Burning Error!

Sounds like the thing is dying.

Things that can kill an electronic device are high heat, dust and/or wildly varying voltage.

On the other hand, sometimes devices just fail without an obvious cause.

x

Create a disk image. That way you can burn using Disk Utility - which is available on every Mac.

x

Sorry, can't help you. I've never used a PC for any of this stuff.

I know there are some regulars on the forum who do use a PC. Hang on. I suspect they'll stop by.

Good luck,

x

CDs and DVDs use different laser technology and speeds, so are less stressful to the device. Internal DVD drives are usually pretty inexpensive if you replace the yourself. Of course there could be other problems: device controller, memory, etc. Or you could get an external burner and use that: they are pretty cheap, too. Firewire or USB-2 work fine on my G5 Quad (external is a USB-2 Primera Bravo II with Plexstore 716A).

Oh, and to create a disk image, yes, format/build, select hard drive as the target. I always do that, then use Primera Describe to burn/print the disks.

Eddie O

Message was edited by: Edward A. Oates

Don't know anything about transferring .img or similar files to Windows for burning. But the the video_ts and audio-ts folders should be all you need. Those get created along with the .img image during build/format. Even when you burn directly out of DVD-SP, the video and audio-ts folders are created. You should be able to use those on Windows to burn a video DVD with Nero or similar.

Burn speed: I don't like the fact that DVD-SP doesn't allow you to control the burn speed, either. Toast and Describle (version 6 anyway) allow burn speed control. I always burn at 4x. I've found that full DVDs (close to the 4.3GB max) sometimes have problems on players near the end of the show. I also use professional grade DVD-R media: Taiyo Yuden form DiskMakers or Primera. I've been using Watershield printable media for some time with only about 2 failures in hundreds of disks.

Another question: on your Mac, is your DVD burner qualified for 16x burning? Some iMacs and Mac laptops only allow up to 8x burning. Using 16x media on a 8x burner can cause problems, sometimes problems damaging to the burner itself.

Here's the text from my Primera Watershield (Taiyo Yuden):

"This product is not suitable for use with DVD-R/RW drives which do not comply with the new DVD-R specifications for 16x writing speed. Please check your DVD-R/RW drive before using this product. Any use with such non-complying drives may result in loss of data and/or malfunction and damages to the drives. For furthers information concerning necessary actions forr such non-complying drives, please refer to the following web site: http://www.dvdhs.com"

(Note: that web site does not exist)


Eddie O

Message was edited by: Edward A. Oates

All of the new Mac Book Pro, Mac Book, Mac MIni, and iMac machines sport 8x burners. Some older machines in those classes (G5?) had 16x burners. Only the Mac Pro has 18x burners now days.

So at least part of your problem is that your burner does not support 16x burning.

Diskmakers.com (no affiliation) has 8x Taiyo Yuden DVD-R for 28cents each or white printable for 35 cents each (100 disks in a cake box). In my experience, TY's are the only way to go for consistent results.

Eddie O

Was searching forums and found

"I've found that full DVDs (close to the 4.3GB max) sometimes have problems on players near the end of the show."

I'm experiencing this exact problem, and am thinking it's in the burn speed. Is that right? Secondly, Is switching to toast from DVDSP so the burn speed can be controlled the best remedy?

I'd say, yes, burn at 4x, no faster. As the disc gets to the "end of the show," the burn speed is ramping up to get to 16x, 18x, whatever the media and drive are spec'd form. I burn with Charismac Describe 6.0.4 that is part of my Primera Bravo set up. I would assume Toast works as well.

But it is also true that it is all of this is very media sensitive. I use Taiyo-Yuden "watershield" (16x) from either Diskmakers or Primera, since I print on the discs with my Bravo II and like the gloss surface; but even with that high quality media, I burn at 4x all the time. I don't want to find out by having a customer return discs that skip, etc. I've had zero returns.

Eddie O