Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver), (Mirrored Drive Doors): CD-RW, DVD and SuperDrive Specifications and Usage Information

  • Last Modified on: June 17, 2004
  • Article: 58770
This document provides specifications and usage information for the CD-RW and SuperDrive drives used in Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver), (QuickSilver 2002), (Mirrored Drive Doors) and (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) computers.

CD-RW Drive
  • Digital audio signals from the CD-RW drive can be played through the sound outputs under the control of the Sound Manager.
  • The CD-RW drive is an ATAPI drive and is device-select jumpered as Device 0 (master) in an ATA Device 0/1 configuration.
  • The CD-RW drive can write to discs with maximum capacities of 656 MB, Mode 1 and 748 MB, Mode 2, and has a playing time of 74 minutes and 42 seconds. (The data capacity and playing time are dependent on the cutting speed of the disc and track pitch.)
  • The CD-RW drive can rewrite many times to a CD-RW disc and can write multiple sequential sessions to a CD-R disc. Sessions can be added to a CD-R or CD-RW disc until it is full (see Note 3). CD-R writing is permanent and cannot be erased and rewritten.
  • The CD-RW drive has a 4 MB memory buffer

CD-RW Media Capabilities

Media Type Operation Speed Notes
CD-R Write 8x  
CD-RW Write 4x 1
CD-ROM Read 32x  

The CD-RW drive also works with CD-DA, CD-ROM XA data, CD-I, CD-R Ready, Photo CD (single and multiple sessions), CD-WO (fixed and variable packets), Video CD, Enhance Music CD, and discs containing combinations of formats CD-DA, CD-ROM data, and CD-ROM XA in accordance with ISO and CD-ROM XA standards.

DVD-R/CD-RW Drive (SuperDrive)

  • The DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive can burn DVD titles on 4.7 GB general-use DVD-R discs. To assure that your media is first-quality, purchase it from The Apple Store.
  • The SuperDrive drive can read and write DVD-R, CD-R and CD-RW media. (The drive does not write to "high speed" (10x) CD-RW media.)
  • The DVD-R/CD-RW drive also provides DVD-Video playback with DVD MPEG2 decoding.
  • Digital audio signals from the DVD-R/CD-RW drive can be played through the sound outputs under the control of the Sound Manager.
  • The DVD-R/CD-RW drive is an ATAPI drive and is device-select jumpered as Device 0 (master) in an ATA Device 0/1 configuration.
  • DVD-R/CD-RW can rewrite many times to a CD-RW disc, can write multiple sequential sessions to a CD-R disc, and can write a DVD-R disc in the "Disk at Once" mode (see Note 3). For CD-R and DVD-R discs the writing is permanent and cannot be rewritten.
  • The SuperDrive has a buffer size of 2 MB when performing a write and 512 KB when performing a read.
  • The SuperDrive cannot read or write 2.6 GB or 4.7 GB DVD-RAM discs.
  • The SuperDrive has not been tested for use with DVD-RW discs.
  • Software for writing data to a DVD-R disc in Mac OS 9 is not provided by Apple, but third-party software is available. Search the Macintosh Product Guide for options. In Mac OS X 10.1 or later you can burn data to DVD-R discs using the Finder or Disk Copy.

DVD-R/CD-RW Media Capabilities

Media Type Operation Speed Notes
DVD or DVD-ROM Read 4x (7.8 MB/s), 8x  
DVD-R Write 2x, 4x 2
CD-R Write 4x, 8x, 16x  
CD-RW Write 4x, 8x  
CD or CD-ROM Read 24x, 32x  

The DVD-R drive also reads DVD-Video, DVD-ROM and DVD-R, as well as CD-ROM, CD-Audio, CD-R, CD-RW, CDI, CD Bridge, CD Extended, CD Mixed Mode, and Photo CD media.

Notes


    1. The CD-R drive does not write to "high speed" (10x) CD-RW media. See technical document 58785 "Macintosh: 'Problem With Target Device Error Code -7932' Alert".

    2. The SuperDrive can read, but cannot write to 3.9 GB or 4.7 GB DVD-R (for Authoring) discs.

    3. Disc Burner 1.0 software does not write multiple sessions to CD-R or CD-RW discs. Third-party software may have this feature. See technical document 58760 "Disc Burner 1.x Software Records Single Session Only" for additional information.

    4. If you use faster media, such as 4x, it may work with the SuperDrive, but the SuperDrive cannot burn faster than its maximum write speed, 1x or 2x.


Definitions

Mode 1 is the standard data storage mode used by almost all standard data CDs (CD-ROMs). Of the 2,352 bytes of data in each block, 2048 are allocated for user data. The remaining 304 bytes are used for added error detection and third layer error correction.

Mode 2 can contain 2336 bytes of user data. Error detection and third layer error correction bytes are not included. Mode 2 format may be used to store graphic and video data.

Related Documents

42718 SuperDrive: About Rewriteable DVD Discs

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