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Best Firewire DVD burner for Mac?

gammamonk

gammamonk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 4, 2004
667
108
Madison, WI
I couldn't find a thread on this topic, so I'll ask the crew. I want to get a new DVD burner for my Powerbook (I was dumb and got it with combo). What are your recommendations?

I need it to work with iDVD. Is that possible? My current DVD burner is a hand-me-down from my old PC, and it's manufactured by Optorite. Funny story about that-- Several of my friends bought these drives, (they were really cheap and we were in college) and soon after we discovered how bad they were, we renamed them to "Optoass." It has such a good ring to it.

I have my Optorite in a generic FW400 enclosure that is so-so. It works, but I have to unplug-plug it every time I want to use it.
 
A lot of people recommend Lacie, but i have not personally had one.

I am planning on getting an iBook (12in) and then putting together my own Double layer drive.

i like this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817173006R

and i like this drive http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827152053

Both have good reviews on newegg.com

I would also suggest using patchburn http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25100 This usually allows you to use unsupported drives in iDVD and such
 
prostuff1 said:
I would also suggest using patchburn http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25100 This usually allows you to use unsupported drives in iDVD and such
Click to expand...

Ooh! I had not heard of patchburn. Thanks. I'm going to try that out tonight, and see if I can get iDVD to work. By the way, I only have iLife 4, is iLife 5 worth buying? I want to make a DVD to show my family when I go home in December. I haven't seen them for a year already.

I have Toast, so usually what I do is make the movie in iMovie 4, and then export it to quicktime-- and load it into Toast. But this ruins the quality and takes HOURS.
 
gammamonk said:
I just checked out your links-- and I need to warn you! I have the black colored version of that enclosure, and I don't like it at all! It's very unreliable. I have to unplug and plug it all the time. It works... but it's not very good.
Click to expand...

OK, that is good to know!! i will start looking for another one.
 
I just got the new Lacie D2 Firewire/USB 2 DVD+/-RW and I love it. I thought about going the enclosure route but wanted to be definite that the thing would work with my Ibook with no problems. For $140 delivered, it's a good deal.

As for feeling bad about getting just the combo drive---don't. The laptop superdrives don't go double layer and they're still running at half the speed of the new externals (And they're more expensive). Lacie has their specs all messed up on their site but my drive (300983) goes 16x8x16 +RW, and 8X DL+R (at least that's what's on the box---don't have any bench tests). If you're thinking of a Lacie, definitely get the Firewire (I bought and returned the Lacie USB Porsche 'cause it was way too slow---ran at about 9 megs/sec compared to 15-16+ megs/sec for firewire), and if looks are important, don't get the Porsche model (it's made of cheap metallic-looking plastic). Though I hear it runs fine (firewire, at least).

Just my two cents. Check out price grabber if you're looking for one (but remember they just updated models so make sure the model #'s match the new models on Lacie's site.
 
Oh, and my Lacie drive has that NEC ND-3540A that prostuff listed up top. Hmmm... guess if you could find a solid and dependable enclosure for a Mac that could be the way to go. But Lacie's D2 casing is pretty sharp as well. Twice the price but then you get some support if you need it. And some software (though only Toast Lite).
 
Won't say "best", but LaCie has worked well with Pismo 500 before I got the AlPB SuperDrive.
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