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rishio · Sep 25, 2003, 03:48 PM

I want to get an external firewire dvd/dvdr drive for my powerbook. I heard that some apple software do not support external dvd/dvdr drives. Is this true? If external drives are supported, what is a good one to buy?

thanks for any help

OldManMac · Sep 25, 2003, 11:40 PM

External DVD burners are in fact not supported by iDVD. They are supported by DVD Studio Pro; that's a $500 app. There are other drives on the market, by Formac and LaCie, that work, but only with their own software.

mikebore · Sep 26, 2003, 12:34 PM

iDVD won't be supported but you can burn CDs and DVD's with Toast using an external FW burner.

rishio · Sep 26, 2003, 12:49 PM

why doesn't apple fully support even 1 external dvd drive? I'm baffled - is this some sort of strategy to allow them to make money that I don't understand? Will this be the same in Panther and future releases?

I can't even by an internal dvd/r drive for my laptop.. so I can't see why buying an external dvd drive would hurt their business...

Uncle Skeleton · Sep 26, 2003, 02:25 PM

1. they want you to buy a new powerbook with a superdrive

2. they don't officially support 3rd party DVD writers of any kind (external or internal) because it could potentially be a technical support nightmare. The goal of the iApps (like iDVD) is simplicity, not flexibility

Mithras · Sep 27, 2003, 09:38 AM

Originally posted by rishio:
why doesn't apple fully support even 1 external dvd drive? I'm baffled - is this some sort of strategy to allow them to make money that I don't understand? Will this be the same in Panther and future releases?

I can't even by an internal dvd/r drive for my laptop.. so I can't see why buying an external dvd drive would hurt their business...

Consider iDVD to be the software bundled with an Apple superdrive.

Other manufacturers bundle other software with their external drives.

Apple's software is just way better.

rishio · Sep 27, 2003, 12:20 PM

yes.. but why can't apple make their own external dvd/r drive? This still makes no sense. Would it be right for apple not to support external harddrives because they want you to buy a powerbook with a big drive built in?

Originally posted by Mithras:
Consider iDVD to be the software bundled with an Apple superdrive.

Other manufacturers bundle other software with their external drives.

Apple's software is just way better.

OreoCookie · Sep 28, 2003, 05:49 AM

So there is not one single external DVD-R burner supported in the Finder? How am I supposed to burn DVDs with my iBook then?

Those 15" PowerBooks are excellent machines, but I have upgraded half a year ago, so I'll wait a bit (till the PowerBook G5 comes out whenever).

tooki · Sep 28, 2003, 11:51 AM

Burning video DVDs on an iBook would be insanity... compressing the MPEG2 video would take DAYS.

(iDVD and DVD Studio Pro both require a G4.)

As for data DVDs... I think an external will work fine in the OS X Finder. But of course Toast is a nicer program for burning data.

tooki

tooki · Sep 28, 2003, 11:52 AM

Originally posted by rishio:
yes.. but why can't apple make their own external dvd/r drive?

They do. It just happens to include a built-in iMac, Power Mac or PowerBook.

tooki

iXavier · Sep 28, 2003, 06:20 PM

Toast 6 can create video DVDs with menus, but the interface and finished product aren't as nice as iDVD.

However, as Tooki said, it would take days to compress video on an iBook from MPEG2 to DVD.

Caveat emptor.

x.

Luca Rescigno · Sep 28, 2003, 06:53 PM

Apple DOES support external DVD burners. Many of them in fact.

They do NOT support burning DVD movies onto an external DVD burner using iDVD. That's it. If you are planning on making DVD movies, either get a Mac with a built-in Superdrive, or use a different piece of software.

When someone says "Apple doesn't support external DVD burners" they're wrong. You just can't use iDVD to make movies with them. You can still use Finder to burn data DVDs, although Toast is about a thousand times better because it doesn't require you to copy everything first (which makes absolutely no sense).

Eug · Sep 28, 2003, 07:20 PM

Originally posted by tooki:
Burning video DVDs on an iBook would be insanity... compressing the MPEG2 video would take DAYS.

(iDVD and DVD Studio Pro both require a G4.)

As for data DVDs... I think an external will work fine in the OS X Finder. But of course Toast is a nicer program for burning data.

I've done it on an iBook 600 with an external drive, using 3rd party MPEG2 encoders and DVD Studio Pro 1.5.

Problems though:

1) It does take forever to encode.
2) DVD Studio Pro is $$$
3) DVD Studio Pro no longer supports G3s.

I finally gave up and bought a TiBook SD.

However, there is some Japanese app that makes DVDs, and there's always Toast 6. It will make simple video DVDs, complete with a menu.

Consider iDVD to be the software bundled with an Apple superdrive.

Note that iDVD works just fine without a SuperDrive (internal or external). You just need an internal SuperDrive endowed computer to burn the final project to disc.

Apple DOES support external DVD burners. Many of them in fact.

Yup. OS X supports tons of external DVD burners. I've tried a few. One wasn't supported when I first got it, but I think it is now. And even though it wasn't supported it worked fine with Toast. When it's supported, it works fine with the Finder burning and iTunes, etc.

rishio · Sep 28, 2003, 07:51 PM

so what is the dvd-burner one should get if you need to just burn data and music for back up purposes. Backing up my powerbook takes too many cds... that is why I prefer a dvd burner.. Anyone know a particular model that is fairly reliable?

If apple made their own external burner.. I would buy it.

tooki · Sep 28, 2003, 08:33 PM

Apple uses Pioneer, Sony, Hitachi, and Matsushita (Panasonic) drives. ANY DVD-R external drive will use one of the same drive mechanisms. (The same cannot be said of DVD+R drives.) So, if it's a DVD-R drive, it'll work, basically.

tooki

bmhome1 · Sep 28, 2003, 09:17 PM

The Pioneer 105 is dirt cheap at about $140 for bare drive, $200 in firewire case. Toast 5 fully supports it, including 4X burning. The 106 drive adds DVD+ burning for a few dollars more, but you'll need Toast 6 for support. Check DealMac for prices or just go to esbuy.com for just about the lowest current prices. I bought a 105 from them and am very happy with it, even though it cost $180 two months ago.