Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

jambajooz · Jan 17, 2003, 08:35 PM

Im sure that you all have heard about the Superdrive upgrade for the Ti's (all model Ti's)from MCE coming Feb 25th. Anyone shelling out for this $500 upgrade? Also is it true that they are taking your old combo drives in place of the new SDs?

icruise · Jan 17, 2003, 08:43 PM

Wow, $500 is pretty steep. Almost makes you wonder if it wouldn't be a better idea to sell the old powerbook and put the money +$500 to the purchase of a new one with superdrive already installed.

cenutrio · Jan 17, 2003, 08:57 PM

Does iDVD work with them?

jambajooz · Jan 17, 2003, 09:41 PM

Originally posted by cenutrio:
Does iDVD work with them?

yes it is indeed steep and I agree with you about selling the old pb and get a new one. yes it also works with iDVD. and it writes at 2X!!! here is the info http://www.mcetech.com/sdpbg4.html

dvd · Jan 18, 2003, 03:29 AM

i thought this was cool but, i saw the price. 500 smackerooos!! I really would like it, only if i had a minidv cam, i only have digital8 =[. *sigh* i'd problay either get one for pc or if it was 300 buks i'd get one =p

RMXO · 04:06 AM

i actually thought about doing this but the price is too steep. I seen this on MacNN today.

Sony UltraBURN II Plus DVD-R/RW

http://www.firewiredirect.com/firewi...VDIIPlus.shtml

Eug · Jan 18, 2003, 11:20 AM

Originally posted by jambajooz:
yes it is indeed steep and I agree with you about selling the old pb and get a new one. yes it also works with iDVD. and it writes at 2X!!! here is the info http://www.mcetech.com/sdpbg4.html

Also note that it also supports 1X DVD-RW and 16X CD-R. These are the exact specifications Panasonic demo'd last year for their UJ-815. I wonder what firmware they're using. I suspect it's a generic Panasonic one, and if so, DVD-RAM might also supported.

2X DVD-R, DVD-RAM, 16X CD-R, and 1X DVD-RW would make a killer machine. I'd even consider paying $200 to swap out my current SD for an MCE one. Although I wouldn't pay $500. Ouch!

See my UJ-815 thread.

jmp998 · Jan 18, 2003, 12:39 PM

Originally posted by jambajooz:
Im sure that you all have heard about the Superdrive upgrade for the Ti's (all model Ti's)from MCE coming Feb 25th. Anyone shelling out for this $500 upgrade? Also is it true that they are taking your old combo drives in place of the new SDs?

According to their website "? Requires dealer installation" so I'm pretty sure they keep your old drive. Great deal for them, they not only get $500 in cash but they also get your old dvd or dvd/cdrw to resell later as repair parts (maybe another $200?).

If they're really charging $500 I doubt they'll find many people to buy these, except for those who REALLY need built-in DVD-RW instead of just DVD-R. Anyone who needs to do frequent mobile dvd-burning is probably a pretty high-end user/pro anyway and likely to have a recent machine with good resale value and would be better off putting the cash plus resale value toward a brand new machine with full warranty, faster processor, bigger hard drive, included airport card, etc. Looking at powerbookcentral's price tracker there's only $1000 difference between a 667MHz and 1GHz-SD currently, only $500 between an 867 and 1GHz-SD. Maybe if you have one of the original 400-500MHz models or a 550MHz with relatively low resale value it might make sense, but I would guess there aren't too many people making DVD's with these models still unless they also have a faster desktop for encoding etc.

Put another way, even Apple only charges $200 extra for superdrive vs dvd/cdrw. If Apple charged $500, MCE's price might seem less shocking. Anyone have any idea what these drives really cost MCE or Apple?

And of course the final concern is: if it does turn out to be the same model as Apple uses (with just different firmware), did Apple disable 2xDVD-R and DVD-RW as part of some marketing strategy or because they'll overheat and damage your powerbook? It seems reasonable that 2X burning would use more power/run hotter. For DVD-RW, does the drive also use more power than DVD-R (e.g. to smooth a re-used DVD-RW before re-burning)?

Over Achiever · 02:33 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
Also note that it also supports 1X DVD-RW and 16X CD-R. These are the exact specifications Panasonic demo'd last year for their UJ-815. I wonder what firmware they're using. I suspect it's a generic Panasonic one, and if so, DVD-RAM might also supported.

Hopefully someone can get their hands on this firmware, and fix it so that it works in the powerbook.

This might be the generalized Panasonic firmware that many are searching for!

kuzzy · Jan 22, 2003, 01:50 AM

Safe to assume upgrading voids Apple Warranty (even though drive has 1 yr warranty through MCE)?

If this proves to be a successful upgrade path Apple might feel a little heat to upgrade firmware for their "latest/greatest" PB superdrives, though I would not be surprised if Apple tried some legal threats to try to stop MCE from doing this. At least MCE is not trying to sell aftermarket PBs with an improved superdrive replaced by them direct to consumer!

I will be looking forward to forum posts after Feb. 25 to see the results of MCE's efforts.

issa · Jan 22, 2003, 02:03 AM

I found an announcement yesterday here in Japan interesting. TAXAN, a local peripheral vendor, announced a Superdrive upgrade for all models of the TiBook that is scheduled to ship in early February. The specs include 1x write speed to DVD (DVD-R), 8x to CD-R, and 4x to CD-RW.

In light of this, it will be interesting to see just what MCE is able to deliver, and when that happens. I hope they can deliver what they've announced, but find it a bit hard to think that they can do better than a domestic vendor when it comes to delivering a product that uses a drive made in - you know where. We'll see.

The announcement is in Japanese, but here's a link to the TAXAN page anyway:
http://211.132.172.169/taxan-item/FM...BG4DVR-C&-find

Wet Jimmy · Jan 22, 2003, 09:49 PM

What I want to know is how come Apple isn't supporting the DVD+ format internally?

icruise · Jan 22, 2003, 09:58 PM

Originally posted by Wet Jimmy:
What I want to know is how come Apple isn't supporting the DVD+ format internally?

Why would they want to do that?

Wet Jimmy · Jan 22, 2003, 10:39 PM

Isn't it a more compatible format? + discs are more widely recognised in a larger range of players than the - discs, if I understand correctly.

Wet Jimmy · Jan 22, 2003, 10:48 PM

Links you may find interesting -

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/pc/pccomparison.html

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/video/comparison.html

It baffles me why Apple persists with the "-" format.

icruise · Jan 22, 2003, 10:50 PM

From what I have heard it is the exact opposite. (For some reason I don't entirely trust info from dvdplusrw.org...)

In any case Apple was one of the pioneers in getting DVD-R in home computers, and I don't think they are likely to switch over now.

Wet Jimmy · Jan 22, 2003, 10:55 PM

It's a shame, is all I'm saying. I've got an external + burner, so I'm not concerned, I just hate seeing new models come out with old tech onboard.

icruise · Jan 22, 2003, 11:06 PM

This really isn't the place for this discussion, but I see no advantages to DVD+R and to call DVD-R "old tech" is misleading. It's been around longer, yes, but that means that there are more drives supporting it.

<edit:brain not working today>

Wet Jimmy · Jan 22, 2003, 11:13 PM

I'm not going to get into an argument about the superior format - I'll let people read for themselves and then ask their own questions as to why Apple don't move to "+".

Otherwise, I love the Powerbook mods you've done. Very nice work indeed.

gorickey · Jan 22, 2003, 11:15 PM

Originally posted by jambajooz:
Im sure that you all have heard about the Superdrive upgrade for the Ti's (all model Ti's)from MCE coming Feb 25th. Anyone shelling out for this $500 upgrade? Also is it true that they are taking your old combo drives in place of the new SDs?

I e-mailed them about keeping the Combo Drive and got the following response:
-------------------------
We are still deciding how we are going to work that out so I don't have an
answer for you just yet.

--
Best Regards

Kevin Yuhas
MCE Technologies, LLC
http://www.powerbook1.com
http://www.mcetech.com

jambajooz · Jan 23, 2003, 02:32 AM

Originally posted by gorickey:
I e-mailed them about keeping the Combo Drive and got the following response:
-------------------------
We are still deciding how we are going to work that out so I don't have an
answer for you just yet.

--
Best Regards

Kevin Yuhas
MCE Technologies, LLC
http://www.powerbook1.com
http://www.mcetech.com

Thanks for that info goricky. There is noway in hell that I will be giving them my Combo drive and then pay them $499 ontop to get the SD. I was hoping on selling my Combo drive to someone to shoulder some of the cost. I hope Apple doesn't sue MCE or anything...keep fingers crossed!

jambajooz · Jan 23, 2003, 02:34 AM

I wonder if I can order it from Japan, could be cheaper considering $ exchange.

Originally posted by issa:
I found an announcement yesterday here in Japan interesting. TAXAN, a local peripheral vendor, announced a Superdrive upgrade for all models of the TiBook that is scheduled to ship in early February. The specs include 1x write speed to DVD (DVD-R), 8x to CD-R, and 4x to CD-RW.

In light of this, it will be interesting to see just what MCE is able to deliver, and when that happens. I hope they can deliver what they've announced, but find it a bit hard to think that they can do better than a domestic vendor when it comes to delivering a product that uses a drive made in - you know where. We'll see.

The announcement is in Japanese, but here's a link to the TAXAN page anyway:
http://211.132.172.169/taxan-item/FM...BG4DVR-C&-find