine if the iDVD project will burn properly, create a disk image file (from within iDVD, go File->Save as Disk Image) and test it. Mount the disk image and then open DVD Player (in Applications) and view your project. If it plays correctly, you can then burn the actual DVD disk from the disk image file using Disk Utility.
From. Boise, Idaho
I did everything I've seen suggested, but a friend (who used to be an Apple Genius) suggested that I do a safe reboot (by holding down the shift key until you see the spinning gear on gray background, then release, then restart when your start-up screen appears).
It worked, and I got a clean burn from iDVD.
Hopefully this can help other people.
by dheb0422
Well, I finally got it, and it was odd enough to post here incase anyone looks this topic up again. Many things were tried, including burning the unedited film, the edited film without titles and chapter markers, abbreviating the chapter markers in case length was the issue (remember the old iMovie used to truncate them when moving to iDVD?). In the process, I noticed that one, and only one, chapter marker was on the same line as the title marker. All the others were on the line above. The only way I seemed able to change that was to clip a few seconds of film. After that last clip, the offending marker took a place on the line above, as were all the others. That run published, compiled completely and burned. That's one for the books.
One user more writes
To add my experience with Multiplex Errors using iDVD (7.0.4), I recently created two iDVD projects
Video from both passed from FCE 4.01 with chapters
One project worked fine in creating disk image file
The other gave Multiplex Errors
I tried suggestions to remove special characters and no chapter marks at beginning, but nothing worked
Note that I've used iDVD for dozens of projects and this is first time I've run into Multiplex Errors
Anyway, for problem project, I tried an experiment where I removed all chapters in FCE and passed to new iDVD project
This time multiplex errors gone
So had something to do with chapters
So now I tried numerous experiments to remove individual chapters and try again creating disk image with new iDVD project
After numerous tries, I was able to narrow problem down to 1 "Bad" chapter mark
That is, when I left the "bad" chapter in my FCE project and passed to iDVD, iDVD gave multiplex error
When I removed "bad" chapter mark (and others in), no multiplex error
As a final experiment, I moved "bad" chapter mark about 5-10 sec's beyond original point and passed to iDVD, the multiplex errors now magically went away and I was able to finally create my disk image.
I have no idea why this worked, but thought I'd mention here in case someone else runs into similar problem.
Rich839
In addition to Bengt's fine advice, burning errors can occur if you have located any of your menu buttons wholly or partly outside of the safe TV viewing area. Go to your main project menu, then click on View/Show TV Safe Area, to check. Drag into the safe viewing area any buttons that are outside the safe viewing area.
Russ One - suggest this
Multiplex Error-There was an error during muxing preparation
One thing that worked for me was to export the video w/o chapter markers as a self contained movie (thereby not loosing the edits & etc). Then make a new FCE project and import that movie into a new sequence and add the chapter markers. I've used "-", "&" and "," with no problem in the chapter names. Removing the markers or exporting without them did solve the problem but renaming them with just numbers 1,2,3....5, did not solve the problem and since this problem seems to happen with with iMovie as well, it would suggest the problem is in the video or audio and in combination with the chapter markers iDVD just can't handle it. The only other possibility is that both iMovie and FCE share the same or similar chapter marker code that some how is corrupting the markers.
Summary - What to try
1. Chapters
• Only A to Z and 0 to 9 in chapter title
• No Chapter mark at very beginning of movie
• No Chapter mark in or within 2 seconds from any transition in movie
2. TV-safe area for buttons (no one outside this)
3. Safe re-boot
4. No other external devices connected - that are not needed
SDMacuser adds to this
• On #4 ... No ext. devices. Some think this applies mainly to ext. FW. Not the case. Also applies to ext. USB2 as well (not to mention flash drives too).
Do not leave 3rd party devices / camera / camcorder plugged in unless it is being used with iDvd's One Step process. Certain web cams can trigger this also (especially ones with added features like LED light/s that draw additional power from the FW or USB bus).
5. Minimum of 25Gb free space on Start-up hard disk
6. Make a DiskImage first - reduces where problem originates
7. Trash iDVD pref. file
8. Make a new iDVD project
9. Movies in project with same aspect ratio e.g. 4x3 or 16x9
10. No other programs/applications running during iDVD process. e.g. Internet, screen & energy savers
Yours Bengt W

DVD pauses on DVD player

I have created a wedding video using Final Cut Express. This was rendered in FCE and imported into iDVD. I set up menus and burned directly to DVD (Verbatim DVD-R). DVD plays back perfectly on iMac and on Sony PS3 console. When the bride plays back on her stand alone DVD player, the movie pauses for approximately 15 seconds then continues. The pauses happen at approx 15m31s 26m15s 35m54s and 46m17s. She has tried on her mother's DVD player with the same results. My next step was to export as a disk image and burn this to disk using Disk Utility. Still get the same result. I'm stumped. Has anyone else encountered anything like this? If so, have you been able to fix it?
Thanks

Latest update...
1) I burned another copy of the disk from the disk image using Apple Disk Utility.
2) I copied the disk image from the iMac onto a PC and burned a disk using Imgburn set to a maximum of 4x burn speed.
Both disks were Verbatim DVD-R from the same batch.
This mornig I have played both disks on a Cambridge Audio DVD player. The results...
1) The disk burned on the iMac using Disk Utility pauses briefly at about the 15 minute mark for approx 5 seconds then continues. At the 26 minute mark, it pauses for about 15 seconds, advances a couple of frames then pauses again for about 10 seconds, jumps ahead about 3 seconds then pauses again, then plays about one frame every second for a couple of seconds before pausing for an extended period. I tried to zoom, but it didn't respond. Eventually I hit the menu button, which allowed me to return to the main menu.
2) The disk burned on the Windows PC plays without any problems so far. (I'm at 35 minutes and still going strong.)
So to reiterate:
- captured footage from original Mini DVcam tapes.
- edited footage using Final Cut Express
- Applied chapter markers in FCE and exported as Quicktime movie
- imported Quicktime movie into iDVD, created menus, including scene selection based on chapter markers
- burned DVD directly from iDVD - Result - defective disk that pauses and restarts at approx 11 minute intervals
- exported disk image from iDVD to hard drive
- burned disk image to DVD using Apple Disk Utility - Result - defective disk that pauses and restarts at approx 11 minute intervals
- copied .img file to Windows Vista PC and burned DVD from .img file using Imgburn - Result - Perfect disk that pays without problems.
My conclusion is that the Apple software is flawed, whether burning directly from iDVD to DVD or using a disk image created by iDVD and burned to DVD by Disk Utility. However, taking the same disk image created by iDVD and burning this on a PC worked fine. So it appears that it is not necessarily iDVD that is at fault, but the underlying software component which writes to the DVD. This would seem to be validated by the fact that other people with the same problem were able to achieve a workaround by using Roxio Toast. I don't have that piece of software, so cannot validate this directly.
I would be interested to know if Apple actually monitor these forums discussions and take note of end users' problems. If so, do they carry out their own investigations to find the root cause of these issues, especially when the evidence seems to point to this being an issue with their code.

No audio on disc image or on DVDs played in DVD player

Help, I'm stuck.
I have made several movies in iDVD and burned them successfully. They always played with no problem. Now I am trying to play them in the DVD player and there is no audio. There is also no audio when I make a disc image. And there is also no audio when I try to copy on of my movies back onto the disc utility. I am also not getting audio from commercial DVDs in the DVD player. All of these DVDs still work fine in my regular DVD player hooked to the tv.
I have version 6.0.4
Thanks in advance!

Hi
Most common origin is .mp3 .avi or other strange audio format - or -
imported audio from iTunes.
Medicine: Copy out as audio .aiff then use this in the movie then to iDVD.
If the DiskImage doesn't play OK - don't waste to burn DVD discs from it.
*OTHER THINGS*
Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows:
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Hard disk is untidy: Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Delete iDVD pref file - *or rather start a new user/account* - log into this and re-try
• Program miss-match: iDVD 5.0.2, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK - DON’T work under Leopard
• Program miss-match: iDVD 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• Program miss-match: iDVD’08 v. 7.0.1, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.4.1 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• iDVD (08) v7 Locate theme folder. Move out iDVD1, iDVD 2 and eventually iDVD4 folders to desktop - re-try
• Try a Cleaning CD/DVD that cleans the laser lens on the DVD burner/player
iDVD 6.0.4 and iDVD 7.0.1 are compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
iDVD pref file resides: Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences
and is named: com.apple.iDVD.plist
While iDVD is NOT RUNNING - move this file out to desk-top.
Now restart iDVD.
Last resort:
from Craig: Solved the problem!! Finally!! I deleted every iDVD application and folder from my boot drive, emptied the trash and then installed iDVD 08 using the customize option and I am up and running.
Yours Bengt W

DVD Player plays DVDs but will not play VIDEO_TS files from my hard drive

When logged into my home account DVD Player plays DVDs but will not play VIDEO_TS files that are on my hard drive. I get an error message: "there was a problem opening the media. Media type is not supported." When logged in as "root" DVD player does play these same files. Also, when logged in to my home account, I can play these same files in VLC.

Go this this thread for more details:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1075814
But the gist of the fix is to delete or rename "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DVDPlayer.plist" and let the DVD Player build a new one. It seems that this is caused by a migrated PPC preference that borks DVD Player 5 on Intel Macs, which is what just happened to me. Hope this helps.

Buy DVD-R or DVD+R??

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