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BXL · Nov 21, 2007, 10:05 AM

I have searched the Forum and the Internet, but still have some trouble finding a 'ready-to-use' external DVD/CD writer for my iMac G5. I found a product on a forum that seems to be no longer on sales (Belgium) from LG: GSA-5163D. Another one from Samsung SE-S204N was not compatible with OS X (Samsung could not guarantee this).
I found some references to Pioneer (DVR-111D and 112D) but these are without casing (internal)

Does anybody know about an external DVD/CD writer that is currently for sale and fully compatible with iMac G5? My superdrive is broken, so I need a solution, but prefer to buy an off-the-shelf product (ie not separate casings etc.). Thanks

thesearcher · Nov 21, 2007, 01:50 PM

What about Patchburn?

ibook_steve · Nov 21, 2007, 02:10 PM

Why no external case? It's not that difficult. Go to Newegg, get an external drive and an external 5.25" drive case, and chances are it will be cheaper than an off-the-shelf total solution. And any external drive should be completely compatible. xlr8yourmac.com has a lot of reviews of drives from users.

Steve

BXL · Nov 22, 2007, 06:01 AM

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked out xlr8yourmac.com earlier. That's where I found the references to LG and Pioneer..
In any case I am not sure if all drives are comlpatible. Why would Samsung not confirm to me then that their SE-S204N is compatible with Mac? They only confirmed the drive is fully operational using Windows. Newegg is dediucated to the American market. I need a European supplier. Any other ideas/suggestions? I find it a shortcoming these items or even just the info are/is not provided by Apple...

ghporter · Nov 22, 2007, 10:33 AM

The drive is not the issue with external drive systems. The INTERFACE between the computer and the drive is the crucial part-and I doubt that any USB or firewire interfaces will give you any problems. The drive that's in the external enclosure will either be IDE (or its synonym, ATA) or SATA, and neither the computer nor the drive care what the other is. It's the USB-to-drive or firewire-to-drive interface that is important, and they should all look the same to the computer.

BXL · Nov 22, 2007, 01:42 PM

Thanks for the feedback. It thought along similar lines, but wasn't going to buy a drive without confirmation it actually works! Most drives havce burn soft and/or drivers delivered with them, but mostly for Windows only. Today I happened to find a Lacie D2 DVD 20x writer which seems to do the trick. It has a USB2.0 and Firewire interface and comes (among others) with Toast 7.0 for Mac! It's bit more expensive than a 'simple' drive, but I think I will go for that one. Once agan thanks for all the feedback. Much appreciated.

moonmonkey · Nov 23, 2007, 10:52 PM

all DVD drives work with macs fine.

BXL · 02:39 PM

Are you sure? All?
That includes play/burn in all modes DVD +/-R, DVD-RAM, CD R/RW etc. (of course if these functions are listed for the drive to begin with).
What about the Samsung SE-S204N? Samsung told me not all functions may work on Mac...

k squared · Nov 24, 2007, 05:18 PM

What about LaCie? You can also check out RipDifferent.com for other suggestions.

Dale Sorel · Nov 25, 2007, 12:43 AM

Originally Posted by k squared

What about LaCie?

I have a LaCie external HD and DVD burner hooked up to my G5 iMac with zero problems.

estranged2000 · Nov 25, 2007, 03:29 AM

I'm using a Plextor px-810UF, it supports everything, (well obviously not the BD formats), but all the dvdr/cdr/dvd-ram. I average ~12x to 13.5x speed using the firewire interface with 16x media. No coasters yet. I burn primarily Ritek DVDRs but its adapted nicely to everything i've thrown at it. Goto the website, this drive has some very nice features (be warned though, some of the fine tuning options are only accessible to windoze users through plextools, but regardless its spectacular on a Mac)

It's a fantastic drive, i refuse to use my slotload internal drive, so i purchased the drive right after purchasing my mac. The slot loads always seem to leave minor scratchs n the discs.

I've used pioneers, and some cheaper drives, i opted for the px-810uf rather than saving a little money on the internal plextor and an exclosure, i'm glad i did, as the sturdy metal case, and both usb2 and firewire makes for an amazing drive. Works perfect with toast8, itunes, and every pc app i've ran with bootcamp or fusion.

I believe Plextor is a european company, so should be easier to get them shipped there than to Canada. (I ordered direct from Plextor)

ginoledesma · Dec 4, 2007, 12:30 AM

My favorites have been Plextor and Pioneer, but I've also used other brands such as Liteon, Yamaha, LG, AOpen, and others. I used to hunt for drives that were flashable to RPC-1 to overcome the region coding limit, but in recent years, I've been fortunate enough to not have the need for such.

Plextor drives are a little bit more expensive than their counterparts, but they've always gotten decent reviews.

DewD · Dec 31, 2007, 12:46 AM

I've been using a Mercury Pro external Firewire drive from Other World Computing for several months now, with Toast 7.x and the OS-X Tiger native burn software. On two different G4 Macs. It has yet to screw up in the slightest way, and I rip quite a few DVD's on it and make a lot of regular data backups. This "Merc" has the latest Pioneer 20X DVD burner inside ( it's the 112-D ); true plug and play on any Mac made this millenium. It was only $98.00 plus S & H. My only complaint---and it's a nitpick ---- is the lack of an LED on the front panel to remind me the drive is powered up...it is s-o-o-o-o quiet that I sometimes forget it's running at all. Highly recommended for value.