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LG GGC-H20LI Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive install?

J

janstett

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 13, 2006
1,235
0
Chester, NJ
LG's combo Blu-Ray & HD-DVD player has hit the streets at a price of $299. I'm thinking of adding one to my Mac Pro but first some questions:

(1) DVD player has an HD tab now with Leopard -- has anybody played either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD on Leopard? Not much use in buying the drive if I can't play anything back on it.

(2) The specs say this is a SATA device. I've never seen a SATA CD-ROM before -- any issues plugging this into bay 2 of my Mac Pro? I'm assuming the existing super drive is ATA.
 
i dont know about the playing capabilities of leopard yet, but if it says its only SATA then you will need to either have built is SATA or a SATA card, since SATA is different than IDE.
 
The Mac Pro does have SATA (all four hard drive bays are SATA) but the question is about the optical drive bays. I think they're only equipped for ATA/IDE but I can't recall for sure from the last time I cracked open the case.

I may do it through USB/eSata but I'd prefer the drive to be internal.

EDIT: Double checked the Mac Pro manual online, unfortunately the optical drives are ATA/IDE so this new drive won't work on the Mac Pro (dammit).

I think the motherboard has 4 SATA ports and they're all used by the internal disk cage so that's not an option.

Not looking good :( I'll live with e-sata or USB in an external case, so the question of DVD player is still open.
 
janstett said:
The Mac Pro does have SATA (all four hard drive bays are SATA) but the question is about the optical drive bays. I think they're only equipped for ATA/IDE but I can't recall for sure from the last time I cracked open the case.

I may do it through USB/eSata but I'd prefer the drive to be internal.
Click to expand...




This info is from Apple system spec app edit : Pic thats from MP spec screen
 

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I think the mac pro actually has 6 sata ports on the motherboard. However there are only 4 located behind the hard drive racks. And the cd/DVD drives have the pata connectors behind. The 2 extra sata ports are located somewhere else and are hard to route to the DVD bays.
 
There have been several people in these forums who have installed SATA optical drives in the Mac Pro. It's actually very easy as long as you haven't used all the hard drive bay ports. Search the forums for pioneer drive install and you'll probably find the answers you need. There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't put the LG HD-DVD/BluRay drive in the Mac Pro.

-Robert
 
slicedbread said:
I think the mac pro actually has 6 sata ports on the motherboard. However there are only 4 located behind the hard drive racks. And the cd/DVD drives have the pata connectors behind. The 2 extra sata ports are located somewhere else and are hard to route to the DVD bays.
Click to expand...

Hard or impossible?
 
I've installed the LG blue-ray/HD-DVD writer

It works fine. You need small hands to route the cable but not impossible. I can send pictures if you'd like. Works fine on Mac for burning. Haven't been able to get my Bootcamp Vista 64 to see it though for some reason.

Ken
 
khoang said:
It works fine. You need small hands to route the cable but not impossible. I can send pictures if you'd like. Works fine on Mac for burning. Haven't been able to get my Bootcamp Vista 64 to see it though for some reason.

Ken
Click to expand...

Could you put the pictures in this thread? That would make installing process of blu-ray device easier!

Thanks in advance!
 
Update: I got my hands on an extrnal sata to USB case. I was disappointed to see leopard didn't do anything with either HD-DVD or Blu-ray even though it could see the drive and read discs.

Not too long after, my wife told me she needed a new pc for her business so I gave her my old home theater pc which I stopped using in favor of hd discs on the consoles. I replaced it with a quad core Gateway I got for $750 and put the combo drive in there. With PowerDVD it plays both formats and decodes to six analog output audio.

Now that hd-DVD is dead I may get a Blu-ray burner for my Mac depending on playback and what happens at Macworld.

But anyway, glad it can be done, thanks.

It just irks me that to play discs I have to go with a pc.
 
AdvocateUK said:
From what I've read the extra two sata connectors are actually quite easy to get to, you just need an sata cable that has one of the 90 degree connectors on one end.
Click to expand...
SATA cables here on NewEgg. I doubt it would need to be very long but there are a wide variety that have 90 degree connectors.
 
viltsu said:
Could you put the pictures in this thread? That would make installing process of blu-ray device easier!

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Here you go. Hope this helps. This is on a new 2.8GHz Mac Pro.

Ken
 

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If you want to use two SATA drives and 90 degree connectors, make sure you buy one 270 degree and one 90 degree otherwise they don't fit. Also make sure to buy cables which are long enough, I tried with 50cm cables first and they were just a bit too short.
 
DVD Player

This is from DVD Player Help regarding playing HD DVDs

High definition DVD discs (called “HD DVDs”) provide excellent picture and sound quality. DVD Player plays only HD DVDs created using DVD Studio Pro. Your computer must support the HD format and your monitor must support Quartz Extreme. To check whether your computer and monitor can play HD DVDs created using DVD Studio Pro, choose Help > Show Supported Features.
Click to expand...

That would explain why there is mention of HD in DVD Player.
 
Blu-ray burning

khoang said:
Here you go. Hope this helps. This is on a new 2.8GHz Mac Pro.

Ken
Click to expand...

Thanks for the picts. Installed my LG GGW-H20L with a 90 degree Sata cable and actually just broke off a little bit of the plastic above the ports for easier access. Now the Mac Pro recognizes the drive and recognizes discs when I insert them but I can only burn regular discs and not BD-R or BD-RE. Could this be a media brand problem? What brand are you using? I have tried Verbatim BD-RE and Panasonic BD-R. Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 Ghz Dual Core Intel Xeon OSX Sever 10.1.11. Any tips appreciated. Thanks in advance.....K
 
Burning software?

Are you using Toast (which is supposed to support Blu Ray recording) or directly burning from the finder?
Where did you buy the LG GGW-H20L? Looks like a good drive!
 
Lg Ggw-h20l

Rad said:
Are you using Toast (which is supposed to support Blu Ray recording) or directly burning from the finder?
Where did you buy the LG GGW-H20L? Looks like a good drive!
Click to expand...

Yes, I am using Toast 8.0.3.
 
Just a note on the drive itself. I know someone that picked up the LG GGC-H20N (same as the LG GGC-H20L but does't have Lightscribe) and loves it (not on a Mac though).
 
data & power cable?

Hi guys, thanks for the interesting discussion re installing the LG GGW-H20L in the Mac Pro.

I intend to install this drive in a Mac Pro 2HGz in Optical drive bay 2.

Will this cable do? http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Cabling/Serial+ATA

Also will the power connection work in bay2, or do I need something like https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Per...Molex+to+SATA+Power+Connector+?productId=7683

I have all 4 HD drive bays full, so obviously I need to get to the two back SATA ports as discussed here..

Unfortunately I dont really see what I´m supposed to see in the pictures above, but I´m guessing that will clear up once I open up the Mac Pro? :)

Many questions, thanks in advance!
 
I installed the GGW-H20L 4 days ago in my Mac Pro. After taking the machine apart I was able to install the drive on the SATA connection. A lot of patience is needed. I can also confirm that Toast recognizes the drive but doesn't burn BD .. Finder on the other hand has no problem with burning.

@holograph .. you only need a 75cm SATA to SATA cable. The powercable is included with the drive and is compatible with the cable that's already in the Mac Pro for bay2.
 
yupyup, managed to install my GGW-H20L a couple of days aswell!. Works exactly as diotav mentioned. Veeery tight getting the SATA cable from the optical bay to the motherboard connectors.. (thanks diotav, I actually managed to do it with a 60cm cable, but yes would recommend a 75, definitely) Now we need a fix for it to work with BD in toast, as that´s kind of a big reason for me for using it.
 
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