[rsgunther]

We have a 12" Powerbook (actually it is my wife's, about 2 weeks old and she loves it) - it is the 1ghz - combo drive model. I added a 512 chip to it, so it has 768M of RAM.

We specifically did not get the internal superdrive since it is too slow. I would like to buy an 8X external superdrive. Is there anyway to add an external & get it to work with iDVD & such? I would like to use Apple's software to burn the DVD's. I have final cut express also - would it work with that?

I am unclear what works with the iLife software & what doesn't.

thanks in advance!

[naknek]

You won't be able to use iDVD to burn to an external DVD drive, but you can use the other iApps as usual. You'll also need to get something like Toast 6 to burn your iMovies, photos, music, etc. to DVD on the external drive, though. (It will let you do basic menus, chapters, etc ... just not as nice-looking as iDVD.)

FCE is just for making movies, as far as I know. If you want to use Apple-branded software to burn DVDs on an external drive, I think your only choice is DVD Studio Pro.