[Helmling]

"The attempt to burn a disc failed. The device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media."

This is a new one by me. It does not appear to be a hardware issue since I am able to burn data CD's, but iTunes gives me this error message.

This is an old iMac G4 17" so it's way past its Applecare coverage. Any clues as to what might be responsible?

[mduell]

Bad drive or bad media... try other good media, if it also fails, replace the drive.

[idykenano]

Since you can burn data cd's you might try removing iTunes and re-installing it to see if that rids iTunes of its issue with your drive.

[Ω]

Maybe this thread can help?

[imitchellg5]

Repair disk permissions? I've gotten all kinds of odd burn errors on my iMac before that are always fixed by repairing permissions.

[Helmling]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

Repair disk permissions? I've gotten all kinds of odd burn errors on my iMac before that are always fixed by repairing permissions.

Is that in Disk Utility?

[Cold Warrior]

yes

[Helmling]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

yes

I went into Disk Utility and it won't let me Repair Disk Permissions for the DVD burner. That button is inactive. But you know what I think happened? When my wife put in the CD the first time I think she clicked "open in finder." Then when I reinserted, I did that to burn the CD. Sure enough, when I went to check it tonight, I clicked Finder first and it failed again. Then I reinserted, chose "open in iTunes" and now it's burning in the background as I type this. Weird. I didn't know that actually affected how the disk is handled.

[Cold Warrior]

for the hard drive, yes, but like you saw, you can't do it for a CD/DVD. Sounds like you've tracked down your problem.