iDVD, DVD Studio support for external DVD-R

[phantommaul]

i am planning to buy a PB 15" with 1.25 and combo drive, is it possible to connect an external DVD burner and use it with iDVD, DVD studio pro or not ??

[phantommaul]

from apple support site
Question 7: Can I use iDVD with other CD-R or DVD-R drives?

Answer: No. iDVD is designed to only work with Apple DVD-R drives, available on certain configurations of Power Mac G4 and iMac (flat panel) computers.

it is a shame apple acts so selfish about the use of superdrive. i managed to get a combo powerbook and upgrade it with an external DVD-RW :(

[ZildjianKX]

You can use it w/ DVD Studio Pro though.

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by phantommaul
it is a shame apple acts so selfish about the use of superdrive. i managed to get a combo powerbook and upgrade it with an external DVD-RW :( At least according to Apple, the reason iDVD won't work with an external drive is that they "bundle" the MPEG2 codec licence with the superdrive/computer, not with iDVD, which (in theory) is why iDVD is so cheap--no MPEG2 and/or DVD licence.

Were that true, I suppose it'd theoretically be legit to use an external DVD-R with iDVD so long as you owned a superdrive, but Apple's not going there.

Sort of a shame for those of us who like burning DVDs but don't want to fork out for the pro version.

[phantommaul]

i sure want the all in one high end model but i tried 3 years to convince my family to buy me a powerbook and now i want them to survive this major purchase with min damage :) so i decided to start with the combo downgrade and maybe later on buy an external dvd-r. but under that circumstances i would go with the integrated superdrive model.

again apple, you won. my bank account is yours :)