Dual layer DVD-ROM in a SuperDrive

I have a dual layer DVD-ROM created on a Pioneer USB dual layer burner. The disc plays fine in the Pioneer, but does not mount in the SuperDrive of my PowerBook or G5 tower. Should the standard SuperDrive be able to read the disc? It can read a dual layer movie disc without problem.
All the best,
Tom

I might be in the wrong forum, but what the heck. I have a similar problem. I have a two week old 17" PowerBook G4 with the new Superdrive that writes in DVD-DL. Anyway, I backed up a ton on data from a variety of computers I had around here (20 Dual-layer DVDs) by copying and pasting data to the DVD-DLs using the finder in Tiger. They work fine on the PowerBook but will not play on a 1st generation 20" iMac G5 (1.8 GHz, 1GB SDRAM, running 10.3.9) with a Superdrive. It just spits them out. I thought that older Superdrives could play (but not write to) DL DVDs. Any suggestions on how I can get them to play on older Macs with Superdrives (i.e. 867MHz PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, Flat Panel iMac G4s, and 1st generation iMac G5s)?
Thanks

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Playing dual layer dvd's with iBook superdrive

I've burned a couple of dual layer DVD's (8.5GB) with my iBook G4 and an external Lacie DVD burner.
I used Toast 7, experiencing no problems at all.
The DVD's play perfectly using the Lacie driver itself, or my Sony DVD player, or even a 10-year-old Pioneer DVD drive on my PC.
But... my iBook Superdrive refused to even read them.
The disk just makes a couple of turns and then the superdrive ejects it with no message.
The superdrive plays perfectly the commercial dvd's, which I know are usually double layered.
Does that mean that superdrive is not compatible with burned dual layer dvd's?
iBook G4; iPod 60GB v1.2.1; iTunes 6; Airport Xpress Mac OS X (10.4.4)
iBook G4; iPod 60GB v1.2.1; iTunes 6; Airport Xpress Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I don't believe the SuperDrive for the iBook is set
up to read/write the dual layer DVD's.
I didn't expect it to write DL DVD's, that's why I used an external burner.
The problem is when reading the burned dvds
Go to your Apple Menu and select "about this mac".
Click on the "more info" button and navigate to the
Disc Burning label. Select it.
If your SD is dual layer compatible you'll see "+R
DL".
It says generically that SD reads DVDs
What speed were you burning the Dual DVD's on the
LaCie?
don't know, really, but Toast is set to burn disks at the best speed:
one was a DL DVD+R 8x, the other a DL DVD-R 4x
it's IMPOSSIBLE that SD can't read dual layer DVDs: commercial DVDs are 6-7GB, they MUST be DL and they play perfectly.
and if it really can't play burned DL DVDs, that's really a shame! >:-Z

Keeps asking for Dual layer DVD

I made a slideshow in iMovie and shared to iDVD8. The media windows shows the file as 2.7 gig. But when I go to burn it says to insert a Dual Layer DVD because the project to large.
I dont have anything else in the project other then the menu which is 3 drop areas. Nothing to it.
I tried sharing again from imovie and selected medium this time with a files size of 1.7gig and i still get the same thing.
I do have quality set for PRO.

good question. I used the Theme that has half the screen as a grey fade. When i added music to it i changed it to 25 secs of playback. I would assume then my menu is only 25sec. It only has 1 button to start the movie.
At this point I have a DVD+R DL created that works fine my PC. After googling around I read about DL and changing the bitsetting before burning so that a TV DVD Player sees the disk as a DVD-ROM.
Would I be able to copy this DVD+R DL with Toast 8 and change that setting to make it work?
BTW, thank you for all the replies.
Bill

Dual Layer DVD Help

Hi All, I was thinking of purchase a Dual Layer DVD burner from ebay (Apple USB 2.0 External 20x Double Layer DVD Burner; Mac/PC) and was wondering if there are any known issues. I've got a superdrive now but I would like the extra space when creating home movies from iMovie to iDVD. Will iDVD recognize the external DVD burner so I can choose single or dual layer to burn my project Please keep in mind, I'm using a Dual 1 ghz G4 (MMD) and running iDVD 7.0.3 Thanks Scott

Hello,
Your computer is fine for support of a double-layer superdrive. Just make sure to plug it into the ATA-66 port on the logic board if you plan to burn in speeds of 16-20x or more.
ATA-3 won't handle full burns at 20x.

Dual Layer DVD Burners? (Best Choices)

What are people having the Best luck with Dual Layer DVD wise?
I have an older G4 (as seen on bottom of post)
I've been reading that the DVD+ format is the way to go as far as Dual Layer DVD is concerned..
Does that mean I wouldn't be able to play it back on my single layer SuperDrive?
Thanks,
Eric

Can't anyone give me a couple of good choices for Dual Layer DVD Burners for the G4?
I know that LaCie makes one, are they're any better choices?
Thanks Again,
Eric
Which model of LaCie, or others are recommended?
(or not recommended?)

Dual Layer DVD's compability with Settop DVD players

Is there any problems with playing Dual Layer DVD's on a normal consumer DVD Video player?
Is the DVD Video Player able to read the DVD-r DL or DVD+r DL disks at all?

Hi Chris,
All my previews go out through a bit setting DVD 5 downsized system. It's probably 3 years old now. I must admit until yesterday I had completely forgotten about this. As it's just part of the workflow. From having looked around last night my understanding is currently that some +R recorders now come preset to bit encode for DVD-ROM straight out of the box.
I will also have to look into what Toast is currently outputting. You know the old adage if it ain't broke.....
I have been very slack with respect to my DVD 9's. I simply use toast as I have normally post authored my build folders. But, those good results may be in part due to the fact that pretty much all my product goes to producers and DVD facilities. So it's either going to end up on a relatively young machines or PC's. None of it would end up in a home i would think.
Good Luck.

Dual Layer DVD Support

Does anyone know if the current iBook G4 14" (Dual USB, 1.42GHz) that comes with a SuperDrive standard, supports dual layer DVD media? I'm trying to find out on my system in System Profiler and in Toast drive features, but I can't seem to find out anywhere.
DVD Drive: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845E, with support for R,-R,RW,-RW

Theoretically, the UJ-845 is capable of burning dual-layer DVD+Rs, according to Panasonic/Matshita's specs. Apple disabled this feature in the firmware, however, in order to maintain product distinction between the iBooks and the Powerbooks. The dual layer-capable Powerbooks actually use a different model drive entirely, IIRC. As far as I know, there is no way to patch the drive to enable dual layer burning.
Right now the Macs with dual layer burning capability are the new Powerbooks, the new iMac, and the Power Mac G5.

Recommendations on Dual Layer DVD Burner Purchase

Anyone have any recommendations on a Dual Layer DVD burner to purchase to replace the old superdrive?

Nope - both formats are for both platforms, but there was a spate of +R players and discs made available on PCs when Apple were only using -R. However, I have two or three PC burners that were -R only (and are now sitting on a shelf somewhere) from those days. The capacity of both is so close as to not be an issue, although +R does hold slightly more data. The gross capacity of a DVD-R is 4.7GB, which is in fact 4.372GB when used in a computer. For DVD+R the gross is 4.73GB which converts to 4.377GB on your computer. I guess for some folk that additional capacity might be necessary, but it isn't really worth worrying too much about, IMO.
Using dual format drives is a good idea, as you can then use either type of disc... however if you read into the background of the formats you'll see that -R is slightly ahead of +R in the compatibility stakes, although more and more players are able to deal with both equally well.
When it comes to burning a DVD in your superdrive, the slower you burn the better the compatibility is likely to be, however some folk report 100% success with fast burns every time (I've had my share of problems with faster burners). As long as you get an Apple compatible drive you should be OK, if faster burning is what you want to do.
Layer break points - on a dual layer disc there comes a point when the laser in the player has to switch from the first to the second layer in order to access the data written there. The point at which this happens is controllable by the DVD author and is called the layer break point. However, on some media (specifically dual layer DVD-R) there is no point in setting this up as the first layer will get written until full, no matter what. There will then be an automatically set break point. When this occurs the change over is flagged as 'seamless' which is intended to make a smooth switch over but there are some players which cannot handle this kind of switch and it needs to be flagged as non-seamless. Other types of media (DVD+R DL) will allow you to set the break point where you want it and will allow you to set it as non-seamless. This helps increase the compatibility of your disc when playing back in set top players.
In DVDSP this means it is probably better to use DVD+R DL media when creating a DL sized project.

Burning Dual Layer DVD's

Hi everyone,
I have a refurbished MBP- 15.4" 2.53 GHz Dual Core 320 GB with 10.6.3 and Toast 10. As I just got the MBP and haven't burned anything with it yet, my question is, which DVD-/+R DL media is the best to use. On my G4 MDD, I typically have problems burning Sony, Maxell and (sometimes) Memorex media. Normally TDK and Philips work best on that unit.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!

Thans for the suggestion guys. I did buy the Verbatim DL DVD and they seem to work great. But I can't seem to get them to work with Toast 10:
I attempted to burn a dual layer dvd (Verbatim DVD+R DL, 8X) on my (PowerPC) Mac G4, 10.4.11, Toast 9.0.7. The drive is a Pioneer DVR-109 with DL layer burn capabilities. I turned buffer under-run protection off and burned at 2.4X speed (on an 8X disc). The burn failed. I got the following error right off the bat:
Sense Key Illegal Request
Sense Code 0x26
Invalid Field in Parameter List
I attempted to burn another dual layer dvd on my (Intel) MacBook Pro 2.53 GHz dual duo-core, running 10.6.4 with the stock superdrive. Toast 10.0.3. Same settings (buffer under-run off, 2.4X speed, 8X disc). Same error.
Both times I was burning as Disc Copy of a dmg file.
When I attempted to burn the files on both my G4 and MacBookPro through the Finder/Disk Utility, both burns were successful.
I don't want to have to save an image file out of Toast each time I go to burn a dual layer disc and then burn with the Finder/Disk Utilities. Is there any other really good media burner for Mac that I can use instead of Toast? I don't want one that just burns video as I want to be able to burn data disks as well (both Mac and PC format) and audio.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Blu Ray drive/burner can't write dual layer DVD - W500 Vista 64

I recently did a clean Vista 64 Business install on a new hard drive. I pretty much have everything up and going, except the Blu Ray drive doesn't recognize that it can write dual layer DVDs. I ran Nero InfoTool and it, too, tells me that the drive cannot write dual layer DVDs. (Pretty much everything in InfoTool is checked, read and write, except all the HD-DVDs and the dual layer DVD write functions.) Does anyone have any ideas? My understanding is that the drive can write dual layer DVDs.

I'll answer this with the same information that I posted at TPF:
From: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-70234
Reads or writes data with speedy maximum data transfer rates of:
* 16x maximum (writing to CD-R media)
* 10x maximum (writing to CD-RW media)
* 5x maximum (writing to DVD-RAM media)
* 8x maximum (writing to DVD+/-R media)
* 4x maximum (writing to DVD+/-RW media)
* 2x maximum (writing to BD-R/RE SL media)
* 1x maximum (writing to BD-R/RE DL media)
* 24x maximum (reading CD-ROM, CD-R media)
* 24x maximum (reading CD-RW media)
* 8x maximum (reading DVD-ROM/-R/+R SL media)
* 6x maximum (reading DVD-ROM/-R/+R DL media)
* 6x maximum (reading DVD-RW/+RW media)
* 5x maximum (reading DVD-RAM media)
* 2x maximum (reading BD-ROM media)
* 2x maximum (reading BD-R/RE SL/DL media)
It appears that DL (dual layer) writing in DVD-R and DVD+R formats is not supported.

Burning dual layer dvd on older PowerBooks

I've seen that the newest PowerBooks can burn dual layer dvds, so I'd like to upgrade my own PowerBook, which is second to newest generation.
From what I have read so far the drive in the new PowerBook is the same I have in mine: MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845E. And I've heard rumors before that the drive has dual layer properties.
So it should be a simple firmware update... or what?
Any ideas?
17" PB 1,67 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Thanks for the link, but it seems their solution is to replace the superdrive with a dual layer drive.
And I'm too cheap for that...
But according to xlr8yourmac (http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/oct05/102505.html and http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/oct05/102805.html) the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845 is able to write dual layer. The extra E on my MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-845E might mean it's had this feature blocked by a piece of software in OS X.
Maybe the firmware from the newer PB's would do the trick.
According to System Profiler, I'm using firmware-version DMP2.
I had hoped Patchburn (www.patchburn.de) could do the trick - but from the faq on their site it looks doubtful.
So It think this boils down to:
- where can I get a newer firmware (the one from the newest PBs)?
- and can I restore my old firmware (version DMP2) if the operation goes wrong?
17" PB 1,67 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Dual Layer DVD player or not?

Maybe I should know it, but can anyone tell me if I have a Dual Layer or DVD-9 player on my iMac ?
Model iMac7.1 - 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, bought in november 2007.
I like to know if I can run the Adobe CS5 DVD before I buy it ...
Thanks!

I did check 'About my Mac' , but can not find anything about DVD Dual or 9...
To confirm, you did click on More Info to get to System Profiler, then in the Hardware section, Disk Burning, what does it say under "Disk Write"? For example, mine says:
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
which indicates a Superdrive that can write to both DVD-R DL & DVD+R DL disks.
In the product information on the web there was a specific warning: DVD player must be able to run Dual Layer DVD (DVD-9). This is the reason for my question ...
You may want to ask Adobe what they mean by that. If it's just to read dual layer disks, then like I said, any DVD drive can read a dual layer disk. But if one of the apps in CS5 needs to write to dual layer disks, then the recording capabilities become important. To me the wording "...player must be able to run..." infers that it's read, not write.
However, I believe you are in luck. Everymac's website reports that your Mac should have a dual layer capable Superdrive. (Limited to writing to DVD+R DL only. But again, should be able to read any dual layer disk.)
[http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?searchkeywords=iMac7,1|http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?searchkeywords=iMac7,1]

Using an external dual layer DVD burner with iDVD??

I created a 3 hour iDVD file on a dual 2.0 G5 desktop with a dual layer DVD Superdrive. I have since migrated to a MacBook Pro. Now, when I open the iDVD file, it says there is no DL Superdrive on my system and that it will convert the file to single layer or something like that, with the option to cancel or proceed. If I purchase an external DL DVD burner will iDVD detect it and allow me to continue working with the file?? Or do I have to get a whole other Mac with a DL Superdrive (iMac or 17" MBP)?? The error specifically stated 'Superdrive', so I am not sure if just an external DL will work. Thanks for any help.

Sorry to have to post this here, but your topic "How can I see the bitrate while playing a DVD?" in the DVD SP forum.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=325516
has been archived and no one can reply to it.
Thank you so much. Using VLC 0.8.5 to view bitrate was an excellent discovery for those who don't have the cash to buy the DigiGami poducts.
Perhaps you should re-open a new topic for others to respond to.

Which Dual Layer DVD Burner can I use?

I have DVD Studio 1.5.1 and no plans to move to a more recent version. I would like to make dual layer DVDs by purchasing a burner that supports dual layer burning.
What dual layer burners will be recognized and supported by DVD Studio v1.5.1 and Mac OS 9.2.2? I'm using a Powerbook G4 slot loading 800MHZ 15" titanium computer. I am willing to use either an external or internal device.

Check here: http://eshop.macsales.com/staticpages/Framework.cfm?page=superdrive/sdl_powerbook_g4ti.html
-DH

Will it burn dual layer DVDs

Is it possible to burn (for example iPhoto backup or iDVD) onto the big 8GB dual layer DVDs using my iBook?
I have a 14inch one with a Superdrive which I bought last September. I think it is the same as the ones currently on sale.

The short answer, I think, is no. See replies here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=404207&tstart=15 and here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=260421&tstart=105
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Dual layer DVD-ROM in a SuperDrive

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