iMac G5: SuperDrives not burning at advertised speed

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 11:53 a.m. PT

4 min read

Some SuperDrives -- particularly mechanisms manufactured by Matshita (and more specifically the Matshita drives used in the iMac G5) -- do not burn DVDs at rates in the range of the advertised speed.

The problem affects Apple's Disk Utility, Roxio's Toast and a number of other recording applications. Either the option to burn at the advertised rate is not accessible, or the burn repeatedly fails when attempted at the advertised speed.

Dragon Burn recording at faster rate? Some users are finding that success burning at higher speeds is dependent on the application used for recording.

One reader reports that the utility Dragon Burn provides faster rates than those he was able to achieve with either Toast or the Mac OS X Finder's burn mechanism.

"I have just found a Trial version of the Dragon Burn software. I have succeeded to write DVD-R at the specified speed: at 4x. Toast and Finder failed to write Panasonic DVD-R 4x discs (I failed 4 discs). Then Dragon Burn succeeded at 4x speed with the same disc. I got the same result with TDK DVD RW. Toast and Finder failed it, while Dragon Burn made it at the specified speed (2.4X)."

Experiences with Apple support regarding this issue Users reporting this issue to Apple's support department are being met with mixed results.

Some are being told that Apple is not aware of the problem, while others are able to send systems in for in-house evaluation and possible drive replacement.

MacFixIt reader Flo writes:

"AppleCare couldn't help me on the phone. yesterday I went to a mac service center. I explained my case. Soon my SuperDrive will be replaced."

Media recommendations Some users are able to write at greater speeds with certain brands of DVD recordable media.

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."

MacFixIt reader Mark Lamhut had success with media manufactured by Fuji -- and also notes that this problem is not limited to Macs or Matshita optical drives, though they do seem to be more prevalent with the Matshita mechanisms.

Mark writes:

"I don't have any of the newer apple products with 8X DVD capability. BUT I went through a similar problem with an EZ-QUEST 8X External Burner. I bought all the normal brands of 8X media that I have used in the past to find that I could never get 8X Burns - I attempted to get help from the company that basically said I needed to try even other brands, but would not specifically recommend one. I finally tried Fuji 8X media and voila, I got 8X burns.

"So the people who are noting their success with specific media have found the magical manufacturers that are making media that works with the new mechanisms."

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