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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Consumer Hardware & Components > External CD/DVD Burner

External CD/DVD Burner
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jszrules
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Dec 20, 2005, 05:35 PM
 
Hi, since the 3-year-old SuperDrive that came with my 800Mhz "desklamp" iMac is starting to crap out, I'd like to buy a new one. Given the following guidelines, I was wondering if I could get some recommendations on ones to get:

1) External (because I assume they're easier to install than internal)
2) Can burn and read multiple CD and DVD formats
3) Compatable with Mac OS X

Is it worth getting a drive that can burn dual layer as well as regular? Also, what about USB vs. Firewire connections? At this point, consider the price range flexible. Any help is really appreciated. Thanks!
     
mduell
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Dec 20, 2005, 06:00 PM
 
Dual layer burners don't cost any more than single layer burners.

For a burner I like the Pioneer DVR-110D (in gray or black). It is the fastest burner on the market for all the DVD formats (doesn't do DVD-RAM, "only" does 40x CD-R) and it's also one of the cheapest ($40). Supports changing the booktype for DVD+Rs (to improve compatibility) and is OSX compatible (either out of the box or with patchburn... since I've heard they're shipping this burner in the new PowerMacs it should be natively supported soon if not already).
For the enclosure, I like this Firewire and USB2 enclosure for $41 since it has the Oxford chipset for Firewire and you don't save much by buying a FW only enclosure (I think your USB ports are 1.1 [slow] so you probably don't want to use them for a burner).
All the cables/screws are included and assembly takes about 5 minutes.
     
jszrules  (op)
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Dec 20, 2005, 07:29 PM
 
Thanks for the reply. What about external burners that don't require an enclosure? Let's also stick with FW since I'm not sure if my USB ports are 1.1 or 2 (not sure how to find out).
( Last edited by jszrules; Dec 20, 2005 at 07:52 PM. )
     
mduell
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Dec 20, 2005, 11:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by jszrules
Thanks for the reply. What about external burners that don't require an enclosure? Let's also stick with FW since I'm not sure if my USB ports are 1.1 or 2 (not sure how to find out).
Buying a preassembled external drive is possible but I advise against it; they're more expensive than a drive and an enclosure and slower than the DVR-110D drive. Here is one option.
     
jszrules  (op)
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Dec 21, 2005, 01:29 PM
 
Fair enough...I didn't know they would actually be cheaper than the external drives. Can you pretty much put any enclosure on any drive? If not, how do you know if they will be compatable and what makes a "good" enclosure besides FW vs. USB?

Also, what does "OS X compatable" actually mean? Does it mean it will work with iDVD, Toast, Finder-burn, etc. once you simply plug the drive into your computer's hub? Or does it just mean that the burner's software will actually run on a Mac?

Sorry for all the questions. If anyone else has suggestions for external drives or internal+enclosure combos, please post. Thanks.
     
Dark Helmet
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Dec 21, 2005, 01:56 PM
 
I'm going to skip all the fuss with buying a drive and a case separate and get one of those sexy and praised Sony burners.

"She's gone from suck to blow!"
     
mduell
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Dec 22, 2005, 01:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by jszrules
Fair enough...I didn't know they would actually be cheaper than the external drives. Can you pretty much put any enclosure on any drive? If not, how do you know if they will be compatable and what makes a "good" enclosure besides FW vs. USB?

Also, what does "OS X compatable" actually mean? Does it mean it will work with iDVD, Toast, Finder-burn, etc. once you simply plug the drive into your computer's hub? Or does it just mean that the burner's software will actually run on a Mac?

Sorry for all the questions. If anyone else has suggestions for external drives or internal+enclosure combos, please post. Thanks.
Yes, you can put almost any drive in almost any enclosure; a nice result of having standards that manufacturers follow.
Good enclosures are from companies with good reputations (I have two Kingwin enclosures) and use good chipsets (Oxford 911 is the gold standard for ATA<->FW400 bridges).
Yes, it should work with all the Apple apps (OS/iApps/Pro Apps) out of the box, since I've heard Apple is using the same drives in PowerMacs. If it doesn't, install patchburn (Google it) and it will all work.

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet
I'm going to skip all the fuss with buying a drive and a case separate and get one of those sexy and praised Sony burners.
Enjoy spending more money for a slower burner!
     
Dark Helmet
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Dec 22, 2005, 01:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by mduell
Enjoy spending more money for a slower burner!
If this is what you call expensive and slow I sure will enjoy it!

http://www.sonystyle.com:80/is-bin/I...SKU=DRX810UL/T

"She's gone from suck to blow!"
     
jszrules  (op)
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Dec 22, 2005, 01:49 AM
 
mduell, thanks for all your help so far. I did a search on newegg.com for external enclosures that are 5.25'' and are IDE. Of the 8 remaining Kingwin results, the one you recommended above is the most expensive. Is there a cheaper one on the list you recommend or should I really go with this one?
     
mduell
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Dec 22, 2005, 05:58 AM
 
Originally Posted by Dark Helmet
If this is what you call expensive and slow I sure will enjoy it!

http://www.sonystyle.com:80/is-bin/I...SKU=DRX810UL/T
It has a pretty face plate and all, but I can't see paying over twice as much (well, you can pray for that rebate actually come and bring the price down to 90% more expensive) for slower DVD-R DL writing.

Originally Posted by jszrules
mduell, thanks for all your help so far. I did a search on newegg.com for external enclosures that are 5.25'' and are IDE. Of the 8 remaining Kingwin results, the one you recommended above is the most expensive. Is there a cheaper one on the list you recommend or should I really go with this one?
I recommended it because it has the Oxford 911 chipset, which is not only the gold standard for IDE<->FW bridges, but is also known to work well with Macs. You can save a whopping $6 with some other enclosure, but I don't think it's worth the potential for hassle.
     
jszrules  (op)
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Jan 4, 2006, 06:34 PM
 
The new burner and enclosure are working flawlessly and have solved my burning/reading problems. Thanks for all the help!
     
Eug Wanker
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Feb 12, 2006, 12:38 AM
 
Originally Posted by Dark Helmet
If this is what you call expensive and slow I sure will enjoy it!

http://www.sonystyle.com:80/is-bin/I...SKU=DRX810UL/T
Sexy. However, I agree with mduell that it may not be worth the cost.

Anyways, I took one of my old unused Firewire enclosures and stuck a Pioneer 110D in it, and then flashed it to nullz' region free Pioneer 110 1.39 firmware. (And yes, flashing can be done on a Mac.) An added bonus is that the 110 (not 110D) firmware does DVD-RAM as well:



I also put an LG GSA-4167B in another old enclosure I had and it works great too. I just burned a dual-layer DVD+R in Toast with it and the disk works great. No region free firmware with this one yet though.

[EDIT] Sweet, there is a region free GSA-4167B DL12 firmware too, although it requires Windows to flash it. [/EDIT]

P.S. iTunes recognizes both drives fine for burning too.

P.P.S. AFAIK, most of the Indigita and Initio FW chipsets work fine too, although one of the Initio chipset may have caused problems (as did one of the Oxford chipsets I think). As for speed, that's not an issue, since optical drives won't max out even the slowest FW chipsets.

For hard drives though, it will be an issue, but then again you should probably get an enclosure built for hard drives, since many of the other chipsets won't recognize hard drive space beyond 128 MB.
( Last edited by Eug Wanker; Feb 12, 2006 at 02:29 AM. )
     
Eug Wanker
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Feb 13, 2006, 09:43 AM
 
Hmmm... Interesting...

My +R discs burned in my Apple Pioneer K04 drive worked fine in my Cube (which has a Matsushita SR-8186 DVD-ROM drive). However, my +R discs from my retail Pioneer 110D drive (with 110 firmware) did not. The Cube drive just spits them out. (The discs work in all my other machines.)

So, I reflashed the retail Pioneer with a RPC-1 OEM Pioneer Buffalo firmware firmware that does full auto-bitsetting, and now my +R discs burned from that drive work fine in the Cube. (The firmware is Pioneer branded by the way, not Buffalo.)
( Last edited by Eug Wanker; Feb 13, 2006 at 09:51 AM. )
     
broadcastgoddess
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Feb 26, 2006, 12:51 PM
 
I am a new Mac user that began the new journey back in October of 2005. I am so glad to be a MAC user. What a relief! I could use some guidence. I own a G4 powerbook and use it as my main computer in my business. I use an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I am feeling that I should invest in an external DVD/CD rom burner/writer. I saw your post and wondered if you feel the same way about your recommendation as you did when you first placed this post. I would like to not tax my drive in the laptop and be able to use an external burner/player. Anything you could recommend or update regarding this would be appreciated. Thank you. Broadcast Goddess.




Originally Posted by mduell
Dual layer burners don't cost any more than single layer burners.

For a burner I like the Pioneer DVR-110D (in gray or black). It is the fastest burner on the market for all the DVD formats (doesn't do DVD-RAM, "only" does 40x CD-R) and it's also one of the cheapest ($40). Supports changing the booktype for DVD+Rs (to improve compatibility) and is OSX compatible (either out of the box or with patchburn... since I've heard they're shipping this burner in the new PowerMacs it should be natively supported soon if not already).
For the enclosure, I like this Firewire and USB2 enclosure for $41 since it has the Oxford chipset for Firewire and you don't save much by buying a FW only enclosure (I think your USB ports are 1.1 [slow] so you probably don't want to use them for a burner).
All the cables/screws are included and assembly takes about 5 minutes.
     
hudson1
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Feb 26, 2006, 11:19 PM
 
I have one of these LG external burners and it has worked flawlessly for me using both USB2 and Firewire.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__LG_El...iter,__7160109
     
mduell
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Feb 27, 2006, 01:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by broadcastgoddess
I am a new Mac user that began the new journey back in October of 2005. I am so glad to be a MAC user. What a relief! I could use some guidence. I own a G4 powerbook and use it as my main computer in my business. I use an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. I am feeling that I should invest in an external DVD/CD rom burner/writer. I saw your post and wondered if you feel the same way about your recommendation as you did when you first placed this post. I would like to not tax my drive in the laptop and be able to use an external burner/player. Anything you could recommend or update regarding this would be appreciated. Thank you. Broadcast Goddess.
I still recommend the same burner (Pioneer DVR-110D) and either this $50 enclosure or this $38 enclosure.
     
stormyday
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Mar 10, 2006, 11:21 AM
 
Can someone tell me if the Macally PHC-500BC enclosure will hold both a 5.25 DVD and a 3.5 hard drive at the same time? The docs I have seen states that it SUPPORTS most 5.25 ATAPI CD/DVDs and 3.5 ATA hard drives.
     
mduell
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Mar 10, 2006, 10:10 PM
 
Originally Posted by stormyday
Can someone tell me if the Macally PHC-500BC enclosure will hold both a 5.25 DVD and a 3.5 hard drive at the same time? The docs I have seen states that it SUPPORTS most 5.25 ATAPI CD/DVDs and 3.5 ATA hard drives.
No, it only has room for one drive at a time.
The only 5.25" drives that won't work are probably the really old ones.
     
mountainash
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Mar 26, 2006, 01:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell
Yes, you can put almost any drive in almost any enclosure; a nice result of having standards that manufacturers follow.
Good enclosures are from companies with good reputations (I have two Kingwin enclosures) and use good chipsets (Oxford 911 is the gold standard for ATA<->FW400 bridges).
Yes, it should work with all the Apple apps (OS/iApps/Pro Apps) out of the box, since I've heard Apple is using the same drives in PowerMacs. If it doesn't, install patchburn (Google it) and it will all work.

Enjoy spending more money for a slower burner!
EDIT:

If it doesn't work as expected then patchburn. Dual Layer mightn't work with iDVD 5 (maybe 6?) without patching. Apple did some things to make life easier but did (or kept doing) other things to make life harder.
( Last edited by ShazamItsDavish2; Mar 27, 2006 at 07:20 AM. )
Power Mac G4 Digital Audio 533MHz 1.5GiB RAM, 2x 80Gb ATA HDDs, 320Gb SATA HDD, Radeon 9650 256MiB, Airport Extreme compatible PCI card, Zip 250, Pioneer 110, Firewire DVD burner, 21" CRT, Harmon Kardon Apple Pro Speakers, OS X 10.4.6
Powerbook Pismo G3 400MHz, 768MiB RAM, 80Gb HDD, AirPort Extreme PC Card, Bluetooth 1.1, DVD-ROM, OS X 10.4.6, Ubuntu 5.10, MacOS 9.2.2
To buy: RAM for Pismo, CPU upgrades
     
mduell
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Mar 26, 2006, 11:09 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShazamItsDavish2
External drives won't work with iApps etc.
Yes, they will.
     
mountainash
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Mar 27, 2006, 07:18 AM
 
Originally Posted by mduell
Yes, they will.
That's weird. I've done some searching and it seems like they /do/ work with TIger. It's strange because my firewire DVD burner isn't working. I had assumed that it was just the typical problems that existed under puma/jaguar/panther et al. Looks like I was wrong.

Is DVD Player meant to work now? I'm going to have to check this out. Thanks for the heads up!
Power Mac G4 Digital Audio 533MHz 1.5GiB RAM, 2x 80Gb ATA HDDs, 320Gb SATA HDD, Radeon 9650 256MiB, Airport Extreme compatible PCI card, Zip 250, Pioneer 110, Firewire DVD burner, 21" CRT, Harmon Kardon Apple Pro Speakers, OS X 10.4.6
Powerbook Pismo G3 400MHz, 768MiB RAM, 80Gb HDD, AirPort Extreme PC Card, Bluetooth 1.1, DVD-ROM, OS X 10.4.6, Ubuntu 5.10, MacOS 9.2.2
To buy: RAM for Pismo, CPU upgrades
     
   
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