Lacie External DVD Burner

[jondaapplegeek]

Hi Guys,
I've got a PowerBook G4 with a combo drive (why o why I didn't get a SuperDrive i shall never know - regretting it now), with 10.4.11 installed.
I need to get a DVD burner to work with iMove 6 / iDVD 7, and Final Cut Express 4. I may purchase Roxio Toast 9 Titanium in the future.
I'm currently looking at the LaCie d2 DVD±RW with LightScribe (http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=10996), and have a few questions.

First - will this work?!? It says it required Windows or Linux, but I have read that almost any USB drive will work. All I can imagine is it's the LightScribe part that needs the software, but this usermanual (PDF) (http://www.lacie.com/download/manual/lightscribe_labeler_en.pdf) says it works on Mac (or am I missing something?).

Second - is LightScrbe any good? It looks great, and I know I have to buy special disks but I'm not forced to use these am I? Can I use normal DVDRs / CDRs too for just data burning?

Third - Is there something better for the money? I don't have loads of money to spend, so if there is a better drive for not much more (or cheaper!) then I would love to hear about it!

Fourth - Anything else I should be aware of? I like to spend wisely, so would hate to end up with a product I'm not satisfied with.

Thanks for your help.
Cheers,

[Is it 1981?]

First - will this work?!?
I'd imagine so - I used to have a very similar LaCie burner a couple of years ago.


Second - is LightScrbe any good? It looks great, and I know I have to buy special disks but I'm not forced to use these am I? Can I use normal DVDRs / CDRs too for just data burning?
I've never used LightScribe (always thought it was a bit of a gimmick, personally) - but yes, standard recordable discs will work.

Third - Is there something better for the money? I don't have loads of money to spend, so if there is a better drive for not much more (or cheaper!) then I would love to hear about it!
I'd be inclined to save for the Portable/ Sam Hecht (http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=10985) drive; if only for the portability and elegance that comes with the lack of a power brick (I have this burner (http://www.lacie.com/uk/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10112) - and this hard drive (http://www.lacie.com/uk/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10136) for precisely those reasons, despite the fact I don't have a notebook).

[jondaapplegeek]

I'd be inclined to save for the Portable/ Sam Hecht (http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=10985) drive; if only for the portability and elegance that comes with the lack of a power brick

I considered these, but they appear to be so much slower.
I don't think I will be transporting it very often, and the speed is of a lot more use to me then the size.

[FFL]

It looks to me like you might need this instead:

http://www.lacie.com/uk/products/product.htm?pid=11005

which states being Mac-compatible, and lists Mac software for LightScribe, in the specs.

If you're concerned with performance, you'd rather use FireWire than USB, anyway.

[turtle]

I use this drive (the one FFL points to) with my machines here at my place. All are Macs that were running 10.4, but are now running 10.5. I never use Lightscribe because I can't stand the idea of paying that much for a disk.

[beardedmacuser]

For my PowerBook I bought an old shiny aluminium Lacie external CDRW drive for less than ten quid on eBay, and replaced the optical drive inside with a silver coloured Pioneer DVR-112 (shows up as "Apple Shipped / Supported" or something like that in OS X!). So for less than 30 GBP I had a nice modern Mac-compatible external Firewire DVD burner!

...then my PowerBook died :( .

[beardedmacuser]

Something like this (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LACIE-D2-External-Firewire-CD-R-W-cdrw_W0QQitemZ170206686695QQihZ007QQcategoryZ3754Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem), with this (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4XXW&CategorySelectedId=11155&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11155,4294959720,50305,4294957178).

[jondaapplegeek]

beardedmacuser, did you mean to like to link to a external CD-R/W from eBay?
or were you suggesting I just get a case for that internal drive from dabs?

Thanks for all your help,

[beardedmacuser]

Yeah, what I was trying to suggest (if you're not too afraid of a screwdriver) is what I did myself; buy a cheap-but-decent used Mac-friendly Firewire CDRW drive, open up the case and remove the 5.25 inch CDRW drive inside and replace it with a new DVD burner (like the one listed at dabs). It couldn't have worked better for me.