[mactropolis]

Hi All,
I have a Summer 2000 iMac DV SE (500Mhz G3). The computer came with a builtin slot-loading DVD-ROM drive which has and continues to work great.

A friend recently burned some very large files onto a KHypermedia brand "DVD+R" disc from his PC in regular "Files" mode (ISO9660 or UDF i think, not DVD-Video).

When I insert the DVD+R disc into the slot-loading drive, i hear it spinning around for about 6 brief seconds then it abruptly ejects -- never mounting or being recognized by the operating system. I can tell because I use the top and fs_usage commands from Terminal to observe OS activity (if it were sucessful in recognizing the disc, the OS would perform its mount procedure). I even tried using OS 9 for kicks, but it never recognized it either.

I concluded its likey a hardware issue and not a software issue. It appears my iMac's DVD-ROM drive just isn't recognizing the DVD+R as a valid medium. Is this correct? More importantly, is their some firmware update available that will allow our older DVD-ROM drives to read these new DVD+R/+RW/-R/-RW media?

I can pretty much confirm the DVD+R disc was not a bad burn or corupt because when i put the disc into my neighbors DVD-ROM drive on his vanilla no-name 1-yr old PC, Windows XP recognizes it fine and I can copy over all the files to the hard drive.

Specs of my DVD-ROM drive:
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM
unit number = 1
ata device type = atapi
device serial =
device revision = AA32
Product Identification = DVD-ROM SR-8184
Vendor Identification = MATSHITA

[tooki]

Some DVD-ROM drives simply can't read DVD+R discs. Others can't read DVD-R, and very many can't read DVD+/-RW.

The Matsushita DVD-ROM in my old G3 tower can't read them, either. (It won't read a lot of things, including certain types of CD-R.)

tooki

[mactropolis]

I did some searching and I believe I found the homepage of the DVD-ROM SR-8184 drive: http://panasonic.co.jp/mke/en/device...r_8184_b.html. It appears and is likely the product is discontinued.

However, i noticed on the product page it clearly states that the drive supports DVD-RAM and DVD-R media (whereas I was trying a DVD+R). Is the DVD+R format so different from DVD-R that their are entirely incompatible with the SR-8184?

If I advise my friend to burn the large files to a DVD-R (hopefully his DVD burner supports this), would that work?

Thanks

[rjenkinson]

Originally posted by mactropolis:
Is the DVD+R format so different from DVD-R that their are entirely incompatible with the SR-8184?

If I advise my friend to burn the large files to a DVD-R (hopefully his DVD burner supports this), would that work?

yes and yes.

-r.

[mactropolis]

thanks for the quick reply rjenkinson!

I hope my partner didn't invest to much in buying those now-useless DVD+R media for us to transfer files.

[Lancer409]

i thought apple uses -

[mactropolis]

Originally posted by Lancer409:
i thought apple uses -

apparantly it does....

[Lancer409]

Originally posted by mactropolis:
apparantly it does....

[toti]

Not only does Apple use -, even if you have a + supported toaster, programs like iDVD still refuse to burn +'s

Like.... ¡DUH!

[mactropolis]

Geez....I wonder when will the parties involved finally come together and hammer out one universal format for burning DVD's. The confusion in the marketplace is making acceptance of DVD burners much slower than CD burners a few years ago.