Upgrade again.. but w/o DVD drive:-)

Hi,
+/* Sorry to bother the community with maybe same question: I see many regarding upgrades. Unfortunately I didn't find a solution for my particular situation, so here it goes again ...+
1) I have a G5 with 10.3.9; need to upgrade to a higher v-n (unfortunately; the only reason is that Sibelius-5 doesn't work on Panther, what a shame);
2) I got a black DVD with a silver X;
3) but... I have no place to insert it:-)
+(some recent problem with my SONY DVD RW DW-U21A: can now only read/write CDs but not DVDs. At least not double-sided ones for sure).+
My question is basically:
*- is it possible at all to install a new OS w/o buying a new optical drive?*
// Even funnier: I looked at a nice external optical drive today - here in the apple store -- LaCie-smth... - nice indeed except it only works with v10.4.8 or >> .
To complete the picture, I also have a laptop (more modern and with a good dvd drive that can read my DVD fine) and also a usb backup hard drive.
... So 1st tried a "simple" thing 1st: created a *dmg from the dvd, copied it to my ucb disk, copied it then to my desktop, but - that didn't work (says: restart? - sure, restart, after which it forgets the dmg mount(? or smth. else?; maybe an anti-piracy thing. Indeed that would be too easy otherwise:-))..
In any case, I am hoping there's still a solution (keeping in mind I have two macs and a f/w cable -?).
Or, if not, here goes my 2n q-n: is there an external optical drive that a) would work with 10.3 so I could install 10.4 and b) would still be worth it while with 10.4 / 10.5?
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.

*How To: Installing Tiger Using FireWire Target Disk Mode*
http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/osx_odyssey_752_how_to_installing_tiger_using_firewire_target_diskmode/
 Cheers, Tom

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