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stevesnj · Oct 1, 2005, 10:56 PM

Anyone know of any Dual Layer DVD writer that work with all of Apples iApps native? I went to Macsales and I need a patch in order for it to work with iDVD but I want a drive to work native on Tiger. Anyone know which drive does so or which drive Appple uses in the current PowerMacs?

Spoffo · Oct 2, 2005, 02:38 AM

The curent OEM Pioneer drive should work just fine. It should cost about $75 at a place like NewEgg.com. This is the drive that Apple has been using inthe G5 Power Macs, but theirs have a special Apple version of the firmware that disables dual layer burning - - -at least of the DVD+R DL format - - Because, I was told, Apple doesn't pay to license the + format. In other words, a stock Apple drive might burn a DVD-R DL disk, but they are extremely hard to find.

I replaced the Pioneer "117" (the crippled firmware) drive in my dual G5 tower with a Pioneer 108 (I believe the one they're selling today is the 109), and it has worked just dandy, burning everything including +r DLs. You have to run a little piece of freeware called PatchBurn, available at Version Tracker, to get the Mac OS to see the Pioneer drive as a permitted factory unit. However, this is no biggie - completely non-threatening and reversable. It just adds the model number of the drive to a database of allowable models kept by the OS. It does NOT involve flashing the drive ROMS or anything scary like that.

stevesnj · Oct 2, 2005, 09:31 AM

Thanks for the info...so I can use the drive with all the apps like iDVD, iTunes, Toast etc..?

Spoffo · 11:51 AM

yup, Once you run patchburn it will act exactly like the factory drive

ooops - -a correction. I noticed that you're using a PowerBook. My comments all applied to mouning a Pioneer OEM drive internally in a G4 or G5 tower. With a PB, you're presumably talking a outboard firewire drive in its own case. That could be a different deal in terms of getting the i-apps to treat it like an internal drive. I'm sure it can be done, but you probably need a bit more of a software patch than just patchburn. Or maybe not. Go to their site and see.

stevesnj · Oct 2, 2005, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by Spoffo

yup, Once you run patchburn it will act exactly like the factory drive

ooops - -a correction. I noticed that you're using a PowerBook. My comments all applied to mouning a Pioneer OEM drive internally in a G4 or G5 tower. With a PB, you're presumably talking a outboard firewire drive in its own case. That could be a different deal in terms of getting the i-apps to treat it like an internal drive. I'm sure it can be done, but you probably need a bit more of a software patch than just patchburn. Or maybe not. Go to their site and see.

Nah I am using it on a PowerMac G4 AGP and it currently has a CDr-rw and I was told this drive should work.

Person Man · Oct 2, 2005, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by stevesnj

Thanks for the info...so I can use the drive with all the apps like iDVD, iTunes, Toast etc..?

Actually with the Pioneer DVR-A09/109 and the DVR-110/A10 you don't need PatchBurn if you have 10.4.2 (you get basic System and iApps support minus dual-layer burning in iDVD), and you still need the iDVD patch to be able to burn dual-layer DVDs. In fact, the dual-layer patch will not work if you have Patchburn installed.

Toast will always work. Patchburn not required.

Spoffo · 08:41 PM

It you have Toast 7 (which I highly recommend) you'll probably find yourself drifting away from iDVD. Those very fancy menus are neat at first, but the time to build and encode them gets old fast. (At least it did for me.) Toast 7 has a bunch of nice built-in menus that are fine for most disks and they're MUCH simpler and faster to create.

With those menus plus Toast's very reliable burning of DL disks, you may not feel the need to hack iDVD for DL capability.

If you keep the total size of your VIDEO_TS folders under 7.5gb, Toast will even give you reliable burns from a Pioneer drive with the Memorex +DLs, which have a bad rep but are much cheaper than the others (currently on special at $2.50 each). At least it works for me.

stevesnj · Oct 2, 2005, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by Person Man

In fact, the dual-layer patch will not work if you have Patchburn installed.

Toast will always work. Patchburn not required.

I thought the PatchBurn is supposed to enable DL in iDVD?

Spoffo · Oct 6, 2005, 02:35 AM

No. All Patchburn does is patch your OS so that it sees a non-factory drive as an Apple-installed SuperDrive, which is a requirement for burning from any of the iApps. If iDVD won't support DL burning with a Superdrive, Patchburn won't change this. The idea is that the Apple-installed drives were crippled so they wouldn't support burning DVD+R DLs. The two ways around this are to a) flash the factory drive with new firmware that restores the full Pioneer functionallity (quite complicated. Depending on the drive, you may need to do it on a PC, and if you screw up, you render the drive useless) . . . or b) replace the factory drive with an OEM Pioneer 109 or 110 and then run PatchBurn. The computer will think it's a factory drive, but you'll now be able to do DL burning from any app that supports it (like Toast).

This is what I did with my G5 when I got it. I pulled the SuperDrive out of the G5 and installed it in my old G4, which had only had a combo drive. This gave my wife the ability to burn single layer DVDs. I then put an OEM Pioneer 108 in the G5 and ran Patchburn, so I now have the abilty to burn +R DLs. (I also added another software patch that gave me the ability to read DVD-RAM, which the Pioneer firmware suipports, but the Apple OS doesn't.)

Does that make it clear?

stevesnj · Oct 6, 2005, 06:35 AM

yes...I actually bought a pioneer 110d and I hope it works well with patchburn

mduell · Oct 8, 2005, 04:18 PM

Anyone else amused that the latest and fastest Pioner burner (DVR-110D) is cheaper ($45) than the slower 109 and 108?
The little things in life.

Kenneth · Oct 8, 2005, 10:04 PM

I read from xlr8yourmac.com that pre-G5 PowerMac uses ATA-3 on its optical drive bays, so the burning speed may not be 12x or 16x for the DVR-110D.

stevesnj · Oct 8, 2005, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Kenneth

I read from xlr8yourmac.com that pre-G5 PowerMac uses ATA-3 on its optical drive bays, so the burning speed may not be 12x or 16x for the DVR-110D.

As long as its an 80 wire ATA cable it shouldnt matter