Pioneer DVR-A05 SuperDrive

[MacRumors]

This CDR-Info article (http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=2787) details the upcoming DVR-A05 DVD-R/RW recorder from Pioneer.

The new drive is due in November and offers 4X DVD-R writing and 2X DVD-RW on "highspeed" DVD media.

The new highspeed media may cause problems with older drives and requires a Firmware update (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?threadid=11440) before they can be used safely.

[sjonni]

Shouldn´t DVD+R/RW be superior to DVD-R/RW...or am I wrong! Any comments?:D :D

[Hemingray]

Very cool. I just wish they'd up the CD-R and RW speeds!

[Rocketman]

Is there any info on price both consumer and OEM?

Thanks.

[sjonni]

No but NEC ND1100 (in this same article) is yours for $300-350. So I guess it will be on the same price range;)

[Falleron]

Originally posted by Hemingray
Very cool. I just wish they'd up the CD-R and RW speeds!
They have been upped from the previous superdrives.

16X, 12X, 8X, 4X writing
8X, 4X re-writing,

Thats quicker than the A04 drives in current Macs.

[rasha]

How about the new Sony drive.

All the formats at fast speeds including 24X CD-R. And it is cheap. now that is a SuperDrive!

[funkywhat2]

Originally posted by sjonni
Shouldn´t DVD+R/RW be superior to DVD-R/RW...or am I wrong! Any comments?:D :D

i think that dvd-r/rw can be read on more players that +r/rw.

but this isn't the place for this discussion:)

[Falcon500]

The more important question is when will it be available as oem on the mac?

[Bear]

Originally posted by sjonni
Shouldn´t DVD+R/RW be superior to DVD-R/RW...or am I wrong! Any comments?:D :D

DVD-R's can play on almost any DVD Player ever made. As well as things like the Sony Playstation 2.

Compatability is good in some cases.

[DreaminDirector]

I was wondering what effect it's going to have on us by having this DVD burner. I'm using a powerbook and a G4 desktop and wanted to know if this is going to be a firewire add-on or an internal thing. And I heard on one of the message boards that Apple isn't allowing 3rd party burners use iDVD. If this is the case, how do I got about burning DVDs with the current system I have (I just bought a 800mhz powerbook and would love to be able to burn DVDs from it). Well, how do I burn DVDs in general if I can't use iDVD?

[SPG]

Originally posted by Bear


DVD-R's can play on almost any DVD Player ever made. As well as things like the Sony Playstation 2.

Compatability is good in some cases.

Not so fast... DVD-R compatablity is getting better on the newer players, but still leaves much to be desired. Ralph LeBarge did a compatability test on various brands of DVD media and the results varied widely as I recall. If I have time I'll dig up the link.
The DVD+R format is being pushed by the Microsoft camp mostly, and the "superdrive" is a DVD-R like the new A05.
Not so sure if the Sony really works too well with the -R, but if it does that would be pretty cool, as long as it works in a mac.

[P-Worm]

Originally posted by DreaminDirector
I was wondering what effect it's going to have on us by having this DVD burner. I'm using a powerbook and a G4 desktop and wanted to know if this is going to be a firewire add-on or an internal thing. And I heard on one of the message boards that Apple isn't allowing 3rd party burners use iDVD. If this is the case, how do I got about burning DVDs with the current system I have (I just bought a 800mhz powerbook and would love to be able to burn DVDs from it). Well, how do I burn DVDs in general if I can't use iDVD?

I believe that toast can do it, but nothing you use is going to be as cool as iDVD, except for DVD Studio Pro. I'm not sure if that works with externals, but that is a very pricey program. Why did I even post? I have no idea what I'm talking about. :eek:

Oh well, iDVD rocks...

P-Worm

[solvs]

Originally posted by P-Worm

Why did I even post? I have no idea what I'm talking about. :eek:

P-Worm

That doesn't seem to stop anybody else around here (including me sometimes). :p

[Multimedia]

The Sony only writes @ 2.5X it is history. This Pioneer DVR-A05 is next in the MDD PowerMac. No one should buy a MDD PowerMac with an A04 SuperDrive in it. That is the fastest way to get the A05 inside. You save $200 to downgrade your MDD order, get a faster CDR drive and buy the A05 in November OEM raw and put it in the second drive slot. Then you pull the CDR and replace it with a Yamaha CRW-F1 for $150 and you have the dream team inside.

PS. I'm the one who pushed MacRumors.com to publish this thread. This news is over a week old and the Pioneer Long Beach PR department isn't going to release a press release until the end of October. Tokyo released it last Tuesday.

[DreaminDirector]

Thanks P-worm. I'm going to start a thread in the questions section so I don't bog down this thread.

[SPG]

Anyone spot the story in www.macnn.com this morning about the new DVD drives being shown at Ceatec?
To quote Macnn:
"Pioneer displayed both DVR-K11RZ (tray-loading notebook SuperDrive with 2x/2x/8x DVD-RW and 16x/10x/24x CD-RW functions) and its 3.5" desktop DVR-105RZ (4x/2x/12x DVD-RW and 16x/10x/40x CD-RW).
* A "traverse mechanism" (slot-loading?) version of the notebook SuperDrive drive appears to be even smaller and is due to begin production in December 2002 with 2x/2x/8x DVD-RW and 16x/10x/24x CD-RW functions. "

Its coming.

[Mr. G4]

Originally posted by DreaminDirector
I was wondering what effect it's going to have on us by having this DVD burner. I'm using a powerbook and a G4 desktop and wanted to know if this is going to be a firewire add-on or an internal thing. And I heard on one of the message boards that Apple isn't allowing 3rd party burners use iDVD. If this is the case, how do I got about burning DVDs with the current system I have (I just bought a 800mhz powerbook and would love to be able to burn DVDs from it). Well, how do I burn DVDs in general if I can't use iDVD?

For now you won't be able to use it with your PB, however, for your PowerMac just pop out the old drive and put the DVD burner in place, you are good to burn you iDVD movies.

[nixd2001]

Originally posted by SPG

The DVD+R format is being pushed by the Microsoft camp mostly

The main proponent of DVD+R is Philips. MS may have joined in recently, but they're sticking their fingers in to most things DVD at present, so I wouldn't read too much into that. Strip away all the spin and DVD-R vs DVD+R is Pioneer vs Phlips. Sony is the interesting player here because they want to back the winner (they always do) and they're now backing both formats. This suggests to me that this division isn't about to go away for a while, unfortunately.

[P-Worm]

DVD+RW sucks. I think that Apple made a smart move by going with the regular DVD-R. For one thing, DVD-R can play on ALL standard DVD players, not certain more expensive ones. The thing is, DVD-R is never going to become obsolete, it can't because it works on everything. However, DVD+RW only works on a select few and can therefore fail. Gosh I love Apple... :)

P-Worm

[DaedalusDE]

not true... there are 3 dvd players that dvd-r wont work on... a mitsubishi, the bottom of the line oritron (and i have the top) and some other one... but whatever... just saying that dvd-r isnt perfect (but its pretty damn close)

[Sauron1440]

If and when the DVR-AO5 is included in mew macs and Apple has it's firmware installed in 'em - would it be possible to flash the Apple firmware over a 3rd party DVR-105 and stick it into an older mac?
For example - if I buy a 3rd party Superdrive that's the same model as the current superdrive, will Apple's firmware take on a drive that wasn't originally OEM?

[Multimedia]

Yes you can buy an A05 and put it in an old Mac and it will work just fine. Apple doesn't burn firmware into their SupereDrives Ñ only writes a driver for them. That's exactly what you should do when the A05 comes out. Don't waste your money buying a 105 retail box. Just use http://www.pricewatch.com to buy an OEM RAW A05 as cheap as possible.

My guess is that the driver for the A05 will be the same or almost the same driver they are using for the A04. I can't imagine why the driver whould have to be rewritten at all. It's just a faster A04. But I'm no software driver expert at all so I may be wrong. Any readers of this string know if changes will be needed to the SuperDrive driver?

[gotohamish]

I started a page of my site dedicated to DVDR compatibility, but haven't updates it in ages. The forum got closed too(!), it gives you percentages of compatibility too.

Check out at http://www.fourdegree.com/dvd/

[TechLarry]

This is all moot.

On October 11th Sony will devestate all other manufacturers, until those manufacturers follow suit.

TL

[TechLarry]

Originally posted by rasha
How about the new Sony drive.

All the formats at fast speeds including 24X CD-R. And it is cheap. now that is a SuperDrive!

I agree. Apple should be signing a contract with Sony RIGHT NOW.

TL

[TechLarry]

Originally posted by SPG


Not so fast... DVD-R compatablity is getting better on the newer players, but still leaves much to be desired. Ralph LeBarge did a compatability test on various brands of DVD media and the results varied widely as I recall. If I have time I'll dig up the link.
The DVD+R format is being pushed by the Microsoft camp mostly, and the "superdrive" is a DVD-R like the new A05.
Not so sure if the Sony really works too well with the -R, but if it does that would be pretty cool, as long as it works in a mac.

EVERY single report I have ever read concerning DVD-R/RW vs. DVD+R/RW ahs shown the DVD-R/RW format to be totally superior to the +R formats when it comes to compatibility.

Without exception.

TL

[groovebuster]

Originally posted by Multimedia
Then you pull the CDR and replace it with a Yamaha CRW-F1 for $150 and you have the dream team inside.

Yup, the CRW-F1 is tempting, but is it supported by MacOS X? On the YAMAHA-Website the only ist Windows-Systems as compatible... :(

groovebuster

[cubist]

I thought I heard Apple was switching to a Matsu****a drive. Any info on that?

Will the slot-loader work in my Cube?:cool:

[SPG]

Originally posted by TechLarry
This is all moot.

On October 11th Sony will devestate all other manufacturers, until those manufacturers follow suit.

TL

How so?
Phillips was supposed to destroy all the competition with the +R format that was cheaper and hyped to be the second coming, but that's still going back and forth with little progress.
Sony was supposed to dominate with the superior quality of Betamax over VHS if you're old enough to recall that.
I'm very hesitant to believe any of these "________ will devestate all others" kind of statements.
Some of the best technology gets left in the dust my market forces and consumer misconceptions.

[SPG]

Originally posted by TechLarry


EVERY single report I have ever read concerning DVD-R/RW vs. DVD+R/RW ahs shown the DVD-R/RW format to be totally superior to the +R formats when it comes to compatibility.

Without exception.

TL

I can tell you that there are plenty of players that still don't play nice with the DVD-R's so don't believe that they are 100% compatible especially with first generation players. Since we're not making +R's here I can't comment on their compatibility firsthand.
I do believe that the -R are more compatible right now, and even more so as more new DVD players enter the market.

[Multimedia]

Would you mind being a little more specific about the coming devastation Friday?

[buffsldr]

Does anybody know where I can buy one of these drives in person (not online)

thanks

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by buffsldr
Does anybody know where I can buy one of these drives in person (not online)

thanks

Today the retail version $299 is just reaching stores now. Where are you? The Raw drive $249 isn't due to ship until November 25th. In California Fry's should have them soon. It really depends on where you are.

Have you checked http://www.pricewatch.com yet? Stores are listed there too.

[G4scott]

Originally posted by cubist
I thought I heard Apple was switching to a Matsu****a drive. Any info on that?

Will the slot-loader work in my Cube?:cool:

The Plain 'ol CD drives in the iBooks used to be matsu****a drives... The combo drives in the current, and older iBooks is a Toshiba drive...

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Multimedia


Today the retail version $299 is just reaching stores now. Where are you? The Raw drive $249 isn't due to ship until November 25th. In California Fry's should have them soon. It really depends on where you are.

Have you checked http://www.pricewatch.com yet? Stores are listed there too.

thanks for the heads up. I dont have a frys in my state, i do have compusa, best buy, circuit city. any of these stores likely to carry the stuff? I will check pricewatch now. thank you.

[Multimedia]

You'e still not telling where you are. If you are in a metroplex with those stores then you probably have independent computer supply stores that advertises in your daily newspaper in the sports or the business sections. Or the Yellow pages. Phone around. I'm sure you'll find it somewhere like that. CompUSA and Best Buy will carry it too. But they may not be the first. We don't know how big or small the initial supply of these gems is. So where are you is important. Where are you?

[SPG]

Apparently word form Pioneer is that the drives are being delayed in the ports, so they are air freighting A05's in from asia at a slightly higher cost to the resellers. In a few weeks there will be plenty to go around and then you'll see them under the $299 list.

BTW, I totally didn't expect to see the tiBook with a slot loading DVDR this soon! Happy to be wrong though.

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by SPG

BTW, I totally didn't expect to see the tiBook with a slot loading DVDR this soon! Happy to be wrong though.

I wonder if we could fool a SuperDrive PowerBook to write the iDVD that we setup because of the internal SuperDrive to an external 105 @ 4x instead of the lame 1x inside? Anyone going to try that?

[SPG]

Hmm, I wonder if that would work. I know that iDVD won't even launch unless you have a superdrive built in, but once launched is it possible to select which drive to burn to?
Also does iDVD create a file folder hierarchy and burn the Video_TS folder, or does it mux the files on the fly so that the burn won't get ahead of the simultaneous multiplexing?

Also anyone have any experience putting an aftermarket A03 or A04 drive into a Mac that didn't come with one and run iDVD succesfully? I'm thinking of slapping a A05 into my G4 DP867 at home for kicks, and was wondering about the precedent.

And in case anyone is curious I have on the shelf a S201 DVD burner that I paid $4500 for and it only burns 1X authoring media at $20 a shot. It's only two years old, and hasn't been used since I got an A04 firewire setup. At least I didn't pay $20,000 for the S101.

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by SPG
Hmm, I wonder if that would work. I know that iDVD won't even launch unless you have a superdrive built in, but once launched is it possible to select which drive to burn to?
Also does iDVD create a file folder hierarchy and burn the Video_TS folder, or does it mux the files on the fly so that the burn won't get ahead of the simultaneous multiplexing?

Also anyone have any experience putting an aftermarket A03 or A04 drive into a Mac that didn't come with one and run iDVD succesfully? I'm thinking of slapping a A05 into my G4 DP867 at home for kicks, and was wondering about the precedent.


That's the 64 dollar question. We all want to know if iDVD will see the DVR-105 inside the dual 867 or any other Tower and launch. We sure hope so. Please let us know what happens after you put it in. I know it works with a 103 or 104. Nobody knows but a few Apple employees if it works with the 105. You the man!

[DreaminDirector]

Ok, so what about putting one of these DVR-105 bad boys in a G4 DP450? Would that be worth it or should I just save up for a new DP 1Ghz?

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by DreaminDirector
Ok, so what about putting one of these DVR-105 bad boys in a G4 DP450? Would that be worth it or should I just save up for a new DP 1Ghz?

Should work there too. If you're going for a MDD just get the dual 867 stock plus the 64MB ATI 9000 then add the 105. In a yeare you're going to want the dual G5. The dual 867 will double your current performance. Plus you can sell your dual 450 for $1K probably.

[DreaminDirector]

That's a great idea. Basically just custom building one. Off topic, but do you really think my G4 DP450 is worth $1000? Sweet!

[solvs]

When the 105 DVD-Rs are out, just go to

www.xlr8yourmac.com

and check the Drive Compatibility pages. I'm sure someone will have tried it with iDVD. And I'm sure eventually Apple will update iTunes, DiskBurn, and iDVD for compatibilty with the other DVD-Rs, if it hasn't already.

And if they don't, someone will send Xlr8 a hack you can use.

[afs_nj]

Why choose a Pioneer Ao5 over the Sony model that claims to right DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW and has a faster CR writing speed?

Anybody?

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by afs_nj
Why choose a Pioneer Ao5 over the Sony model that claims to right DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW and has a faster CR writing speed?

Anybody?

Continuity. Apple has a history of supporting Pioneer DVD-RW drives. Therefore it's a safer bet that the 104 drivers will work with the 105. Install a separate CD-RW drive for writing CDs. I'm getting a 52x24x52x CD-R drive Sunday for $69.99 after $10 rebate at Fry's. The reading speed is more important (IMHO) than the writing speed because the mp3 ripping bottleneck is in the optical reader before the CPU speed. That's why the MDD's rip at such lame speeds (18x average) on all three CPU speeds. So that's why you need a dedicated CD-RW drive for ripping and writing CDR/RWs.

[SPG]

just to chime in here, the driver issue isn't just one of the driver being available today, but down the road for the next compatibility upgrade too.
I have a very nice $300 Sony paperweight waiting for a driver update so it can work again, thankyouverymuch.

[buffsldr]

Has anyone heard if these have arrived in mass in the US yet?

Thanks in advance

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by buffsldr
Has anyone heard if these have arrived in mass in the US yet?

Thanks in advance

I just did what you could have done yourself. Before you post a question like this just look at http://www.pricewatch.com whenever you are tryihng to find something?

http://www.Pricewatch.com has them listed now. But this first batch had to be flown over to get past the dock backup. So raw drives are selling for above list ($249) at least $273 and up for OEM raw drives only. If you wait for the boat to unload, you'll probably find them for $225 in a month or two.

Current low priced leaders in and out of CA:

http://www.avlogic.com/

800-365-1681

CA $273

http://www.isquaredinc.com/

888-307-7372

UT $282

[Kethoticus]

How about the new Sony drive.

All the formats at fast speeds including 24X CD-R. And it is cheap. now that is a SuperDrive!


When last I looked, this drive was only Windows-compatible. Does anyone know if this since has changed?

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by Multimedia


I just did what you could have done yourself. Before you post a question like this just look at http://www.pricewatch.com whenever you are tryihng to find something?

http://www.Pricewatch.com has them listed now. But this first batch had to be flown over to get past the dock backup. So raw drives are selling for above list ($249) at least $273 and up for OEM raw drives only. If you wait for the boat to unload, you'll probably find them for $225 in a month or two.

Current low priced leaders in and out of CA:

http://www.avlogic.com/

800-365-1681

CA $273

http://www.isquaredinc.com/

888-307-7372

UT $282


Thanks for the info, but it wasnt really what I was asking. I am wondering if the superdrives have arrived in mass yet (my understanding was that they were delayed due to the long shoreman strike). Just curious if they are hitting stores in mass yet. Anyone?

[meta-ghost]

One A05 was delivered to me today from NewEgg.com.

[Multimedia]

From last week on MacIntouch

Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 21:32:21 -0700
From: Mark Fukami
Subject: Pioneer dvr-105

I purchased and installed the new pioneer dvr-105 dvd-r drive into my g-4 450 dual. It was soo easy, not only that but it works like a champ with no alterations what so ever.

My system is 10.2.2 with 2 gigs ram and 120 gig IBM drives. The drive is 32x read cd-rom, 12x read dvd-rom, 4x dvd-r write, 2x dvd-rw write. I checked it out with toast ti 5, itunes 3, idvd 2 and desktop burn command , .mac backup and the dvd player. The only thing it is not compatible with is retrospect as they have not qualified the drive, express does see the drive but shows it not available.

ASP shows it as fully burn compatible and it is.

I burned a backup cd-r from .mac backup at 16x, same for itunes and toast 5. I used toast to read a vcd I earlier burned from toast and I ripped an audio cd at 9x-12x+, faster than my oem dvd-rom drive. I burned a test dvd-r, 30 minutes of video took 45+ minutes to prepare and 15+ minutes to burn on a generic gold 1x dvd-r disk. I mounted and loaded a dvd-rw full and burned it, this was slow but it was a 1x disk, it took only 15 minutes to prep the data but 45 minutes to burn the full disk and another 25 minutes to verify the disk. I tried erasing (not with quick erase) in toast and finally halted the process after 25 minutes, I have no idea if this is typical with toast. Erased the disk in the finder/disk uilities again quick erase but it only took 5 minutes to erase.

I'll try some other tests with the dvd-rw since I can reuse it. Oops looks like I made a coaster when I interupted the erase in toast.

[buffsldr]

Snaps, Mulitmedia. Nice work. Do you own stock in Pioneer? J/K Great info

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by buffsldr

I am wondering if the superdrives have arrived in mass yet (my understanding was that they were delayed due to the long shoreman strike). Just curious if they are hitting stores in mass yet. Anyone?

That was a longshoremen LOCKOUT by management not a strike. I think that finally got settled recently. Or it's soon to be settled I saw a brief news report on TV recently.

Yes there was that delay and Pioneer is flying a set in for purcahse above list now. Fry's still isn't advertising it yet so I'd say no. I'll post when I find them at a mass market merchandiser or Fry's in California. Keep studying the Sunday paper advertising supplements.

[Multimedia]

OK. The A05U (North American version of the DVR-105 in a retail box) has finally reached Fry's shelves.

I opened my Saturday morning papeer today and pulled out the new Fry's 8 page insert and found the A05 on the cover of it featuring the "sale" price of $299 with "no rebate required". So it's in the papers and on the shelves.

This means the drive has finally reached retail shelves in volume and at the suggested retail price promised in the original press release. However, the price on the box was $350. $300 is the sale price. So these may be the ones flown over for early arrival. I sold one to a guy who was going to buy a 2.4x Sony because of reviews he'd read on the web. I told him I'd have to shoot him if he touched the Sony box. He happily walked away with the 105.

BTW CompUSA says they won't be selling the Pioneer DVR-A05U. No explanation was offered.

[buffsldr]

Originally posted by meta-ghost
One A05 was delivered to me today from NewEgg.com.

do you trust this newegg.com shop? I am nervous of online merchants, unless i hear from satisfied customers.

thanks, i cant wait to get to idvd 2.

[meta-ghost]

Originally posted by buffsldr


do you trust this newegg.com shop? I am nervous of online merchants, unless i hear from satisfied customers.

thanks, i cant wait to get to idvd 2.

This was my first purchase (the A05) from newegg.com and everything went fine. I ordered on a Friday and it arrived on Monday. Simple installation and it worked straight away. So did iDVD 2.1 which was new to my machine. Previously, I had a DVD-Ram drive.

For those interested in benchmarks, my machine is the following:
G4 450 AGP
10.2.2
Radeon 8500
1 gig ram

The new drive burned a 300meg VCD disk in 1:45min (compared to 7:30min in my scsi 4x).

From iDVD, a 35 min video took 2 hours to burn.

[jordonringel]

newegg.com is the best computer shop on the internet PERIOD. fast shipping and returns are so easy

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by jordonringel
newegg.com is the best computer shop on the internet PERIOD. fast shipping and returns are so easy

And they're all gone.

[bigwreck]

Anyone seen a hack for getting two optical drives installed in last years Quicksilver ? (Or the current Base model with the same case). By the looks of it, only something like an internal zip or superdrive will fit below my CD-R ... would love to buy the A05 and install it below my CD-R

[Marvenp]

Originally posted by crazy_will


i think that dvd-r/rw can be read on more players that +r/rw.

but this isn't the place for this discussion:)

Who are you to decide what can and cannot be discussed on this forum. I'm getting so tired of you members who think you have to set boundaries for what can be discussed. If someone has an interest, and there are people willing to reply, I say discuss away. If there are replies to a question or topic, there is obviously interest.

[Marvenp]

Originally posted by nixd2001


The main proponent of DVD+R is Philips. MS may have joined in recently, but they're sticking their fingers in to most things DVD at present, so I wouldn't read too much into that. Strip away all the spin and DVD-R vs DVD+R is Pioneer vs Phlips. Sony is the interesting player here because they want to back the winner (they always do) and they're now backing both formats. This suggests to me that this division isn't about to go away for a while, unfortunately.

They (the industry) will NEVER decide on a standard format for DVD recording so that's why I'm so glad DVDs will be obsolete in about 5 ~ 10 years (if that long). Bu-Ray Discs will replace DVDs and the sooner the better. I'm sick of these DVD format wars.

[SPG]

Okay then. DVD will eventually be obsolete, so will fossil fuels. For now, the so called 'format wars' aren't really that big a deal. Buy the DVD burner that you think best suits your needs and budget, and burn away.
Blue Ray isn't ready yet, won't be for a while and all indications are that it will be very expensive, especially at first. The Blue Ray players won't be able to play current DVD's unless they build in a seperate red laser to the unit, and they will be cartridge based since the surfaces are so fragile. The upside is that they will be true HD. That's what I want. HD content on an HD monitor.

[Marvenp]

Originally posted by SPG
Hmm, I wonder if that would work. I know that iDVD won't even launch unless you have a superdrive built in, but once launched is it possible to select which drive to burn to?
Also does iDVD create a file folder hierarchy and burn the Video_TS folder, or does it mux the files on the fly so that the burn won't get ahead of the simultaneous multiplexing?

Also anyone have any experience putting an aftermarket A03 or A04 drive into a Mac that didn't come with one and run iDVD succesfully? I'm thinking of slapping a A05 into my G4 DP867 at home for kicks, and was wondering about the precedent.

And in case anyone is curious I have on the shelf a S201 DVD burner that I paid $4500 for and it only burns 1X authoring media at $20 a shot. It's only two years old, and hasn't been used since I got an A04 firewire setup. At least I didn't pay $20,000 for the S101.

Yes! A friend of mine did buy an aftermarket Pioneer A04 external drive here in Japan and yes it is working fine with iDVD.

[SPG]

Cool. So now when I come home after working on a $50,000 DVD system, I can use iDVD at home!

[charboneau]

Yeah, fossil fuels can't be obsolete fast enough. Then we might breathe clean air and not be led into war by greedy buttheads. Oops, I think someone said something about going off topic. What I want to know is what are the chances that Apple or a 3rd party drive maker will enable me to hook up an external burner to my iBook and write a DVD from iDVD? Sorry I couldn't afford a professional model. Why should that prevent me from using a consumer iApp?

[SPG]

MPEG2 conversion on an iBook will be painfully, terribly, awfully slow for one, and I think there was another reason, but Apple legal waved there hand in front of me and said "These are not the third party enablers you are looking for." and so I can't remember who actually made it possible, then got sued, then unmade it possible.

[Multimedia]

Originally posted by bigwreck
Anyone seen a hack for getting two optical drives installed in last years Quicksilver ? (Or the current Base model with the same case). By the looks of it, only something like an internal zip or superdrive will fit below my CD-R ... would love to buy the A05 and install it below my CD-R

I can't find my bookmark for it. But I've seen it and it's complete with many photographs. Not a hard to do hack. I'll keep looking and make a new post when I find it.

[solvs]

www.xlr8yourmac.com has info on the hack to add a 2nd optical drive to previous G4 Towers. Voids the warranty of course.

[el gringo]

Just bought the Pioneer DVR-A05 and it works great, both with Toast 5.2 AND iDVD!

FYI: had problems with DVR-A03 after using the supedrive firmware update apple released some time ago - but flashed it back to the original apple firmware 1.49 and the A03 started to work fine again.

[DreaminDirector]

My concern is that when I get my A05, do I need to update my firmware? I have a DP450 G4 and apple knows that it's not supposted to have a superdrive. What are the steps to prepare my computer?

[el gringo]

Well, it turned out that the A05 does not work with iDVD 2. Not yet anyway. I can read and write perfectly fine in Toast. I can also work in iDVD, but when it comes to burn the material, it ends and says that I've inserted a blank media and asks me if I want to "initialize"...

...I guess I'll have to wait for iDVD 3!?

anyone got a solution?

[meta-ghost]

Originally posted by el gringo
Well, it turned out that the A05 does not work with iDVD 2. Not yet anyway. I can read and write perfectly fine in Toast. I can also work in iDVD, but when it comes to burn the material, it ends and says that I've inserted a blank media and asks me if I want to "initialize"...

...I guess I'll have to wait for iDVD 3!?

anyone got a solution?

There really shouldn't be any problem with it working - give us more info. You definitely need 10.2.2.

I have a three year old G4 450 tower, did not do any firmware update and iDVD 2.1 worked straight away. Granted the old machine takes awhile for the first three stages of preparing to burn from iDVD, the fourth stage (actual burning) on a 50 minute video takes 25 minutes total.

[el gringo]

Well now it works...I have one partition for OSX 10.2.3 - just for kicks...and I tried iDVD on that one - and suddenly it worked. But, you say it should work in 10.2.2 also? I have that on my "regular" system - but it didn't work. Maybe the 2.3 adds support for A05. In 2.3 i have "full disc burner"-support, but none in 2.2 - when I run the "system information"-check.