Recommend a good External DVD-R drive for iMac?

foo fighter · March 20, 2004 2:00PM

I need a little advice. I have a G4 iMac with built-in CD-RW drive. Now I'm looking at getting an external DVD-RW drive for my system, most likely FireWire based. Which would be the best overall choice? In terms of price, I'd like to stay around $200.

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drewprops · March 21, 2004 2:06AM

The April issue of WIRED (page 092) shows three (possibly internal) drives and gives letter grades to each. They were tested on a tower running XP, so I figure they're internal. Here are Brian Lam's reviews from worst to first:

I/O Magic Dual Format 8X

Grade: C

The slowest of the bunch burning DVDs, but second fastest at burning CDs.

Plextor PX-708A

Grade: B+

Fastest of the three at burning DVD+R discs

Slower than the Pioneer at burning DVD-R discs

Fastest at burning CDs

Pioneer A07

Grade: A-

Fastest at burning DVD-R discs

Second fastest at burning DVD+R discs

Slowest at burning CDs

So, those are the drives. All you have to do is look for external versions of these devices..... hope that SORT of helps.....but I'll add more if I run across it. I'm kinda sorta in the market too.

luca · March 21, 2004 2:10AM

Buy a Pioneer DVR-107. It got the highest score in that review, and it happens to be fully supported on Macs running 10.3.3. Apple has used Pioneer DVD burners in almost all their superdrive-equipped Macs, so you should have great support.

The drive itself costs a bit over $120. Then you can buy an external Firewire enclosure for about $40. Go to NewEgg.com to buy the stuff - it's a great place for that sort of thing.

drewprops · March 21, 2004 8:11AM

Actually, it appears that the A07 is different from model 107... you'd have to go to Pioneer's site to find out what the difference is though. I see over at NewEgg that one of the people commenting on the A07 said that there was a firmware upgrade on Pioneer's website, which leads me to ask the question:

Is there ANY way to flash the ROM of a device in OS X? The app is a PC executable file, so it would appear the answer is a big fat NO.

mattjohndrow · March 21, 2004 12:05PM

i've always been a fan of the lacie drives, used them the most over others

luca · March 21, 2004 12:26PM

Quote:

Originally posted by drewprops

Actually, it appears that the A07 is different from model 107... you'd have to go to Pioneer's site to find out what the difference is though. I see over at NewEgg that one of the people commenting on the A07 said that there was a firmware upgrade on Pioneer's website, which leads me to ask the question:

Is there ANY way to flash the ROM of a device in OS X? The app is a PC executable file, so it would appear the answer is a big fat NO.

They are the same drive. Check the reports over at XLR8yourmac.com. Actually, here you go: linky. The A07 and 107 are interchangeable. And even if it doesn't work, there is still Patchburn II that will allow you to use it anyway.

Quote:

Originally posted by mattjohndrow

i've always been a fan of the lacie drives, used them the most over others

Yeah, and Lacie has pretty good deals on external hard drives - usually just slightly more expensive than buying the case and hard drive separately. Given their quiet operation and better looks than a standard Firewire case, it's worth it for many people to buy a Lacie Firewire hard drive. However, their external DVD burners are really awful in terms of price. The actual burner mechanism is worth no more than $130, and their higher-quality case is probably worth $50 or $60 (vs. $40 for a cheap one). I think $200 would be a fair price for a Firewire 8x DVD-RW/DVD+RW drive, but they charge $250. No thanks. You can always go to NewEgg.com and find a nicer, slightly more expensive external Firewire case if you want a bit more style. But Lacie's Firewire DVD burner is a total ripoff.

drewprops · March 21, 2004 10:41PM

Thanks for the clarification and the link to the notes on XLR8. Part of the expense of the LaCie drives comes from the fact that it ships with a full version of Toast 6 which, at full MSRP, runs at $80.

So...maybe it's a pretty good deal after all. I was kind of in the mood for building my own drive, but I'll probably wuss out and buy a LaCie, especially since I only have Toast Titanium 5 on my current machine.

Still, I might be swayed if I ran across a super-uber-cool custom external case....you know, the kind that have neon and all that geek bling-bling.

ast3r3x · March 21, 2004 10:51PM

Just an opinion but I'd go with pioneer, they are big dawgs in DVD Burning. Everyone I know that bought a drive from them likes them. I only have used one lacie drive, and it was a CD writer and it used to fail all the time, but it could have, and probably was, just a messed up drive.

luca · March 21, 2004 11:37PM

Quote:

Originally posted by drewprops

Thanks for the clarification and the link to the notes on XLR8. Part of the expense of the LaCie drives comes from the fact that it ships with a full version of Toast 6 which, at full MSRP, runs at $80.

So...maybe it's a pretty good deal after all. I was kind of in the mood for building my own drive, but I'll probably wuss out and buy a LaCie, especially since I only have Toast Titanium 5 on my current machine.

Still, I might be swayed if I ran across a super-uber-cool custom external case....you know, the kind that have neon and all that geek bling-bling.

Ah, thanks for pointing that out. Since it's a full version of Toast Titanium 6, not some silly "Toast Lite" that probably only works on Windows and OS 9, it does add to the value. So, take your $60 enclosure, $120 drive and $80 software and it adds up to $260, making $250 an okay price IF you need Toast. Of course, you can still burn DVDs with Finder, Disk Utility, iTunes, iPhoto, and iDVD, and I think there are also some freeware or cheap shareware CD/DVD burning applications out there as well.

drewprops · March 22, 2004 9:28PM

But now MY question is...how can you tell which drive mechanism is in the LaCie drives without BUYING one first to find out??

I't's always something...

Recommend a good External DVD-R drive for iMac?

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