Slow Slow DVD Burn Speeds on 24 iMac Core 2 Duo

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Level 1

5 points

Slow Slow DVD Burn Speeds on 24 iMac Core 2 Duo

Hi,

It seems my very new 24inch iMac likes to burn DVD's at very slow speeds.

I have 8x rated discs but at best get 2x performance. In Toast 7.1 it reports the burn time as what it should be, but the actual time it takes to burn the disc is far longer. The same problem occurs in Disc Utility. These discs burned totally fine in my G5. For instance, a full DVD should take around 15 mins to burn at 4x. On this machine it takes around 30 mins.

CD burning works fine.

It is an odd problem. I have to try some different media, but hold slim hopes for it making any change.

Anyone else having this issue?

24 iMac Core2, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 2, 2006 11:27 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 3, 2006 10:05 AM in response to DaleSatt

Actually, changing media brands is your best bet. Blank discs have a manufacturer code and media type encoded on them. Dive firmware contains a table of these codes and a list of appropriate write strategies for each one. Your drive can't find your media type, so it defaults to a generic write to avoid producing coasters.

20" iMac CD (early '06) Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 2

DaleSatt Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 7, 2006 7:27 PM in response to John M Rivera

Hi,

Well, I've tried three other name brand DVD's, and they all burn about twice as slow as what they are supposed to burn at. I'm burning an 8x DVD now, which should have taken about 2.40 mins, so far it has taken about 6 mins, so something strange is definitely going on.

This is using Toast 7.1, so perhaps it is a problem with toast.

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Answer 3

DaleSatt Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 8, 2006 11:26 AM in response to DaleSatt

Well, I downloaded various other freeware CD burning apps, and they alll burn at 2x. S0 I think this is a hardware problem.

Super annoying. This machine should be able to burn DVD's at 8x, as it is advertised to be able to do so.

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Answer 4

Peter Lin

Level 2

185 points

Oct 11, 2006 8:34 AM in response to DaleSatt

I'm experiencing the same thing with my 24-inch iMac. I've tried two brands of 4x media, and the iMac will only burn at 2x. I have a spindle of 8x that I haven't opened yet, so I'll try that later and see what happens.

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Answer 5

Oct 14, 2006 2:53 AM in response to DaleSatt

Same problem here. 8x dvds burn on 2x speed. This on top of the WiFi problems has prompted me to return the iMac. It is anice machine, but I want to have what I paid for, not so much less. If it's in the ad that it burns on 8x speed, then it should be in the imac too.

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Answer 6

DaleSatt Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2006 9:36 PM in response to Freddy Johansen

I agree, if it says 8x, then it should burn at 8x.

I had a chat to my local Apple dealer, and grabbed yet another disc brand off them to test, which should have worked at 4x (does in all their other machines) but it only burnt at 2x in my machine.

I'll be taking it in for repair this week.

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Answer 7

Oct 20, 2006 6:27 PM in response to DaleSatt

I can burn at full 8X speed with my infernal MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-85J internal drive. I have been using TDK 16x rated DVD-R media that Costco had on sale for 2 spindles of 100 for about $45 total (less than 25¢ per disc). I do find that this drive is very picky about which media it will burn to, especially at high speeds.

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Answer 8

wearsch

Level 1

0 points

Oct 25, 2006 5:00 PM in response to DaleSatt

I have been using the same Verbatim OEM 8x DVD-R media for two years and the eMac I upgraded from burned discs 3-4 times faster than this new iMac does. Has anyone heard back from Apple on this?

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Answer 9

Peter Lin

Level 2

185 points

Oct 26, 2006 9:17 PM in response to DaleSatt

I tried my spindle of 8x Prodisc media, and the iMac only recognized it as 4x.

Even though the iMac doesn't support 16x, I purchased a spindle of Verbatim 16x just to be safe. The iMac supports 8x burning with those discs, so now I'm satisfied.

15-inch MacBook Pro 2.16GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 10

Oct 28, 2006 12:12 PM in response to Peter Lin

I tried my spindle of 8x Prodisc media, and the iMac
only recognized it as 4x.

Even though the iMac doesn't support 16x, I purchased
a spindle of Verbatim 16x just to be safe. The iMac
supports 8x burning with those discs, so now I'm
satisfied.

15-inch
MacBook Pro 2.16GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)

great post thanks for sharing!

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Answer 11

DaleSatt Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 7, 2006 12:16 PM in response to silenced_one

Hi,

I have some Verbatim 12x media, which will only burn at a max of 4x.

There is definitely something odd about these superdrives.

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Answer 12

Nov 7, 2006 3:58 PM in response to DaleSatt

Hi,

I have the same Superdrive as was listed above, but when I burn a DVD with iDVD or the finder, I get a full 8x out of it. It only takes about 10-15 minutes to burn. I've never tried Toast, but I assume it wouldn't be any different. It could be an issue with the ATA bus on the intel iMacs. Just an FYI, I use Memorex 16x DVD-R discs. Also, does this only affect DVD burning or is CD burning in the finder and/or iTunes affected as well?

Hope this Helps

Trevor

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Answer 13

cog911

Level 1

0 points

Dec 28, 2006 8:29 AM in response to DaleSatt

This is an issue that needs to be addressed by reading the rest of the posts. My Matshita UJ-85J in my iMac 24" burns only at 2 times also on all media tried to this point. While the same media in a 2 year old external Pioneer burns at 8x.
This is not a choose media issue.
It is necessary for apple to "Get" or "Produce" a firmware update for the DVD burners so that the drive can do what is advertised and documented to do, and sold as.
Backwards speeds are not why people update their computers

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Answer 14

kasa

Level 2

495 points

Feb 26, 2007 10:20 AM in response to DaleSatt

My Intel iMac has similiar issues.
Fuji 16x, Imation 16x dvds only allows 2x burning speed.
TDK (8x and 16x) allows 8x burning speeds.
Maxcell (labeled "1x to 16x") allows 8x burning speeds.
TDK 4x allows 4x burning speed.

According to older posts, the superdrive seems to be ultra sensitive and picky on what type of media you use.

emac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

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Answer 15

May 4, 2007 10:38 AM in response to kasa

I've got the same problem here. I had some Sony 4x DVD-R that were burning at top speed (4x), I wanted to take advantage of my 8x burner, so I bought some new Sony Accucore 16x DVD-R (that's the slowest I could find), and now my machine will only burn at 2x! Arg!

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