Success at first, then failure

Question

I have created a few DVDs using iDVD(6) with success, that is the DVD was what I expected and it played on a variety of devices, computers and DVD players including an older G4 iMac.
Now I have one that works fine on my Intel iMac, our TV/DVD player and an old Toshiba notebook. However it will not work on my wifes iMac G4, or the neighbors older TV/DVD player.
Faced with this delima, I created another very simple DVD using the same Theme as before with the same failure on the Wifes G4 iMac.
Thanks in advance for any ideas you may have.
RK Doty
Intel iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

Hello RKDoty,
DVD burning and playback success usually depends on two things: burn speed and/or DVD media.
To avoid compatibility issues, create a disk image in iDVD rather than burning directly to disk (File > Save as Disk image). This creates an .img file on your HDD, that can be stored for future use and gives you the option to preview your DVD on your Mac before burning to disc.
Use Disc Utility or Toast to burn your DVD at slow speed. 4x is acceptable, 2x (... or even 1x) is better. Use only high quality DVD-R (not DVD+R) media to minimize burn errors and compatibility issues. Make sure the DVD is compatible with slow burn speed (e.g. 1x-4x)
Verbatim DVD-R has the best track record on this board, but also Taiyo Yuden and Ritek make good discs (I personally had my first "real" complaints two weeks ago from a couple of customers: I had used Sony discs because the Ritek weren't available ....).
More info:
• About optical disc drive burning and write speeds
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301551
• Factors that affect writing to or reading from optical media
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25402
• Blank DVD media quality guide
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
• DVD media reviews
http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Reviews.phtml
hope this helps
mish