Request: recommendations for a Mac compatible external Firewire DVD burner

patto_chan · 05-10-2006 05:57PM #1

Hi,

I have a good old Powerbook G4 - a faithful servant but it can not burn DVDs.
Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced, firewire, external DVD burner that is Mac compatible? Preferably from an Irish vendor (if you buy overseas I find that courier delivery charge and inevitable VAT wipe out cost savings.)
Would like to back up data but also be able to burn movie files to discs.

Have to admit I'm not too well up on DVD formats and tech details. Need to hit Wikipedia.
Thanks.

ZENER · 05-10-2006 09:17PM

From personal experience getting Firewire enclosures of any kind in highstreet shops like Dixons or Harvey Normans is getting more difficult. USB2.0 seems to be the order of the day. I'm guessing your Powerbook doesn't have USB2.o so any DVD burner plugged into your Mac will be useless to you.

I did see Firewire enclosures in Maplin a while back at a reasonable price <70 quid I think, that just leaves you to buy your own multiformat DVD Burner of choice and put it into it.
Some of the wholesalers like Computer City in Ballybrack have them, and I'm sure Marx Computers also have them. You may have better luck in Marx (www.marxcomputers.ie) though because Computer City (www.ccity.ie) are trade only. Marx is just off the Malahide Road.

You might be lucky and find a complete unit with USB/Firewire connectors in Dixons: they occassionaly have some in in Swords (Airside).

Good luck !

ZEN

Thumper Long · 05-10-2006 10:42PM

any of the lacie drives will do the job perfectly, i use macs every day and the older machines that need dvd burning have always used lacie drives. there is also an LG drive that is available from komplett that also burns ram discs if you find that a requirement.

ZENER · 06-10-2006 10:37AM

Not all Lacie drives are firewire though, USB1 ports won't do the job with DVD burning.

ZEN

Thumper Long · 06-10-2006 05:07PM

sorry was a pretty wide statement, but any of the ieee1394 drives available now are fine.

WUSBDesign · 07-10-2006 09:23AM

Do you need software to burn the DVDs too? There is a bundle price for the Lacie DVD burner plus Toast 7 - see Apple's website for details.

patto_chan · 10-10-2006 10:09AM

Thanks for the suggestions.
I may have had the answer under my nose all along.
I use an old external CD/RW burner in an ADS Tech Firewire case. It uses the old Oxford 911 bridge chipset to allow Firewire connection but the drive inside is an IDE/ATAPI cd burner.

I have dismantled it and will buy a bog standard IDE/ATAPI DVD burner from Komplett, put it inside and see if that works. If it doesn't I'm only 40 yo-yos out of pocket.

If anyone can see a flaw in my reasoning please let me know.

SouperComputer · 10-10-2006 03:31PM

patto_chan wrote:

I have dismantled it and will buy a bog standard IDE/ATAPI DVD burner from Komplett, put it inside and see if that works. If it doesn't I'm only 40 yo-yos out of pocket.

It will work fine with CD\DVD burning software such as toast. If you want to use OS X's built in CD\DVD support you need this.

It patches OS X into thinking that the drive is supported by the OS. In reality most drives are (They use a common command set called MMC2) so this patch takes care of it.

patto_chan · 19-10-2006 09:38AM

Got my DVD burner from Komplett. Put it into the ADS Tech firewire case and it works a treat.
Have to try that patchburn software now. Thanks for the link.

Request: recommendations for a Mac compatible external Firewire DVD burner

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