DVD+R DL or DVD-R DL?

Open System Profiler (or use apple menu, About This Mac, More Info) and select Disk Burning on the left. The panel on the right shows the kinds of media your dvd player/burner supports.

As long as it supports it it doesn't matter which format you use. Personally I avoid store-branded stuff and prefer brands like Phillips, Memorex, Verbatim.

Don't pay for media that can record faster than your dvd burner can burn because it's just a waste of money. I guess you will have to google for the specs of your machine to find out the speed limitations of your burner since the System Profiler doesn't include that info.

FWIW, I am currently using Memorex DVD+R DL's for my 2010 mac pro.

At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware>Disc Burning & report what it says, like ...

Interconnect: ATAPI

Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)

Cache: 2048 KB

Reads DVD: Yes

CD-Write: -R, -RW

DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL

Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes

Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes

Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD

Vermatim or better, avoid Sony.

Verbatim you mean. Also Taiyo, and Ritek are good. Make sure the discs are prepackaged in jewel cases, and not on a spindle. Do not put stickies, or sharpie markers on the discs. Use the provided inserts, or cut your own to fit the case.

Yes Verbatim, thanks.

Why not on spindles? That's the only way I buy them as I've no need for the jewel cases - I keep all my discs in Case Logic 'binders' for easy labeling and access. I buy either Memorex or Verbatim and have only had trouble, recently, with burning them on my new MacBook Pro. I had an old LaCie DL external burner but after seven years it went belly up, so the internal is the only drive I have now (though I'm having trouble with it - something I posted about).

Just curious - I've been using DVDs to back-up for ten years now and haven't had a problem until recently. Oh, and I also use Sharpies (marked for use with CDs) on ALL my discs. The only problem I ever had was burning CDs with a black label and using a silver metallic Sharpie on them: none of them would play.

Curious...

Clinton

Likewise. I have always used spindles as I burn hundreds of DVDs. Jewel cases are just unnecessary clutter. Never had a problem. I only use Memorex DVDs.

To A Brody...

What do you think is wrong with DVDs on spindles?

I only use Memorex DVDs.

Generally regarded here as one of the poorest media, along with Sony.

Highly regarded are Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, Fuji and Maxell.

Klaus,

I have the highest regard for your opinions as you're the one that 'turned me on' to the intricate method of completely removing MacKeeper from my computer. I just bought a batch of Verbatims as I was running low on Memorex and I am having the same problem with them as I'm having with Memorex... they just won't finish burning successfully. Might be a bad DVD/CD on my new computer, though. See my problem at

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3894427?answerId=18193657022#18193657022

Thanks, as ever, for your input,

Clinton

Thanks Clinton!

I added my tuppenny'sworth in your other thread! 🙂

Spindles the way they are designed do not always keep the bottom of the media away from the scratchy surface of the label side of the media beneath them. You transport the spindles, the discs bounce against each other, and in doing so, you'll hear the noise of them bouncing against each other. This causes microfine scratches to happen on the media, that can cause them to wear out before they even have had a chance to be used. Labels, and sharpie markers both affect the reflectivity and the weight of the discs in the drive which many drives are very sensitive to, and make them harder to read, and if not balanced can cause errors in writing. There was an extensive report on http://www.macintouch.com/ about CD-R failures which applies equally well to all optical media.

Ever since 2003 the DVD+ and DVD- thing has lost it meaning. For those you bashing Memorex I support use of Memorex disks since my HP DVD-/+RW DL drive only likes Memorex, Kodax, Verbatim, and TDK disks but works best with Memorex disks. They work so well I buy nothing but Memorex disks.

Just to add to the confusion here, but I DO NOT ENTIRELY agree with anyone here about what "brand" of discs to use and whether other brands are "better" than others.

I use discs that Apple used to sell under their own brand, TDK, Sony and Memorex for years and I have never/EVER had any initial read/write errors or later read errors using these brands of discs.

I DO avoid any type of "off brand" name or "no name" generic type of discs that I do not recognize, though

What I really think DOES matter is the burn speed that the disk is burned at for the "best" and long lasting data that is recoded.

The slower the burning speed, the more permanent the data bits are "burned" into the disc's dye layer and the longer lasting the dye burn, that data will be retained longer on the disc over time. That is because the dye gets burned more permanently into the disc and it will take longer for that dye burn to fade away over time and, eventually, there will be a loss of data as an inability to read those dye burns over a certain passage of time.

So, if you want to burn a long lasting archive disc, it is best to burn the disc at a 1X or 2X speed to make a very dark burn impression into the dye layer of a disc.

If you are creating/burning a disc where longevity is less of an issue, then you can burn such a disc at a much higher burn/write speed where the dye burn will still be readable, but will not be as darkly burned and, therefore, will will fade out quicker in a lesser passage of time making the data on that kind of discs unreadable.

When I create archive discs that I know I won't change out for awhile, I burn these types of archive discs at 2X or 3X speed just to save a little time of writing to the disk than burning/writing the disc at 1X speed which would take many more hours to write to.

If I am burning/writing less important or less permanent data to disc and I am nor concerned about whether the disc will stay readable for a long time, I burn discs at much higher rates of burn/write speeds.