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Dr.Michael · 11:11 AM

Hi all,

I have an old external Lacie Firewire Studio drive (the blue silver design with the loud fan), that I bought in 2001. It contains a Mitsumi 24X CD-RW Burner. I rarely used it in the last months because my Powerbook has a comparable burner inside.

So I decided to exchange the Mitsumi burner with a DVD burner. I bought the mentioned LG drive that burns DVD R plus/minus, DVD RW plus/minus AND DVD RAM and double layer DVDs. Very cool and it costs only 51 Euros.
The Version I bought is an internal burner that is made for pcs. There is no mac specific firmware included. Software in the box is only for Windows. (Who needs software as long as Toast exists?).

The exchange of the drive was done in 10 minutes and I have tested so far:
burn a cd
erase a cd rw
burn a cd rw
watch a DVD
watch a VCD

All tasks were done without problems and roughly with the specified speed (or with the maximum speed that the cd allowed).
I could not burn a dvd because I have to go and buy one tomorrow. But since there was not a single problem I expect also dvds to burn error free.
A very small drawback is that the finder is not compatible with the drive. So drag and drop burning from the finder does not work. Since I have Toast (5.2.3) this is no problem for me.
Of course the cds and dvds mount on the desktop. The incompatibility only affects burning from the finder.

Now I have a very fast dvd burner that burns all formats much faster than any internal powerbook superdrive and for very little money. Very cool again.
I will report my experience with dvds tomorrow.

Dr.Michael · Mar 19, 2005, 11:10 AM

Here is the promised update:

I burned a couple of data dvds today. The dvds that I could buy were 8X dvd -R from tdk. 8X was the maximum speed I found.

The LG drive burned 4.2 GB of Audiobooks in 8 minutes.

I am currently decoding a film. But I think it is sure that it will work. The drive works very fine with Mac OS X and Toast. Its a big success and I highly recommend this for all iBook and Powerbook users who don't have a superdrive. Its even better than a superdrive because it burns more formats, is faster and much cheaper.

If you don't need to burn dvds on the road, go for it.

andretan · Mar 20, 2005, 12:19 PM

Have you tried using PatchBurn?

Dr.Michael · Mar 20, 2005, 01:56 PM

Originally posted by andretan:
Have you tried using PatchBurn?

No I haven't. Whats special about Patchburn?

In the meantime I have decoded a DVD (What Women Want ;o) and it worked perfectly.
I did often see threads where people asked for exactly this: Can I put a standard burner into my fw case? I am a bit astonished how few people react and comment to this thread.

andretan · Mar 20, 2005, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by Dr.Michael:
No I haven't. Whats special about Patchburn?

In the meantime I have decoded a DVD (What Women Want ;o) and it worked perfectly.
I did often see threads where people asked for exactly this: Can I put a standard burner into my fw case? I am a bit astonished how few people react and comment to this thread.

PatchBurn makes your drive work with the iApps.

Dr.Michael · Mar 21, 2005, 08:37 AM

Originally posted by andretan:
PatchBurn makes your drive work with the iApps.

Thank you for the tip.
I tried patchburn and it indeed makes my drive compatible with iTunes and the Finder. Now the integration into OS X seems to be perfect.

andretan · Mar 21, 2005, 09:12 AM

Originally posted by Dr.Michael:
Thank you for the tip.
I tried patchburn and it indeed makes my drive compatible with iTunes and the Finder. Now the integration into OS X seems to be perfect.

Since you're using a similar drive like mine, ya mind checking out this thread?

Thanks