Anyone have experience with a Pioneer DVR-710B5PK Internal Burner

[ArtP]

A friend has an old G4 350 and FINALLY wants to make the jump to OS X. I am helping her upgrade her hard drive with a second 120GB in addition to the old 12GB drive that is running OS 9. While I have the Mac open she wants to upgrade to a DVD burner also.

I am looking at the Pioneer DVR-710B5PK (16x Internal Double-Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive) which is on sale at Best buy for $39.99 this week.



I know that the Pioneer 103 thru 110/111's were mac compatible. I googled and a few sites say this one is Mac and PC compatible, but I figured I would ask here for some real world experience.

Anybody familiar with this drive and is it Finder, Toast and iLife compatible?

Wonder if it will work in OS 9 in case she has to reboot back to use ancient software?

[jdc]

unless shes just burning DVD data -- burning a movie might be very time consuming

umm, let me rephrase that -- encoding a DVD to be burnt might take forever on a G3

[grad]

It is a G4

[ArtP]

[quote jdc]unless shes just burning DVD data -- burning a movie might be very time consuming

umm, let me rephrase that -- encoding a DVD to be burnt might take forever on a G3
Yes it is a G4. She mainly wants it to back up data. She has been using Zips and CD-R's but is ready to move into this millennium and start archiving stuff more efficiently.

[ArtP]

Just in case anyone is tracking this post found this on XLR8:

Reviewer's Name: Mark G.
Date Submitted: 5/30/2006
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: IDE
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-710B5PK (retail boxed DVR-111DBK)
Driver Used: Apple Standard
Mac Model: Apple G5 Tower
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: I just purchased the above drive from Best Buy for $39.99 after an instant $40 savings. The drive is actually a DVR-111DBK, (black DVR-111D) with firmware ver. 1.06.
I installed it in my G5, OS 10.4.6 after removing the Pioneer DVR-107 that came with my system. I removed the (Tray edge) bezel from the new drive and installed the standoffs from the old drive and set the new drive to CS (cable select) before installing.

System Profiler sees the drive as a DVR-111D. I've burnt a CD with Toast and a DVD with Popcorn, both without problems.
System Profiler says Burn Support: Yes (Unsupported), reads DVDs, writes CD-R & CD-RWs, writes DVD-R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL, and supports underrun protection for both CDs and DVDs.
The fastest media I have to try burns with are 40X CDs, and 8X DVDs (when I did burns, both were selectable). The drive seems to run quieter than the DVR-107.
Thanks for the great site.
Mark

I'll report back next week after I do the install and let others who are interested know how it performs.

[Panopticon]

Pioneer DVR-111D $31.99 w/ Free Shipping @ NewEgg (+ NO Tax!):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827129001

btw-I've never had an order from NewEgg take more than 3 days for delivery.

[ArtP]

[quote Panopticon]Pioneer DVR-111D $31.99 w/ Free Shipping @ NewEgg (+ NO Tax!):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827129001

btw-I've never had an order from NewEgg take more than 3 days for delivery.
Yes, but she's in a hurry (tired of OS 9 problems) and didn't mind buying local for a bit more and wants the install done tomorrow.

Just cracked the box and found that the Pioneer DVR-710B5PK is just a boxed RETAIL number for the OEM Pioneer DVR-111D. Inside the box is the Pioneer DVR-111D (labeled on Drive), manual, instructions, and PC based burning software.

It was only about $10 more at Best Buy @ $39.99 plus tax on sale.

[RAMd®d]

I've got a 107D and a 110.

I wouldn't mind grabbing a 111D and converting it to a 111. That's a decent price from Best Buy.

[fahdoul]

Convert? How and why? What is the difference anyhow?

[quote RAMd®d]I've got a 107D and a 110.

I wouldn't mind grabbing a 111D and converting it to a 111. That's a decent price from Best Buy.