[NuMystic]

My SuperDrive has recently stopped reading 2 of the 3 media brands I have used most heavily so I've been researching external DVD Drives so I can access my archived material again.

It seems as though the Pioneer 112D has the highest marks for reliability across the widest range of media at an affordable price and I'm now looking for a compatible enclosure.

I've seen recommendations for the ME-340U2F with this drive but it doesn't seem to have the oxford bridge set which some say is the ideal. (though I'm willing to go with it if this non-oxford unit has confirmed reports of reliability with Non-iSight 17" G5 iMacs)

Can anyone recommend some enclosures for under $60 which utilize the oxford chipset for it's firewire 400 connection? (I understand that some USB/Firewire combo enclosures use a different chipset for each connection?)

Here's the feature set I'm looking for...

Required:

External Power Supply
Aluminum Casing
Firewire 400 w/ Oxford Chipset

Not Critical but would be nice:

Extra Firewire port for daisy chaining
USB 2.0 connection
Firewire 800 connection (doubt this will be available for the price I'm seeking, but one can dream hey?)

My computer is a pre-iSight 17" G5 iMac so only USB 1.0 and Firewire 400 is supported. Only reason for the USB 2.0 and/or Firewire800 connections is to connect the drive to other computers for now, and for my own eventual upgrade down the road.

Any insight would be enormously appreciated as I've been very frustrated in my search. Many enclosures don't list the chipset, and I've even seen those which claim to have the oxford bridge with user reviews stating that they don't in fact use this chipset!

Lastly, I'm not married to the internal/enclosure route if there's a solid performing plug and play writer that handles most media. (Lots of my DVD archives are on discount/generic media) Same goes for the oxford chipset focus if others are known to perform as reliably these days.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[mduell]

The Firewire-only ME-320F is Oxford 911 based, but I think the other enclosures in that series use other chipsets. The Oxford chipsets are great for performance and reliability, but some of the other brands have caught up in terms of reliability (some, of course, haven't) so I wouldn't get too caught up on it.

Newegg has the AMS Venus 5.25" enclosure with Oxford 911 for FW400 (and Cypress for USB2) for $49.99. They have some other enclosures that meet your requirements (except Oxford) here; I'd recommend anything with a 4 or 5 "egg" rating and >10 reviews.

The Pioneer DVR-112D is a great burner; beige or black faceplate for $32 at Newegg.

[NuMystic]

Thanks for the informative reply mduell!

Unfortunately it looks like all this research was a waste.

I'm currently in South Africa for a few months on business and getting a 112D over here is virtually impossible. (and shipping is woefully cost prohibitive) Unless perhaps there's an ASUS that is a rebadged 112?

To make matters worse the selection of enclosures to be had is pitiful and with the markups here it will cost just as much or more than a plug and play external solution.

Soooo... here's what is available at a reasonable price for externals:

LG E10L w/ LightScribe
LG 2166D w/ LightScribe
Asus DRW-1608P2S-D w/ Firewire (yay!) and USB 2.0 (rebadged Pio. DVR-110 drive?)
LiteOn SHM-165P6SX02
LiteOn SHM-165P6SU2 (same as above but w/ "ez dub" one touch copying... like I care lol)

And if I still decide to go the internal/enclosure route pretty much the top rated internal I can find readily is the:

LiteOn 18A1H (which has 18x compared to the 16x of all the above with a 15-20% price increase once an enclosure is factored in... and burn speed is not my first priority)

Other LG's are probably available as they dominate the local market but the H22N/L is nowhere to be found.

This is going to be my only DVD drive for a while so my number one concern is media reading compatibility especially on the lower end. I have tons of archived discs on generic media and use the drive daily for watching video that has been previously archived.

I'm also wanting the best solution out of the box for now as I have no experience flashing drives, am on a mac, and don't have easy access to a PC at the moment. (though I can do that and firmware updates once I return to civilization)

So with all of that babbling done... can anyone tell me if any of the above drives stand head and shoulders above the others of if any should be avoided in particular?

Thanks so much once again from a frustrated n00b buyer in less than ideal circumstances.