replacing pioneer dvd writer with cheaper pc writer??

[Mauserman]

hi!

Is it possible to replace the pioneer dvd writer with a cheaper pc writer (such as Nec 2500A)?

Are there any disadvantages in doing so?

I have a 933 mhz quicksilver, and it's important that the dvd slot door works after the replacement.

Well, what do you think??

[galactica]

depends...
most 'Pc' writers will work but only though toast.
as such not all of them offer finder support

you have to be careful also to ensure that the drive can fit, and 2nd that when ejected it will pass though the bay door

i say this because a friend of mine gave me a HP superdrive once, and thought it fit it would not eject.
it had no support for finder burns so if its your only drive you can loose support for iApp burns

whats wrong with the pioneer you got?

[The village idiot]

Don't know what the support would be, but what about an external connected by firewire? If I think about it, I'll bring my Optorite to work and try it on Wednesday or Thursday. It's a generic Optorite DD0401 in an old Oxford 911 based box, works great with my PC's, never tried it on a Mac though. We have many running 10.2.x and one or 2 with 10.3.x so I'll try to test it on both.

[thoughton]

The issue of the bay door aside, virtually any "PC writer" will work with a mac. They don't make seperate disk drives for PCs and Macs you know. Everyone uses the same stuff.

The only time you might have iApp incompatibility is if you drive is a new model and/or obscure. Even then you can usually make it work with a simple edit to your DRDeviceProfile framework. Plenty of people have working unsupported 3rd party drives in their Macs which burn from the Finder and iApps...

[galactica]

isnt that what i said?

any way... i have two pc drives, Toshiba SD-r5002 and Pioneer DVR-105
the toshiba had support for iAPPS under 10.2 with a hack, not any more for 10.3. The Pioneer works just like its apple installed

That said. again I ask, why change the pioneer one you have?

[Frobozz]

Galactica, if you want to have iApp support with the Toshiba drive in Panther try Patchburn II. The link is available at xlr8yourmac.com.

[Mauserman]

depends...
most 'Pc' writers will work but only though toast.
as such not all of them offer finder support

you have to be careful also to ensure that the drive can fit, and 2nd that when ejected it will pass though the bay door

i say this because a friend of mine gave me a HP superdrive once, and thought it fit it would not eject.
it had no support for finder burns so if its your only drive you can loose support for iApp burns

whats wrong with the pioneer you got?

Well there is nothing wrong with it, it's just a little slow. I thought that i could get a faster writer for less money.

[patlabombe]

I just bought for under 100$ CAN a Toshiba SD-R5112. Burn support with all iApp with no modification to my system (have not tried iDVD but been reported by others to work). Check www.xlr8yourmac.com, they have a good searchable database of drive reported to work with Mac. There is also a software name Patchburn that can add support to iApps with almost any drive out there. Just make sure you stick with the DVD-R type, because DVD+R have minimal support under OS X (drive with + and - will work with DVD-R media no problem).

[thoughton]

isnt that what i said?

I think you're talking to me, but it's sometimes hard to tell. Anyway the answer is nope :P

Make sEnSe?

Have you tried that HP superdrive recently? I noticed that since 10.3.2 my dvd-ram drive works in iApps and finder without any editing of framework files (even though it still says Unsupported in profiler).

[galactica]

i gave it back to my friend. Since then i got the 2 superdirves i have now.

[miksu]

There aren't really "PC" or "Mac" writers. They are all same. Difference is the software package included. As far as it is IDE/ATAPI-writer, it will work. Firewire should work also eas easily, because FW-writers are IDE-writers used via IDE-FW bridge.

Using NEC-ND2500A on Sawtooth G4. It can read without any supportfiles and write using toast. If U download LaCie-supportprofile, you can write using any iAPP or diskburner or whatever Apple provides with OS. Or command line apps, if U want...

PatchBurn II does actually same thing as LaCie supportfile. BTW, LaCie uses these "PC"-drives on their "Mac"-drives, namely Pioneer and NEC. Nec ND-2500A is for example, used in 8X LaCie burner. That's why profile works with NEC bulk drive ("PC") that U can buy from any PC-store

The reason some drives work and some drives not is basically, that Apple has defined supportfile containing drive strings. System makes query "Who are you" and drive tells "Nec" or "Teac" or whatever brand and then model "ND-2500A", "DRU-xxx". If these strings don't match supported drive strings, drive is unsupported. But it's software limitation, NOT ANY KIND OF HARDWARE limitation.

Therefore, you can get any drive U want and PatchBurn II makes query to drive, gets ID-strings and creates supportfile. Only thing you need to do is start Patchburn II and then restart your computer.

Of course, you can write those supportfiles yourself, using whatever text-editor

[redwudz]

I replaced the CD burner in my Quicksiver with a used Pioneer 104 and it works great, door and all.

[Vintageman]

Shop around for a Pioneer 106 it doesn't matter if it says PC or Mac just make sure it's internal and Mac will recognize as a Superdrive. Probably find one for under $100.