DVD-R BURNING HELP/SUGGESTION

[GyroFX]

Hi, I have my Quicksilver with a built-in Superdrive. It has the Pioneer DVR-104 drive. It burns at 2X with 2X DVD-R discs. The problem is now i can rarely find any 2X discs...mostly 4X or above. Thus I am only capable of burning discs at 1X...which is 1/2 the total speed. Is there an update for the drive that allows to to burn 4X/8X/16X capable DVD-Rs are 2X instead of the super slow 1X or am I outta luck and need to upgrade. Thanx


Charles

 

[simie]

Pioneer make the DVR-109 16x DVD ±R/ ±RW - 4x Dual Layer - You can either put the drive in an external Firewire box or put it inside your MAC.

I think that you may have to remove the front off of the drive for it to fit.

http://www.pioneer109.com/

Dimensions of the drive 148mm (W) x 42.3mm (H) x 180mm (D)

 

[GyroFX]

I have the pioneer DVR-104 (the older burners). If I get teh DVR-109...is it a simple swap of the drives, or do I need other components, drivers, etc?. Is the 109 even compatible with MAC/OSX, etc? anything i should look into before getting DVR-109? thanx

 

[simie]

Not having a Quicksiler myself I have done a bit of searching for you and here's the results.

According to the data provided here the 109 will work.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Pioneer/DVR109D/

Compatible with any Power Macintosh G3, G4 or G5 system with an IDE interface. Some older systems will not be able to burn discs at full speed due to a slower system bus or IDE bus. Highly recommended for any G4 or G5 system.

Works perfectly with iDVD*!

OWC NOTE: At this time, there is no native support* for this drive when using Mac OS X. Dual layer DVD burning is supported using the following software (Separate Purchase Required)

*Patching this drive for support under Mac OS X 10.3 is possible using Christian Moller's PatchBurn 3 Software, located here .

DVD Player Support:

Mac OS X 10.3 (all versions) - DVD player works perfectly
Mac OS X previous to OS X 10.3 - DVD player not supported
Mac OS 9 or earlier - DVD player not supported

If you have any doubts about this - then the same company provides a Pioneer DVR-106 and it comes complete with the Apple firmware on it.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=7222&Item=APL6780465B

 

[cgratti]

Doesn't it support the 4X DVD-Rs? I would think it would support them but only burn them at 2X.

If it does then it shouldnt be a big deal, the cost of DVD-Rs is becomng so cheap that the cost between 2X and 4X is probably a penny or two foreach disc.

 

[GyroFX]

thanx, you've been very helpful...how about the DVR-108?

 

[GyroFX]

oh yeah...the same DVR-109 can be had for 68 dollars at newegg.com

 

[simie]

The 109 support the following on DVD-R 16x*, 12x, 8x, 6x, 4x, 2x, 1x

 

[spacepower7]

Firmware Update

http://www.apple.com/hardware/superdrive/

The Pioneer 104 Superdrive needs a firmware update if the device revision number is less than A227 in the Apple system profiler.

The firmware update allows the drive to burn 4x and 8x media

"All SuperDrive equipped Macs are compatible with 1x and 2x DVD-R media. With 4x DVD-R media and the new 8x DVD-R media, it is important that your SuperDrive be up to date before using this higher speed media."