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View Full Version : PC to Mac CD Burning Advice


Moogs
2004-06-14, 18:24
Just wondering guys, if I am running a side business where people need to provide image files and other universal media formats to me via CD...

1) Does the recent versions of Windows come with CD Burning functionality, and if so, is there a "Mac Compatibility" option?

2) If not, is there any reliable, freely available shareware for PC that can allow someone do quickly drag some files into a window and burn a Mac-compatible CD?

3) If someone screws up and sends me a standard PC CD-ROM, will OS X read it anyway? I have never had the opportunity or reason to do this so I'm wondering if it's just a bunch of images (not .exe files), will the Finder be able to "see the files" properly?

4) Presumeably Roxio for Windows software has "burn for Mac options" (just like Toast has "burn for PC options"), right?

alcimedes
2004-06-14, 18:29
the default options for most programs are universal. however, what you want to make sure of is that cd's are "closed" when they're done being written to.

some programs, when leaving cd's open for additional burning make them unreadable to any computer that doesn't use that same software. i know roxio is the worst at this. they offer an option to "format" cd's which leaves them unreadable to anyone else.

FFL
2004-06-14, 18:43
some programs, when leaving cd's open for additional burning make them unreadable to any computer that doesn't use that same software. i know roxio is the worst at this. they offer an option to "format" cd's which leaves them unreadable to anyone else.

Right - that's UDF format, which is a pain for anything but Windows. You want them to use ISO format.

More Info (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/allcam/cdformat.html)

Moogs
2004-06-14, 22:08
Thanks guys. I had thought about ISO 9660 but I wasn't sure if that was a truly hybrid / universal format. IOW, I thought there might be a PC variant and a Mac variant, but thankfully not. This should make describing the process easier for my clients. Just burn using ISO 9660 and the rest should take care of itself.

Schvoo
2004-07-04, 11:41
the default options for most programs are universal. however, what you want to make sure of is that cd's are "closed" when they're done being written to.

some programs, when leaving cd's open for additional burning make them unreadable to any computer that doesn't use that same software. i know roxio is the worst at this. they offer an option to "format" cd's which leaves them unreadable to anyone else.

I've burned a CD on a library computer using roxio toast light for windows, left the CD open, put it in my powerbook running panther and been able to add files to the CD, so I don't know what you are talking about..

Anyways, the general rule of thumb is, if it was made by a computer, a mac can open it, but when going from mac-->windows you have to make sure you select the right options (such as "Make windows compatible" in the case of CD burning). For example, on my mac between M$ Word, BBEdit, Text Edit, and Preview, I can open just about any text file, be it .txt (Plain text usually from a linux or unix machine), .rtf (rich text, most commonly used on macs), any type of word document, pdf, with any type of line-endings. However if I write an essay on my mac and then send it to a school computer to print on the laser printer, I have to make sure to change the line endings to a windows compatible form, so that my essay doesn't turn into hex or something (its happened before. It was awful).

jimdad
2004-07-05, 03:53
Schvoo, you've lost me. Where would I find the "Make Windows compatible option? I've burned CDs before and have only come across a problem with CDRWs which, i'm assuming is the problem outlined above.

Does this mean that my default must be set to Windows compatible?

HOM
2004-07-05, 10:07
Since Jaguar, all CD-R's that are burned by the Finder are Mac/Win compatible. You might have problems with Win 95, but all others should be able to open it. To pick you own format you need to manually create a disc image and burn it from Disk Utility. There you can choose which FS you want to you.

Schvoo
2004-07-06, 10:45
Yep.. by default anyways.

AWR
2005-06-28, 04:47
I had a problem recently concerning this issue. I plopped a backup disc of digital pictures burned on my PC into my new Mac for the purpose of updating iPhoto. After a number of seconds 30?45? a message appeared on the Mac that said something to the effect of "Can't read inserted CD".

Might be the formatting issue, might be the open disc issue, but in any event I suppose I could just transfer them via firewire rather than copying from disc.