DVD burning without sound.

Hi all...
I made a slideshow for my brothers lacrosse banquet using I movie and I dvd both version 6.0.4 on a MacBook Pro with Leopard. It worked fine and it looks great. It has various songs running through it and it has worked every time i have previewed it and everything. I have been using I movie and Idvd for about a year now so i am fairly experienced but i have recently run into an issue. When i imported the imovie file to the idvd menu it worked fine. I added sound to the dvd menu and it worked fine. after it was all set, i burned one copy onto a dvd and the sound in the menu and the imovie slideshow i created both worked fine. however, later on, (and i have to burn 70 of these) the sound stopped working in the imove file/slideshow. the sound still plays in the menu, but of the 65 i had burned, only 10 or so have the sound working in the actual show. I dont know why this is happening. I let it render all the menus and everything the first time, and then after that the little window popped up and said, if you want to burn another disc insert it now, so i did that for the rest of the 60 or so. What can I do to fix this, i know i will have to reburn them, but why does the sound only work SOMETIMES. I really need to fix this and quick so that I can get these all burned before the banquet. I would really like to avoid messing with the slideshow due to the fact it has around 400 pictures and 8 different chapters. Besides, the first one worked fine, as do some of the others.
I guess i want to know why the sound on the menu always works, but the sound in the movie only works sometimes, and when it doesnt work, none of the music in the show works, it isnt just one song. What can I do to fix this? Please help me ASAP!!!! Thank you so much

MileinWg,
Try using a DVD-R disk instead of a + R. There seems to be less problems burning with -R disks, and they are said to be compatible with more DVD players.
The fact that you can get some good burns (even one) indicates that iDVD did its job correctly and the encoding is O.K. Likewise the problem appears not to be content related or you wouldn't be getting any good burns. So I think the problem is with your media, or perhaps you are low on free hard Disk space. It takes an absolute minimum of 5GB of disk space to burn a disk, and 15GB or more would be better. It is also possible that your DVD burner is malfunctioning sporadically, or needs cleaning, but I would first try changing your media to DVD-R and using good quality disks like Verbatim, Maxell, or HP. Also, shut down all other programs while burning, including your screen saver -- basically, restart your computer before starting the burning process.

Similar Messages

Out of options- Why is project burning without sound?

I filmed 6 projects in one week using the same equipment. All edited in final cut pro and exported to DV NTSC quicktime file. Projects were started on different computers and finished on the same one (except for project #3). First round of DVDs burned on different computers- problems with all. One skips, one had music track, but no voice, one had scratchy sound, one had no sound at all.
Project one- reburned on iMac (plenty of space @ 160gb) using iDVD 09. Works fine, made plenty of copies.
Project two- same, made a few copies.
Project three- previous issue- scratchy sound- figured I'd go back to the project and re-export after I burn the others.
Project four- previous issue- no sound. The sound is present in the idvd preview, but a separate dvd player I hear the menu sound, but no project sound. Figured I work out the problem before I move on to the others. So here's what I've tried:
1) Deleted encoded assets
2) permission repair
3) start a new idvd project
4) create a new user account
5) save as disc image and burn with disc utility (btw- the disc image plays in the iMac dvd player WITH sound)
6) bring mov file into MPEG and convert to DV file, bring mov file back to FCP -export sound to audacity- reimport into FCP- export to DV NTSC
7) export file back to tape and reimport into iMovie and share to idvd
8) burn at 1x instead of 4x
9) burn with different set of DVDs (for most of these I've been using Verbatim inkjet printable DVD-R up to 8x)
10) bring dvd to a friend's and check dvd in her player
11) burn dvds on a different computer
meanwhile I've tried burning older projects that I know work and yes, they worked.
The problem doesn't seem to be the dvds, idvd (oh, yea, also uninstalled and reinstalled iLife), the dvd player, the computer. The only thing I can think of is that the file is corrupt, but wouldn't exporting it to tape and reimporting it create a new file that wasn't corrupt- particularly if the sound is working everywhere except on the dvd? Unfortunately, I didn't save the original FCP project so my only other option is to re-edit which if I have to do, I have to do. But I still have three more projects and I'd hate to re-edit all of them.
I'm out of ideas. Has anyone had this problem? Is there something I've missed?
Thanks in advance.

Hi
Close to have done everything = me just thinking
• any strange fileformats used eg from iTunes, mp3 , .avi, .wmv etc ?
In iTunes I export out as an Audio-CD .aiff and use this in my movies
.mp3 always converted to .aiff 16-bit 48kHz to be used
• cleaning DVD to brush the laser lens ?
• Sure that Your movie or iDVD is in different formats NTSC/PAL (29.97/25 fps) ?
Else read my list on Quality may be You fins anything useful
*DVD quality*
1. iDVD 08 & 09 has three levels of qualities.
iDVD 6 has the two last ones
• Professional Quality (movies up to 120 min.) - BEST
• Best Performances (movies less than 60 min.) - High quality on final DVD
• High Quality (in iDVD08 or 09) / Best Quality (in iDVD6) (movies up to 120 min.) - slightly lower quality than above
2. From
• FCE/P - Export out as full quality QuickTime.mov (not selfcontaining, no conversion)
• iMovie x-6 - Don't use ”Share/Export to iDVD” = destructive even to movie project and especially so
when the movie includes photos. Instead just drop or import the iMovie movie project icon (with a Star on it) into iDVD theme window.
• iMovie’08 not meant to go to iDVD. Go via Media Browser or rather use iMovie HD 6 from start.
3. I use Roxio Toast™ to make an as slow burn as possibly eg x1 (in iDVD’08 or 09 this can also be set)
This can also be done with (Apple) Disk Util tool.
4. There has to be about or more than 25Gb free space on internal (start-up) hard disk. iDVD can't
use an external one as scratch disk (if it is not start-up disc).
5. Verbatim ( also recommended by many - Taiyo Yuden DVDs - I can’t get hold of it to test )
6. DVD-R (no +R or +/-RW)
7. Keep NTSC to NTSC - or - PAL to PAL when going from iMovie to iDVD
8. Don’t burn more than three DVD at a time - but let the laser cool off for a while befor next batch.
iDVD quality also depends on.
• HOW much free space is there on Your internal (start-up) hard disk. Go for approx 25Gb.
less than 5Gb and Your result will most probably not play.
• What kind of movie project You drop into it. MPEG4 seems to be a bad choice.
other strange formats are .avi, .wmv, .flash etc. Convert to streamingDV first
Also audio formats matters. I use only .aiff or from miniDV tape Camera 16-bit
strange formats often problematic are .avi, .wmv, audio from iTunes, .mp3 etc
Convert to .aiff first and use this in movie project
• What kind of standard - NTSC movie and NTSC DVD or PAL to PAL - no mix.
(If You need to change to do a NTSC DVD from PAL material let JESDeinterlacer3.2.2 do the conversion)
(Dropping a PAL movie into a NTSC iDVD project
(US) NTSC DVDs most often are playable in EU
(EU) PAL DVDs most often needs to be converted to play in US
UNLESS. They are plabacked by a Mac - then You need not to care
• What kind of DVDs You are using. I use Verbatim DVD-R (this brand AND no +R or +/-RW)
• How You encode and burn it. Two settings prior iDVD’08 or 09
Pro Quality (only in iDVD 08 & 09)
Best / High Quality (not always - most often not)
Best / High Performances (most often my choise)
1. go to iDVD pref. menu and select tab far right and set burn speed to x1 (less errors = plays better) - only in iDVD 08 & 09
2. Project info. Select Professional Encoding - only in iDVD 08 & 09.
Region codes.
iDVD - only burn Region = 0 - meaning - DVDs are playable everywhere
DVD Studio pro can set Region codes.
1 = US
2 = EU
Yours Bengt W

One of the movies burns without sound

On the preview, there's sound, but when it burns to a DVD, there's no sound on one of the movies. The menus work, and all the bonus feature movies have sound. It's just the largest movie that is having issues.

Do you have chapter markers in the movie? If so:
Make sure no chapter markers are within two seconds of the start or end of the timeline. Make sure no chapter markers are within a transition. Make sure no chapter markers are within two seconds of the end of a transition.

Can Apple upgrade my MacBook with a DVD burner?

Just wondering if my MacBook can be upgraded with a DVD burner without additional problems relating to the upgrade ocurring. I wasn't ready to buy another Mac that had it already preinstalled.
Thanks,
Reese

Hi Reese85,
Theoretically, you can upgrade it without any problem.
But the question : will they do that?
I read a post or two in this forum a while ago that user being denied by apple store when they asked to upgrade their optical drive.
Usually not to long after a mac released, third party reseller will have the optical as an upgrade option, but I never see one for macbook until now.
Good Luck.
ps: why not consider external DVD burner for now until the internal become available?

BURNED DVD PLAYS WITH SOUND ON PC BUT NO SOUND WHEN PLAYING ON TV ???

BURNED DVD PLAYS WITH SOUND ON PC BUT NO SOUND WHEN PLAYING ON TV - VIA VIDEO PLAYER ??

Hi,
It may be worth trying another burning application to see if this helps the issue.
Download and install the free utility, ImgBurn and use this to create the DVD. Guides on using this to burn to single layer and dual layer discs are below.
Burning DVD Files To Single Layer Discs
Burning DVD Files To Dual Layer Discs
Regards,
DP-K
****Click the White thumb to say thanks****
****Please mark Accept As Solution if it solves your problem****
****I don't work for HP****
Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

Can anyone suggest a reliable dvd burning app for a mac book pro without the idvd app

I recently purchased a Mac Book Pro and find that it has,nt a facility to burn home movies fro imovie. After contacting apple they tell me to purchase a third party dvd burning app, After a little research on the app,s available from the app store the reviews are not good. Has anyone found a reliable app that will do the job,.

Toast is exellent but is no substitute for iDVD - but then nothing really is.
Why is there no iDVD on my new Mac? How do I get it and how do I install it?
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3673

External DVD burn problem

I realize I am far behind everyone else here; but here goes.
I finally got a DVD burner for my G4 iMac (snowball) 1Gig OSX 10.4.11. iDvd v. 6.0.4; iMovie v. 6.0.3.
It's a (used) Lacie d2 8X.
I tried my hand with iMovie for the first time this Christmas using my digital camera in movie mode. Took a few minutes of the train set running around the tree.
I did pretty good with the clips in iMovie; even adding sound, titles and opening credits.
So, today I put the movie in iDvd; using the share function as instructed.
When I tried to burn the DVD; it went thru the sequence of building the DVD and then failed at the "burn" mode.
So, here are my questions -
Is there a problem burning on the external Lacie drive from iDvd?
I have DVD-R discs; is that a problem?
I tried Toast; but could not drag the iMovie into the the window (it just snapped back)?
The burner is 8X and I bought some 16x discs, is this wrong?
I hope this all makes sense and someone can help me out.
Well, trying something different to get the DVD to record.
I tried this time with Toast 6.
Got BurnPatch. Taost now recognizing the burner after unplugging it and re hooking it up.
I exported the movie as a QT file as directed in the Toast instructions. Drag/drop into the Toast window.
I am getting two error messages -
"Drive error
sense key=illegible request
sense code= 0x30, 0x05
Cannot write medium
incompatible format
and-
Couldn't setup the track for writing
last window (upon closing ) states
"this disc cannot be used because it is not recognized"
Could it be that using the 16x DVD-r discs is causing the problem? Also, they are a 'store brand'. If I need to use 8x; does anyone even carry them anymore?
Help, please
Thanks
Jay

I have an external firewire LaCie Burner and, once connected to my iMac, it does not show up in Disk Utility, but does work. It is recognized in Toast (if connected). I've used it almost exclusively without any problems. I've also tried it with Disk Utility:
Try this: connect the external burner, open Disk Utility, select a disk image (.dmg) and hit the burn button; my Disk Utility then gives me the option to burn with either the external or the Superdrive and tells me to insert a disk. But, unless I've selected an image to burn, there is no indication or icon anywhere in Disk Utility (or on the desktop) that an external burner has been connected. I've always thought that as being a bit strange, but since it does work, I haven't questioned it.
Another possibility might be that you did not install the (correct?) LaCie driver? You might want to check their website, find the latest driver appropriate for your model and Mac OS and follow their install directions. LaCie burners do need drivers installed to be recognized by the OS.

File name punctuation WILL cause MP3 and DVD burn errors – workaround?

OK, I’ve seen TONS of questions about problems burning MP3 format CDs and DVD. I’ve been having this problem for quite a while and today I just got ****** off enough to do some deep research. I seek to share my finding and suggestions for work arounds.
THE PROBLEM
iTunes can burn regular CDs since the song file name is not actually put on the CD. The CD or DVD burner work for burning audio discs and with other applications. All the burn preferences are set correctly and have been validated. But when you attempt to burn an MP3 CD or DVD (for backup, transfer or for player that play MP3 discs), iTunes may do the following:
Checking media (iTunes will ask: “You have inserted a DVD. Are you sure you want to create a Data DVD? answer yes, it’s a blank DVD disc in a working DVD burner)
Checking playlist
Burning disc… initializing
"The attempt to burn a disc failed. An unknown error occurred (xxxx).”
THE CAUSE
Many times the error is due to song, album or artist names with unacceptable punctuation in them. iTunes does not tell you why and the error message and Google searches and Apple support/discussion forum details are sketchy… but in most cases its “illegal” punctuation in the song name, artist or album. I isolated at lest the apostrophe ‘ there are probably other illegal name punctuations too.
The cause my be explained by Apple following ISO or Joliet file name specifications or file name length specifications for CD or DVD discs. But since this appears to be undocumented (to the iTunes user) there is a need to understand the restrictions to allow error free disc burning.
THE CHALLENGE
Even if the playlist name does not have punctuation, if ANY playlist song name/artist/album does, the DVD burn will fail. Removing the offending songs from the playlists results in a successful burn but hey, I WANT those other songs too!
POSSIBLE WORK AROUNDS
Changing actual song file name – even if you change the name in iTunes (Get Info, Info, change name, artist, album) the actual song file names are not updated and continue to have the punctuation error resulting in a burn failure.
It appears that the actual file name needs to be changed. This can be a challenge. If you change only the file name you need to add modified file back into iTunes and the old file link is now broken. This is a bigger problem if that song file is in multiple playlists (the old ones are broken and the new one needs to be substituted). This is a REAL problem if you have 2,800 songs with an ‘ in them (like I do).
LETS WORK TOGETHER AND SHARE RESULTS
I’ve seen many, many unanswered questions about iTunes CD and DVD burning problems that will likely be solved if we can collectively develop and document a workaround. So, here is
THE QUESTION
What is the best way to rename (or retag) MP3 song files to eliminate punctuation and update iTunes and playlists so these songs can be burned to CD or DVD without violating the undocumented illegal punctuation restriction? The work around may differ for OS X vs Windows users so help on both would be appreciated.
Thank you all in advance for your help!
Windows XP Pro

been searching myself to create my own cdg for use in universal karaoke players. Kjams appears to offer the most hope for all I want to do. although there's something new now called Aria which promises to do a bunch of stuff for 79 $. Otherwise, all that I want to do as listed by the original poster, would cost me Kjams lite, plus the burn plug in is extra, plus I'd need the kjams producer as I would be building a cdg by adding the synced lyrics to something I've removed the vocal from, on Audacity program. if I go with Kjams, those 3 softwares, it will cost me 150, while I'm so jealous all those PC karaoke singers have free software for karaoke they can download.
I've been buying my cdg discs at 1.99 a pop, but they don't have special songs I want to perform. Aria for Mac might just do it all but I don't need the "scratch" sound they are pushing. that makes me steer away from the software.
experimenting with the Imac 10.6 idvd movie quicktime might work. I made a few cdg but have not tried them in the club karaoke machine yet. I added the lyrics to tuneprompter which is a free software that lets you add and sync the lyrics to the music with the spacebar. thats fun. but it's all in experimental thing so far. I know Kjams does not let you add lyrics and sync them yourself. you are supposed to import cdg to kjams that are already available and pay for them. in this case I want to find my own special tunes. good luck to you. there's one other thing but it's expensive. buying software which turns your mac into a windows platform by partiioning it and you start up in one or the other. that's also about 100-150 software.

What is the amount of DVDs that an iMac DVD Burner can burn? (or MTBF)

What is the amount of DVDs that an iMac DVD Burner can burn (DVD burner life time)? (or MTBF)

Your question sounds a bit like you want to use the Superdrive professionally? Personally, I would not depend on a vertically installed, super slim Drive where any media can easily shift by 1/100th of an inch. I've noticed that mine definitely needs to "rest" and cool off after about 3 DVDs. I purchased an external burner quite a few years ago (when I had an iMac without a Superdrive) and I still prefer to use it - it is sturdy, can read all sorts of media, and is reliable whereas the SuperDrive is known to be extremely finicky especially about the media they will read or write to.
So, I don't have a specific answer for you, but I wouldn't rely on it.

Toast 11 DVD burning

Greetings, I don't burn many DVD's any more but I had no alternative on this one.
While the encoding and multiplexing didn't seem to take an abnormal amount of time,
it took over an hour to burn 1 of 3 two hour DVD's (regular, not BD) on Titanium 11 latest version along
with latest version of Yosemite on a 27inch iMac 3.2ghz i5 quad with 16 gig RAM.
As it has no internal disc burner,
I have an OWC BD burner virtually brand new as my external.
I inserted disc 2 and departed for an hour and a half.
When I returned, it said it had burned 7%!
I aborted.
Is there an alternative method to burning a DVD efficiently?
From what I read Toast 12 is problematic as well.
Before sending this, I thought to try Toast 10 which I did not delete, thankfully!
I did a disc copy and it took 18 minutes to read and copy the first disc without issue on Titanium 10.
Go figure...
Any feedback would be appreciated because I would like to burn BD.
Thanks!

Greetings, I don't burn many DVD's any more but I had no alternative on this one.
What type of DVD disk are you trying to burn: a video DVD or a data DVD? It sounds like a video DVD since you mention encoding and multiplexing.
Rather that burn directly to disk have Toast save the project as a disk image. That separates the encoding from the burning process.
Mount the disk image on the Desktop and play it with DVD Player. If it plays OK the encoding was successful.
You can then burn it to disk (at the slowest speed possible) with either Toast or Disk Utility. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.

Best New DVD Burner for a G5

My DVD Burner seems to have died and I'm wondering if anyone can advise on best replacement. I'd love to be able to burn DVD 9's.
Thanks

Have you figured out the reason why your computer becomes unstable after having a disk in the drive?
I am having the same exact issue; after having disks in the DVD drive (PLEXTOR DVDR PX-800A:) they will not eject; I've tried using the eject command in the terminal, and using the "Open Superdrive" menu option.
I've also tried ejecting from Disk Utility but that will freeze the application. I can't force quit the Disk Utility application or even relaunch the Finder. The only way around is to go a hard reboot by holding down the power button.
Every time a disk is in the drive I have to force reboot, this is fast becoming a major issue, the computer works flawlessly otherwise.
I've read that it can be anything from bad RAM to a bad MB. Also, one last item to note, not sure if they're related but I tend to think so. When attempting to boot into the Hardware Test startup disk, the computer goes to the little wrist watch and never stops counting the minutes.
This will also occur when using the boot manager to select a start up disk even without the DVD in the drive, so its not limited to the DVD selection. The computer again needs to be rebooted and I have to select a startup disk from the startup preference pane. Of course the Hardware Test disk does not show as a startup option.
So, this is more than just an eject DVD issue, sounds more complicated than that. Also, just thought I'd mention the drive has been installed for over a year without issue, so its not due to a new piece of hardware.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
[email protected]

Premiere Elements 11: DVD Burn horrible quality.

Hello!
I am having issues with getting a decent playback on a video I cut together for a friend.
It involves video shot with some high resolution images inserted in the bottom corners.
When I save as a .mpg file the quality is great, but when I choose burn to DVD with high quality both the video and images are extremely blurry and look to have been made low resolution.
There is only about two minutes of video so available space is not a concern. I've also unchecked "Fit Contents to available space". Is there a fix or work-around for getting a better quality DVD burn?
Edit: After more research I seem to have come across a common problem in that Premiere Elements cannot burn a decent quality DVD without using certain settings that unfortunately can only be played on Blu-ray players. I'm still hopeful that someone, somewhere, has found a way to get it to work with better results than sub-par.

DaVeachi
Problems with the same symptoms can (often do) have different causes. The answers are in the details.
On what computer operating system is your Premiere Elements running on?
A just in case note at the onset....DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc has a frame size of 720 x 480 (NTSC) or 720 x 576 (PAL) whether
DVD-VIDEO standard 4:3 or standard widescreen 16:9. "HD video" can have frame size of 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080, or 1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 which is stretched to 1920 x 1080 for display after encoding.
What are the properties of the source media on that Timeline - video and audio compression, frame size, frame rate, interlaced
or progressive, file extension, pixel aspect ratio?
What is the project's project preset that you or the project is setting? See Edit Menu/Project Settings/General Editing Mode, Timebase,
Frame Size. The program does not always give the "right" setting and defaults to 1080i which may not be a good match for your source.
Then you set the project preset yourself and then import the source.
If interlaced video source, field order may enter into the equation since DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc is characterized by interlaced video, lower field first.
You talk about what sounds like picture in picture. What are the pixel dimensions of these photos that you are using for the picture in picture. How many of them are there in this Timeline?
You are not doing yourself any favors leaving "Fit Content to Available Space" unchecked. More on that later and advise put a check mark for that option. Important...when you are in the burn dialog for your typical project, what does the Quality Area there show for Space Required and Bitrate (with and without a check mark next to "Fit Content to Available Space"?)
What are selecting for your preset standard 4:3 or standard widescreen 16:9 type, and is your program install for NTSC or PAL.
Let us start here and then decide what next.
Thank you.
ATR

My DVD burning problems solved....here's what I did.

Like some of you, I was having MAJOR problems burning DVDs. My initial setup was a dual 2.0 ghz G5 purchased in July of last year, so it came with a 8x burner and iLife '04 (iMovie 4.0.1 and iDVD 4.0.1). Seeing as how I have 1.5gigs RAM and a fairly new system running 10.4.3, I didn't think I was going to have any problems burning DVDs....
HA.
Nothing worked right......a 1-hour long project burned for more than 8 hours without finishing, or iDVD would quit for no reason, or the burn would fail. I noticed that Terminal said that during these burns it was only burning at 4x even though 47x was requested. Chapters were not working. Applecare was not helpful, only suggesting that I try to burn under a new user, and then call them back. That didn't work either.
I probably took the lazy man's way out, but I decided this waste of time was unacceptable. I went out and purchased a 16x SuperDrive Pioneer DVR-110D replacement from MCE for $92, and upgraded to iLife '05 for another $79. I installed the drive myself (VERY easy with the included instructions), and tried the new setup under a newly created user.....
PERFECT burning every time. Not only that, but Terminal showed a requested burn speed of 16x and a burn speed of 16x. A two-hour project is now burning in less than 8 minutes. Multiplexing still takes time, but it's less than 1 hour!
On an interesting side note: when I try to burn under my regular user name, I STILL get an burning error (says image not complete, or incomplete....something like that). But under the user name created just for burning I have no problems. The chapter problem was solved when I stopped putting a chapter marker at the very beginning of my iMovie projects, since iDVD automatically puts one in called "Beginning," which you can change to anything you want.
Maybe this will help others.....
Dual 2Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 1.5 gigs RAM, iMovie 5.0.1, iDVD 5.0.1

it was only burning at 4x even though 47x was requested.
That's a issue discussed in the past.
It turns out that 8X DVD burning means about 47X CD burning - you were requesting 8X DVD but only got 4X DVD burning.
I haven't seen it discussed anymore so maybe Apple got around to eliminating that 'quirk' in terminology.
I suspect some of the early 8x DVD burners didn't perform as advertised. I'm glad your new 16X burner is working for you.

DVD burn error message

I get this error message when I try to burn a data DVD: "Burning the disk failed because communication to the disk drive failed. (error code 0 x 80020022)
I am attempting to use the original drive system (Pioneer DVD-RW DVR 104) and it plays CD's and DVD's without a problem. Thoughts? Jim

just had this problem with a 17" MacPro purchased in Jan 09. Toast Titanium 9 had no problems burning the CD. tried it again in Finder but backed the burn speed down from 24x to 8x - no problem.
I can only assume it is cheap media causing the problem - we have no problems with Maxell CDs at full burn speed (24x). The CDs causing the problems are Verbatims (rated at 1-52x) that have printable surfaces.
hope this helps

Intel iMac SuperDrive (Matshita DVD-R UJ-846) DVD Burning Problems

Hi there:
Having a strange problem burning DVD's now. I have a January '06 intel iMac Core Duo 2ghz, 2GB RAM. My DVD burner suddenly no longer will burn DVD's. When I put in a blank DVD-R, it just spins for a bit then spits it out, no prompt or error message. When I put in a blank DVD+R or DVD-RW, it gives me the usual prompt that a blank DVD has been inserted and asks how to handle it. But when I try to burn, it opens the session, then quickly finishes the session (without any burning) and spits the disc out with an error that burning failed because of an inability to calibrate laser power level for the media. Sometimes it says due to a media error. It also will not read a previously burned DVD data disc, including the OS install DVD that came with the computer. It will however, read and play movie DVD's, and also reads and burns CD-R's with no issues.
I've tried the following fixes with the following results:
1) Change media. Have tried several different types and different brands. No success.
2) Burn DVD's from an external firewire DVD burner. Works fine.
3) Hardware Test via the install DVD (on the external firewire burner). No problems found.
4) Did a fresh install of the Tiger OS onto an external firewire hard drive, booted from that, and tried to burn. No success.
5) Tried burning from Disk Utility and Finder. No success.
6) Put a cleaning CD into the drive and let it run. Still no success after.
System profiler says the drive is ready to burn CDs and DVDs. CDs work, DVDs don't.
Any ideas as to what could be causing this and how to fix?
Thanks!
--Equus

If you guys did a search on the optical drives you'll discover that they have a rather extensive
history for failure. the failing optical drive process starts off rather slowly and worsens over time.
You could replace the internal optical drive but rather than performing surgery on your Imac
you would be better off going with an external optical drive.
If your IMac is still under warranty you can have it replace but I would still pick up an external
as well, I have read a couple of threads where even after having the internal replace the same issue
happened yet again.
I ordered a LaCie that does rather well.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P5C9S0/ref=oss_product
I did however discover a couple of minor issues with my LaCie...
1) When the mounts a disc , for some reason the mechanical ejection button
on the face of the enclosure is disabled. This is not a major issue right click and eject or, drag the
icon into the trash
2) if you are wanting to lightscribe be sure to go to the LaCie website and download the latest
lightscribe app, the one that came with mine was out of date and did not work in Mac OSX 10.6
3) My lightscribed DVD's had a problem , the images where filled with rings from the center of the
disc out, I have discovered this is due to calibration , Amazon has shipped me a new Lacie that
I have sitting in a box next to me, I have not had a chance to test out the new unit yet.
You may also look at OWC's optical drives
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
Either way make sure that you go with an optical drive with Firewire.
James

DVD burning without sound.

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