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Mojave19

Q: Need External DVD Player that Works on Mac

My G4 fell (ouch) and the right corner bent and the DVD player doesn't work anymore. At Best Buy I bought a LG DVD player and burner, but my G4 wouldn't recognize it. Then I bought a Pioneer DVD player and burner, but it wouldn't recognize that either (this one has a place to plug in a cord to power it from the wall, but it didn't help).
Does anyone know of an external DVD player and burner that will work with a Mac G4? They seem to all be well under $100, a lot cheaper than having a Mac repair person open up my G4 and try to fix the internal player and also replace the shell.
BTW, I guess I could get by without a burner, so if you know of just a player that would work with my G4, I would consider it. Also the LG player says on the box it works with Mac, but then I noticed it needs OS X 10.5 . I suppose it costs over $100 to upgrade, so I don't think it's worth it.

MAC G4 Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Jun 3, 2010 4:55 AM

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Q: Need External DVD Player that Works on Mac

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  • by kmac1036,Helpful

    kmac1036 kmac1036 Jun 3, 2010 7:26 AM in response to Mojave19
    Level 4 (2,360 points)
    Jun 3, 2010 7:26 AM in response to Mojave19
    were you buying a firewire or usb connected burner? it should be firewire, you can boot your ppc mac then from it.

    you could also replace the internal one, these guys have both!

    check out OWC: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/
  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Jun 3, 2010 8:27 AM in response to Mojave19
    Level 8 (35,217 points)
    iPad
    Jun 3, 2010 8:27 AM in response to Mojave19
    I picked up a used Sony external DVD writer at a rummage sale, ostensibly for my daughter's netbook which has no optical drive. It had both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces. Via FireWire, it can be used to boot any Pre-Intel Mac with built-in FireWire ports.

    I used it to successfully install Tiger from retail DVDs on daughter's older eMac that had only an internal CD-RW drive.
  • by Mojave19,

    Mojave19 Mojave19 Jun 4, 2010 2:32 AM in response to kmac1036
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iWork
    Jun 4, 2010 2:32 AM in response to kmac1036
    Thanks for responding. Both DVD players I bought were USB connected.
    What is firewire and how do I know if my G4 Powerbook has it? My system is OS X 10.4. 11.
  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Jun 4, 2010 6:49 AM in response to Mojave19
    Level 8 (35,217 points)
    iPad
    Jun 4, 2010 6:49 AM in response to Mojave19
    All PowerBooks starting the G3 "Pismo" dating to Feb 2000 have Firewire Ports. On the 17" G4, the FireWire 400 port is the only labeled "2" in this image of the right edge of the computer:

    !http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECAREALLGEOS/HT2369/862835.gif!

    FireWire is an Apple trademark for the IEEE 1394 interface. Other companies will usually use the IEEE designator to avoid mentioning Apple.