Trying to read a DVD+R DL in an original Mac Mini
3If a piece of software released later than around 2004 exceeds 4.7 GB in size, it’s often placed on a dual-layer, 8.5 GB DVD. This format is pretty easy to utilize with existing drives, and typically isn’t any harder on the drive’s laser than a standard 4.7 GB DVD.
Burned dual-layer discs, which use DVD+R DL media, are a very different story, however. Most DVD drives that are older than the format itself won’t even read the disc at all, and some that normally will are simply too worn out to properly track the disc. I don’t know what the cause for this is, but it is significantly harder to read a burned DVD+R DL than a pressed and mass-produced DVD DL.
My 2006 Mac Pro wouldn’t read a burned DVD+R DL no matter what I did, until I replaced the DVD drive with one that was in better shape. Shockingly, this late 2005 Mac Mini has minimal trouble with the same disc, even though it takes an unusually long time for the disc to appear to the Finder.