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crybaby · May 23, 2005, 11:32 AM

hi, is there anyway to tell what superdrives are currently shipping with 14" ibooks? I don't want one with a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-835E. I've heard some people are getting a TEAC drive with theirs. Thanks.

SSharon · May 23, 2005, 09:31 PM

You obviously can't tell in advance, but if you click on about this mac in the apple menu and then on get more info, it will tell you the exact model under the ATA tab. I have the combo drive Matshita and have never had or heard of any problems with it.

crybaby · May 23, 2005, 11:00 PM

The Matshita's don't play out of region dvd's. Some Matshita drives won't even play them using VLC, it's because of their firmware.

SSharon · May 23, 2005, 11:17 PM

Thanks for the tip crybaby. If I come in contact with an out of region DVD I will try it out and post back here.

SkaGoat · May 24, 2005, 12:16 AM

are you sure it's the drive, some newer DVDs come with the region coding embeded right into the .vob files, so it's harder to get past it.

crybaby · 09:49 AM

Yep, it's the firmware in the drive. There are long detailed discussions about it's firmware over at http://forum.rpc1.com/ (sometimes their site goes down). Also these drives usually will not burn DVD-R media at 8x speed as advertised http://discussions.info.apple.com/we...fi.1@.68a7ba65.

I was just hoping since there are many knowledgeable folks here if someone knew what apple is currently shipping as ibook superdrives 'cuz I did read one report that someone got a TEAC drive instead of the MATSHITA.