iDVD wont accept my blank DVD+R

when i click burn disk it tells me to insert a blank
DVD-R, i out in a fresh blank one, and my burner
starts spinning, then it stops, and ejects the DVD,
whats the deal?

Your subject is: iDVD wont accept my blank DVD+R

Chances are VERY good that your system doesn't support 'plus' media. DVD+R and DVD-R are NOT the same thing!

so if I go out and buy a new pack of blank DVD-Rs, it
will work? iDVD wont spit the DVD back out at me?

Stay away from cheap no-name discs and remember minus and plus are different.

If you have an Apple Store in your area and you want to play it safe, I would just go out and buy Apple brand DVD-R disks. I do and they work wonders.

One more thing, make sure you have enough space in your hard drive. Just last night, I added a file that took up 17GB of hard drive space and it almost maxed out my hard drive. When I put a blank DVD in, it just spit it back out telling me I didn't have enough space. I just deleted and trashed that 17GB file and it worked again.

I had the same issue. Using Fujifilm DVD+R disks on my PowerMac G5 with dual processors...less than a year old, seems inconceivable it wouldn't burn +R, but it insists that I insert a BLANK DVD (the package was just opened...i'm pretty sure they're blank!).

Moderately irritating that (a) DVD formats are incompatible and (b), if you're gonna have incompatible formats it would seem to make sense to have all sorts of help to make sure people don't buy the wrong stuff. I was glad to see this post - I doubted I was the only person bonehead enough to go out and buy DVDs without knowing there are at least four formats, but I'm glad to see I'm not alone!

Up until the time I bought my first Mac in mid-2004, I wasn't even aware of competing DVD formats until the salesperson I was buying my Mac from brought it to my attention. However, most salespeople won't bring it to your attention unless you ask them about it and even then, it's no guarantee they will know. I can see how something like this can throw most people off. I've had a couple of film school classmates try to play their DVDs to show their films to the class, only to have the DVD player reject the DVDs because it's not the right format.

OK... I was just about to ask about my iDVD problem - but I see that there are many out there quite well aware of this DVD-R, DVD+R or even (as I have purchased) Sony DVD-RW discs, problem...

I can burn a DVD-RW disc from iDVD by loading it on the desktop first (as a blank or freshly erased), then naming it. THEN I press 'burn' in iDVD. It burns to the disc straight away.... But it only plays on my Dad's all region DVD player. My DVD player is Region 2. It just never reads the disc... continually attempting to read it.

I was on to the Apple helpline for an hour today. Extremely frustrating indeed - delay in conversation (satellite connection) and the agent had to keep asking his source for EVERY question we discussed. He then emailed me a 'useful' link from an Apple help page in FRENCH!!! I cannot get back to him to ask where the English version is as the email is non-repliable.

Anyway, It seems I PROBABLY set the emac up correctly for Region 2 (once upon a time) after setting it incorrectly for USA to begin with (you have 5 hits to change the region only - unless you erase the hard disk and build again), but apparently you cannot check which region you set it for subsequently. Is this something to do with why MY DVD player won't read the dvd? Maybe. I find it incredible you cannot check what region you set your mac to in the first place. Maybe I made a mistake. Either way, my DVD-RWs work, but not on my DVD player (Region 2), only on my Dad's all region DVD player.

Anybody fancy listing in short what formats of DVDs there are out there and which ones we as Apple users should be using? (surely all Apple's should be using the same formats) I gather there are 3 so far... I also gather that the DVD-R is the correct one to use... Surely you can buy a DVD-RW disc for the Apple that works - not as in my case, only on a certain machine?

Look forward to anybody who can throw some more light on this very very annoying DVD confusion.

J

JFW,

What you have just done is called 'threadjacking' . Adding a new question to an existing question thread (especially one marked solved) will NOT get your question the attention it deserves.

That said, your problem has nothing to do with regions - DVDs created with iDVD are 'all regions'.

Your problem is using DVD-RW media. The reflectance of RW media is quite different from regular -R media and MANY DVD players will not play -RW media.

Use -R media.

Thanks for that advice... I am not a regular on these discussions, and was unware of my 'thread jacking'!

You may like to know, I visited the Bluewater Apple store today and was helped greatly by staff there. Apparently my Dad's DVD player is superior to mine in that it DOES play DVD RWs and mine does not. Hence the price I paid for my player in the first place (low). I bought some Apple DVD-R discs in the store - very expensive in fact THREE times the price in Virgin store for the same TDK x 5 discs. But I want to prove a point so have to buy what iDVD is asking for.

It seems that the latest imac (G5, iSight,remote) reads and writes to many more DVD formats - you just have to look up the spec of the computer version on the Apple site. The emac we currently have is restricted on what it uses and writes to. This, as you say, is quite separate to the Regions.

However, it seems I have found a 'work-around' by inserting the DVD-RW first, then naming it, and THEN burning from iDVD. According to the specs my Emac should not burn to a RW disc, but it DOES!!

Cheers

J


Emac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Please everybody see this web site:

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2003/DVDFormatsExplained.a sp

or just type in Google: different DVD formats.......

Then choose the first 'hit' it shows you.... which is the above web site.

Apple only supports: DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM

DVD+R and DVD+RW formats are supported by Philips, Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Ricoh, Yamaha and others.

The latest macs support more formats - you have to see the Apple web site for specs of your particular computer.

This is what the guy in the Bluewater Apple store showed me today. It blew away (some of) the mystery for me!!

JFW

Apparently my Dad's DVD player is superior to mine
in that it DOES play DVD RWs and mine does not.
Hence the price I paid for my player in the first
place (low).

When I purchased my DVD player a few years ago, I brought a DVD-R disc and a DVD-RW disc with the same content to try in the DVD player display models. Everyone I tried worked with the -R media but only about 1/4 worked with the -RW media.

However, it seems I have found a 'work-around' by
inserting the DVD-RW first, then naming it, and THEN
burning from iDVD. According to the specs my Emac
should not burn to a RW disc, but it DOES!!

Many of us used this trick with iDVD versions prior to iDVD 5. (That's why I took a DVD-RW disc to the store.) I would 'proof' my project on -RW media and if it was OK, I'd burn a -R disc.

Now-a-days, with iDVD 5 we can create a disc image on our hard drive for 'proofing'. In addition, the price of writable media has fallen significantly. When I started burning DVDs, they were between $2 and $3 each - proofing to -RW media made sense in those days.

Mr F Shippey

You are obviously very experienced in these DVD things (and possibly more)... I obviously am not. It is through self-teaching that I have got to the place I am today. I am so glad that you are in the enviable position of the knowledge that I only just found out. Your tone I find a little patronising.........

I consider many postings on here to be 'from ivory towers...' - those who like to preach from 'knowledge' and answer in riddles and mostly assume knowledge of their readers.

Most of us don't spend ALL of our lives on the mac. We come on here in the hope that we will find an answer if the Mac help-line or other sources have let us down.

I hope the info I have found today from the Apple store, will help somebody who like me was desperate for 'the light' regarding DVDs and formats. Hopefully some poor mac user who can't get to an Apple store will be grateful....

Cheers. JFW

P.S. Just for those who don't know: on the Google web site type: Different DVD formats.... and choose the first 'hit' it presents to you. This site explains ALL the DVD formats and what they mean...

Your tone I find a little patronising.........

Certainly not my intent in this case. I was simply explaining why I had used -RW media in the past.

We come on here in the hope that we will find an answer if the Mac help-line or other sources have let us down.

Most of the time we are able to help. When answers are given, usually they are made general enough to help anyone reading the answer - not just the original poster.