Can Mac OS X burn DVD's?

Michael,
Of course it can! What kind of DVDs are we discussing? We can burn data DVDs, readable by Macs and PCs, right in the Finder. When a blank disk is inserted, it shows up as such on the Desktop. Simply drag files to it, then open it and click the "Burn" button.
Video DVDs can also be burned. This is the job of iDVD. Video footage (which one edits in iMovie) must first be converted to MPEG-2 (the video DVD format), "multiplexed," and then it can be burned to the DVD as a single stream. Of course, iDVD also allows one to create all the necessary menus, complete with chapters, etc., that a good DVD requires.
Scott

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Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K05 superdrive can't erase or burn DVD-RW

I've noticed lots of users are having issues with their slot-loading superdrives and I'm wondering if anyone's issue matches this one:
I can successfully read and write: CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-DL and can READ an already burned DVD-RW, but I can't erase a DVD-RW that's already burned nor can I burn a blank DVD-RW. Inserting a blank DVD-RW results in ejecting the disc after about 30 seconds, no error messages, just ejects.
I've tried Maxell DVD-RW and Memorex DVD-RW. Same results.
An already burned DVD-RW (from a different burner) mounts fine on the desktop, but when I try to erase using Toast 7, I get the following message:
The drive reported an error:
Sense Key = ILLEGAL REQUEST
Sense Code = 0x30, 0x05
CANNOT WRITE MEDIUM - INCOMPATIBLE FORMAT
It recognizes that it's a DVD-RW, but treats it as though it were a DVD-R.
Using Disk Utility to erase results in a more generic error message:
Optical Erase failed with the error:
Optical Erase Failed
I had an online chat with an Apple rep who had me reset the PRAM, no change. Then we tried from another account, no change. Their next recommendation was to re-install the OS using Archive and Install, which I have my doubts about doing. Failing that, they recommend bringing the iMac in to a service store to possibly replace the drive. But based on what I've been reading about all the different superdrive problems users are having, I'm reluctant to even do that for fear of having an even worse problem with a different drive crop up at some point.
Has anyone out there had this exact problem and found a solution yet?
Seems like a simple firmware update for the drive could fix everything but I'm unable to find one.
Here's the drive specs from the Apple System Profiler:
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K05:
Firmware Revision: Q523
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No

hi there--
instead of just resetting pram i would try booting to
open firmware holding apple-option-o-f and then type
in the following commands--
reset-nvram (hit return)
set-defaults (hit return)
reset-all (hit return)
the last command restarts the computer. see if that
works. if it doesn't then try resetting the smu.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301733
there is a remote possibility that this is software
related, but it almost never is, and these things
are much more likely to resolve your problem than
doing an archive and install, and they are much less
hassle free. let me know if that works. [ 8 ) ]
OK, I booted into open firmware and did all the resets. No improvement. In fact, now I can't even mount some DVD-Rs that I had successfully burned before and mounted before. The drive has always been a little touchy with some discs, especially DVDs, but now seems to be even more hit-and-miss. CD-R and CD-RW reliably mount but DVDs have me worried. It took a long time for my OS X install disc to mount and display the window.
I think it may be time to take it in to Apple and replace it. I may also consider purchasing a Firewire burner with a tray!
Just wondering also if PatchBurn would fix this by creating a new profile or if this truly is a hardware issue. http://www.patchburn.de/
Thanks for your help.

New mac mini - cannot burn dvd

I have recently purchased a mac mini. I already had an external dvd burner, but I can't burn dvd projects from iMovie since no idvd is on the mac. HELP!

Tbirdvet, thanks for the suggestion. That is what I planned to do today unless someone can suggest another idea. I can always use a usb extended Mac keyboard anyway. And a mouse is certainly cheap enough.

TiVo and Mac - options for burning DVD of TiVo'ed recordings (personal use)

I have 2 Series 2 TiVo boxes connected via wireless network to my iMac (Intel-based mid07). The issue is the limited recording capacity, only a problem when traveling overseas - they both fill up in about 2 weeks. When I get back home, since I can't watch my recorded shows as fast as I record on a daily basis when I have a backlog, I am trying to find a quick way to dump TiVo'ed stuff to DVD to watch later. So I bought Roxio Popcorn and installed the TiVoToGo on my iMac. The issues I have are:
1. When I transfer a recording to my iMac, it strips the "header" from the recording that shows the name of the show, length, channel, episode synopsis, date, etc that I get when using TiVo's "Save to VCR" option - hate to lose that
2. Popcorn doesn't seem to have any settings where I can adjust the DVD writer to simulate EP, VP etc recording modes that (on a commercial DVD player/burner) vary how much recording time I have on a given DVD.
3. "Popping" a recording from TiVo box to Mac is a misnomer - it takes almost as long as playing the recording.
So all this has me thinking there must be a faster, easier way to dump recordings from TiVo to DVD and with a recording mode of my choosing. I have read about Roxio Toast but it isn't clear that these particular issues would be solved and hate to spend another $100 to find out. Thx for any suggestions...

I have used this program (free - using open source components)
http://tdm.sourceforge.net/
Looks like this may be a newer version, so I'll have to try it out. Thanks for asking the question.
1. I don't think there is anything you can do about that. To be encoded, the material has to be part of the recorded video. The software will name the encoded video file in a somewhat descriptive manner, but it won't give you a frame with the program details.
2. There is really no such thing as EP and VP. All that is doing is lowering the resolution (quality) of the recorded video encoding, so that each video takes less space. In the program linked above, you can change the resolution of the encoding so that each video takes less space, but you lose quality.
3. Lower resolution encodings should take less time to produce (but it still takes time). The biggest bottleneck with the TiVo (Series 2) appears to be the slow network connection. It takes a long time to push (or maybe pull is more accurate) the video data from the TiVo to the Mac. It is best to set up a queue and let it run while you are sleeping or away. Once you have encoded the TiVo program/episode into a video file, you can use that file however you want. But, putting it onto a DVD would seem to be the least efficient thing you can do, because the space on a DVD is limited, and you are adding another block of time (in addition to the time it took to encode the video from the TiVo), to re-encode it again and burn it to a DVD. Much more efficient would be to store it on your computer and use it from there. If you lack storage, get a large external drive and store the files there. Then, watch from the computer. If you want to watch on the TV, connect the TV to the Mac as a second display. Or get an Apple TV and stream the video from your computer to the TV. For the last two, the TV needs to be an HDTV (connected by HDMI) for best results.

Can't mount home burned dvd-rw

At one point things were fine. I could mount my dvd-rw with .avi files on them. I had burned them myself and could watch them with Quicktime & flip4mac. Now the dvd's won't mount. The Mac says they are blank dvd's. What is up with that? I am trying this on the PowerBook G4.

David Pogue wrote about this, he's had trouble with DVDs being that age (4 years & under) not reading anymore! try a different computer - newer mac or PC, if one is available to you.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/homemade-dvds-going-going-gone/

Can I request a burned DVD for movies purchased?

I Recently purchased 3 movies from the iTunes Store. I downloaded them on my PC but cannot open them. I am a full time mom and student and do not have the time to troubke shoot this. As I paid over $30 for these movies I am requesting that you mail actual Dvd's or Blue ray disks to my home address. Thank you.

Mothernature911 wrote:
...I downloaded them on my PC but cannot open them...
Since your problem is that you can't open whatever file type the movies have been supplied in, I'd suggest trying VLC Media Player, which seems able to open and play just about any media file type, and is available for Windows as well as the Mac.

Burn DVD dual +R

Hi-
Can Mac Book Pros burn DVD+R DL ?
I thought I burned one sometime back, but now they all fail.
Thx,
Steve

Thanks.
According to System Profiler, I can burn them (and think I burned at least one in the past.)
This is a TDK pack of 25, and about 6 failed last night.
Drive works, as I can burn CDs and DVDs.
My wife's PowerBook (last one produced) just died, so I'm a little leery.
Especially since I handle this like my life depended upon it.
Thx.

Can't burn DVD but image plays just fine in Apple DVD player

I can make a DVD and save it as an image, which DVD player will play flawlessly. I just can't burn it to a DVD. It fails continuously. Maybe it's my media? Can anyone recommend media known to work well in a MacBook Pro (last version)? Any other suggestions? thanks.

It is easy to burn from a disk image, and it is better because all the media needed is already within the disk image file. It doesn't have to search, locate and pull in the media for the burn. There are many places for errors to occur. If you have successfully created a disk image file, just burn from that.
Also, a disk image file is self-contained. You can safely delete both the original iDVD project and the original iMovie used to make it if you are finished editing them. Because the disk image file is small, you will save drive space. You can also burn a new DVD disk of that project any time in the future, without having to remember if you moved the original media, or renamed anything used in that project. Of course, you cannot edit a disk image, but you can't edit a burned DVD disk either.
Many users here report that DVD-R disks are better and play in more types of set-top players. Others think DVD+R disks work fine. I always use Verbatim DVD-R, burn at 4x or less, create a disk image file of all my iDVD projects and I have never had a burn issue.

Why can't I burn DVD's?

I have read the past threads, but I am still a little confused. I have a G5 with a pre installed Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-107D. The system profiler says:
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D:
Firmware Revision: A707
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No
That said, after 2 years of successful burning, I now get an error message saying I do not have a superdrive and I can no longer do burn DVD's.
Any suggestions on what to do. Thank you in advance.

check from another iApp such as iTunes & also from the Finder. If you cannot burn from any app, you quite possibly need a new drive.
Before going that route, however, I would try repairing permissions, try from another User account, & zap the PRAM to reset the hardware config.

I repeatedly get "error during rendering/encoding of menus/slideshow" message. This process is the same on my iMac, MacBook and another iMac. I have been burning dvd's int he same way for the past 12 months using the exact same steps successfully.

I keep getting "error during rendering/encoding of menus/slideshows" message. I have been burning DVD's in exactly the same way for the past 12 months and mostly on my MacBook which is 3 years old. Obviously I'm using iDVD. I purchased an iMac about a year ago and moved to use this for dvd burning without problem. A few months ago (approximately) I started to experience problems with burning with the error message above. I tried everything including starting the whole process from scratch right down to capturing the movie clips from my video recorder into iMovie, then using them in iDVD. Still the same message came up. I lost count of how many times I repeated the process with different clips and variations and the same thing happened. This was also the case with my MacBook and my husband's iMac.
After taking both of mymac's tothe service centre, having new optical thingys put it and even a new hard drive on my iMac along with a new DVD burner the same thing happened. They told me it must be the process that I am using that is incorrect!
I took my 27" iMac to an apple shop and asked them to assist me while I use the same technique as I always had. The same message came up so they tried using my clips in one of their mac's. The same message. They tried it with different clips and the same message. The only way we could get theirs to work was with a magic DVD which did not produce what I needed and was limited with only one page.
I now cannot use any of my Mac's for the intended purpose that I bought them for - to produce good media for my work! It was suggested that I purchase some non Mac software to burn DVDs which defeats the object of having a mac with iDVD in my opinion. I have a book on iDVD which is very informative and have followed the process to the letter and checked all the trouble shooting and still no remedy. It was mentioned that an up-date may have caused the problem on all my macs.
I feel that this issue should be addressed by Apple as a matter of correctness.
I now find that on the net there are many posts in forums and such like with exactly the same (almost word for word) problems. Please Apple, keep/regain your good name and sort this out.
Jayne Connelly

Thanks Bengt W for your attention to this matter. So much appreciated. And thanks for putting me right on the aim of forums (new to this). Although, you may regret asking for more information. I've added everything I can below.
The process I used is as follows:
Import recorded clips of between 5 and 15minutes each from my video recorder into i
Edit the clips (remove unwanted start and endng)
Add title to front of clips
‘Share’ them to ‘movie’ (export using QuickTime)folder in .mov format individually
Open iDVD and ‘create new project’
Select ‘favourite’ theme that I have set up forall my work dvd’s (this has been used successfully many times and I’ve triedwithout using the favourite them).
Add 2 submenus for each group of clips
Select submenu - drag and drop between 3 – 6 clips in each of the twosubmenus
Change title colours on clips
Dragand drop image into drop zones where required
In‘map’ view I check for any yellow warnings before burning to disc
In an attempt to remedy the problems I’ve tried the following:
Try new DVD discs
Try different themes (favourites and standardones)
Change images in drop zones
Start whole process again even from importingfrom camera again
Two other completely different computers (iMacand MacBook) with iDVD
Go to apple shop and use their computers to doin iDVD
Try with one clip and no menu pages added
Use a clip that I already have that did notoriginate from my camera
Turn computer off and restart
New hard drive
New optical lense (thing)
New DVD burner
Saving to disc image rather than dvd disc
Other points:
I also have a ‘flip’ and ‘iPhone’ whereI’ve imported footage camera which, although limited, records and makes videoclips and burns them to DVD through iDVD without problem.
For example, I have just gone through steps 5 - 11 using some clips that were already imported from my iphone to iPhoto and dragged across. I used a theme that I've used before which has failed and added one sub menu page where the clip went. It burned to disc image successfully.
The startup disc, I believe will have no space issues asit’s a new hard drive with no use apart from this. That could have been an issue before (I didn’t check it) butnot now.
Other technical stuff that I don't understand but you may:
I have…… Mac OS X Version 10.6.7 with all updates onit. Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Corei7. Memory 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3.
iDVD version 7.1.1
HardwareOverview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 4GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: IM111.0034.B02
SMC Version (system):            1.54f36
OPTIARCDVD RW AD-5680H:
Firmware Revision:     3AHB
Interconnect:    ATAPI
Burn Support:   Yes (AppleShipping Drive)
Cache:    2048KB
Reads DVD:    Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write:   -R, -R DL,-RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO,CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: Toshow the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh
If you can solve this you are better than the 'apple geeks' in the shop and the service technicians in the service centre (and of course me but that's no achievement).
Eagerly awaiting your reply.
Jayne

Unable to play burned DVD

Hi,
I part-time video edit and my latest customer complained that the DVD I gave her couldn't be played in her DVD Player. I made the project using Final Cut Pro, exported it via Compressor and burned the .ac3 and .m2v in DVD Studio Pro.
I tried playing the burned DVD in a PC and found that I needed to download a codec in order to play the video. This is on an XP and goes the same on Vista. However, it plays fine in QT on a Mac.
I have 2 DVD players, the conventional one where it only plays DVDs and a newer one where it can read & play movies on thumbdrives/hard drives via USB too. On the newer one, the DVD plays just fine. However, on the older one, it doesn't. So I assume the customer's DVD player is similar to my older one which can't play my burned DVDs.
What is causing this problem and how do I solve it? My projects burned using Adobe Premiere Elements work fine. I'm using DVD-R printable.

How did you burn the ac3 and m2v file in DVD SP? Did you create tracks? Did you create menus? If your disc will not play in a stand alone DVD player then you did not author it correctly. A PC would only download a codec if it's seeing the disc as something other than a properly authored video DVD.

Idvd won't burn DVD of iphoto slideshow

Using iphoto 5.0.4 I've created a slide show, added music etc. It all works wonderfully in iphoto until I try to "send to idvd". (idvd 5.0.1) The idvd dialogue box indicates that it is exporting and everything seems in order until I plink the "burn" button in the box that appears when export has completed. Things whir for a while then I get an error message about burn failed. The rest of the error message varies from time to time but is usually something about menu. It sometimes ejects the partially burned disk, othertimes I have to shutdown and/or restart to get the disc to eject. I did get one satisfactory burn out of 11 attempts (I'm persistent). I'm using TDK DVD+R 1-16x disks.
Just putting the jpeg photos onto a disc works fine but its snafu time trying to burn a slideshow
This is what System Profiler says about my DVD drive:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:
Firmware Revision: FA0G
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No
Do I have a software or hardware problem? Is there a good way to reliably burn DVD's of slideshows.
On the one burn that worked, when played back, the pictures are not at all sharp or clear yet the original photos in iphoto and iphoto's slideshow are quite crisp. Is this just what I can expect from a burned DVD or are the burned slideshow photos supposed to be crisp?

Welcome to the forums.
You'll see various posts about image quality; one improvement results from resizing your photos -- see this and other suggestions at:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4399400#4399400
In terms of workflow, I prefer to Share/Export my slideshows from iPhoto to full-quality Quicktime movies. You can double-check the resulting movie before dragging it onto the iDVD menu area (not into a drop zone).
For burning, you'll reduce errors by using slow burn speeds and high quality discs. Verbatim is often recommended around here; I also like Sony. DVD-R are the most compatible with players, but perhaps this isn't a dramatic difference compared to DVD+R. To better control burn speeds, first create a disc image (Save as Disc Image) and then copy the disc image to your DVD (use Roxio Toast or Apple's Disk Utility).
There are a variety of other tips to improve the consistency of burns, so write back if you still have troubles.
John

Error message while burning DVD with Premiere Elements 13 with Mac Book Pro i7/7200t/mn with 60GO free space available on gard drive. message: "erreur logicielle interne: DVA/premiere/elements/pre12/pre-mediacoreCS7". can someone help burn my DVD (the fil

Error message while burning DVD with Premiere Elements 13 with Mac Book Pro i7/7200t/mn with 60GO free space available on gard drive. message: "erreur logicielle interne: DVA/premiere/elements/pre12/pre-mediacoreCS7". can someone help burn my DVD (the file goes very well with chapters and scenes before burning). thanks very much, response appreciated, Alain

STILL can't burn DVDs on Mac OS 10.6.5 after trying everything

Hi there.
Ever since I've updated to 10.6.5, I can't burn DVDs, doesn't matter which brand or what software I use. however, I am able to burn CDs. I went to my local Apple Store and they booted OS 10.6.3 on my computer via firewire and what d'you know ? it burnt a dvd right away. this is clearly an issue with the latest update. I did as they said, reseted my PRAM and even re-installed the latest update (I downloaded the 10.6.5 combo version from Apple Support).
Is anyone experiencing the same ? I know a lot of people had the same issue couple of weeks ago. did anyone successfully overcome it ?
cheers.

This is an older post from the Roxio Community (http://forums.support.roxio.com/topic/39824-toast-burns-cd-but-not-dvd-on-mac/); but seems like similar problem - maybe worth a try:
Either something is preventing the data from being sent to the drive's DVD-writing laser or the drive's laser is failing to start writing the disc. The only thing you can do with Toast is trash the plist and prefs files in the User>Library>Preferences folder and relaunch Toast. You might get a laser-cleaning disc for your drive. (A different laser is used to write CDs than is used to write DVDs). Also try choosing Save as Disc Image with Toast and burn the resulting disc image using the Image File setting in the Toast Copy window.
Note that the laser cleaning idea was also mentioned in the previous link provided. Have you tied that? - would be nice if a simple solution worked.

Can i use mac mini as external dvd burner for my ibook?

i was wondering if i could hook up my dad's mac mini to my ibook in target disk mode to my ibook and if that would allow me to use his mac mini as an external dvd burner. if anyone knows if this would work or how to do it, let me know, thanks

Yes and no. You cannot connect the mini to your notebook and use its drive as if it were an external drive. But you can transfer data from your notebook to the mini and then burn the DVD. And, if you can set up a VNC (that's what Leopard screen sharing is) you could even control the mini from your notebook. Not as transparent a process as having an external burner. And, considering the low prices these days, if you really need to burn DVDs rather frequently, buying an inexpensive DVD burner is going to be more convenient.

Can Mac OS X burn DVD's?

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