interface error: 5 the connection is not stable

There seem to be some unhelpful comments flying about in this thread.

However, for the record, not using copyright material and following all the advice, a new 21.5" iMac, 4GB, 800GB free space on the HD, nothing else running(no antivirus), freshly repaired HD(booting from an external drive) with no problems found, burning at lowest possible speed, using Taiyo Yuden disks, OSX 10.6.2, Toast 9.0.7 fails every time with the interface error.

Using this version of Toast and saving as a disk image and then burning with Apple's Disk Utility works every time, at speeds up to 4x(not tried faster)

These are DVD media

On my clunky old 2.16GHz/3GB 20" iMac, with NAV running and all sorts of other stuff open(e.g. Mail/Safari/iTunes), the same software/media combination works every time(I can't remember the last time I had a coaster)

Something is wrong here and like others I would appreciate some sort of comment from Apple here or from Roxio on their boards

Or even a fix

That's a really good work around tip though - writing with Toast to an image and burning with Disk Utility. I hadn't thought about that before, but it at least lets me use Toast's creation tools until someone gets it together and fixes this.

Sorry to hear you have the problem despite following the suggestions and there seem to be too many possibilities of what is causing the problem. However,
I respectfully disagree though that posting Apple's suggestions is unhelpful.

For everyone's information, no one posting on these discussion boards will get a response or comment from Apple - these are strictly user to user forums. You can post feedback with Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Although you will most likely not get a response, they do read them (so I'm told).

I cannot comment on Roxio's boards because I've never used them.

You make a good point - I am stumped and have no idea what could be causing the problem.

I would definitely say that seeing this thread have over seven pages of people with the same issue, it may be wise for the software codes to be looked at by both of these companies, Roxio/Apple. If neither look into it, as they say it all flows down hill. We are the ones stuck with the coasters..

I have Windows 7 installed through Boot Camp. I will try the burn in that OS, and get back to you on whether it's the drive itself, media, or the software. If any one has Windows on VMware or what have you, it might be worth your while to try it.

I say this in the spirit of trying to solve an issue...not looking to get into the OS cola wars stuff, as obviously I own a Mac... We just need a solution.

OK Don't know.... I just want a drive that not generates coasters.
It's defenitly the new DVD Hardware.
I have 3 other drives that have NO PROBLEMS making ANY Copy.
(I don't have to "Fiddle" around the problem, they just work with TOAST !)

So it's the new Apple Super drive - No Doubt. There is no other conclusion.

So Apple please update the Firmware , if possible - or replace the drive.

No need to go into Windows 7 in order to test your drive. All you have to do is use Roxio Toast Titanium to create a disk image, then burn the image to your DVD media using Apple's Disk Utility located in your Utilities folder.

Step 1: Launch Roxio Toast Titanium
Step 2: Click on the Video icon
Step 3: Click on VIDEO_TS folders
Step 4: Drag a VIDEO_TS folder from your hard drive onto the Toast window.
Step 5: File -> Save as Disc Image
Step 6: Enter a name and select a location to save your Disc Image, then click Save.
Step 7: Click on either Dual Layer (if you're using DL media) otherwise click on Single Layer.
Step 8: Your Disc Image will be created

Step 9: Launch Apple Disk Utility
Step 10: Click on the Black and Yellow Burn icon
Step 11: Select the Disc image file that you created with Toast
Step 12: Click the Burn button

Thanks Brian Blumberg, i burned 2 discs.... Works! OK
Toast Compress 8.2 Gb to 4 Gb and Writes the Disc Image.
Then burn with Disc Utility.

Fine, at least a workable procedure and at high speed, well done.

We wait for Apple/Roxio to tackle the real problem.........
(I have enough coasters)

Brilliant! I never really understood the whole disk image thing, but great workaround. Working from a Video_TS file I had on my hard drive, it created a ".toast" file on my desktop. This allowed me to take advantage of Toast's compression feature. Then I burned it onto a single layer DVD with Disk Utility. Put it in my DVD player and it worked like a charm. Leads me to believe that this has to be a Roxio Toast software issue.

I have been successfully burning DVDs with Toast until about a few weeks ago... I have been using a mac mini with an external Sony DL burner and never had any problems.

((Mac OS X 10.5.8 with Toast 10.0.5))

All of a sudden around 13-20% of burning my DVDs I would get the interface 5 error. I have a 50-pack of Sony DVD+R disks that is quickly being turned into a 50-pack of coasters!

Here's what has happened me so far on my road to recovery:

I tried saving the Video_TS folders as an ISO, and burn it using Disk Utility... and it worked. BUT now I'm having difficulty because it constantly says my ISO (4.6 GB) is too big for my DVD (4.7) and I don't know how to compress it any more.

I tried switching it over to the PC side of things and tried this:

Using DVD Shrink to shrink the ISO, and then trying to burn with ImgBurn... doesn't work. I have used this method before and ImgBurn freezes early in the burn and just says time left: unknown, and I am forced to restart.

At first I thought it was my external DVD burner and it must have sh*t the bed. But after seeing all of you running into the same problem I am not sure anymore... The DVD player still reads fine and burns CDs fine too...

I am trying to delete a few of those Items out of my Library-Preferences Folder and I will report back with my findings...

K... the same thing seems to be happening when I use Disk Utility... It stops early in the drive and just "finishes burn" when it's not even close to done. Funny thing is I can hear the disk spinning funny before the crash (same thing in both Toast and Disk Utility)... Its gotta be my burner right?

After several weeks of almost daily contact with Roxio's DISMAL tech support (this service must be offshore), and much repetition of useless information the 'answer' now provided to me is:

"That message is almost always coming because of firmware issues.
Roxio tries to make sure everything works fine with the most hardware we can test, but we cannot ensure total universal compatibility with Mac's hardware production.
It may happen that a drive, or more than one model of drive, does not have a firmware that works flawlessly with Toast. It is up to the drive's owner to make sure firmaware updates are carried out.
Have you tried to find and install a firmware update for your drive?
Googling the model of the drive GA11N brings up a lot of results, and this link to Apple http://support.apple.com/kb/DL892 allows to update an iMac SuperDrive.
Please note that Roxio takes no responsibility for damage resulting from updating drives' firmware to make better use of Roxio software".

Thats' what I call 'passing the buck'!

Now, if I actually paid for my copy of Toast, I wouldn't be happy with that kind of response.

Especially when the download seems to be for a Mac Mini!

One additional thing -- version 10.0.5 produced an error message when I dragged the VIDEO_TS folder into the Toast window: "VIDEO_TS" is in an unsupported format and could not be added. But the folder appeared in the window anyway and I proceeded to create a disk image to my desktop and burned a DVD using Disk Utility. Tested it in my DVD player and everything seemed to work fine.

I did a quick search online and found other people were having the same problem. It appears that version 10.0.4 doesn't produce the same error message so I downgraded to the earlier version, ran a test and it works fine. I think I'll stick with version 10.0.4 for now.