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DVD Burner Recommendations?
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2001
Status:
Offline
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Hi Folks:
I'm looking for an aftermarket DVD Burner to add to my PowerMac system. I'm most interested in being able to produce DVDs that can be played in "regular" home use DVD players. I see the prices dropping, but there are many models and the specs. are confusing.
Anyone have a good recommendation? Model and source?
Thanks,
Lee Snover 
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Status:
Offline
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any external firewire DVD-R drives that you see use the same Pioneer DVR-A03 IDE drive. so, most likely, the only real differences you will see in external fw DVD-R's is the case. technically, you could buy a external firewire case, and the A03 drive, and make one yourself.
what computer are you using, and are you strictly thinking of an external burner? i ask this because if you had a G4 tower, you could put the A03 in place of your stock drive. if you do this, you could use iDVD2, which only burns to internal drives. if you want to stick with external, you'll have to get DVD Studio Pro, which is kinda pricey. then again, if you're really serious about creating video DVD's, then this may be the way to go.
tr
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Oct 2001
Status:
Offline
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Tr:
Thanks for the Info. I have a PowerMac G4/400 "sawtooth" I believe, it's got the newer bus and such, Gray color. Sounds like the internal would be the way to go. I see there's a new model due out this month, any idea how it compares?
Regards,
Lee
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Status:
Offline
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i've added a A03 to my G4 450 sawtooth with no problems. the newer model, Pioneer DVR-A04 (found in the new iMac) is almost identical. i believe the only differences are that the A04 is slightly shorter in length, has a 8x CD-RW (rather than 4x in the A03), and the drive can now be mounted vertically or horizontally.
check out http://www.esbuy.com/
they've got pretty good prices, and they say the A04 is in stock.
tr
[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: tr ]
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Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Vancouver
Status:
Offline
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The A04, not the 104 right?
Out here in Tokyo, I saw the A03 and the 103; any idea what the exact difference is?
Cheers.
Originally posted by tr:
<STRONG>i've added a A03 to my G4 450 sawtooth with no problems. the newer model, Pioneer DVR-A04 (found in the new iMac) is almost identical. i believe the only differences are that the A04 is slightly shorter in length, has a 8x CD-RW (rather than 4x in the A03), and the drive can now be mounted vertically or horizontally.
check out http://www.esbuy.com/
they've got pretty good prices, and they say the A04 is in stock.
tr
[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: tr ]</STRONG>
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by legacyb4:
<STRONG>The A04, not the 104 right?
Out here in Tokyo, I saw the A03 and the 103; any idea what the exact difference is?
Cheers.
</STRONG>
it's funny, i think DVR-A03/4 are the numbers that pioneer gives it's retail boxed drives. but any time you check apple system profiler of an installed drive, it gives the drive model as DVR-103/4. i don't think there are any differences. they probably use the Axx and 1xx designations to differentiate between Retail and OEM, but in the end, it's the same mechanism.
tr
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: May 2001
Location: NY
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by tr:
<STRONG>
what computer are you using, and are you strictly thinking of an external burner? i ask this because if you had a G4 tower, you could put the A03 in place of your stock drive. </STRONG>
Couldn't he just add the second drive rather than swap them. It looks like the new powermacs have two cd bays (from the front at least), I was wondering if a second drive could be added.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by jtc:
<STRONG>Couldn't he just add the second drive rather than swap them. It looks like the new powermacs have two cd bays (from the front at least), I was wondering if a second drive could be added.</STRONG>
nope...although EVERY G4 Tower owner wishes this were true. the lower drive bay in all the tower configs starting with the B&W G3 only allows a zip drive to be installed. the metal carrier for the drives is formed so that a standard 5.25" drive fits in the top bay, and a zip in the smaller bay beneath it.
technically, it can be done. i've seen a couple people mod their G4's to allow a second 5.25" drive in the second bay, but it requires disassembly and metal cutting! 
i hope/pray the next iteration of the tower allows 2 5.25" drives...
tr
[ 03-09-2002: Message edited by: tr ]
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<lupus>
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well this sounds really interesting!
Anyone know of a firewire-case + the Pioneer A04 drive solution?
that would be cool to go with my TiBook 667 or my girls iBook!!
/cheers
lupus
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<lupus>
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well this sounds really interesting!
Anyone know of a firewire-case + the Pioneer A04 drive solution?
that would be cool to go with my TiBook 667 or my girls iBook!!
/cheers
lupus
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Status:
Offline
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i'm sure any firewire case that supports cd/dvd drives will work. the question would be what software do you plan on using? i think you'll only be able to use DVD Studio Pro (which supports external DVD-R drives). iDVD2 only works with internal drives.
tr
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Status:
Offline
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Hi,
I have a Cube and reading through this thread I got this idea of removing the original slot loading dvd drive and replace it with a dvd burner. Question: are slot loading dvd burners available that could be installed in a cube instead of the original drive (without metal cutting, routing, welding, etc...:-)
thanks
-Torsten
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unix is a trademark of at&t. at&t is a modem test command.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by Torsten Beyer:
<STRONG>Hi,
I have a Cube and reading through this thread I got this idea of removing the original slot loading dvd drive and replace it with a dvd burner. Question: are slot loading dvd burners available that could be installed in a cube instead of the original drive (without metal cutting, routing, welding, etc...:-)
thanks
-Torsten</STRONG>
sorry, i think you're out of luck. the A03/4 only comes in a tray version, so you'd have to do some drastic mods to get the drive in there. you could always go external firewire, but then you'd need to get DVDSP, which is a lot of money, especially if you just want to mess around with DVD-R. maybe oneday apple will update iDVD2 so it supports external burners...
tr
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: May 2001
Location: NY
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by tr:
<STRONG>
nope...although EVERY G4 Tower owner wishes this were true. the lower drive bay in all the tower configs starting with the B&W G3 only allows a zip drive to be installed. the metal carrier for the drives is formed so that a standard 5.25" drive fits in the top bay, and a zip in the smaller bay beneath it.
</STRONG>
I've been considering selling my iBook and getting a 733 from Apple's education page - using external burners and HDs is getting to be too much of a pain. Though this isn't a deal-breaker I would really like to be able to put 2 5.25" drives in it. Oh well, maybe I'll spend an afternoon in the metal shop jury-rigging something up.
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