looking for external firewire pc/mac dvd drive

[mrmeyer]

Perhaps I'm asking too much for a new technology or something, but my head really hurts in trynig to find the answer. I feel like the room is spinning. Been surfing for a week now...

I do video editing etc. on a Mac G4 Powerbook, but am primarily a PC person. I need a DVD writer (- or + doesn't much matter) - that I can firewire into my mac and burn home movies, but also into my PC to archive large datafiles.

Compatibility and software seem to be problematic - but anyone out there doing something similar? Apple's DVD Studio Pro supports Lacie, CD Cyclone, an EZQuest drive and I think a QPS drive - so I started looking there. But then just got more and more confused...

Thanks,

Mike

[mrmeyer]

I understand that Pioneer makes a lot of the drives for many of these companies - so i'm a bit confused as to why there are so many camps - perhaps the custom firmware creates a host of problems?

I hear a lot about LaCie external firewire HD's and the DVD writers in the Mac arena, so does anyone here know of a good LaCie -RW that is external/firewire and also works fine on the WinTel side?

Gads...

Thanks!

Mike

[Ian]

I hear a lot about LaCie external firewire HD's and the DVD writers in the Mac arena, so does anyone here know of a good LaCie -RW that is external/firewire and also works fine on the WinTel side?

As far as I know, all of LaCie's drives work on Windows platforms.

[pturnquist]

Sony external DVD reader/writer DRX-500UL (currently being superseded by the similar DRX-500ULX) has both an IEEE 1394 interface and a USB 2.0 interface. IEEE 1394 is what Sony calls "i.LINK" and Apple calls "Firewire." If the difference between the Apple and Sony interfaces is no more than the name, as should be true, and the Macintosh software recognizes a DVD drive on its Firewire port, then a single DRX-500UL (or -500ULX) can be optical storage for both Wintel and Mac computers. Maybe it even can be connected to both systems simultaneously, using the USB connection for the Wintel and the IEEE 1394 for the Mac.

What gives us pause is Sony's compatibility statement specifying "Windows-based PCs." Is this limitation due only to the software bundled with the DRX-500UL (or -500ULX)? I have queried Sony by e-mail, without reply. Apart from Mac's nonsupport of +R and +RW formats, why wouldn't the Mac use the DRX-500UL (or -500ULX) as a generic DVD drive?

As the DRX-500UL has been available for about a year, surely someone has tried it on a Mac Firewire port by now. Whoever you are, please speak.