Apple bails on 2X SuperDrive media support

Instead of supporting its recent 2X SuperDrives with 2X DVD-R media, the Apple Store is willing to sell customers 4X DVD-R media kits for $10 or 8X DVD-R media kits at an even pricier $20 fee. However, in the Apple Store description of the 4X DVD-R media kit Apple says, “a 2x SuperDrive writes to 4x media at 1x, so to obtain the highest performance from your 2x SuperDrive, we recommend that you continue using 2x DVD-R media just as you do today.”

“Apple sells all kinds of ink for Epson InkJet printers. You would think that they would continue to sell 2X DVD-R media to support hundreds of thousands of their own product,” said one disgruntled 2X SuperDrive owner. “If Apple wishes me to use iLife '04 on my 2X [SuperDrive] then they should not have me spending 100 hours burning DVD's instead of 50 hours.”

Customers who contacted the Apple Store over the issue were transferred to Tech Support representatives that also advocate the improper use of 4X DVD-R media in a 2X drive. One customer referenced the Apple Store Caveat after representatives suggested the use of 4X DVD-R media, at which point the store representative told the customer write Apple at its Cupertino headquarters. The customer did, and received no response.

Isolated to the Apple online store, the 2X SuperDrive media supply issue poses little threat to consumers. Unfortunately, it appears that Apple has stopped stocking its retail stores with DVD-R media below 4X and told some resellers and Apple specialist last week that they could only place new orders for 8X Apple DVD-R media kits.

“I buy from the Apple Store for quality reasons only, not price,” said one customer who had less than satisfactory experiences with third party DVD-R media. “It's stupid marketing. I used to hit the Apple Store about once a week [for DVD-R media] and along the way I sometimes made impulse buys of iBooks for my grandkids. Now that I will only go there infrequently.”