# External DVD burner question



## hydelrose (Aug 20, 2006)

Greetings! I read the previous post on problems with an ext. DVD burner, and I am experiencing problems with a burner that my computer isnt recognizing. My ibook is a combo drive, hence, after doing some online research on recommended ext. dvd burners for Macs I came across the LG SuperMulti GSA-2166D. The Computer guy at the Media store assured me it was Mac compatible. Now after 12 frustrating hours I am not able to durn my finished iDVD project. It doesn't even show up on my Desktop. It opens iDVD, but gives me no possibility to burn. I checked under system profiler and it shows up there but under its details it reads: "Disc Burning: Not supported". At the store, the worker hooked up this burner to a mac and i saw him access it, now i am wondering if it is because i dont have a superdrive or there is some other software that i need (the ones that came with the product are not mac compatible). I would really like to use the iDVD program, since i have my project completed and am not looking forward to have to re-do that....Any knowledge or experience with this matter, or tips would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks.


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## macdudenj (Jun 22, 2006)

An external dvd drive may be Mac compatible but unable to use iDVD. iDVD 5 allows you to "Save As Disc Image" and then you can use Disk Utility to burn to a third-party DVD burner. iDVD 6 allows you to burn directly to a third-party drive.
iDVD uses standard blank DVD-R discs.


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## hydelrose (Aug 20, 2006)

hm. Well, I have iDVD 4.0.1 (originally came with the mac) so then i would just have to upgrade ideally to iDVD 6, then it should work? Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate it.


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## macdudenj (Jun 22, 2006)

iDVD is part of iLife, so you would have to upgrade to that. It might be worth it to you. Look for an educational discount if you are a student, teacher, etc. or your family is a student. I'll take a look for you as well.


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## macdudenj (Jun 22, 2006)

found it on ebay cheap. buy it, use it and resell it if you want.

http://cgi.ebay.com/iBook-Apple-Mac...8QQihZ011QQcategoryZ80258QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


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## emoxley (Jan 6, 2004)

> or there is some other software that i need (the ones that came with the product are not mac compatible).


It's been a long time for me, but when I used to buy hardware that was mac compatible, it also came with mac software. Since your's didn't, it makes me think that it's not mac compatible. Have you been to the web site for the external burner? May have mac software there. If not, I'd return it...............

EDIT:
I just went to their site and found the manual, and read through it. The salesperson lied. It's not compatible...........
Here's the online manual: http://us.lge.com/download/product/file/1000000734/GSA-2166D-ENG.pdf

Page 3, under system requirements, it says:
Windows 2000 Professional (SP4)
XP Home Edition/Professional (SP2)
Direct X 9.0 or higher

Page 10, in troubleshooting area, it says that discs formatted for mac HFS, or Unix, will not function. If it won't play a mac disc, it won't burn one either.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news...................I'd take it back, and get in the salesperson's face! Then have a talk with the manager, telling how you were lied to, and put at a very big inconvenience! Ask what he/she is gonna do about it?
Good luck!


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## hydelrose (Aug 20, 2006)

Thanks for your time and your help, I really appreciate it, today I will go back to the store and return it, and hopefully find one that is compatible in the area. Being that I live in Germany, there may not be sooo many options nearby, but here's hoping.....otherwise, yeah, internet here I come! Thanks again.


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## hydelrose (Aug 20, 2006)

OK, just to summarize the results....I located a mac store within my vicinity and shared with them the difficulties I was having. Besides giving the same option of uprgrading to iDVD6, one of the workers told me about a freeware software called patchburn. I downloaded it, and after following the instructions (read the Read Me doc that accompanies the download) given it worked like a beauty with my iDVD4 and an external DVD burner (that had no mac compatibility software). So I wanted to share that for whoever else out there that might find themselves in the same situation, here are the specifics of my mac and the burner:
Mac OSX 10.3.9
1.2 Ghz PowerPC G4
512 MB DDR SDRAM
60 GB
with iDVD4

External DVD Burner:
LG 16x External Super Multi DVD/CD Rewriter (GSA-2166D) with Lightscribe
(is not accompanied with mac compatible software)


Thanks again for your time.


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## macdudenj (Jun 22, 2006)

I forgot all about patchburn! Good luck.


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