What's the best external dvd drive (including Mac software) for an iMAC

Question

Would like to know.

Answer 1

Assembly of External Drive Solution
1) Take out the optical drive (DVR-112D-BK) from its box, and slide it into the tray mechanism, and align the black plastic facia (the front of the drive) with the front edge of the case so it's a flush fit, so it looks like it belongs there. There are 4 small phillips head bright, polished screws in the kit...put those aside for now, but you'll use those to fasten down the drive in the tray after everything's buttoned up
2) Attach the 40-pin/80-wire ATA/100 cable to the drive. It *only goes on one way*, as you'll see a notch at the top that fits into the notch in the back of the drive...you can't install it but one way, the right way. BE CAREFUL to not bend those pins, and get all 40 pins aligned before you push it on. Secure it well, pushing it *all the way in*; it has to be 100% onto the pins.
3) Attach the power Molex connector to the drive; it also only fits one way. Once again, push it in *all the way* so it "snaps" a little...you'll feel it do that, and then it's secure.
4) Attach the 4-pin sound board pigtail to the small 4-pin slot, to the LEFT of the ATA/100 connector/cable. It can be fitted either way, but be sure to fit it with the notch on the pigtail toward the left side of the drive
5) Make sure that everything's hooked up, and do a final alignment of the drive in the tray (it should move in the tray with a little force from your thumbs, easily), again making the front aligned with the front of the case, so it looks OEM nice.
6) Now use those 4 phillips screws to secure the drive onto the side of the tray. Don't overtighten the screws! Just a snug torque is good.
7) Take the silver case cover and slide it over the tray, until it's snug with the back of the tray. It should be *perfectly aligned* and fully compressed so there's no gap between the case and the tray...be careful closing the tray on the LED's power wires by the way...just tuck them inside of the tray so when you close it the thing doesn't get in the way.
Finally) Use those two long black screws to secure the tray and the case aluminum cover through the two holes *in the back of the tray*, and again...*don't overtighten those screws!*...just a snug torque is all that's needed.
You're done!
Now hook it up to your Mac via FireWire, and do an Apple System Profiler report and *make sure it's supported* by your System: highlight "Disc Burning" and see if it says "Apple Shipped/Supported" in the right display window, which it will say if you're using 10.4.3 or higher. If you're running Panther 10.3.9 you have to use Patchburn.
Basically, what PatchBurn does, is generate a new System Profile for the optical drive in question, and it does so for a huge variety of drives, not just Pioneer drives. Once the profile is in your System, simply restart your Mac, and Viola! Instantly your new drive will be available to work with all the iApps, that is iTunes, iMovie, iDVD etc, and it will be integrated with all Finder functions also. That means the drive will then function with Disk Utility's "Burn" commands in all applications, and Disk Utility itself.
Please don't worry if you try to use your new drive combo and it doesn't work, or isn't recognized by your Mac...just do the above procedure with PatchBurn v3.x for 10.3.x, or v4.x, for 10.4.x, and all will be fine!
http://www.patchburn.de/download.html