My burned DVD's won't mount on my iMac G3

[lennon_68]

I'm using a TDK 440N DVD+-RW, it burns the DVD's just fine and they work on my DVD player but when I insert them into the drive they don't mount. I can open them in vlc using "open disc". I can see them in Disk Utility but can't choose the Mount(or unmount only eject) control. I also tried the disk copy option in toast to see if I could access it that way and it simply says there's no disk in the drive(but I can click eject and it ejects the disk). I wouldn't mind this but I want to copy my copy and can't if it won't mount(as a side question can I just do a disk copy and skip all the dvdbackup... with a disk I've burned already??)

Thanks,
Lennon

[WiseWeasel]

Are you burning on DVD-R or DVD+R media? the +R is not compatible with most Mac DVD drives apparently, unless it's a 3rd party +RW drive (or +/- RW) you're reading it in. However, the fact you can play the discs with VLC and see them in Disk Util is very strange. This implies that the drive can read the media, but the OS doesn't like the format. How did you burn that DVD? What format is it in? Do other Macs mount the disk? As for your side question, it is unnecessary to use DVD Backup on unencrypted DVDs. If it's already on DVD-R, it has already been decrypted, and the only reason to use DVD Backup is if the region code was incorrectly set the last time it was burnt. I've found that just copying the VIDEO_TS folder in the Finder seems to work, but introduces errors in the DVD files on occasion. I've had better luck using Toast in Copy mode, and selecting "Save as Disk Image" from the "File" menu, and then burning that image to a new DVD-R. As for your main problem, the media and drive seem to be fine, since you can play the DVD with VLC, so the only source of problems would be the way the DVD was mastered. If you could shed some more light on that, we might be able to suggest a work-around.

[lennon_68]

I am using it in the external drive it was burned in as you suggested(my G3 iMac only has a cd-rw), I burned it using toast 6 in Data/DVD-ROM mode(also had same problem with toast 5). It may also be worth noting that if I select the disk in disk utility and select the partition tab it shows the name of the disk as well(it knows the name). Is there any other app I could try to mount the disc??

[WiseWeasel]

Hmmm, seems like it's something about the fact that it's an external DVD drive in a CD-RW only iMac . . . Do regular data DVD-R discs mount ok? Did DVD Player get installed when you installed the latest version of MacOS X? I wonder if DVD video support is missing in your OS X install because it didn't detect your external drive. Does DVD Player work fine with that drive? Do other DVD-R movies mount? Do other commercial DVD movies mount? Are you using DVD-R or DVD+R?

[lennon_68]

No, DVD Player wasn't installed, I just got the burner recently, maybe I should reinstall the system. I'm using DVD+R and just chated with tdk tech support and they said mac's won't read DVD+R disks even if the drive supports them??

[galactica]

No, DVD Player wasn't installed, I just got the burner recently, maybe I should reinstall the system. I'm using DVD+R and just chated with tdk tech support and they said mac's won't read DVD+R disks even if the drive supports them??

Ture for the most part.... depends on the system. Ive seen some mac users with +r drives burn the disks with no prob, but then never be able to mount them. others can, but only by using the +r drive that made the disk.
Panther is supposed to enable +r/rw support as far as I know.

[WiseWeasel]

Yeah, I'd try some DVD-R media. So, do you have DVD Player installed now? Can you mount commercially pressed DVDs? If not, then you might have to try and install the DVD playing components. There's a way to get DVD Player to install on Macs without built-in DVD drives. Once you do find a way to get DVD Player installed, you might need a program called DVD Player Patch v. 3.2, located here to allow DVD Player to work with external DVD drives. There's also some info here on how to get DVD Player installed from the Jaguar CDs on Macs with no built-in DVD support. You'll need the $20 Pacifist, or maybe the freeware ReViewPkg to perform the extraction of the DVD Player installer. Good luck with that!

[ZeroSix]

or use VLC for free.

[AntnyMD]

On my old G3 iMac (sold it), VLC wouldn't play DVD-Video smoothly until I figured out how to get Apple DVD Player installed. After that VLC behaved, but it was beside the point since I had DVD Player now (then).

[lennon_68]

Cool, thanks for all the tips guys. I just wanted to confirm that Panther does support +r/+rw, I installed a beta and it mounts them just fine