[wanderer]

Hi All

First time posting here.

I am thinking of getting a DVD Camcorder that uses 8cm DVD disc for media and edit the footage with my iMac G5. My concern is whether the vertical loading SuperDrive in the iMac G5 will take a non-conventional size DVD Disc or not. I am too afraid to put a small DVD disc into the slot and find out it won't and the disc get stuck inside.

The iMac G5 hardware spec doesn't say whether it does or it doesn't take a 8cm DVD disc.

Please help

[harrisjamieh]

Under NO circumstances should you put an 8cm disc in ANY slot loading drive - they are unsupported and WILL get stuck.

[wanderer]

Thanks! Then I may consider getting an old MiniDV Camcorder.

[harrisjamieh]

If you are intent on getting a DVD camcorder, you can always buy a USB or firewire CD drive. However I would highly reccommend a good mini-DV cam, as they are FAR superior to their DVD siblings. With MiniDV you can easily capture the footage via firewire to your iMac, and use iMovie to edit them, and make DVDs of them. You cannot (easily) do this with DVD camcorders.

[tooki]

The iMac manuals explicitly warn against using 8cm discs.

tooki

[slugslugslug]

Originally Posted by harrisjamieh

Under NO circumstances should you put an 8cm disc in ANY slot loading drive - they are unsupported and WILL get stuck.

There were actually some Macs whose slot-loading drives worked with the li'l discs (some early Ti models IIRC), but none from the last few years.

[analogika]

My 2000 G3 iMac DV 400 MHz accepted (and ejected) 8cm discs just fine.

I wonder why it's no longer supported? Lots of mobile phones and other devices still come with 8cm discs...

[harrisjamieh]

Originally Posted by analogika

My 2000 G3 iMac DV 400 MHz accepted (and ejected) 8cm discs just fine.

I wonder why it's no longer supported? Lots of mobile phones and other devices still come with 8cm discs...

Looking at footage of when Jobbs launched the iMac G3, it looks as though the slot loading drive was what I call a "smooth" slot loader, ie its like the CD player in your car, it nicely sucks the disc in. All slot loading macs nowadays use a different 'sucking' method, where you push the disc almost all the way in, and then the drive 'snatches' the disc away. My bet is that this is the reason newer macs don't support the small discs - different mechanisms.

I have always wondered why Apple no longer use the 'smooth' drives, they are so much more elegant...

[analogika]

Build height, probably?

[tooki]

Maybe it just costs extra to make the drive accept small discs, and the manufacturers decided that (considering how slim the profits are on each drive) to leave that out, since few people actually use miniature discs.

tooki