Adding Apple Superdrive to an old G4

dave17lax

dave17lax

Inventor of the Egg Wave
Hey does anyone know where to find a superdrive, and if I can add it to any old mac? Mine is a dual g4, gigabit ethernet model. I am trying to play around with idvd but can't afford a new mac.

I am trying to avoid 3rd party dvd burners, so that idvd won't puke when I try to boot it up.
 
http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=154987

Here is an MCE superdrive upgrade for g4 mac.
•Will this work on any g4, or just silverskins?
•Will Apple's suite of DVD products recognize it as an Apple superdrive

It says in the ad that it is compatible with iDVD, etc, but has anyone had experience with these or other 3rd party "superdrives". I have noticed that many say "superdrive" and you come to find out that they are not compatible.
 
The Pioneer AV-105 is the drive you want. That's what Apple uses (or used, perhaps...).
 
I have an original 733 G4 and a MDD dual 1.25 both with superdrives. I wanted to put the drive from the 733 into the dual 1.25 G4 so that I would have two superdrives in one machine. However, it turns out that the older superdrives are longer than the new ones, and the mdd G4's have extremely tight drive bays. Infact, i couldn't even fit a CD-RW into the bay, let alone the superdrive. Very frustrating.

Thought you would like to know

-Peter
 
I put the Pioneer AO-105 in my DP 450 (Gig.Eth.) and it works great. I have only burnt data DVDs and cdrs, but its fully recognized. I picked it up at Fry's Electronics (www.outpost.com) for $179.
Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the flood of replies. I did find that the Pioneer 105/106's are what people are using now. Good hint about bay size, I'd rather not get one that is too big to fit.
What I learned is that the 106 series is not yet fully supported by iApps, but is twice as fast and only marginally more expensive.
However, people using panther have reported getting it to work without hacks, so it does look like Apple will start using this one in future macs.
My needs are simply playing around with iDvd, so I will probably just get the 105, especially if the 106 won't even fit.
As for the MCE drive I originally looked at, I couldn't find much more on it. The pioneers are the same cost and proven to work, so I'll go with pioneer.

Anyone searching for info on this topic, check the faq at xlr8yourmac: http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/faq.lasso and the drive compatibility database (which was posted earlier): http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/action.lasso?-search
The database works best with broad searches, like dvdrw+pioneer+osx. If and when I get my drive, I'll post to the database as well.


[Edit: I said that the 106 is faster....actually it's not really. It just supports all DVD media and supposedly has better overrun protection.]
 
I think it actually is faster. Correct me if I'm wrong (CMIIW, by the way, in case you see it that way anywhere), but the 105 only goes up to 2x DVD write while the 106 is 4x. And I'd think the 106 would be shorter if the older drive (the 105) doesn't fit in the newer Macs.
 
Here are links to buy a 105 and then a 106. They are listed the same speeds for each media type, except the one I've linked says the 106 will do 2.4X on a dvd-r rw rewrite.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=659072/mode=google1/ut=40dba31e022d50b8

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_...932493/search=pioneer 106/ut=40dba31e022d50b8

Prices vary from dealer to dealer across the "net". The cheapest 105 I found was for $149, the most expensive was $299! ---(probably external)

The dimensions actually change from site to site, but most agree on about 7.8 inches (198mm) long (deep). peterp100 said that the older drives are bigger, but I have not found any sites that list any more than a .1 inch or a few millimeters difference. It's possible that he was using the old 103 (OH THOSE WERE THE DAYS~! ;) http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/01/20020124194805.shtml )

In contrast, the dvd player in my g4 (hitatchi gd-7000) --came with mac-- is only 7.1 inches. There is an aluminum cover over the back which attaches to the mounting, but it can be removed and there is at least 2 inches until it hits the power supply. It seems to me (ISTM) that Apple put the cover there for cosmetic reasons only.

I wish I could post a direct link from xlr8yourmac.com's database, but it looks like each search produces a temp file, and cannot be linked to. (For sanity's sake, I won't copy/paste). Basically the database is a bunch of postings that people leave when they have gotten a 106 and tried to install. In 91.2% of the cases :eek: , users have installed hacked drivers just to get burn capabilities. This requires either terminal use or booting to OS9 to replace manually--not really a problem, but-- Once they've done that, many times the stupid thing still doesn't work with iDVD (the whole point of me starting this thread).
This can be attributed to driver drivers, system config, and in at least one case, the ATI graphics drivers!
Arden, you are right that the 105 is the way to go right now, because of the shear crap involved in making the 106 work. BUT the 106 is supposedly going to be supported in panther, and it definitely is the better drive. At this point I am going to wait until panther is out to make any decisions. (People have posted in the database that it barely works under jag, but works like a snap in panther betas). If the 105 was only $100, I would jump on it. But its price is really just as variable as the 106, anywhere from $150-$300.
The 106 is apparently THE dvd writer out right now, price to performance, so it would be nice if Apple did accept it to replace the A05/105 series.Of course it may be a coincidence and glitch in Panther and not work when 10.3 comes out.

Not to mention the plextor 708, which comes out within the month (8x writer).
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/7487


I'd like to thank xlr8yourmac and google for my research on this thesis.
 
It would also be nice if Apple added support in iDVD (and anything else lacking it) for 3rd party DVD burners as well.
 
Basically the reason they haven't is because of their liscense agreement with the mpeg people. Technically the only legal place that one can run idvd is on a mac that came with a superdrive. So even adding one that is the same make/model violates the contract because the "Apple Superdrive" is a pioneer A05, or A06 or whatever, but the oem verison is the 105. Don't ask me why any of this matters though. I think it's more of an excuse to get you to buy a new mac.
 
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