External CD/DVD Burner Recommendation

Just purchased a 27" iMac Quad. I'm looking for an external CD/DVD Burner because the built in Super Drive will be hard to access in my space. I'm mainly looking for it to be compatible with iDVD and iTunes. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Moof219
Welcome to Apple Discussions
There's a great selection at > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/optical-drives/
Dennis

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External FW DVD burner recommendations?

I have the iBook G3 and want to run iDVD or DVDSP from it (nothing big), I am at a loss as to what external burners would be best. Any thoughts/experiences?
Ta.

Fear not Cindy
If your external FW DVD drive is working fine (i.e compatible) with Apple's Applications then you're ready to go.
Just make sure that your FW drive is recoginsed in System Profiler, burns and reads fine in iTunes etc.
I've done numerous installations from external FW drives without a single glitch...
Apple's recomendation on disconnecting external FW HDs is based (mostly) on issues regarding buggy HD drivers for FW devices in the past.
Pismo - MacMini - Dual G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5) SGI O2 R12K/400/1G/Irix 6.5.29

IMac won't recognize external CD/DVD burner

I have an iMac, Intel Core 2 Duo, OS 10.4.11. Five months ago, I purchased an external CD/DVD burner (Pioneer DVR-218L) in a multiple interface case from OtherWorldComputing. Everything worked flawlessly... I could burn iTunes CDs on that drive, using Toast I could copy DVDs from my internal drive to the external... life was good.
No longer. The computer simply doesn't recognize that there is an external burner attached.
I'm running it through with Firewire 400 cables, but I also tried Firewire 800 and USB2, with no luck. I've tried resetting the PRAM, and for one brief moment, thought I had licked the problem. I had a blank disk in the external drive and got a message saying that there was an unreadable disk, so I ejected it. Hooray! I put in a CD, which was recognized, momentarily. But when I went to copy those files to the computer, it was no longer recognized. And now I'm back where I was.
Very frustrating, because it had worked so smoothly and now it's not. I've spent much of today reading various message boards seeking an answer. Any suggestions?
David

Something sporadic like that sounds more like a problem with the drive than with the computer or interface. You've tried several interfaces (FW, USB) which means it isn't just a bad port on the computer. If it was a bad bit of software I wouldn't expect the drive to briefly reappear like that.
When the drive is plugged in, what does Apple System Profiler say about Firewire or USB devices? It could be the enclosure is working but the drive itself is bad.
Have you phoned OWC about this? They have pretty good technical support and one reason for going with them is their reputation for standing behind their goods.

Since my external CD, DVD burner is going, which second internal super drive to buy for my MacPro?

Since my external CD, DVD burner is going, which second internal super drive should I buy for my MacPro?
Thank you for your time and patients.
W.W.

Apple doesn't support Blu-ray
<http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/14/steve-jobs-calls-blu-ray-a-bag-of-hurt/>
and (from hardmac.com):
"Steve did not change his mind and still think that BD DRM are just inacceptable for mass and consumer market due to restrictions that make advantages look like non competitive. He admitted that retrospectively he feels ashamed that Apple’s name is associated to Blu-ray, as he thinks that BD supporting associations look today more like M*fia than anything else. Concerning authoring on Blu-ray, it seems impossible to provide software supporting such format for consumer market. In addition to DRM, here it is the cost of licenses that slow down the entire process; one would have to start paying 3,000 USD to AACS, then 80,000 USD to Sony, 40,000 USD to Sonic, etc. HE considers the Blu-ray as a “bag of hurt”."
(* = a The full M word is rejected.)
but there is player software
MCE includes a trial version of Blu-ray player software with their drive. (It's out of date but will update to the current version.)
<http://www.macblurayplayer.com>
It works fine on my Mac Pro. Enable Deinterlacing and set it to Auto in its Video preference.

Looking to Get an External USB DVD Burner...Will this one Work?

I burn a lot of music to CD (demos for my music that I send out every few months). I've heard a lot of bad things about the internal DVD burner on MacBooks going shot, and I've heard it's an expensive fix.
Since mine is still working totally fine, I wanted to preserve it by purchasing an external USB DVD burner for my heavy music burning.
This Rosewill unit over at Newegg seems to get a lot of positive reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16827190020
However, there's no mention of OSX compatibility (there's not really a mention of it for any of ther burners they sell). I wrote Newegg, and they said that they cannot comment on compatibility. I wrote Rosewill directly, and I'm waiting to hear back.
I've heard that basically any USB burner will work with MacBooks, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any direct experience with any of the Rosewill burners?
Thanks.

For anyone that's interested, I received my external USB burner today. For those that didn't see my original post, I burn a lot of demo music CD to send out everyother month, and I didn't want to wear out my internal burner, because I've heard that replacing them is 1) sort of a rough fix to do on your own, or 2) is pretty expensive to have done by Apple.
I received this Rosewill unit from Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16827190020
Plugged it in, iTunes instantly recognized it, and gave me the choice between the external and internal burners. CD's are burning fine. Now I can use and abuse this external with all my burns, and just replace it for $50 if it ever goes shot, and save my internal for software loading, etc.
In short, if you're looking for a nice, little, inexpensive external burner that works with OSX...definitely check this unit out.

Getting an External CD/DVD Burner to Work Properly

Hello! This is a little bit of a tricky problem, but hopefully you can help me fix it.
I have a (very old) 15' Macbook Pro which I've upgraded with an SSD and OS X 10.6.8. The only problem I'm currently having is getting an external CD/DVD burner to work correctly.
The CD/DVD drive on the computer itself is broken (it will not load CDs), but it is powered and makes noise when I press the eject button. As such, I went out and bought this external drive.
The drive works properly- I was even able to use it to boot from my install CD and use disk utility to create a backup of my computer. CDs/DVDs loaded into it are recognized and work perfectly.
The issue I have is that the unit will not burn CDs. I've tried using both the native iTunes burner and my copy of Toast Titanium to burn CDs, but it never works properly. Whenever I try, the external unit spins up, the progress bar starts moving.... and eventually an error message comes up. Whenever I use Toast I can select the drive to use, but it seems to be automatically overriding whatever I select and trying to get the internal (broken) drive to burn the CD, since the internal drive starts making noise. Additionally, whenever I check the CDs I tried to burn, nothing has actually been done and the CDs still show up as being blank.
My question is- are there any settings in OS X that would disable the internal drive and get the external drive to properly burn CDs? Thanks!

Ah! Yeah, I didn't even see that- thanks for the heads up! Unfortunately, my Macbook only has one USB port on each side, and the cable on the external drive won't reach. I have a USB hub I've been using, but I suspect the unit isn't getting enough power with that on there since it spins up, the disc will mount, and then quickly disappear. I think I'll try and hunt down an extended USB cord or something.
I also contacted Amazon about trying to find a proper DC adapter for the unit, but they couldn't help me at all.

External cd dvd burner drive

Would i be able to use a external cd drive on my mac? also will it work if i boot up in windows xp would windows recognize it also thanks

JC519 wrote:
Would i be able to use a external cd drive on my mac? also will it work if i boot up in windows xp would windows recognize it also thanks
Yes, you can use an External CD drive on your Mac. Yes, Windows will also recognize the same external drive. I use an External FireWire DVD burner because it is faster than the iMac's internal slot load drive. You can also use the external CD/DVD drive to install Windows using Boot Camp, as noted in the Boot Camp Assistant instructions.

External CD/DVD burner sends OSX into 100% CPU use, cddafs.util file

Hi,
I have a LaCie external CD/DVD burner (301484U) which I use a replacement for the SuperDrive that died in my Powerbook 15" DL, connecting by Firewire. Lately, instead of mounting CDs, it causes the cddafs.util file to take up whatever is left of my CPU sending it into 100% use. Ejecting using F12 and using the button on the drive to eject no longer work. I have to turn the drive off and turn it back on again to eject the disc.
I will ask LaCie too but wanted to see what anyone might say here as well. The drive is relatively new, bought in September. Sometimes CDs mount, sometimes they don't.
I'd be happy to supply more info but am not sure what is needed at this point.
One weird thing happened that might be related. Yesterday I was recording a record to be made into a CD using Final Vinyl and in the middle of the recording it gave me a blue screen with two sets of vertical black lines, freezing the machine. I rebooted and all was fine. I ran Disk Utility and other than a few permissions needing to be fixed, all was well. Nothing interesting in the trash upon restart.
Thanks for any help.
Cheers,
John L
Message was edited by: John Lippincott

It works in the other account so it should be a file in my normal account right? (I misinterpreted what you meant by "doing it".) If it didn't work in the other account then it would be a hardware problem, possibly the power supply, right?
I'll move the CD Info.cidb file to the Desktop as you suggest. I hope that file isn't too corrupt. Over the years I've lost what CDs I've played from problems with that file. (I have actually kept track of most every CD since my first Mac, with the exception of what I've lost from crashes. I use a program or two to read it. A good one is iCDC for example.)

Is there an external cd/dvd burner-player for iMac

is there an external cd/dvd burner-player for my imac?

You can simply google for that; I'm sure there'll be plenty - just make sure it specifically states that it is compatible with Mac and the OS version you are running. I've had a LaCie for a number of years; it is self powered with FW port (they no longer make this one unfortunately); here is their non-Bluray option they have now:
http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10058
(Personally, I prefer self powered instead of bus powered). They also sell Bluray burners.

Looking for external Lightscribe DVD burner drive

Does anyone have experience or a suggestion for an EXternal Lightscibe compliant DVD burner for Windows 8.1?

Hi,
Please try:
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/external-lightscribe-drive
http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-GP08LU10-LightScribe-External/sim/B001TOD5B2/2
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Professional/Computer-Drives/DVR-X152
http://www.centrecom.com.au/lg-ch12ns30-blk-bluray-combo-12xbd-r-16xdvd-bd-rre-sl25gb-and-dl50gb-lig...
I've got the last one, bought 15 months ago, over $80 same shop. I only ran few tests .
Regards.
BH
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External DL DVD Burner Assignment Question

Hi, I have an external LaCie Dual Layer DVD burner and an internal (Sony) SuperDrive that is NOT a DL drive. Using the LaCie patch I can use the LaCie DL burner with iDVD, but I can't control which drive iDVD will choose on any given project. One time when I go to burn the project iDVD chooses the DL drive and sometimes it chooses the internal drive.
My question is, how can I assign iDVD to use a particular drive, and then if I can assign it to use the DL external drive, then will it let me burn a project that is over 2 hours? I question this because it still sees a single layer SuperDrive in the G5.
Can anyone provide me with some guidance please? Yes, I've already tried PatchBurn with no luck.
Thanks in advance. --Jim

Hi Jim,
My question is, how can I assign iDVD to use a particular drive, and then if I can assign it to use the DL external drive, then will it let me burn a project that is over 2 hours? I question this because it still sees a single layer SuperDrive in the G5.iDVD does not support selection of DVD burners, you cannot assign which DVD burner to use. In order to use your 'non-Apple' DL burner for DL project. You need a French Patch, there are several threads on this subject:
Topic: iDVD & external drive dual layer
Topic: double layer dvd
Topic: Dual-Layer Disc Image
Topic: Double Layer?
Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver) Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Can I make my external firewire dvd burner the new second internal?

I have a lacie firewire 400 external dvd burner from a couple years ago. I just got a new macpro. Is it possible to remove the drive from that pretty aluminum enclosure and install it as the second optical in the tower? Could it be just that simple, or is it more complicated than that?
Thanks,
Josh

Sweet!! It worked. I set the new/old drive to cable select (by the way, that's what the factory sony was set as too), plugged everything in and it worked.
One thing to watch out for though...
When sliding the optical tray back into the tower, you have be careful not to get that ribbon cable snagged on anything. When I pulled mine out for the first time, I could tell that whoever (I'm looking at you apple manufacturer employee) slid it in originally, muffed up the ribbon cable a bit. It was twisted funny and creased like it was stuffed in there. There was some insulation scraped away also.
Not good I'm sure, but I got my drives in there and they are working. I shouldn't have to get in there again really though, so I'm not too worried.
Anywho, one less thing on the desk is great!
, Josh

External DL DVD Burning Help

Today I tried to burn my first dual layer DVD using my external DVD burner drive and Toast...It worked for about five minutes and then I got a weird error saying that there was an error in the "medium." I tried going to Roxio's site for answers, but it didn't help. Could it just be that my drive is outdated, or could the dual dvds that I bought aren't compatible with my drive? My drive is a 16x12 dual and the blanks I bought are dvd+r dl Verbatim.
Any help is greatly appreciated...Thanks!

How are you connected to it? FireWire or USB? Regardless, make sure you connect the device directly to your MBP and not via a hub. Also, remove any devices that aren't needed. Basically it's trying to make it work with the simplest setup possible.
I would firstly try again doing a restart and run no other applications other than your DVD writing application.
Obviously with DL media the speed at which you can create coasters such that it become more costly than to simply replace the drive is quite real.
By the way, what make/model drive is it?

Which external firewire DVD burner?

Whci external firewire DVD burners work best with the iMac G5?
Are there any external firewire DVD burners that do NOT work with an iMac G5?
Thanks for any info.

I have not seen a list, but on the iDVD page, it tells that it is now compatible with third-party DVD burners. I assume that any Mac-compatible exernal burner is now supported.
There is a discussion in the iDVD forum and another here that give a few that users have installed and had work with iDVD '06.
If I was in the market for a burner, I would get one with LightScribe. A friend of mine has one for his PC and it makes very nice labels. They really are "silkscreen-quality" as they advertise. As far as I know, LaCie is the only one who makes a Mac-compatible LightScribe DVD burner.

DVD burner recommendations

Hi. I have a dual G5 Mac running 10.4, and I'm looking for DVD burning software (besides iDVD). I need it to be able to:
- burn 2-4 hours of video
- source from avis or mpegs
- build simple menus
- (most importantly) burn a disk that will play correctly in a PAL/region 4 (Australian) DVD player; I have no way of testing this, so it's important that this be a reliable, well-tested feature.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Not sure of the extent project needs could be met by a freeware opensource
disc burning utility; but even if it should not meet one project's expectations,
this is handy and works well for many items. There is additional info on site.
http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net
{Of course, there are pro utilities such as Toast; and others out there which
should be capable of producing a recorded DVD within your parameters.}
Good luck & happy computing!

External CD/DVD Burner Recommendation

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