Can my Macbook Pro burn dual layered DVDs?
 

Hi,
I've googled and googled, but I can't seem to find an answer to my question (it's probably out there and I apologise if it's really obvious):

Can my Macbook Pro burn dual layered DVDs?

Macbook Pro 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N:

Firmware Revision: SB03
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 0 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

your machine does not support it. You have a standard superdrive.
it needs to say : DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW

Thanks for your reply.

Just before I read your reply, I found a website, where I could paste the serial number in to a field. I then got a lot of info about the Macbook Pro.
It states that my model number is MB986LL/A.
I then googled this model number and got the following info from this website http://www.handingchao.com/most-popu...aptop-reviews/

8x slot-loading SuperDrive with the following write speeds: 8x DVD±R; 4x DVD±R DL (double layer); 4x DVD±RW; 24x CD-R; 10x CD-RW

Here it states that it's DL. I'm confused now.

Apple ships more than one model of DVD burner (what they call a "SuperDrive") in the same model of computer. Because of that, you cannot trust websites that claim specific attributes to the optical drive in a specific model. Even though it's a single model, and all the Apple hardware will be identical in that model, the third party hardware can change (including the actual manufacturer of the memory, the hard drive, and the optical drive).

Your computer reports itself that it does not have a Dual Layer drive. The website in question is meaningless due to Apple changes. Therefore, you don't have a Dual Layer drive.

Of course, if you want to be able to burn Dual Layer discs in your MacBook Pro, there's nothing stopping you from installing an optical drive in it that has the ability to burn Dual Layer discs.

Trevor

OK, thanks Trevor.
Interesting that the third party can change.
Will keep this in mind AND I won't be buying any dual layer DVDs :-)

Much easier to buy an external rather than install a different drive. The slim slot-loaders are mucho expen$ive and swapping one is not for the fainthearted - tiny screws plus several small & delicate connectors to deal with.

That is true in general, but you greatly reduce the portability offered by a laptop when you are also hauling around an external drive.

Perhaps it is just my personal worldview, but I don't like to be constrained to whatever Apple (or any manufacturer for that matter) shipped with a computer, I want the ability to change it to my own purposes. Swapping out an optical drive is a well-understood way to upgrade a computer, and (again personally) I'm not afraid of tiny screws and delicate connectors.

Trevor

How often do you need to burn a dual-layer dvd in a coffee shop? Get a full-size high speed externally powered burner and leave it on the desk at home.

The internal drive in my laptop failed a while back, I removed it completely and blocked the slot, so my machine is now lighter and has (slightly) better battery life. Have not yet missed it.

You & me not being afraid of tiny screws and delicate connectors doesn't make it a 5 minute job for everyone - unless you have good mechanical skills and the right tools its a great way to wreck a nice machine.

Based on appleman design's post my MacBook Pro appears able to burn dual layer DVDs (see my DVD-R specs below). Nice surprise since I thought I was limited to 4.7gig DVD burning.

Do I still need to purchase a program like Toast to burn the +R DL DVD or can I just create an empty AUDIO_TS folder and put it and the VIDEO_TS folder in the "Burn Folder" in Finder on the Mac, insert a blank +R DL DVD and presto?

(PS, I use another program on my ancient PC to rip the VOBs to a FAT 32 external HD that I then can connect to my Mac for burning purposes.)

Thank you in advance and any suggestions, ideas, etc. are most welcome.

stu:D

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-868:

Firmware Revision: KB19
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

Toast is not needed. Don't put/keep these two folders in another folder on the DVD, but just put 'em right on the disk by themselves. Some DVD players seem not to play them if they are subfolders.

Putting VIDEO_TS in a Burn folder and using the Finder to create the disc will produce an HFS+ data disc that happens to contain files that some programs may recognize as video.

You need to create a UDF disc image, THEN put VIDEO_TS in the root (AUDIO_TS is not used by DVD players). You can read up on `hdiutil` or use a program like Toast.

I'll be getting toast
 

Acme's right. A DVD I made worked on both of my stand alone players, but not on my dad's to my disappointment. So, I stand corrected. Thank you Acme for setting the record straight.

Disk Imager
 

This is a freeware program known to google and many others that will make any VIDEO_TS folder into a NDIF disk image (think "UDF") that is burnable with DiskUtility.app.

Although the developer appears to have abandoned it with Leopard, by exchanging polite emails with him, you can easily obtain the SL version – 1.7.

I like it for its ability to burn a DVD with files on it that a computer can read, but that don't matter to a standalone DVD player (to do this use the "Disk Copy mode" option). If you want a disc menu to access the files, &c., then Toast might be worth it. Toast does do lots of things, but IMO no one should buy it just to burn disks. There are too many other ways.

Thank you Sumleilmus. I still haven't purchased Toast and am concerned about extremely negative reviews of Toast 10 Titanium and Titanium Pro on Amazon. But I googled "Disk Imager" and I'm not sure which one your talking about.

Also, could you elaborate just a bit on "If you want a disc menu to access the files, &c., then Toast might be worth it...?" Disk menu?

Thank you and sorry for my ignorance.

remedy?
 

No apology needed. Much but not all of my ignorance has found its remedy here.

If you want to do "navigation" as in have the DVD present a menu from which you make choices as it begins to play, then Toast or a similar program will do that for you if you have a VIDEO_TS folder with both audio and video streams in appropriate format, or the older style of (seldom seen anymore) VIDEO_TS folder with only video and AUDIO_TS folder with audio.

If, though you want the disk to just start to play its contents, you can drop the VIDEO_TS folder onto the image of DVD Imager.app and it will make a burnable NDIF disk image file with extension .img that you can burn in DiskUtility.

If you want some simple addition - say a text file with info about the video - you can use the "disk copy" mode of DVD Imager.app and everything that is in the enclosing directory of the VIDEO_TS folder will be incorporated into the disk image. This will do you no good if you use a freestanding DVD player to play the disk, but if you put it in a computer you will be able to see the file(s) there, and, depending on the software in the computer, perhaps open them.

It seems the developer of DVD Imager.app has updated it and now offers an AppleScript. Read about it here. If this is too technical send me a PM. For some reason my browser is not showing how many posts you have made, &c.

Speedy reply! Thank you. Okay, disk menu, duh. I don't know why I was trying to read something complicated into it. If I want to retain the ability to choose language/subtitle, etc., I need Toast or similar. Got ya. That's not necessary for the DVD I'd like to make right now, but it may be in the future, since Spanish and French language are interests of mine.

This is my 5th post. I'm not technical and haven't done much, especially on a Mac. In the past I've ripped subtitles and played around with them a bit on a PC.

I''l probably try DVD Imager.app right away, but I'd like to be able to possibly grow into more fancy DVD creation. What are good alternatives to Toast 10 Titanium? According to reviews on Amazon it is really the pits. Should I get an earlier version of Toast? Versions 5-9 are also available on Amazon.

Thank you.
MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz L2 Cache: 3 MB Memory: 4 GB

How about iMovie?

I dunno. . .
 

In post #13 above, I used a title of Disk Imager -- that should read DVD Imager. I can't amend it now. I hope a moderator will do so.


I don't know. My Toast is v. 8. I have hardly ever used Toast except for its (very useful) talent for mounting disk images in a way that tricks the computer into thinking that they are actual optical disks. This is useful for softwares that only want to run from optical disk and it can be useful for coaxing files from recalcitrant optical disks to become friends with one's hard drive.

Nowadays, that is all I use it for. Others will give you better guidance in this realm.

I used to think I needed Toast to burn disks I could not get iTunes to burn (CD-R with music plus text files) but then I found out about Finder Burn Folders, part of the OS itself. They do the same thing.

Thanks for the info Sumleilmus. Interesting and helpful to know what Toast is doing and can do.

I haven't tried to import the VIDEO-TS folder (and empty AUDIO-TS?) into iMovie yet, but I will. However, I used iMovie for the first time yesterday to make a home movie of the kids that I shot with my MacBook Pro via its internal camera and iMovie. 130 min long, so burned it to a dual layer DVD with "Best Quality" setting with iDVD. Very noticable loss of quality on DVD. The limitation is with iDVD, not iMovie, but it looks like I'm gonna need some version of Toast or similar that allows for a high definition burn, since iDVD does not.

Any further thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance.

free
 

Well, because DVD Imager is free, I'd probably at least try it before buying Toast, since the only expense involved should be that of another perhaps wasted dual/double layer blank DVD.

I don't burn many DVDs whose content I have created, so I don't know what expectations to have.

Be careful of Internal 3rd Party D/L Burners
 

Just wanted to mention that you should be careful of installing certain 3rd party D/L burners in your mac laptop.I bought 2 for two G4 1.67ghz powerbooks and learned that they will NOT EJECT a disk if there is no system on the machine.

I wiped the drive of the machine clean with SuperScrubber, but couldn't eject the disk once I wanted to install OS X...No system, no eject.

Go with an external drive.I had to firewire install.

Maczniyu, I have never encountered any DVD burners that would not eject without a system. (Note that ALL optical drives are 'third party', as Apple does not manufacture optical drives. So specifying 'third party' drives is meaningless.)

To eject a disc in any optical drive when you have no operating system installed (either an optical drive that you added or one that shipped with a machine), simply hold down the left mouse button on powerup. (If you have a one-button mouse, then hold down the only mouse button on powerup.)

Trevor

Perhaps Your Right
 

Trevor,

Thanks for the reply. You're right about my misuse of the term 3rd party. What I meant was "after market" drives not installed at the time of purchase such as the original Matushita? drives.

I have encountered recurring problems on 2 G4 powerbooks when I installed D/L drives that were either SONY or Panasonic, I can't recall right now. I'lhave access to the machines and let you know.

I used SuperScrubber and tried to eject using the menu bar hold down, the eject button and by holding the mouse down on boot. I recall trying an open firmware eject as well, but the drive(s) remained lock and the disks would not eject.

Are you saying that a left mouse click would have worked where the other means failed? I'd never experienced a failure to eject a disk simply because of a lack of a system except for the two post purchase D/L burner drives which were highly rated. I'll get back to you with the D/L drive models. After the failure, I googled and learned that my experience was not unique; I wish I had known before, hence the reason for my post.

Curtis

I was assuming a computer with no bootable volumes, whether on CD/DVD or hard drive. I'm not sure what SuperScrubber is, but it sounds like that means you're running an application, i.e. at least some minimal operating system is running, whether that OS is OS X or something on the command line.

I'm saying that with a computer without an operating system, you're probably NOT going to get the F12 key on the keyboard held down for 3 seconds, or the Eject button on some keyboards to work to eject the optical drive. For that you need some other method.

An Open Firmware eject should work irregardless of the OS (it's in firmware, after all) and the trick of holding down the mouse button at startup should also work irregardless of the OS (also in firmware).

For what it's worth, Apple has used Sony optical drives fairly frequently in the past. And Panasonic is just the consumer electronics division of the giant Matsushita Corp (also sometimes known as Matshita). In other words, Matsushita = Panasonic = Matshita.

Trevor

Pioneer DVR k06 D/L Burner will not eject without an OS on HD
 

The Matshita drives do, indeed, work as expected in being able to eject a utility disk without a resident OS system on the hard drive. Super Scrubber is exactly what it sounds like. It is a 3rd party Utility disk capable of writing prearranged or customized patterns to wipe the laptop's drive prior to installation of a new system..and of course it has an OS resident when you boot it up.

I installed a Pioneer DVR-K06 in my G4 and it was (and still) is incapable of ejecting ANY 3rd party utility disk (TechTool Pro as well) once the resident OS system has been "wiped clean" even when Super Scrubber(sold by Apple at the time) initialized the drive when it was done.

I live in California and learned this the hard way. I traveled to the East Coast for business and my OS was crashing. Didn't have Disk Warrior with me so I used SuperScrubber first expecting I'd install the OS from a friend's disk the next day. (He works for Apple).

Nothing either one of us tried succeeded in ejecting that disk from the drive.
Mouse hold, firmware eject..you know all the usual stuff. I had to "firewire install" in NY.

When I got back to CA, I wanted to know if it was a defective utility disk (again,sold to me by Apple) so I ran the same test with Tech Tool Pro. Same result. This time, I even opened the unit to check the drive. It was blocked by a piece of hardware which prevented the disk from being ejected or removed by slipping in a piece of cardboard to wedge the disk out. That "lock mechanism" opened the moment a system was installed on the unit's hard drive.

Now Pioneer installed a lot of drives for stock Apple machines. A few of those early models A03, A04, A103 & A104 did require firmware updates but not for any "eject"problem.

The DVR K06 otherwise runs reliably...Some users seem to have eject issues with this drive but I'm not sure if they were the same problems I experienced. The unit was out of warranty by the time I experienced the problem, so no help from Pioneer. One agent said "it was a great drive" but they had received a few calls about an "eject issue" but wouldn't elaborate.
He couldn't suggest any fix.

I learned my lesson with this drive. No HD resident OS X = No Eject, no way even in open firmware. Thereafter, the only smart thing to do with this "after market" drive is to only use a bootable MAC OS X for erase purposes because then the machine automatically boots from the install disc.

I'm just saying.....