DVD-R UJ-85J: Very slow burning time

Hmm i'm using my Alu iMac 24" and i'm using toast 8 which shows the current recording speed so far i've never seen my SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) burn DVD at 8x zzz

I've tried different medias and still have no luck getting a 8x speed zzz

Anyone else have this new iMac SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) burn slow issue?

yeah I have had this same problem. Slow disc burning in every app I use (iTunes, Disco, and Disc Utility). iTunes is where I first found this problem, as importing a 600 MB CD took almost 8 minutes. . In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Burning, the preferred speed is "Maximum Possible." While burning, it didn't even sound like there was a disc in the CD drive. After the burn, I changed the speed to "16x" and got the same awkward silence. Restarting the iMac didn't help, and neither did Disc Utility's burn option (see below)

The only solutions that I can think of is to back up my data and reinstall Tiger, or to purchase an external disc drive to use for disc burning.

My burner cannot go faster then 2x, I have done every thing including booting a clean fresh OS. I thought it could be a bad drive but I see other people having the same issue.

I created some DVD images in iDVD (.dmg) and use disk utility to burn the image and it takes close to 2 hours to burn on disc!

Apple said it was the discs I was using (TDK 16X DVD-R). So I tried Fuji, Memorex, Sony and same thing. I borrowed a friends Lacie Firewire burner and was burning at 16X with no problems.

I did notice something weird in the system profiler it said my drive had no cache


MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:

Firmware Revision: FB2U
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 0 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No


Could this be the issue? Shouldn't the drive have at least 2 Mb of cache?

Dave Jerome wrote:

Is this normal for an apple "super" drive?

All SuperDrives are not equally "Super" -- even drives with the same
manufacturer and model number have different specs for speed and
supported media types, depending on the iMac vintage. I don't know
whether the differences are in hardware or simply drive firmware, but
google turns up many discussions of drive firmware hacks -- mainly
for the purpose of eliminating DVD region restrictions. I haven't had
time to explore the details (yet).

...happy hacking,

Looby

*_Mid-2007 ALU iMac_:*
8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs at up to 4x speed
Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
Writes DVD-RW at up to 6x speed and DVD+RW discs at up to 8x speed
Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
Reads CDs at up to 24x speed

*_Late-2006 white iMac_:*
8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed
Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
Writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed
Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
Writes CD-RW discs at up to 16x speed
Reads CDs at up to 24x speed

*_Early-2006 white iMac_:*
8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed
Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
Writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed
Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
Writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed
Reads CDs at up to 24x speed

*_Late-2005 G5 iMac_:*
8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Writes DVD+R DL discs at up to 2.4x speed
Writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed
Writes DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs at up to 4x speed
Reads DVDs at up to 8x speed
Writes CD-R discs at up to 24x speed
Writes CD-RW discs at up to 8x speed
Reads CDs at up to 24x speed

Slow here too, using the aptly named Matshita, model number UJ-85J

When starting the burn it claims to be 8x, but you could have fooled me... 25 minutes to burn a DVD?!

Not a good impression to make on someone trying to switch from PC's, which can burn them in under 5 minutes. I wasn't expecting 16x burning on what is basically laptop hardware (iMac) but come on.. better than 2x would be nice, especially when it's advertised.

Oooops, my fault, it was a dodgy disc. Make sure you have a more thorough check before complaining, kids!
Second one finished in 12 minutes, which is a lot more sensible (it's still not blazingly fast, but I don't expect it to be, given that it's a laptop drive and sat vertically too)

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-85J:

Firmware Revision: FM0S
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 0 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO

Disk I burn go slowly using BEST setting in Toast v8.0.3. all disks I have burned are DVD 8x media (Princo) No problem on g5 Pioneer 110 drive nor on Pioneer 109 external firewire drive.Slowest write speeds I've had since my g4 dual with Pioneer 2x recorder.
I will try other media, but I have a sinking feeling apple's superdrive is really a dumbed-down version of a real superdrive. Otherwise, I'm happy with my new iMac.
Hope there's a firmware fix in the NEAR future from apple. I don't want to try some hackety-crackety firmware patch since I do not want to void my warantee with a non apple-approved fix.
C'MON APPLE - Let's get this one FIXED SOON!!!!!!!!!

geomacBCN wrote:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-85J:

Firmware Revision: FM0S
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
*Cache: 0 KB*
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
*DVD-Write: -R, -RW*
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO

That doesn't look right, especially the *Cache: 0 KB*. My 20" white C2D
shows a 2048 KB cache -- plus a lot more "DVD-Write:" media types:

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-85J:
Firmware Revision: FCQ5
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
*Cache: 2048 KB*
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
*DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW*
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds

Looby

I am beginning to suspect a firmware related problem. Apple need to address this or I will have no option but to have the drive replaced. A firmware update provided by apple will stem the tide of outrage and subsequent returns and save them money. Did apple think we wouldn't notice the laconic burn speeds?
The Looby: Are you getting correct write speeds with your DVD burner?
I tried an external Pioneer 112d Burner (firewire) and I got 8X dvd (average) burn speed with toast. I only get 2X average burn speed with internal burner.

Should I return the iMac to Authorized Apple Service center or wait a few months for a fix? I'm tempted to try a flash update
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=41906&highlight=112d+flash
(NB: flash app only works in tiger for now - I'll have to cob together a tiger system to perform this operation)
If I get impatient I might go for it knowing that apple will pick up the drive replacement tab if my experimentation proves fruitless or damages the drive - I'll just play dumb and get my local service center to replace it (I know the tech there). If apple doesn't deal with the problem in 3 months i will no doubt do some firmware patchery-flashery hackety-crackety on their dime.

😉

Message was edited by: geomacBCN

geomacBCN wrote:

The Looby: Are you getting correct write speeds with your DVD burner?

Yes, I'm getting the speeds that Apple specs for my machine; be aware,
that's often less than the blank media's maximum specified burn speed.
I posted Apple's CD/DVD read/write speed specs earlier in this thread.

BTW, I haven't tried Toast on OS-X -- because I've had nothing but bad
experiences with Roxio software on Windoze. Adaptec hardware is usually
great, but I've had no luck with stuff from their software spinoff (Roxio).

I have to suspect there's something goofy with your machine's Superdrive
driver software -- it's hard to believe the drive has no hardware cache.
Maybe someone else with a 24" ALU iMac could post their SystemProfiler
information for the UJ-85J.

Looby

Looby:
There's a person in a previous post who has same problem ase. Superdrive's firmware is different:
MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-846:

Firmware Revision: FB2U
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 0 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO

I'd appreciate I others could post info from 'disk burning' section in system profiler. Maybe there's a clue out there.

All I can say is that I reinstalled my Mac OS as soon as I got my iMac. I wanted to get rid of extra languages and printers so I did an archive and upgrade.Other than that I have a bog standard stock iMac.

George

geomacBCN wrote:

All I can say is that I reinstalled my Mac OS as soon as I got my iMac.
I wanted to get rid of extra languages and printers so I did an archive
and upgrade. Other than that I have a bog standard stock iMac.

FWIW, I did a clean "Erase & Install" of Tiger when I first got the iMac,
and another "Erase & Install" when I moved to Leopard. No problem
with burn speeds on either OS.

Is there any chance the Toast install replaced the standard drivers?

Is Toast compatible with Leopard? Is the following link out-of-date?

[Roxio: No Leopard patch for broken Toast DVD burner software|http://scottmace.typepad.com/service providerblog/2007/11/roxio-no-leopar.html]

I can't recall the details, but Roxio's "Easy Media Creator" caused
nasty driver-related problems on my Win XP Pro machine at work.

Looby

LooBy:

The version of toast is the latest. Vers 8.0.3 around 2 weeks old. If I remember roxio fixed leopard bugs with this flavor.

Toast recognizes cd/dvd drives interna and external but to my knowledge does not install drivers as in windows software. I really need to try built in burn feature, but I'm pretty sure it's a firmware compatibility bug with leopard.

I'll keep checking in on this thread to see if there's any light at end of tunnel.

seeya,
geo

I have an Optiarc AD-5630A in my 24" AluiMac, and it too won't burn anything at faster than 2x.

I have tried several different brands, all to no avail.

Hello all. So I came to this thread hoping someone may have had an answer for my problem as I was having the same problem as Dave. My system profiler screen looked exactly the same too (but with different firmware revision). Anyhow I am doubtful this was your problem Dave, but just in case someone else runs into the same issue as me I thought I'd post what was going on.

I was attempting to burn DVDs from a networked drive here at work. The burn rate was painfully slow - 2 hours to burn a DVD! Well it turns out my problem was not actually the burning process but the transfer of data from the network drive. Now it also turns out there is a known issue with transferring data to an OSX computer from SAMBA shares. I tried transferring the data from the network to my desktop first thinking I would then burn it, but again 3.2GB of data was going to take over an hour (after 20 minutes, the time remaining was still climbing an not even a third of the data had transferred).

Anyhow - a friend here helped me and we found this:

http://www.mat.ethz.ch/services/itsupport/users_guide/documents/macosx_slow_sambaread/index

That same 3.2GB of data took under 5 minutes to transfer to my desktop after I made the changes. Now either burning straight from the network drive or better yet from my hard drive and we are back to realistic burning speeds (3.2GB DVD in around 10 minutes).

Maybe this will help someone.....

Neil