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b00tang · Aug 18, 2002, 06:40 PM

Or did they ever for that matter? I am trying to buy an external DVD-rom drive for my computer but it simply does not seem possible? Is there still a place that sells them? would I be better off just buying a drive enclosure and a DVD-rom drive? Would that even work? Piranahtech.com offers a drive enclosure for $65 here and a dvd drive here for 27$. Would these two work together? and is $90 the best I will be able to do?

masskinner · Aug 18, 2002, 08:15 PM

I am also looking for an external firewire dvd-rom drive. I don't mind if it also burns cds but I don't want to pay ~$500 for dvd burning since I already have a burner.

I'll post here if I find a good solution.

b00tang · Aug 18, 2002, 10:01 PM

yeah thats pretty much exactly what I need... I wonder if anyone knows the answer to this?

JayTi · Aug 18, 2002, 10:21 PM

I think Archos might still be making them...

www.archos.com

masskinner · Aug 18, 2002, 10:25 PM

Originally posted by b00tang:
yeah thats pretty much exactly what I need... I wonder if anyone knows the answer to this?

Well I've been doing research and there are a lot of options that are similar to the one you described: buying an external case and a third-party drive.

But what I would really like is an all-in-one retail solution from a major vendor. I don't mind paying a bit more to get something that will work without issue.

masskinner · Aug 18, 2002, 10:29 PM

Originally posted by JayTi:
I think Archos might still be making them...

www.archos.com

MiniDVD2 8x DVD Drive w/ Firewire Interface (Mac) $229.95

Interesting, but I don't need a portable solution (nor do I want to pay for one).

CRASH HARDDRIVE · Aug 19, 2002, 12:10 AM

Originally posted by b00tang:
[would I be better off just buying a drive enclosure and a DVD-rom drive? Would that even work? Piranahtech.com offers a drive enclosure for $65 here and a dvd drive here for 27$. Would these two work together? and is $90 the best I will be able to do?

This is the way to go, unless you want a smaller/more stylish package, like the linked to Archos drive.

Yes, a DVD drive in a Firewire enclosure will work great. I use one every day with my G4 at work, which only has an internal CD-RW drive. I just went to a comp show, bought a standard IDE DVD drive and external FW case to house it in. (The case you linked to is actually better than what I have, you might be able to shave off a few more $ if you find one without the Oxford 911 chipset- unnecessary for an optical drive. Still that's a good price for that enclosure. I paid around $55 for the case I bought about 6 months ago). The price for that DVD drive is great too, no need for anything more than a $30 or less mech.

At any rate, $80-90 for the whole setup is way reasonable.

Playback is great. Firewire handles both the DVD video and sound. Works fine with the Mac DVD player in both OS9 and OSX. (An added benefit is that it's cross platform as well). The prices you list are pretty average. Unless you're going to be moving the DVD drive around a lot (IE: using it with a laptop) paying double or more merely for a smaller package doesn't make much sense. Stick the whole external drive on a shelf somewhere and run a Firewire cable to you Mac and be done with it. If the DVD mech you buy has a beveled drive tray or adjustable disk holders in the tray, you can even turn the drive on it's side and stick it out of the way on a bookshelf or something.

By the way, FYI, buying something 'ALL-IN-ONE' from a retail vendor is actually the same thing as buying an external case and a drive mech. Most vendors make neither the drive mechs or the bridge boards, nor would they be licensed to do so even if they wanted to. All of it comes from the same sources- about 8 companies (that actually make optical drive mechs and 2 or 3 that make the bridgeboards. Everyone else just buys the parts, puts them together and slaps a stencil on the drive mech and/or outer case. In some cases they have custom bridgeboard firmware that reports the drive as their own brand- but it isn't.

So you shouldn't have any more 'problems' with this option than what will be the same thing from some stencil company. (IE: Que or LaCie etc.) In fact, in my own experience, I have never had a problem with a single FW external I've ever built or owned (and I've owned and sold as part of a buisness many of them) because picking the parts myself -most noteably the internal drives- I end up with far better components than the stencilers tend to use.

b00tang · Aug 19, 2002, 12:57 AM

crash thanks so much for the advice I had ideas that this would work out i am glad to see that it really will. But before i buy I just want to make sure of a few more things. 1 is that the drive is just the drive alone... i have seen ones that come with like dvd decoder cards... I don't need that do I? 2. and someone was ssaying something about wether the enclosure supports optical drives? how do i know that?

CRASH HARDDRIVE · Aug 19, 2002, 01:22 AM

Originally posted by b00tang:
crash thanks so much for the advice I had ideas that this would work out i am glad to see that it really will. But before i buy I just want to make sure of a few more things. 1 is that the drive is just the drive alone... i have seen ones that come with like dvd decoder cards... I don't need that do I? 2. and someone was ssaying something about wether the enclosure supports optical drives? how do i know that?

For $27 you can bet the drive doesn't come with a card of any sort. If it did, no biggie, you could toss it. You don't need any hardware, given you have a fairly recent Mac (2 years old or less) and current OS installed. The Mac will handle all decoding via software.

Sure that enclosure supports optical drives- by it's vey size it's designed to house them. There's no concern with the Oxford 911-chip, it'll work fine. Just that it will also control a faster Hard drive at top speed. (7200RPM). A lesser controller would be fine for an optical drive, since you don't really need to worry about drive speed. But again, no biggie- these days 911 is pretty much standard in most any enclosure you'll find, and the price for that enclosure is good, so you may as well the 911 anyway. It's only a concern if you were able to find an even cheaper enclosure without the 911.

masskinner · Aug 19, 2002, 08:16 AM

Thanks for the advice CH.

Assuming I want the more expensive Oxford chipset in case I want to use it with an HD at some point, would you go with the enclosure that b00tang mentioned or the popular Pyro case? Or maybe some other other chassis? I want to avoid noisy fans...

masskinner · Aug 19, 2002, 11:25 PM

I purchased the Pyro and installed an old DVD drive from a Yikes. There appears to be two Pyro models: an older one (black and bronze) and a newer one (all black). I picked up the older model from CompUSA (so I could have instant gratification and easily return it if necessary). Be careful: some online retailers will show you the latter but ship you the former.

The Pyro barely accomodates my DVD drive (I really had to smoosh the cables). The case is also very disingenuous. It's about two-thirds metal but the entire front one-third is plastic. The metal parts are then covered with plastic as well. The business end is a very small PCB that makes you wonder why it costs so much. My TV remote's PCB would put this thing to shame...

Meanwhile, it mounts CDs and DVDs without issue, and that is what ultimately counts. I didn't use any software or drivers. The Drive is set as a master. Crashes the DVD player, but fortunately that is not what I need it for.

CIA · Aug 20, 2002, 12:54 AM

Saw a sony IDE internal DVD-Rom drive todaya Staples for under $30. Slap it in an external case and you should be able to rock and roll! Can't you link DVD decoding to your recent model (example Radeon 8500) video card instead of doing it in software as well?

nana4 · Aug 20, 2002, 01:15 AM

Originally posted by masskinner:
The Pyro barely accomodates my DVD drive (I really had to smoosh the cables). The case is also very disingenuous. It's about two-thirds metal but the entire front one-third is plastic. The metal parts are then covered with plastic as well. The business end is a very small PCB that makes you wonder why it costs so much. My TV remote's PCB would put this thing to shame...

You are paying for the enclosure (which includes the built-in 50W PSU), and the two or three included cables.

masskinner · Aug 20, 2002, 09:06 AM

Originally posted by nana4:

You are paying for the enclosure (which includes the built-in 50W PSU), and the two or three included cables.

Well it passed the BIG TEST, which is to say I burned a DVD consisting of assets from an HD and another DVD in the Pyro. So now I can burn one DVD from another.

Now that I have gotten this to work, I have to say that this is a great way to go. You get to choose all the individual components and the result is cheaper than anything you could buy as a whole. Ugh! I'm beginning to sound like my PC friends...

Eug · Aug 20, 2002, 09:37 AM

I use a generic Firewire enclosure for my Panasonic LF-D311 DVD-RAM/-R drive, and I use a second generic enclosure for my Teac CD-W524E CD-RW drive. I believe the former enclosure chipset is Oxford 911, and the latter is Initio.

Both work fine with my PC and iBook. I also tried a Toshiba M1612 16X DVD-ROM drive in both enclosures and it worked fine too.

My only beef is that the one with the Panasonic has kind of a loud fan. But I think I may just unplug the fan since the Panasonic drive works fine without an extra fan anyway.

masskinner · Aug 20, 2002, 12:36 PM

Originally posted by Eug:
My only beef is that the one with the Panasonic has kind of a loud fan. But I think I may just unplug the fan since the Panasonic drive works fine without an extra fan anyway.

I agree; you probably can disconnect the fan.

BTW, can you tell me any info on which "generic" cases you are using? Where did you get them?