Do all external dvd burners need toast?

[jackie123]

This has been plaguing me...I'm researching to purchase an external dvd burner. I found a LiteOn for under a $100 but a reviewer says it needs toast to burn. I thought macs were easily plug & play for nearly everything. Is this an issue for all third-party dvd burners, or just a few, and how would I know? Is it possible to just plug in an external dvd burner and use iDVD to burn a dvd without Toast?

Any advice ont his would be greatly appreciated because I'm new to mac and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. lol

-jackie

 

[scan300]

This has been plaguing me...I'm researching to purchase an external dvd burner.
-jackie

I don't know about Lite On but you can plug in Firewire writers and use Disk Utility on the Mac to burn disks. You need to create a disk image, then select burn, and if you have more than 1 burner you can select which one you want to use.
Playable disks will automatically mount.
iTunes can select external burners, not so sure about iDVD.

I know these features work on OSX 10.4. I'm not sure about earlier versions. As far as if your particular burner will work, I assume so, but only Apple can guarantee what will and won't work.

You may need to install a driver, if the set of drivers on OSX don't work with the Lite On.

If you are buying a burner which is advertised as Mac compatible, it will usually come bundled with Toast lite. You can also buy Toast lite from Roxio for about US$18.