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Where can I purchase a Superdrive? (firewire)

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Digidesign

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 7, 2002
448
52
I'm fairly happy with my Mac setup - except now I could really use the capabilities of burning to DVD (wedding slideshows, short films, etc.)

I'm wondering the following:

1) Where can I purchase the same drive that Apple uses as their 'Superdrive'? I believe it's currently a Sony DVD-R,DVD-RW,DVD+R,DVD+RW, etc. I'm having some difficulty finding it online - as though there's some crackdown on these DVD burners. Amazon.com's selection is bleak.

2) Can I use it in a firewire enclosure? What I mean by that is that I've heard that Apple does not support external DVD burners with their software such as iDVD, etc.

3) Are there any solutions for those who need DVD burning/authoring but do not wish to purchase a brand-new apple system? I basically need to make my own DVDs, so I'd probalby use iDVD +/or Toast.

thanks for your help.
 
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davedive

macrumors newbie
Mar 1, 2003
4
0
Flanders / Belgium
Hi,

Since your system is a PB, you are going to have to take an external dvd-r or + or in the case of the sony -&+ (unless you wait a bit until the 'slotted' dvd-r/-rw drives are out (i believe a company mce???? has anounced them (at 2x -r speed at +$500 or so).

Your options are :
External drive : you will need another softwareprogramm than idvd (because idvd only works with internal dvd-writers).
- Then you can maybe checkout LaCie who have an external -R/-RW drive with programm 'CaptyDVD' i think. I don't know how the programm will work together with the other apple-apps, but it's maybe worth a try (i also think that formac has a drive with software but i'm not sure)
- Buy DVD-studio-pro (pretty expensive but quite good i hear) : check apple's website for compatible external drives because not all of them work
- wait for the above mentionned internal drive and you'll be working from idvd3.

P.S. Even if you find a sony drive (oem they are dr-u10a) i think the firmware will not work (apple must have flashed the firmware when they put them in the new imacs)

davedive
 
D

Digidesign

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 7, 2002
448
52
thanks for your timely and informative reply - I'll be anxiously awaiting the slot-load superdrives :)
 
M

moby1

macrumors 6502
Jan 28, 2002
256
0
Sunny San Diego
Don't go FW - go for the internal slot-load upgrade from MCE

I had a 550 last year and bought a QPS FW DVD-R unit for some important backups.

It seemed to burn OK and even verified *BUT* if I burned more than about 3.5 GB of data, the data near the outside of the disk was inaccesible.

I had to sell the darn thing.
 
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