[TheGreatButcher]

I just got a 17-inch PowerBook, and I am new to the whole DVD burning thing. Can I use DVD-RW discs?

[jia_zhuang]

yes

[Rational_User]

I would rather make the "Yes" a "Maybe".

1. You need the latest firmware DBDW. It does not write to DVD-RW with the previous firmware (see the topic "firmware poll" in these forums)

2. Even if you have firmware DBDW, the UJ-815 burner is quite selective about the media.

I had success with multiple overwriting to Sony DVD-RW, but not success with Intenso DVD-RW and also not with Fuji DVD-RW.

Other people had success with Memorex and perhaps a few other brands.

The drives compatibility (with the current firmware) is not all all convincing. One would suggest to Apple to get their act together and release a more compatible firmware in the future together with an updater (My personal opinion: It won't happen, at least not from apple because then there will be one reason less to buy a new Powerbook where these issues are fixed).

Also UJ-815/DWDB reading compatibility with numerous dvd's burned on several other drives is very poor. I'd rather prefer to have a good combo drive, with decent DVD reading ability and good CD-RW writing speeds than this current "superdrive". For burning, I prefer an external firewire burner, simply because it is way faster [4x DVD-R/RW/+R/+RW]

RU

[Eug]

Originally posted by Rational_User:
I would rather make the "Yes" a "Maybe".

1. You need the latest firmware DBDW. It does not write to DVD-RW with the previous firmware (see the topic "firmware poll" in these forums)

2. Even if you have firmware DBDW, the UJ-815 burner is quite selective about the media.

I had success with multiple overwriting to Sony DVD-RW, but not success with Intenso DVD-RW and also not with Fuji DVD-RW.

Other people had success with Memorex and perhaps a few other brands.

The drives compatibility (with the current firmware) is not all all convincing. One would suggest to Apple to get their act together and release a more compatible firmware in the future together with an updater (My personal opinion: It won't happen, at least not from apple because then there will be one reason less to buy a new Powerbook where these issues are fixed).

Also UJ-815/DWDB reading compatibility with numerous dvd's burned on several other drives is very poor. I'd rather prefer to have a good combo drive, with decent DVD reading ability and good CD-RW writing speeds than this current "superdrive". For burning, I prefer an external firewire burner, simply because it is way faster [4x DVD-R/RW/+R/+RW]

RU

You can't use iDVD with an external drive, but I agree, if speed is an issue and you're not using iDVD, an external 4X burner is a good solution.

BTW, if I stick to good quality DVD-R burned on another drive, the UJ-815 read the discs them just fine. Cheap media is another story, but I don't waste my time with cheap media. And of course + media is yet another story, because that format competes directly with Matsushita. Don't expect Matsushita to be in a rush to add better + read compatibility any time soon.

I'd take the UJ-815 SuperDrive over a combo drive any day.

[Rational_User]

Originally posted by Eug:
I'd take the UJ-815 SuperDrive over a combo drive any day. [/B]

Why ?

[Nutt]

mostly bcause it writes DVD's im guessing