How do I know if my Mac can burn DVDs?

Question

I´ve got an iMac, version 10.3.9 Mac OS X, but I can´t burn DVDs! I can burn CDs with data or music, but when I try to burn DVDs the burner doesn´t read the disc. I use the Toast 6 Titanium program. Obviously, that must mean that my computer doesn´t have a DVD burner. I just want to be sure: am I doing something wrong or am I right? I´m asking, because I thought these iMacs came with everything and I´m afraid it might have a DVD burner but I just don´t know how to use it. Thanks for your help, people!

Answer 1

This DVD Creator for Mac provides an easy and fast way to convert AVI to DVD, MPEG to DVD, DivX to DVD, WMV to DVD, and burn DVD movie, burn DVD folder to DVD, DVD ISO file to DVD for Mac!

http://www.dvdtoipod.us/macconverter/dvd...

Answer 2

all crapintosh computers should be able to burn dvd's. of course, it is a crapintosh, so i wouldn't be surprised.

Answer 3

Chances are you have a Combo Drive (as Apple calls it). A Combo Drive will read and write CDs, but can only read DVDs, not write them. You need a Super Drive to read and write both CDs and DVDs. If you want to find out which one you have, click the Apple icon in the top left corner and click About This Mac. When the About screen comes up, click More Info. The System Profiler will open.

On the left side, under Hardware, there should be a section called Disc Burning (I think, I've never used 10.3 but it's there in 10.4 and 10.5). If it's there, click on it and it will give you information about your optical drive. Next to DVD-Write, it will either say No or No Support or something like that if you have a Combo Drive. If you have a Super Drive, it will have a list of supported media (-R, -RW, etc.).

If it shows that you have a Super Drive installed, then it's possible that the problem lies with Toast. Try burning data to a DVD using Finder or Disk Utility and see if it works. If so, you'll want to upgrade to Toast 9 (the newest version). If not, I'd say your Super Drive is busted and you'll need to replace it. If you don't have a Super Drive installed, it's very likely you could just upgrade your Combo Drive, though it would be fairly expensive if you take it to the Apple store and have them do it. If you know someone that could do it for you then you could get a new one for anywhere between $25 and $100. The old iMac G4 (with the big round base) takes a standard Samsung Writemaster drive, but the newer iMacs use a slot-loading drive that you'd have to get here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-d...