External DVD Burners compatible with Ti PB OS X?

[hayworth]

I have a Titanium PB 550 and am looking for an external DVD burner that will allow me to burn video. I have tried to read up on the different models and reviews online but it's very confusing (for a beginner like me). It seems that Sony and Pioneer are the best brands for Macs but I don't see any models that would work with a PB (firewire?). Any advice/suggestions? Your help is greatly appreciated.

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Yes you can get an external Firewire DVD-R drive, I have one :)

I recommend getting one from OWC (Other World Computing) because they are the cheapest and provide great support if something happens.

And since the new DVD-R drives are out you can get the new 4x DVD-R discs. Go here to get the drive (its $400):

http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=5237&Item=OWCMRFWD105

And just to let you know because I am sure you are wondering... 1x for a DVD is about 1 hour, meaning that 2x is 30 minutes and 4x is 15 minutes... it isn't anything astronomical like 4 hours (which many people think it is because they think in terms of CDR burning).

Enjoy the info!

[Eug]

I just bought generic $45 5.25" cases from CompGeeks and CompuVest and stuck my own drives in them. Works great with my XP box, my iBook, and my GigaBook. (Kinda moot with the latter though since I already have an SD in it.)

The only issue is that one of the cases has a cheap fan which rattles. So I simply disconnected it. No probs.

[ssevenup]

I can't speak to compatability yet, but my plan is to purchase a DVD+RW drive and a firewire case from http://www.scsipro.com. Their cases are a bit more expensive (ok maybe quite a bit more) but they have awesome support, they are friggin cool with the info display and very likely the fastest interface. They know firewire better than almost anyone you could name and they will have 800MB firewire products soon. I don't work for them but I am happy to endorse their products and I am a Mac Administrator with a Ti Powerbook.

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

Are you sure that you can even use the case that has the display? I mean, that would require the DVD+R to talk to the case and I don't really know if that is possible. I personally just went for the wham bam "money in exchange with DVD-R drive" instead of making it myself and found it to be the easiest , but if you know what you are doing then godspeed to you.

[hayworth]

Thank you for all of this information - this is great! A couple of follow-up questions, since much of this is new to me: what exactly is the case for and how does it attach to the PB? Also, will any of these suggested set- ups work with imovie 3, idvd 3, Toast Titanium and/or dvd studio pro? Thanks again for your suggestions/advice!

[Eug]

Case? Are you just talking about a Firewire case?

If so then all it is, is a case that houses the IDE drive and which has a Firewire to IDE converter, and a power supply. The external Firewire DVD burners are built this way, and so are the noname brand ones. The difference with the name brand ones is that they often have a custom firmware in the drive, which isn't necessarily a good thing.

These drives will work with Toast. This will work also with DVD Studio Pro (usually). If it doesn't you can still use DVD Studio Pro to generate a VIDEO_TS folder than can be burned with Toast. iMovie 3 doesn't use a DVD burner so that's irrelevant. iDVD 3 will NOT work with an external drive. The drive has to be mounted internally, which means for a PowerBook without a SuperDrive, you're out of luck.

[hayworth]

Many thanks for all of the help. A couple of follow-up questions:
I've read that the Pioneer and Sony dvd burners are the best for use with a Mac - is this true, are there other brands that work best with Mac OS X? Also, I see that Sony has a firewire version of one of their dvd burners (DRX500UL) but it isn't listed as Mac compatible - does anyone know if it would work with a Mac? And one last one: is theCendyne DVD-R/RW DRIVE 4X really just a Pioneer DVD burner that will work with a Mac (and is relatively inexpensive)? Can anyone verify this? Thanks again for all suggestions/advice!

[[*]_BonKerS_[*]]

I take back what I said before about OWC having good service, they are the WORST!!! Read my other post: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=141915&highlight=

[schwinn]

"And one last one: is theCendyne DVD-R/RW DRIVE 4X really just a Pioneer DVD burner that will work with a Mac (and is relatively inexpensive)? Can anyone verify this? Thanks again for all suggestions/advice! "

Yes the Cendyne DVR105 = Pioneer DVDR/RW AO5= Apple SuperDrive!!!
I just bought one last week! Staples online special $249.00 minus instant $40.00 off $200.00= $209.00 with $50.00 mail in rebate total price $159.00!!! I even drove around to the 4 stores in my Metro area and found one with it in stock which would match the price!!! Put it in a $65.00 ADS pyro firewire Oxford 911 chip box hooked it up and away it goes.
Toast 5 is great, Missing media Burner is great, iTunes is great and DVD studio pro works if I had that much money!! In short everything works just like an Apple Superdrive except for iDVD which doesn't work unless the drive is hooked to the inside IDE cable. Which isn't possible with my old machine without buying a new ATA PCI card. In short a great deal for the money! Schwinn

[hayworth]

I'm really sorry to hear about your nightmare service (or lack therof) from OWC - you should let them know about the bad press they are now receiving - might make them change their attitude towards their customers.
I ended up getting the Cendyne - same basic deal as schwinn got - and with the help of this forum - I was able to burn my first working DVD-R from a DVD! But I could really use some help with avi files - I have a couple of avi files from a friend - who wants me to burn them to dvd-rs. But I can't figure out how to author them so that they work on a dvd? Any ideas/suggestions/advice? I've tried using ffmpegX but it's too technical for me - I keep getting lost in what I have to click on and/or click off... any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!