DVR-111D vs Apple Superdrive

Question

I'm planning to ad an internal DVR to replace the CD drive. My current thought is to buy either a Pioneer DVR-111D or an Apple Superdrive, which is really a Pioneer DVR-109 with Apple's native burning capabilities pre-installed. I know that to burn dual layer DVDs I will need to use Patchburn on either of the drives, and that replaces the pre-installed Apple native burning capabilities on the DVR-109.
Does anyone have an opinion on the better choice of the two drives? I know the DVR-111D is a newer model, but will that really be any kind of advantage in my old B&W g3? I really don't know what the limitations of my G3 are in this regard.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I can't comment on the DVR-109 but I have a DVR-111D and couldn't be happier with it. I paid $38 Canadian for it at a PC store. I pluged it in and it just worked, very Apple. I did not install PatchBurn. It shows up in System Profiler/Hardware/Disk Burning as follows:
PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111D
Firmware Revision: 1.19
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn support: Yes (unsupported)
Profile Path: None
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write -R, -RW
DVD-Write -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Stratagies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
I haven't yet burned a double-layer DVD yet but the format shows up under DVD-Write and the option shows up when choosing to burn in Toast. I have burned with both iTunes (music CDs) and Disk Utility (DVD images)--no PatchBurn required. It boots OS install disks, and is one of the few bits of hardware that you can get at an ElCheapo PC store that you can put into an Apple. I tried several Apple stores, none of them carried them. They had lots of $150 LaCie drives though (hmmmm). Don't tell anyone but there is no difference between the 111-D and the Superdrive, except for the price. Besides adding more memory to your G3 it's the most usefull/cost effective piece of hardware you can put into a G3.
Burn on....
P.S. It works in OS 9.2.2 and 8.6 too (no DVD read in 8.6 just CD)
G3 B&W/300mhz/1024M   Mac OS X (10.4.7)   Pioneer DVR-111D, PPL USB 2.0 + FireWire PCI card, Sonnet ATA-66 IDE, Maxtor DiMax-10 160 Gig HD
G3 B&W/300mhz/1024M   Mac OS X (10.4.7)