Apple really needs a DVD Studio Express...
This lack of supporting external DVD writers in iDVD is really starting to piss me off and is incredibly shortsighted of Apple.
From my understanding, burning a DVD movie via iDVD needs at least a G4 to be even remotely quick. So, if Apple were to allow people to use iDVD with external drives and slow hardware, they could possibly drive a lot more sales. This tactic has worked real well for the WinTel combo over the past decade.
Furthermore, there's only a small subset of people who have a G4 processor and don't have a SuperDrive. Yes, I happen to be one of them. Yes, I really want to burn DVD's, and yes I would like the easy integration with Apples other iApp tools.
With all of that being said. Yes, I'm willing to pay a bit extra for the software (although I have no idea why it should cost more), but I'm not about to spend $1000 for DVD SP. Something along the lines of DVD SE for $399 would still be bit difficult to stomach unless it delivered many features of DVD SP. To get iDVD to work with an external drive, I would think somewhere around $99 might be reasonable (although, again, I don't know why it should really cost more).
Perhaps some day Apple will sell an external DVD writer and then allow iDVD to actually write to it.
From my understanding, burning a DVD movie via iDVD needs at least a G4 to be even remotely quick. So, if Apple were to allow people to use iDVD with external drives and slow hardware, they could possibly drive a lot more sales. This tactic has worked real well for the WinTel combo over the past decade.
Furthermore, there's only a small subset of people who have a G4 processor and don't have a SuperDrive. Yes, I happen to be one of them. Yes, I really want to burn DVD's, and yes I would like the easy integration with Apples other iApp tools.
With all of that being said. Yes, I'm willing to pay a bit extra for the software (although I have no idea why it should cost more), but I'm not about to spend $1000 for DVD SP. Something along the lines of DVD SE for $399 would still be bit difficult to stomach unless it delivered many features of DVD SP. To get iDVD to work with an external drive, I would think somewhere around $99 might be reasonable (although, again, I don't know why it should really cost more).
Perhaps some day Apple will sell an external DVD writer and then allow iDVD to actually write to it.