UJ-846 Superdrive unable to burn DVD+R

Question

Hello,
It seems that I can't burn anything on any DVD+R with my superdrive (ref. UJ-846). I've tried with iDVD (initially I wanted to burn one of my home-made movie on DVD), Disc Burner, DiscBlaze, Dragon Burn. Each time, the answer is the same : media is not writable. Is it normal for a "Superdrive" advertised as "Universal"?
Is there a way to solve this issue, for the moment I don't have any other media within reach and anyway, not to be able to burn a DVD+R is like not to be able to burn anything...

Answer 1

More info after some additional testing:
Burned a few DVDs using the internal UJ-846 and Pioneer DVR-109 (in a firewire case). The source image was a Tiger DVD (from an earlier Mac). I used Burnz and Disk Utility to burn two DVD+R's (HP brand) in the DVR-109 and Toast and Disk Utility to burn the same brand discs (and a DVD+RW) in the UJ-846.
In the case of the DVD+RW, I received the message that it could not calibrate the device to the media (both in Toast and Disk Utility).
From the DVR-109 burns, my old G3 iBook spit out the resulting discs as unreadable. The iMac (UJ-846) did read the discs but took about 30 seconds from the time of disc insertion until the window showing the Installer appeared completely. The DVR-109 displayed this window 16 seconds after insertion.
I then burned (using Toast) a data DVD using the same DVD+R media. This disc was burned as "Mac & PC" hybrid. The contents of the disc were folders full of audio files. Again, the G3 iBook refused to read the disc while the UJ-846 took about twice as long as the DVR-109 to mount and open the disc.
Finally, I burned (using the DVR-109) a Verbatim DVD-R "white-top" printable (8X, pn94654, hub printable, no stacking ring) using the Tiger image file as the source. The resulting DVD was not only was readable in the old G3 iBook but booted it, as well.
I should note that these discs, when burned with my G5's internal burner (DVR-117 which, I believe, is the DVR-110 but with Apple firmware) would work fine for data (and boot discs) but never produced a video DVD that would play in my set-top box.
Now, just to be a bit more thorough, I dug up some DVD+R's that I've burned over the past few years. Sonuvagun! Not one of them can be read by the G3 iBook's optical drive. So it's apparent that the old drive just doesn't like +R of any brand (Ridata, HP, JVC).
Okay, so what have we (I) learned from all this (if anything)?
It is tempting to say that the results with the old G3 iBook might be ignored because it is, after all, one of the first (500MHz) units produced and everything is much more compatible these days. However, shouldn't a burned DVD (of either the + or - persuasion) be seen as simply a DVD by the Mac once it's been burned? My Intel iMac shows a "+R" or "-R" as part of the disc's icon yet these are =burned= discs. Perhaps I do not remembers when this behavior had changed but I recall that the "+" or "-" ID was only on discs that had yet to be burned; subsequent to burning, this ID was dropped. (or so I recall...)
Could it be that the "+R" compatibility claims are overstated? But what of the "+RW" disc that gave the "can't calibrate..." error? Should I chalk it up simply to media incompatibility? I have some "+RW" media (HP brand, identified by Toast as "PHILIPS.041."); testing that media results in a successful erase and burn/verify using the UJ-846; no "calibrate..." error as experienced with the Memorex +RW's. Toast sees the disc as a 4X and offers to burn it at that speed but it is really burning at 2X based upon the slow speed of the countdown in Toast's window.
I remember reading something about "book-type" when I used to burn with a PC; perhaps that's an issue? Or maybe that's just a red herring.
In any case, I'll have to do some more testing with a few more older Macs to see if they can read the older DVD+R & +RW I already have and any new ones I burn with the U-846 and DVR_109 using Intel OSX in my iMac.
Comments and suggestions always welcome.
Intel iMac 20" / MacBook   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   Where the h* did all these firewire drives come from?