[eScrib]

With everything going DVD these days, including Tiger... I ordered the Piner DVR-109 through Other World Computing. It'll go into my dual G4 533. It still has some legs in it.

I talked to the sales guy to some length regarding the 109 versus the 106. He promised the 109 works just fine with patchburn under 10.3.8.

Curious if I made the right play? Dual-layer burning is a nice thing to have, but I really want compatibility. I'm assuming the 109 is next on Apple's menu, considering they're already to the 108. My thought was the 109 will become native (perhaps even native under Tiger) at some point in the OS X lifecycle and is the main reason I bought it, other than the better specs over the 106.

Comment. Thoughts. Concerns???

[Apfhex]

The DVR-10x series is awesome, I'm sure no matter what model you have (I have the 106 in an external case for my PB). It seems logical that Apple will eventually move to the 109.

[CIA]

I got a DVR-109 about a week ago from newegg, was about $70ish shipped. I plan on putting it internal in my QS Dual 800, to replaced my aging DVR-105 (which inturn, replaced the stock OEM DVR-103)
Anyway, for the moment it's in a external Firewire case, and burns great in Toast 6.0.9. I used patchburn, and all the iApps now see it and use it ok. When I get the time I will slap it inside the machine. iDVD 5 lets you burn to external drives, so I may not even bother.
A few notes:

Latest firmware for it is 1.40. It came with... geez I forget, but it was not up to date. I had to bring it to a PC and update it to 1.40, a process that took all of 2 minutes. Then I put it in the firewire case and started using it on the mac. I have crappy 8x media, and it burns fine. This is a chicken before the egg drive, as all this fancy 16x DVD-R media is rare, and DL DVD-R standard was just recently finalized, and not available for sale yet. I guess it can burn to dual layed +R media, but I haven't used any yet.
Also, it says you need and 80 wire/40 pin cable to attain full (16x, and 6x DL) burn speeds. I think that my Quicksilvers optical/zip ATA-33 bus is too slow for that, so once again, I may just leave it in the case. I have a open slot on my Acard ATA-133 PCI card, so I may hook it up to that and see how that goes for high speed burns. But untill I get some faster media I don't really need to.
I'm very happy, and according to the drive database over at xlr8yourmac.com it will be fully supported under 10.4 when it ships.
My DVR-105 was great for awhile, but recently it's been acting very weird, but thats a topic I will have to start another thread on.

[Cadaver]

Are the 108's & 109's bootable??
Its not the PatchBurn hack for Tiger so much as the ability to boot of the Tiger DVD.

[CIA]

Here is a copy and pasted report from the xlr8your mac drive database, seems the 109 is bootable. I have yet to test boot from my 109, but since it's still in the firewire case it won't really give people the answer they need yet (internal install bootable?) I also have the DVR-109 BK.
---------------------------------------------
Reviewer's Name: Niels Christophersen
Date Submitted: 4/4/2005
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: IDE
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-109 BK
Driver Used: Patchburn 3
Mac Model: Apple G4 Dual CPU DDR
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.3
Reader Comments: Installed Pioneer 109 drive in upper bay and moved combodrive to lover bay. Used CS for both drives. Removed front tray bezel by clicking it outwards and upwards.
Burns CD's and DVD's nicely via Toast 6.0.9 and via system burns. Plays DVD films and boots system 10.3 CD without any problems at all. Very simle installation - took approx 10 min. Installed Patchburn 3.1 (for iApps burn support). recognised drive as (sytemprofile) :
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109:
Producent:: PIONEER
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109
Revision: 1.17 (firmware version)
Drevtype: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Diskbr nding: UnderstØttet af producent (vendor supported)
Udskiftelige medier: Ja
Udskifteligt drev: Nej
Protokol: ATAPI
Enhedsnummer: 0 (master)
Sockettype: Internt

Friendly Mac-greetings form Denmark and thankyou Mike for a perfectly designed and very helpfull website!
Niels Christophersen
---------------------------------------

Hope that helps.....

[eScrib]

Got everything installed and it works just fine. Patchburn is needed to boot from a DVD, but other than that. It works great.

I've "heard" that Tiger supports the 109 natively also... So that's a GOOD thing!

Thanks.

[CIA]

I have a sneaking suspicion that the next update to the powermac family will include DVR-109 superdrives. Since 10.4 supports the drive, and the drives are so cheap. I mean if we are only paying $60 for 'em, Apple must be able to get them super cheap in bulk OEM deals....

[Jack Shaw]

I've installed the 109 on my Mac G4 Dual 800 in both OS 9.2.2 and OSX 10.3.2.

In 9.2.2 it works quite well and burns reasonably fast. In OSX it not only fails to work as a burner but in the System Profile it states quite plainly that 'Disk Burning Is Not Supported'. Playing is not a problem, here, it's the burning issue I have!

In either case the firmware Revision Number is 1.40 (the latest?) and it does seem to me that Apple have not intended it to work in OSX 10.3.2 at least for the time being.

I'd appreciate any help in solving my problem if it can be solved.

Jack

[CIA]

A: Upgrade to 10.3.9.
B: Install Patchburn (do a google search for it)
Patchburn will give you full OS support for the drive. Or upgrade to 10.4 and get OS support built in. Latest firmware is 1.50, and finally there is a Mac flasher for it!

[Jack Shaw]

Thanks for that. I had installed Patchburn 3 in order to attempt a successful instal of the Drive. It's shown okay in OSX Apps. I 'll have a look at the upgrade to 10.3.9 etc.

[CIA]

Just run software update under the apple menu to upgrade....