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tonbo0422 · Jan 7, 2002, 06:36 PM

What's happening on this front? Seems like huge breakthroughs/price-drops should be happening around now, but I can't seem to find anything except outdated pages on WWW that say the QPS and the LaCie are the only ones that are good, and that the SuperDrive is slow as hell.

tr · Jan 7, 2002, 08:47 PM

are you talking about external drives, or internal drives? basically, all the DVD-R drives out there are the same mechanism: Pioneer DVR-A03.

and what kind of price drop are you expecting? i just bought an internal drive for my G4 450 for about $400. i thought that was a pretty good deal, considering that the drives used to be $1000 six months ago.

it's a pretty cool drive, burns DVD-R's at 2x, and CD-R's at 8x. some people might think that the CD-R is kinda slow, but i don't mind.

tr

tonbo0422 · Jan 7, 2002, 09:13 PM

TR,

Thanks for the reply! I was actually talking about external, but internal is almost better.

I was aware of the Pioneer drive, but when you look at the Macworld review, they said that the SuperDrive sucked, and that's what I thought it was--Pioneer.

Please let me know the details of the drive you purchased--will it work on my G4 350 and burn DVDs that I can play in set-top boxes?

Thanks a bunch in advance.

Nick

DayDream Believers · Jan 8, 2002, 02:25 AM

The Pioneer DVR-A03 is the best all around and you can use on Mac and Windows....

Tom

tr · Jan 8, 2002, 02:27 PM

tonbo0422,

does your G4 350 have an AGP port, or just a PCI? if it's an AGP, then you have the exact machine as me, only i have a 450. the pioneer dvr-a03 should work fine. i just replaced the stock dvd-rom drive with a retail boxed pioneer dvr-a03, and it worked fine. no drivers needed, recognized it instantly.

here is a link to a great article on replacing the stock cd-rom in G3/G4 towers: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/h...x/install.html

i just read the macworld article on the drives. from what i read, it seems like they got slowdowns from using first generation recording media (which only records at 1x). also, retail boxed pioneer drives come with later firmware than the stock apple superdrives or the drives they were using. the later firmware revisions have been noted to increase disc access.

of course, to burn dvd's for use in set top players, you'll need software. i've successfuly used my drive with iDVD2 on OS X and DVD Studio Pro on OS 9. CD writing is supported in Toast Titanium and iTunes, in both 9 and X.

good luck,

tr

tonbo0422 · Jan 8, 2002, 02:37 PM

TR,

Thanks for the reply. I think my system is PCI, as that's the only thing System Profiler lists.

Do you think just buying one of those DVR-AO3s directly off eBay would be okay? There are dozens "New in Box" but they never say that they'll work in a Mac.

Returning it probably wouldn't be an option if I bought it from eBay but then again, I wouldn't be paying full price.

Nick

tr · Jan 8, 2002, 02:49 PM

actually, the retail box has no mention of mac compatibility (i'm looking at it right now), but it works fine. as long as it's the same dvr-a03 drive, it should be fine.

one concern i do have is that you mention you have a PCI G4. does your current configuration have a DVD drive, or just a CD-ROM? there might be an issue with DVD playback using the apple DVD player with the a03, because i think the PCI G4's used a DVD hardware decoder card with the DVD-ROM to play DVD video.

i'm not really sure, can anyone else shed some light of whether the dvr-a03 can work in a PCI G4?

tr

tonbo0422 · Jan 8, 2002, 02:59 PM

There's a DVD in there . . . I'd actually be reluctant to pull it out. No way to get an enclosure and make it an external, or buy an external version?

tr · Jan 8, 2002, 07:52 PM

oh, yeah, you can put one in a firewire case...but i don't know if iDVD2 will support it. i know the latest DVD Studio Pro can support external drives..

check out this link:
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drived....drivedb.lasso

you can put in search parameters to see if someone with your machine has done this already

tr

tonbo0422 · Jan 8, 2002, 08:14 PM

Wow, getting there! I could have wandered around on xlr8yourmac all day and I wouldn't have found that page.

Unfortunately, none of the parameters that match my computer exactly came up with anything, and the couple that did with fewer options were only one-line reviews--one guy hadn't ever tried burning a DVD video disk.

Here's a link I came up with for a Firewire external, but it's still too pricey--I'm looking for that magical $450 and less price level.

Any opinions one way or the other on this drive?

tr · Jan 9, 2002, 12:02 AM

esbuy.com offers this:http://www.esbuy.com/piondvra0fir.html

basically, the same thing you linked to, only without Toast. so basically, they're giving you Toast for $85.

if you get this bare drive:
http://www.esbuy.com/piondvcomdri.html

for $389 (which is pretty good, since i paid $60 more for the same drive at the same place about 2 months ago

), and then find a firewire case for about $100 (like here http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10242201), you can cut your costs down slightly, but not to the $450 mark. maybe if there's a cheaper case out there, haven't really looked.

but then the software problem, you won't have toast, and i'm not sure if iTunes will see the drive in the firewire case. it should, but don't know for sure. to make DVD's, you'd have to get iDVD2 from apple, which is only $20.

vmarks · Jan 9, 2002, 12:14 AM

there's actually a panasonic dvd-ram / dvd-rw drive that they issued a dvd studio pro update to support.
www.jazztechnology.com sells these as well as the dvr-a03. I haven't bought from them, but I'm considering it.

tonbo0422 · Jan 9, 2002, 12:22 AM

TR,

Thanks as usual. The software won't be a problem--I have all the requisite programs.---it's just the drivers that I'll need! If the drive is immediately recognised and starts right up, I'll be in Heaven 7!

It's just the thought of having a metal slug in my computer that has no tech support and is not recognised by the computer that I fear!

N

tr · Jan 9, 2002, 01:18 AM

i don't think the drivers are much to worry about. i would guess that apple's cd/dvd drivers would do just fine. i haven't heard of anyone who has installed one of these having driver problems.

there's actually a panasonic dvd-ram / dvd-rw drive that they issued a dvd studio pro update to support. www.jazztechnology.com sells these as well as the dvr-a03. I haven't bought from them, but I'm considering it.

actually, i was seriously considering this drive, as it is cheaper than the a03. i used to have a dvd-ram in my G4, and i loved being able to save stuff on it like regular removeable media...but it was really slow (1x). i finally decided on teh a03, because i figured i would probably get more use out of it because of the cd-r capability. i never had a cd-r, and i didn't really want to get an external, i got too much stuff sitting near my computer as it is

now, if someone would come out with a dvd-rw/cd-rw/dvd-ram drive for about $400, now that would be cool!