[pseudo]

Hi, I have just bought the new 15th ALbook and for the first time have the Super Drive. Since I don't have any experience in DVD burning I wonder if anyone can point me to where I can get some basic info. Some questions that I have:

- What is the difference between DVD ram and DVD-R? Is one better for something than the other (for example, video vs data)

- Does burning work like in CD, as in you have to burn the whole disk all at once unless you burn it in sessions? Anyway to use it like an external hard drive?

- What software to use for date burning? Is it included in OSX or do I need to get Toast (for video I guess iDVD would be the way to go, right?)

- any recommendation for good media brands (cheap but reliable)?

Thanks in advance for any advise...

[tooki]

Your SuperDrive doesn't do DVD-RAM, which is essentially a high-capacity phase-change optical disk. It's not really a DVD in any sense except for the size, and most DVD players and DVD-ROM drives cannot read them. Think of DVD-RAM as a huge zip drive.

Burning a DVD is like burning a CD, except that it holds more.

In OS X, you can burn data DVDs from the Finder, just like data CDs. But, of course, Toast is nicer.

Apple's media is the cheapest name-brand blank DVD media you can get. If you go with off-brand, be prepared to test a couple of brands to see which ones do and don't work with your drive (and beware that media vendors may change suppliers at any time, negating your research efforts).

tooki

[Spheric Harlot]

The question on whether you can burn sessions:

AFAIK, no.

Even Toast will only burn DVD-Rs in one piece only for me.

FWIW, I use Apple media as well, with 100% results.

-s*