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SuperDrives not burning at advertised speed (#2)
Yesterday we began coverage of an issue where users are unable to burn DVDs at the advertised speed on newer PowerBooks with Matshita-manufactured SuperDrives.
We've since received dozens of reports corroborating the problem, implicating other Mac models and offering some further insight on which media brands (surprisingly, not Apple's own branded DVD media) may allow for faster burns.
Some typical descriptions of the issue:
- One reader writes:"I have a Power Book G4 Titanium 1GHz and replaced the Apple SuperDrive by a Matsushita UJ845B claimed to burn 8x with toast, The burning speed I got has the same value of the SuperDrive. and is recognized by the profiler as the original Apple."
- Marco writes "Im a German Apple User and my Powerbook 15" 1.5Ghz with BTO Superdrive (build and bought in 03/2005) have the same Problem. I've used different media, burning with Toast 6.0.1, but i can only select between 1x,2x and best)"
Other Mac models -- iMac G5 -- affected Mac models other than 2004 and 2005 PowerBook G4s are affected by this issue -- so long as they use a Matshita-manufactured SuperDrive as the current crop of iMac G5s does.
MacFixIt reader Jack Keech, for instance, writes:
"I have the same problem on a 17" iMac G5 with a Matshita DVD-R UJ-825 drive. Any brand of disk tried only burned at 2X. Toast would say 4X but the countdown was running 1/2 speed. Our local Apple dealer says to bring the iMac in."
Media brands Some users are having better luck burning at speeds closer to those advertised as maximum their SuperDrives when using different brands of DVD media. Unfortunately, the results are not wholly consistent.
A handful of readers have had good results with media from TDK and Verbatim -- though still not able to achieve the 8x burn speed claimed by Apple's 2005 PowerBook G4s.
One reader writes:
"I have been wrestling this issue for quite sometime now, and have found that it's mostly the media that matters. I have found TDK 8x and contrary to the word on the DVD burning forums; Verbatim 8x DVD-R version 2.0 work well. It is ridiculous that Apple's own DVD-R brand does not work."
Another reader corroborates:
"I have an iMac G5, November 2004. Burns up to 4x on TDK and Verbatim 8x-capable disks, but only 2x on several other (less well-known) brands, all rated 4x or higher. Typical times: 20 minutes for a 4-GB burn. Both Toast and Dragon Burn fail to offer the option for any speeds higher than 2x, once one of the affected-brand disks is inserted in the drive. They offer up to 4x for TDK and Verbatim.
"This may not be significant, but the two brands which do work seem to share a slightly different, darker burning-side color from those which don't."
Apple sending users media samples? MacFixIt reader Richard Siegel reports that after a call to Apple's support department, the company offered to ship him some Apple-branded, 8X media for testing.
Richard writes:
"Superdrive burning at 2X with Memorex 8X disks. Apple sending sample Apple branded 8X disks to diagnose."
CDs also burning slowly A handful of users are also reporting slow CD burns with the Matshita-branded SuperDrives.
Chris Klett writes:
"My CDs burn very slowly. What burned in 6min on my old external Sony burner takes almost 15 minutes on my brand new Powerbook."
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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i had a problem with my superdrive Matshita UJ-816 on my
PowerBook 15" Al 1,25Ghz.
I used always the same DVD-R 8x to record and backup a movie, but I
received a starnge error "Medium Error". Well, I tried with finder with 1x
speed and the work gone well. Then I used toast 6.0.9 and using 1x speed I
received the same error. The I tried the "Best" speed and I was able to do my
work.
Very strange problem.
I've been through 3 batches of 4x media, none of which burned at 4x. One of
the batches was recognized as 4x by Toast but would count down 1 second
every two actual seconds elapsed while burning (indicating a 2x burn). I
contacted OWC about one of the batches and their tech support said they
have had many calls from PowerBook owners complaining about not
achieving 4x burn speeds. They said to take it up with Apple and that the
drive is *very* picky about the media used. Another source recommended I
try Maxell or Verbatim and to steer clear of Ritek. Another source said I
should try DVD+R media. I have not yet acted on any of these suggestions so
beware...YMMV
Media rating should be considered as nice-to-have. The drive's firmware
decides often differently.
Check the Pioneer page that gives a good example. Most of the time, the
drive burns at media rating speed, sometimes faster or even slower (e.g. DL
media in a 109 drive).
My old 107 had problems with 8x media, the 109 has not.
IMHO, some drives decide to burn slower if they have no parameters about
which write strategy to use. That may be the case for unknown media ID or if
the rated speed is faster than the max speed of the drive (e.g. 8x media
burns max.2x in a 4x drive)
Cheers,
Joachim
Forgot the link:
http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00003r_e.html#a09
inconsistent reports. See this article: Wired News: Blank
Discs Not Created Equal.
Code - Brand(s)
---------------
MXL RG03 - Apple, Maxell
TYG02 - Some TDK, Fuji (Yuden)
TTG02 - Some TDK
FUJIFI..LM0 - Some Fuji and 'generic' brands
And 1 code that these drives probably recognize at 8x - MCC 02RG20 - Some Memorex and some Verbatim.
So if you were running out this afternoon to your local DVD media vendor looking for DVD-R media that your new PowerBook would _probably_ recognize as 8x ( but burn at only 4x avg.), you best bets are:
Apple
Maxell*
TDK**
Fuji (Yuden)
All of the other "brands" distribute media with codes that have not yet been reported or have been reported as _not_ being recognized as 8x. So they are a serious gamble with each purchase. For example, Memorex distributes media with 5 different codes: one has been reported as 8x, one at 2x and the others are unreported.
Of course we have ZERO, NONE, NADA reports of any media that has sustained 8x speeds for any significant period _during a burn_:(
-- asxless in iLand
* even some Maxell media, coded like the Apple media (MXL RG03), has been reported as being recognized as only 2x.
** TDK distributes one other code that has not been report yet.
It's all about media...
DVD-R are often 2x or 4x, very rare 8x, and the price of this media does
explain the whole picture.
As you can get x2 or x4 for about 25 cents, the x8 cost > + 2 $, so why
invest in such expensive media as x2 or x4 burns very well.
I use a LG 5160D multiformat external burner ( CD / DVD +/- R / RW / RAM /
DL / max. x16) but it's difficult to find any DVD capable of burning any faster
than x4...
(Yes DVD-RAM, it acts like a regular Hard Disk, VERY practical and
inexpensive !!!)
And the're NO R/W's out there in the that will burn any faster than 4x !
Your burner recognises the media, and calculates how fast it can burn at
riable speed, and this is most often x2 !!!
You've to wait litttle months more for Blue Ray ...
- by jvh1 April 3, 2005 6:57 AM PDT
- It's all about media...
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(8 Comments)DVD-R are often 2x or 4x, very rare 8x, and the price of this media does
explain the whole picture.
As you can get x2 or x4 for about 25 cents, the x8 cost > + 2 $, so why
invest in such expensive media as x2 or x4 burns very well.
I use a LG 5160D multiformat external burner ( CD / DVD +/- R / RW / RAM /
DL / max. x16) but it's difficult to find any DVD capable of burning any faster
than x4...
(Yes DVD-RAM, it acts like a regular Hard Disk, VERY practical and
inexpensive !!!)
And the're NO R/W's out there in the that will burn any faster than 4x !
Your burner recognises the media, and calculates how fast it can burn at
riable speed, and this is most often x2 !!!
You've to wait litttle months more for Blue Ray ...