DVD-RAM drive in my G4

[jjo]

I noticed something the other day that I wasn't aware of:

Our grey G4 at work has a Matshita PD-2 LF-D110 DVD-RAM drive.

We've had this machine for 2 years, and I was unaware of this fact until just now. (I wasn't responsible to purchasing this system.)

I tried to put a CompUSA DVD-RAM disc in it hoping I could back-up some large projects, but the Mac spit the disc out after spinning for a few seconds.

In the system profiler, it says "Apple Disc Burning Supported". Does this mean I could have been writing to certain types of DVD-RAM discs all this time?

If so, why did the DVD-RAM disc I tried get spit back out? Is there software on the Mac somewhere that'll allow me to "format" a RAM disc, or will it just know a RAM disc was inserted and allow writing to it as if it were any other removable media?

Do I need Apple-Specific media? Can I make DVD videos with this drive?

I have a DVD-R/RAM drive on my XP machine at home, and when I insert a RAM disc, XP just knows its a RAM disc and allows me to read/write to/from it upon insertion. Why isn't my G4 OS9.2 this simple?

[ninboy]

try getting Toast 5, I know you can use that to write to DVD-RAM

[Cornucopia]

That particular drive is the Version 1.0 of the series (I've got it at work also). As such, it only supports the original spec of DVD-RAM: ~2.6GB for single-sided and ~5.2GB for double-sided. Quite klunky and slow. Fairly useless for DVD-Video work, a kludge for data-backup work.

I'll bet what you got at CompUSA was a Ver. 2.0 disc: the full 4.3GBsingle/9GBdouble. Won't work. As far as the drive is concerned, there is no such thing. I've checked looking for a firmware upgrade and haven't yet found one--if you do let me know.

It'll play regular stamped DVD's ok, although it is single speed and sometimes hiccups. Oh yeah, and all though useful PD discs!
Try a search for some 2.6GB discs-you should still be able to burn those, and they can be taken out of the caddy and given to people w/ ROM drives that are Multi-read (knock wood).

One more thing, mine was OEM'ed to LaCie and the SCSI connector sucked! It'll disappear for no reason for a while, then reappear.
AND, upgrading from 8.5.1 to 9.0.4 on our B/W G3 screwed up the "DVD-RAM TuneUp" driver-had to go and buy an upgrade. (OS upgrade done w/o my knowledge or consent). So make sure all your OS's, drivers, etc. are in sync. And it doesn't hurt to have multiple versions of Toast on board (4.x Deluxe, 4.x DVD, 5.x Titanium).

Don't know about the "Apple Disc Burning" crap-personally I'd stay away from that unless you got OSX. That's a "whole 'nuther" ball game.

Good luck,
Scott

[jjo]

Thanks for the info. You're right; it's a 2.6 drive. I tried a 2.6 disc, and its very slow.