External DVD/CD burner with Lightscribe

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Level 1

28 points

External DVD/CD burner with Lightscribe

Do I need an external Lightscribe DVD/CD writer that is "Mac Compatible"? Before I switched to an iMac, I used an HP Lightscribe enabled CD/DVD burner and all my friends really loved their labels. Now they're spoiled so I want to get a USB or Firewire external with Lightscribe. I can find lots of external drives locally, but none that are listed as being for a Mac. What would happen if I hooked up a drive that had no "Mac Compatibilty"? Would it work? I'm looking specifically at an HP Drive that is 20X. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Rich

Aluminum iMac 24" 2.8, 4Gb RAM, 750 Gb. HD, Mac OS X (10.5.2), WindowsXP Home under Boot Camp

Posted on Feb 15, 2008 12:39 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mrtotes

Level 6

11,836 points

Feb 15, 2008 3:31 PM in response to RichardIII

Lacie do a Lightscribe drive (and software) for the Mac:

http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10014

regards

mrtotes

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Answer 2

RichardIII Author

Level 1

28 points

Feb 16, 2008 7:03 AM in response to mrtotes

Ah! Thank you very much mrtotes. I managed to find a source here in Ontario and just ordered one of the LaCie models. If you wouldn't mind answering just one more question..... :0)
The drive comes with a firewire (400) cable but can also be connected via USB 2.0.
Is one better than the other?

Thanks again,

Rich

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Answer 3

mrtotes

Level 6

11,836 points

Feb 16, 2008 7:07 AM in response to RichardIII

Firewire sustains high data transfer rates far better than USB2.0. Also if you're anything like me you'll have a Firewire port spare but not any USB2.0 so use Firewire. You can use a 9pin-to-6pin Firewire cable if you only have your 9pin Firewire 800 port free.

mrtotes

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Answer 4

RichardIII Author

Level 1

28 points

Feb 16, 2008 9:01 AM in response to mrtotes

As luck would have it, I do have a Firewire 400 port available. Thanks again mrtotes, you are very helpful - for a guy from Blighty :0) I have always assumed USB 2.0 to be faster because of the 480 VS. 400. This is very useful information. Thanks again,

Rich

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Answer 5

The Looby

Level 4

1,285 points

Feb 16, 2008 11:02 AM in response to RichardIII

RichardIII wrote:

The drive comes with a firewire (400) cable but can also be
connected via USB 2.0.

Is one better than the other?

There should be +no difference+ in performance for an external optical drive.
Use whichever is most convenient (or most reliable). There might be some
differences in how well the FW vs. USB drivers work for your particular drive.

In the case of external hard drives, firewire 400 is a little faster than USB 2
(about 20% faster) -- but they're both much faster than any CD/DVD drive.

Looby

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