Pioneer DVR-108 in a case?

krisneph · December 20, 2004 7:04PM

Hey guys I want to get a DVD burner for my laptop. I'm thinking about buying the DVR-108 and putting it in a case.

Do you guys think it's good idea ? I have a 12 in Powerbook 1.33 mhz with 768 of RAM am i really gonna get that type of performance as if i had it in a G5.

I want to be able to burn at 16x

If there something u guys wanna recomend please post your opion

Thanks

messiah · December 21, 2004 6:29PM

Remember that the 16X is a bit misleading as it's only the last 0.4GB of the DVD that actually burns at the full 16X speed. Thus, if you're like me and you burn a lot of 2-3GB DVDs then you're never going to see the benefits of the 16X drive.

I seem to recall the average speed for a complete 4.7GB DVD being about 10X.

OS X doesn't currently support the 108 mechanism so you'll need to get hold of PatchBurn in order to install drivers. Likewise, OS X doesn't currently support Double Layer DVDs so unless you want to buy Toast you'll lose that functionality as well.

As for the drive in an external case, remember that the drive won't be able to draw it's power from the FireWire (or USB) interface, so you'll also need to lug a power brick around with you.

You should be able to burn at full speed over a FW400 or FW800 interface. Remember that iDVD doesn't support ANY external drive however.

mrmister · December 22, 2004 2:21AM

hmmm. Messiah makes it sound rather negative, but I have a 108 in a firewire case, and it rocks. YMMV.

krisneph · December 22, 2004 5:59PM

Can u explain why it will only burn the last part at 16x ?

I have Toast, I don't mind carrying a power supply.

And does DVD Studio Pro support external drives ?

kenneth · December 22, 2004 11:56PM

I just received the OEM DVR-108 for my dual PowerMac G4(FW800) to replace my 11mons old DVR-106D. I read from xlr8yourmac.com, since pre-G5 PowerMac offer only ATA-33 for optical dirve bays, so 12x should be the max for internal.

Anyway, I gave the DVR-106D to my sister's iBook (G3/800). I got a FW400/USB2.0 enclosure for just $35 online. Although, it doesn't powered by the Oxford911 chipset, it runs fine. There is no external power supply for that enclosure. One power cord does the job.

Yeap, you do need to use PatchBurn. I don't care about 16x/12x burning since I am happy about the 8x writing speed, which finishes in about 7mins on a full 4.32GB DVD-R disc.

I just ordered some 8.5GB DL DVD+R disc from newegg.com ($15/3-pack after rebate).

The DVR-108 is a good burner overall speaking.

krisneph · December 29, 2004 6:07PM

I read somewhere that using the DVR-108 with an external firewire case limits you to like 7x burning for DVD's, is that true ?

Now I'll need Patchburn what does that do exactly ?

Do I need to upgrade the firmware ?

Some people put them on PC's to update the firmware those firmware versions are hacks right ?

Also I want to buy a case, what should I look for in a case ?

As long as it's IDE interface right ?

Also I might want to put together an external HD will this combination work?

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3700356

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...155-212&depa=0

The HD is a Parallel ATA

Thanks for the Help

messiah · January 1, 2005 7:10PM

Quote:

Originally posted by krisneph

I read somewhere that using the DVR-108 with an external firewire case limits you to like 7x burning for DVD's, is that true ?

Now I'll need Patchburn what does that do exactly ?

Do I need to upgrade the firmware ?

Some people put them on PC's to update the firmware those firmware versions are hacks right ?

Also I want to buy a case, what should I look for in a case ?

As long as it's IDE interface right ?

Also I might want to put together an external HD will this combination work?

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3700356

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...155-212&depa=0

The HD is a Parallel ATA

Thanks for the Help

Sorry to take so long in responding.

The reason it only burns the last 0.4GB at the full 16X is that it's a "zoned" drive which means that it can't burn the entire disc at the full speed. As the recording head moves away from the centre of the disc toward the outer edge the surface area under the head moves faster and faster.

I'm not sure about the 7X limitation with an external firewire case. It may have something to do with FireWires 400Mbps (50MBps) bandwidth. I can't remember what the bandwidth of DVD-R is, and what it equates to at 7X.

Patchburn simply installs drivers for you so that your machine recognises the new DVD drive. You should be able to get support for the Finder and all the iApps (except iDVD).

You should probably be okay with the firmware. If you want to update the firmware to the latest version there are now Mac OS X native utilities like DVRFlash and FlashIt that can help you with that. Different versions of firmware may provide greater compatibility with some types of media so that's why people choose to install a particular version.

You'll need a 5.25" enclosure with a FireWire interface. FW400 is fine and FW800 is a bonus but don't lose any sleep over it. USB 2.0 is a bonus to. Make sure the case has a Parallel ATA interface (IDE) rather than SATA.

The case you've picked for the HD should work fine. Try and get a 5,400rpm spindle speed drive as they run a bit cooler than the 7,200rpm drives. You won't see any real world benefits of the 7,200rpm spindle speed drives over FireWire anyway ? again you'll only be able to achieve 50MBps tops.

Hope this helps!

krisneph · January 3, 2005 10:01PM

Excellent, thanks a lot for your help

I think I'm ready to order

Thanks

dixli · January 4, 2005 9:18AM

I have a question in regard to DVR-108. Could I use this burner in OS 9.2?

Patchburn is just for OSX. Would I be able to use it with Toast in OS 9?

Thanks

Pioneer DVR-108 in a case?

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