Burning DVDs with Apple's SuperDrive

Apple's SuperDrive is a special case because, along with CD-RW and CD-R discs, it can also burn DVD-R discs that can be used to record data and be mounted on the desktop or played in consumer DVD players when you burn them using iDVD or another DVD-creating application. This drive is available (at least as an option) on all Mac models.

One downside to this technology is the expense of DVD-R discs, which currently cost about $3 per disc for 2x discs or $4 per disc for 4x discs. Of course, when you compare that cost on a per-MB basis, DVD-Rs seem not to be so expensive after all.

Creating a data DVD is very similar to creating a data CD, except that you can store up to 4.7GB of data on a single disc (compared to about 750MB on a CD).

First, configure your Mac for the action you want it to take when you insert a blank DVD-R disc.

Open the System Preferences utility and click the CDs & DVDs icon to open that pane. Use the "When you insert a blank DVD" pop-up menu to select the action you want your Mac to take when you put a blank DVD into your machine. You have the following options:

• Ask what to do? When you insert a blank DVD, your Mac prompts you and provides a list of possible actions from which you can choose. The Action pop-up menu contains a set of choices similar to those on the "When you insert a blank DVD" pop-up menu on the DVDs & DVDs pane, such as Open Finder and Open iDVD. From this dialog box, you can also name the DVD by entering its name in the Name field. You can make the action you select on the Action pop-up menu be the default (checking the "Make this action the default" check box in the prompt window does the same thing as selecting that option in the DVDs & DVDs pane). The Eject, Ignore, and OK buttons in the dialog box do what you expect (eject the disc, ignore it, or implement the changes you make, respectively). Because this option provides the most flexibility, I recommend that you choose this option. However, for specific situations, the other choices might be more appropriate for you.

• Open Finder? When this option is the default or if you select it in the prompt, the blank DVD is mounted and the Finder becomes the active application. You can then use the Finder to name the DVD, add contents, and burn it. If you usually burn DVDs from the Finder and don't like to be interrupted by the prompt, this option is probably for you.

• Open iDVD? When a disc is mounted, iDVD becomes the active application. If you mostly burn DVDs using iDVD, this setting can make the process more convenient.

• Open other application? You can use this option to select a different application to open when a DVD is inserted.

• Run script? With this option, an AppleScript you select is launched when you insert a blank DVD. After you select the script you want to launch, it appears on the "When you insert a blank DVD" pop-up menu. If you have a custom burn process implemented through an AppleScript, this is the option you should choose.

• Ignore? When you insert a blank DVD, your Mac takes no action. In fact, this disc is not even mounted in the Finder. You have to manually take some action later, such as opening an application that can burn DVDs, to do something with the disc. If you prefer to keep blank DVDs in your Mac and don't want to be interrupted when you insert them, this might be the option you want to choose.

After you have configured your Mac, burning DVDs from the Finder is very straightforward, as the following steps demonstrate (these steps assume that you have selected the "Ask me what to do" option; however, using the Open Finder option works similarly):

To create a DVD for video, images, and other multimedia content, you can use Apple's iDVD application, which enables you to drag and drop QuickTime movies, images, and other multimedia files to create a custom DVD, including DVD motion menus.