Hei Ben
Den 04.03.2013 17:29, B=C Andrus skrev:
> On 2013 Feb 23 Sat, at 5:20 am, Erik Richard Sørensen wrote:
>> … Regarding the CD/DVD drive you can get a compatible dual-layer
>> 22x CD/DVD ATAPI/ATA
>> DL-drive from OWC for - if I remember right - apprx. 30USd +pp. The
>> best and most
>> reliable for a MDD is the Pioneer DVR-117D (same as DVR-127A
>> SuperDrive) or DVR-118D.
>> You can also use the Pioneeer DVR-115D 8x DVD-DL drive.
>
> Thanks Erik.
> And in case it may be of interest or use to others:
>
> Unfortunately, it seems that none of those model CD drives can be
> purchased. Not at OWC, nor Amazon, nor anywhere I could turn up.
> I'm reluctant to resort to used, since their life-span seems so poor
> to begin with...
>
> OWC's MacSales offers a solution which involves
> a $25 LG Electronics serial ATA drive (OWC SKU: LGEGH24NS95)
> and a $23 Addonics adapter (OWC SKU: ADDADSAIDE)
> bundled for G4 Macs for $46 (OWC SKU: LGEGH24NS90ATA).
>
> I suppose that will work, but it is disgruntling to be forced into
> essentially a wasted adapter for near the price of the drive... and
> without assurance this drive will last any longer than the myriad
> other broken ones.
Yes, but then it will be much cheaper to buy a SATA PCI card for the
MDD. Those they have at OWC are mostly also bootable, so you can add the
much cheaper SATA-I/II harddisks up to 500gb and/or SATA DVD drive as
well. - Here I'll recommend a Sonnet or ACARD SATA PCI card. I' not sure
whether the Sonnet card will be able to boot into OS 9.2.x, but the
ACARD SATA PCI card will. - I had one in a QuickSilver Dual 1,8ghz
upgraded G4...
It seems as if there are delievery problems with the Pioneeer DVD
DVR-117D and DVR118D/BK (SuperDrive). Very few stores have them in stock
in the USA (a Google search), but it seems that Amazon still can
deliever the DVR-117D. - But the price is high - $85USd...:-(
<http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-DVR-118LBK-CD-Writer-Multi-Recorder-ReWritable/dp/B002GQ2SI8>
Through my seaches I can see that most of the new Sony IDE DVD drives
also can be used in any G4, G5 or MacPro. Sony doesnot make these dirves
themselves anymore, but instead get them from NEC, which has increased
the quality remarkably. So here may be a solution, if you can't get a
Pioneer drive.
Also Samsung makes some Mac compatible DVD-DL drives to a very low
price, but I don't know how the quality is of these drives. - Here in
Denmark we can get the Samsung drives as low as 99Dkr. (apprx. z18USd) +
shipping.
The performance quality of video and music is as good for both Sony and
Samsung as the Pioneer DVR-117D. I know from experience that the Pioneer
drives can burn +10.000 pieces of DVD-DL matching to near 40.000 CDR
medias. But how many burns Sony/Samsung can do I simply don't know. -
But if you calculate with 25% of the Pioneer my guess is that it will be
in the near of that amount....
> Does anyone know what fails on them? They just seem to gradually and
> sporadically become more unreliable. It seems head cleaners (disks
> with brushes) only rarely help. There seems to be more deterioration
> with time than due to actual use or wear.
The problems are mostly regarding the laser system itself. Many - of
not most - newer lasers are made of a plexiglass-like material and not
real optical calss.
Within a longer or shorter period the laser light will matten the lens
optics, so the light througpåut will decrease by and by. So any kind of
cleaning won't help here.
In more expensive DVDs like the Pioneers are the laser optics made of
real optical glass, which won't matten as time goes. - Here the problem
instead may be the laser cannon/beamer itself. - It will always decrease
in the light intensity through the years - the cheaper a beamer the
shorter time it will last.
Even if the laser capacity has lowered, some units will still be able
to make good playbacks, but recording may fail or just even won't take
place. Burning requires apprx. 32-40 times as much light intensity as a
playback.
I have a now 12 year old external LaCie firewire CD-only device with a
LiteOn unit. I've used this drive for professional music production and
until now it has burned apprx. 50.000 CDs - without a single failure!
My 'worst' experience was when I way, way back in 1986 bought a Luxman
high-end CD player to a price at that time of nearly $1500USd/9000Dkr..
After less than a year the laser began to fail and after apprx. 14months
it was finished - kaput - as we say here. My next CD player was a
Philips CD-960 Reference high-end model apprx. $400USd more expensive. -
This one is still working like new but now requires new belts.:-)
The differences between these two are the exact same as for DVD
burners- plastic/plexiglass toward real optical glass lenses... - So I
hope this explains some of the differences and problems regarding
various types of CD/DVD drives.
Alternative.... If your MDD is one of those with a FW800 port, you
might be able to find an older slightly used LaCie D2 DVD-DL (the
brushed alu-ase) device. I know that they are rather expensive also
used, but the D2 series are very, very high quality. The MDD can boot
from such an external drive as well as the internal.
Cheers, Erik Richard
|
