Looking to burn a DVD for images

[harvdog47]

Hi . . .I just bought an optical drive for my 2021 iMac M1 and would like to store (burn) some images. Anyone have any luck doing this with Ventura 13.1? Can it be done free of charge or do I need a program (like Toast)? any help is appreciated.

Harv

 

[IWT]

Hello:

You have an optical drive so follow the guidance from Apple.

Store information on CD and DVD discs on Mac

Burn CDs and DVDs on a Mac with an external optical drive.

support.apple.com

Ian

 

[pm-r]

Anyone have any luck doing this with Ventura 13.1? Can it be done free of charge or do I need a program (like Toast)? any help is appreciated.

Just being a bit curious, but do recent external optical drives compatible with iMacs come supplied with any decent Mac optical disc burning software??? Or even any instructions???



- Patrick
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[Lifeisabeach]

Just being a bit curious, but do recent external optical drives compatible with iMacs come supplied with any decent Mac optical disc burning software??? Or even any instructions???

Well for starters, any optical drive would be compatible with a Mac. There's nothing special about them that requires Mac compatibility. I have an old Pioneer optical drive powered by mini-USB that works fine on my M1 MBA. Requires a USB-A to USB-C adapter, of course. I haven't used it to burn anything though, but it reads DVDs and Blu-Rays just fine.

ANYWAY... back to your question... gosh, did anyone's drives come with burning software for Mac? I guess some may have come with Toast at one time long ago? I know Pioneer still makes a point of saying their current drives work on Macs, but they only include Windows software. They do have a firmware updater for Mac at least. I would have thought at least OWC includes software, but nope. They may have at one time, but nothing is included now at least on the bus-powered drives they sell.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Hello:

You have an optical drive so follow the guidance from Apple.

Store information on CD and DVD discs on Mac

Burn CDs and DVDs on a Mac with an external optical drive.

support.apple.com

Wow, I totally forgot Apple integrated DVD burning into OS X some years ago. Here's another tutorial with pictures that elaborates some more.

How to Burn a CD or DVD on a Mac

Disco inferno?

www.howtogeek.com

If something with more features is desired, don't bother with Toast. Burn is open source and free.

Burn

Download Burn for free. Simple but advanced disc burning for macOS. Create data discs with advanced data settings. Create video and audio discs, Burn will convert if needed.

sourceforge.net

 

[IWT]

Yes, LIAB, there's software that's free and very user-friendly for the Mac as you've found out and posted.

Nice series of posts from you.

Ian

 

[Jimmysb]

Just being a bit curious, but do recent external optical drives compatible with iMacs come supplied with any decent Mac optical disc burning software??? Or even any instructions???



- Patrick
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I have just bought a Liteon DVD/CD player/burner, and though sold as Mac compatible, the only software with it was Nero for Windows, no Mac software.

 

[pm-r]

I have just bought a Liteon DVD/CD player/burner, and though sold as Mac compatible, the only software with it was Nero for Windows, no Mac software.

Thanks for the info.

And it seems that newer Macs without Optical drives, still support optical disc burning and playing when an external optical drive is connected:

Not sure how to burn a disc on your Mac? Let us show you how

Want to burn a CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc on your Mac? Which external drive is best? Is the disc drive on your MacBook refusing to work? We've got the answers in our complete disc-burning masterclass

www.macworld.com

For those who may want more options, maybe have a look at this list here for free burning Mac software:
Top 5 Best DVD Burning Software for Mac 2023 (Ventura Included)

Top 6 Best DVD Burning Software for Mac 2025 (Sequoia Incl.)

This article introduces the 6 best DVD burning software for Mac to burn videos to disc successfully and quickly. The best CD burning software for Mac is also included.

www.cisdem.com

- Patrick
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[pine man]

I've got a 10 year old unused Apple USB Superdrive and last week used it on my M1 Silicon iMac without any issues - well sort of!

The first disk I put in wouldn't eject despite all of the advice and guidance from Dr Google et al. Pulled the whole thing apart using a thin blade screwdriver, removed the disk and now it works perfectly.

 

[pm-r]

The first disk I put in wouldn't eject despite all of the advice and guidance from Dr Google et al. Pulled the whole thing apart using a thin blade screwdriver, removed the disk and now it works perfectly.

Congratulations on a successful repair.
Not too many people are willing to take that route.




- Patrick
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