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Is the Superdrive worth it?

D

dscan99

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 10, 2004
137
0
Nashville, TN
I'm investigating iBook options for my dad and am in a dilemma: iBook 14" w/ Superdrive (standard) or iBook 12" (no superdrive).

He does want to eventually convert old VHS tapes to DVDs but is it better to just get an external DVD writer later? The only reason I would chose the 14" over the 12" is the Superdrive and he's keen on the 12". So I'm wondering if it's better to go for the 14" or just get the 12" for now and research external DVD writers later (more options...). There must be good external DVD writers out there that are Mac compatible.. correct?

What would you do? Advice please!!!
 
I'd just get a firewire or usb2 attached 5.25" drive adapter and stick in a decent, but much cheaper, drive.
 
I think the major reason to get the SuperDrive included is if you need the ability to burn DVDs and do so in numerous locations. In that case, lugging around an external DVD burner would be cumbersome.
However, if you'll be burning your DVDs at home, then an external burner will satisfy your needs & be faster than the installed SD.
Also, for backup purposes, I have found an external HD to be faster & more useful than burning on DVD.
Just my .02.
Best wishes!
 
I still think it's stupid you can't get a SD on the 12"... there is not logical reason for it!

Anyways, I can understand why you'd want the 12" over the 14", and for the extra price of the 14" you could easily buy an external DVD-RW and some extra RAM or a nice bag for the laptop, so I would say go for the 12"!
 
rendezvouscp said:
Yeah, go for the 12", and get a nice LaCie drive or something. You'll be extremely happy with both of your purchases. :D
-Chase
Click to expand...


Thanks for the input everyone :) Looks like the consensus is the 12" unless I want to burn DVDs while on the road which is not the case here.

p.s I already gave in and purchased the 250 GB LaCie drive...looks like it will come in handy with the DVD burning project! :D :cool:
 
I was disincline to get it but it came standard on the machine we got and there was no option to remove it so we ended up with a SuperDrive. That said it is nice. If he plans to transfer VHS->DVD then it will be worth it. How is he planning to rip in the VHS?
 
pubwvj said:
I was disincline to get it but it came standard on the machine we got and there was no option to remove it so we ended up with a SuperDrive. That said it is nice. If he plans to transfer VHS->DVD then it will be worth it. How is he planning to rip in the VHS?
Click to expand...

More like, How am I gonna rip in the VHS . I'm the technie in the house :eek: :confused: not sure yet really what converter to use. Any suggestions? I was even maybe thinking of just renting an external burner and a converter.. dunno if it's possible.
 
I've been pondering the same thing. My best idea so far is to record from our VHS player to our Canon Z-10 digital camcorder and then use FireWire to transfer to our iMac for editing out previews and the like. I would rather not buy another piece of hardware. I'm not looking to do it fast but rather as we watch them. Mostly I want to get our kids' VHS movies into the computer as they watch those so much and the tapes will die eventually.
 
pubwvj said:
I've been pondering the same thing. My best idea so far is to record from our VHS player to our Canon Z-10 digital camcorder and then use FireWire to transfer to our iMac for editing out previews and the like. I would rather not buy another piece of hardware.
Click to expand...

I think that should work out nicely. I don't have a digital camcorder but from what I've read you should be able to do the transfer without an additional converter.. I might end up buying a converter or if possible, borrowing a friend's dig camcorder...
 
If time is of no concern, is the SuperDrive a perfectly able device, as far as handling all kinds of DVDs, CDs, etc currently on the market?
 
The built-in SuperDrive may also be required if your dad plans to use iDVD. If not, then the external DVD-RW is probably a better (and less expensive) choice. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've read iDVD doesn't like non-internal non-Apple branded DVD recorders. Maybe that's no longer true with iDVD 5.

As to capping the vids from VHS, I'm rather fond of the Canopus ADVC units. Good quality, they convert to DV format (used for iMovie, etc.) with their own built-in processor so the Mac sees it entirely as a DV camera. You can attach a VCR or a DVD player (or a camcorder) to the unit and essentially make it into a DV camera this way. I think the ADVC-100 also does the same in reverse (ie. it will take video from the Mac and put it back onto VHS, etc.). With my ADVC-50 I've had no problems; the quality is excellent (as good as can be hoped from a VHS source) and it has audio/video sync lock so nothing gets out of whack.
 
I'd say go for the 12" and buy an external DVD drive- I bought a Lacie external with Lightscribe technology and can't tell you how pleased I am with it.

For those that don't know Lightscribe drives use the same laser to label the discs- very professional results and the special lightscribe enabled discs aren't that much more than cheap cdr's or dvd-r's

Definately something worth checking out!
 
freiheit said:
The built-in SuperDrive may also be required if your dad plans to use iDVD. If not, then the external DVD-RW is probably a better (and less expensive) choice. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I've read iDVD doesn't like non-internal non-Apple branded DVD recorders. Maybe that's no longer true with iDVD 5.
Click to expand...

As far as I've heard there's a hack to make iDVD work with external drives. I haven't tested this, though, since I have a superdrive. And, no, it isn't worth the 200 bucks, since it doesn't even support dual layer.
 
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