[nagromme]

I've heard various things about the new SuperDrives Apple's shipping, and the expanded DVD support in Panther.

So what's the final word... if I buy a 12" PowerBook with Superdrive, will I be able to erase a DVD and re-use it? WITHOUT applying hacks or firmware updates?

That would be GREAT for weekly backups. (Burning video DVDs is fun but no big deal to me.)

If this works (or some other rewritable DVD format for that matter), how do you do it? Erase in DiskCopy then drag files over in Finder? And what's the capacity?

Thanks in advance!

[Cop Rock]

I've been able to use DVD-RW discs with my 15" Al. I can erase the discs in Disk Utility and write them by putting them in then choosing to open iDVD when the disc is inserted. (Opening iDVD, choosing burn then inserting the disc doesn't work.)

I haven't tried doing any finder copies yet but I will soon.

[nagromme]

Thanks--that would be great to know--but if Disk Copy and iDVD accept them, I'm sure Finder will too!

The capacity (I do have Google!) is 4.7GB.

I'm seeing them in spindles of 25 for $50. That's 118 HB for $50! A SuperDrive could pay for itself quick at that rate. Especially using some DVD-R too--even cheaper. That wasn't a name brand, though.

Anyone know of brands to avoid? (And how about DVD+RW, anyone tried writing those? Or is that read-only on the new 'Books?)

[cazlar]

I haven't tried iDVD, but my 12" rev B (running 10.2.8 still) is able to accept, reformat and burn DVD-RW without any problems so far. (Using a Sony DVD-RW disk if that matters).

edit: burning was through iTunes (backup my music) or Toast 5. Haven't tried a straight Finder burn yet.