Choosing a disc format for burning a CD in Mac OS X

Learn about your options when choosing a format to burn a CD.

Note: This document applies to Mac OS X 10.1 through 10.3.9.

Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9

When you insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW disc, you can select from a list of optional applications

• Open Finder
  Use when burning a HFS Plus/ISO 9660 hybrid disc.
• Open iTunes
  Use when burning Audio CD or MP3 (ISO 9660) disc, as specified in iTunes preferences.
• Open Disk Copy
  Use when burning a disc from an image file.
• Open Other Application
  Use this to open a specified application such as a third-party disc burning application.
• Run Script
  Use this to run an AppleScript. Normally this is used if you want to create your own automated burning script.

If you have a computer that can burn DVD-R discs, inserting a DVD-R disc in Mac OS X 10.2 provides the additional option to open iDVD. With Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier, DVD-R discs burned in the Finder are Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus), not hybrid. With Mac OS X 10.3 or later, they are hybrid.

Mac OS X 10.1 to 10.1.5

Your computer gives you three options for preparing a blank CD for burning: Standard (HFS Plus/ISO 9660), iTunes (Audio CD), and MP3 (ISO 9660).

Choose Standard format if you want to save data or multimedia files on your CD. A file on a standard format CD can be read on both PC and Macintosh computers using any application that can recognize the file format. Standard format also lets you use long file names and international file names, and allows the encoding of larger files.

Note: If you are viewing your CD from an operating system that supports only eight-character file names, a longer file name on the CD is truncated into an eight-character filename made up of the first six characters of the name, a tilde (~), and a unique number.