dvd RW in laptops anytime soon?

[holden j caufield]

or is this wishful thinking?

 

[prosaic]

http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html

But, yeah, not a lot of variety for those of us who'd like to have an internal one just yet.

I use a firewire-connected external DVD writer on one of my notebooks.

- prosaic

 

[Eug]

They've been out since last year, from various companies. I have the Apple 15" G4 Titanium, with DVD-R drive. I will never buy another laptop without one.

Note the Apple ones only support DVD-R and not DVD-RW, so far. The drive is capable of DVD-RW, but the firmware doesn't support it for some reason. Same for DVD-RAM.

 

[prosaic]

Note the Apple ones only support DVD-R and not DVD-RW, so far. The drive is capable of DVD-RW, but the firmware doesn't support it for some reason. Same for DVD-RAM.

I didn't know that. I just ASSumed that it would do DVD-RW, especially since it's the same drive as the one I use in my Sony video editing workstation, and that one certainly does DVD-RW. I also didn't know that it's supposed to be able to do DVD-RAM. Man, you learn something every day! (Well, I don't, but most people do.)

- prosaic

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: prosaic

Note the Apple ones only support DVD-R and not DVD-RW, so far. The drive is capable of DVD-RW, but the firmware doesn't support it for some reason. Same for DVD-RAM.

I didn't know that. I just ASSumed that it would do DVD-RW, especially since it's the same drive as the one I use in my Sony video editing workstation, and that one certainly does DVD-RW. I also didn't know that it's supposed to be able to do DVD-RAM. Man, you learn something every day! (Well, I don't, but most people do.)

- prosaic

Are you sure you have the same drive? What is the brand and model?

The Apple one is the Panasonic UJ-815 slot load, with a custom Apple firmware. There is also a Panasonic UJ-810 tray load for other laptops. Both are DVD-Multi drives, but the Apple firmware removes the extra DVD-RW/-RAM support for some stoopid reason.

But Panasonic isn't the only manufacturer of laptop DVD burners.

Which Sony laptop model? If it's truly a Panasonic UJ-815 drive I wonder how long it will take for it to get into the wild Mac users would kill to run that firmware in their laptops. I believe that the pre-release TiBooks had an uncrippled firmware.

 

[prosaic]

Sorry. More ignorance on my part. I took my brother's word for it that the drive in that pretty Apple notebook was the same as the one that resides in my Sony VAIO workstation. (It's a desktop system, not a notebook.) If the Apple drive is a Panasonic it most certainly isn't what I've got in the Sony (a Pioneer).

I apologize for the misunderstanding. Hmmmm. And I was thinking of buying one of those puppies. Ain't happening until it at least does -RW or +RW, of not RAM. Heck, knowing that the drive was capable of this but was being shackled deliberately would drive me nuts. From what you say I guess I'm not alone.

My brother and I have an excuse for such lameness. We're both in our fifties.

- prosaic

 

[Eug]

None of the laptops will have the same drive as the desktops. The laptop drives (even the Pioneers) are different models.

In my case I'm using the laptop drive for iDVD (which is IMO the best consumer DVD authoring program in existence by the way). For DVD-RAM I have a second Firewire drive. A PITA, but at least it works.

 

[prosaic]

I'm going to go into whine mode over this. I really wanted one of those 17" Apple pies! Hmmm. Maybe I can learn to live with DVD-R only.

Thank you for the info, Eug.

- prosaic

 

[jonmullen]

I think the highend sony's also or are going to have a dvd rw drive