I've got my Superdrive-happy Powerbook G4 1gHz and I noticed that it spits out every DVD-RW I stick into it. Applecare docs say that the superdrive supports DVD-RW writing in Toast and Discribe, and the specs for the Matsushita drive they used lists DVD-RW: 1x writing. Am I doing something wrong?

Nosh

Did you end session when yopu wrote the DVD? What type DVDRW are you using? The different colors on them make a difference.

Did you check for that download that Apple Released about the SuperDrives? I can't find the direct link right now.
But here is something....
SuperDrive: Important Information About Using With High-Speed Media
<http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n86130>
This document contains important information about using high-speed discs
(4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW) with the Apple SuperDrive.

Right, but that dosen't apply to me because that update is not necessary for the 1ghz Powerbook and the UJ-815 DVD-R drive that comes in it supports DVD-RW writing at 1x, not 2x. If the discs make a difference then I need to hear who has which discs working, because this Verbatim DVD-RW isn't being accepted.

Nosh

An update, I went and tried three more brands along with the Verbatim disc. I tried TDK, Memorex, and Imation brand DVD-RW's. None stay, they just eject after about five seconds in the drive. If the hardware is compatible, i'm thinking it might be a software limitation of OS X, perhaps refusing to believe that it can use DVD-RW's :P

When I pop my verbatim dvd-rw disc in with the finder, it asks me what I want to do with it. In that case, prepare it for use (data, for example). It then acts like a cd....drag and drop onto it, then when I ejected it, it wrote the 4.4gigs.

I put it back in, and it showed up in the Get Info, as a DVD-RW disc. To format it, I had to use toast (5.1.4...which let me completely use it...however I wanted...format, music, whatever). But in toast, if I formated it, ejected it, left toast and put it back in, while in the finder, the first part would happen again (asks me what I want to do, etc..).

Maybe it's cause you have the new powerbook....I dunno. Since it's pretty new, just call up apple...you have 90 days tech support, without applecare! hehe