Blu-ray writer for Imac G5
I am looking to buy a Blu-ray writer for my Imac G5. I understand that i cannot watch HD movies on a Mac but i can archive my data (which is my purpose). I am using OS 10.4 on a 1.8Ghz PPC. Here are my questions:
1) Is it possible to burn BR discs on a Imac G5? The other reports of successful BR writers seems to be on an Imac Intel.
2) Are there specific Blu-ray writers or as long as I have Toast 9/10 it will run on an Imac G5?
3) Anyone using Imac G5 successful with a Blu-ray writer?
Cheers
1) Is it possible to burn BR discs on a Imac G5? The other reports of successful BR writers seems to be on an Imac Intel.
2) Are there specific Blu-ray writers or as long as I have Toast 9/10 it will run on an Imac G5?
3) Anyone using Imac G5 successful with a Blu-ray writer?
Cheers
Comments
http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-BE06LU10-...ef=pd_sim_ce_2
It's the cheapest drive I've seen and it has been confirmed to work with Toast on OS X. I think the machines they've mentioned were Intel ones though and they were using 10.5. LG had apparently said that 10.5.3 and higher was supported and you could even burn from the Finder.
I'd check out the Toast forum and ask about their support on a G5 with 10.4
http://forums.support.roxio.com/inde...ded&pid=207552
Someone with a G5 posted there:
http://forums.support.roxio.com/inde...5&#entry260615
I'd considered getting a Blu-Ray drive for archive too but between cost and possible reliability issues, I'm sticking to DVD + HDD for the time being.
For example, you can buy a FW800 portable 500GB drive for under £130:
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...60000,47180000
The Blu-Ray drive + 10 discs = £230 and gives you 250GB storage. Now, it's true that each additional 250GB costs just £35 but you're already 250GB up with the HDD and the time to backup data is much lower. Plus you don't have to segment your data into 25GB chunks to avoid wasting space on the disc.
If it's a lot of data, the desktop drives give you double the space for the same cost. For reliability, you can buy multiple drives and you can have multiple copies of the same data, which is more reliable than a single optical backup IMO. I personally keep 4 backups on various hard drives of important stuff.
As I say, if you want another backup, simply plug in another drive and you can copy all 500GB or more in one go. It will take about 5 hours. Burning a 25GB Blu-Ray would take about 45 minutes on a decent drive and the time spent splitting data up + loading discs + setting up Toast is an extra 5 minutes at least. To backup the same data would be over 16 hours.
I know the benefits of write-once media and it is secure in the sense that you really have to physically damage the media to damage the data whereas a hard drive can be wiped in seconds but as I say, you can have 3 backups for the cost and time taken to backup once to Blu-Ray.
It depends on the data being archived though. If it's data that needs backed up constantly like raw film footage then the cost of Blu-Ray will win out eventually. If it's for backing up a large amount of data but mostly won't exceed 1TB or so, I think HDD is the easier and cheaper option ATM.
many thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It has been helpful. Although i still do not know if a G5 running a Tiger will work with a blu-ray. But I think the feedbacks from the links seem to suggest that it's not so much whether its intel or G5 (G5 seems to be compatible) but which OSX. Most seems to have a working Blu-ray on a Leopard regardless of G5 or intel Macs.
Anyway, I thought I should add my findings so far to those who are also in the same situation as I.