LG 5163D DVD Drive for iBook G3

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Level 2

450 points

LG 5163D DVD Drive for iBook G3

After enormous trouble trying to get a Mac Mini (different post on Mac Mini discussions), I've given up on that for now. Instead I want to spend some of my spare money on other toys, including a DVD drive for my iBook.

My choices here in Israel are extremely limited, especially for firewire drives. The only one available in any of the local stores is the LG 5163D, but I don't know if it's compatible with Macs. On the UK LG site it says it is, but on other sites it says it isn't. I've been reading threads on other forums and it's not clear if it'll run with PatchBurn and/or Toast 5 on a G3. Does anyone have experience with this DVD? I've written LG but received no response from them (I've heard their support is lousy).

Please don't recommend any other DVD drives. I've done my homework and the only other firewire drives available in Israel from stores and online companies are LaCie and EZQuest (but both companies sent responses to my e-mails to them that their DVD drives only work with G4 Macs) and Plextor (the company says it'll work with my G3 but the cost is phenomenal - $343 - double the price of the LG).

Thanks for any help.

Claire

Posted on Jun 26, 2005 10:20 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 15, 2005 5:49 PM in response to Claire JR

hi:

did you ever resolve this issue? i too have a ibook g3 and wish to take out the cd rom drive abd replace it with a gombo drive.
thanks
darriel

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Answer 2

Claire JR Author

Level 2

450 points

Aug 16, 2005 7:27 AM in response to Darriel Arnott

Hi Darriel,

I just got a Mini so now I'm going to get an external DVD burner for the Mini. I'll probably get the newest one from EZQuest - it's small and very inexpensive (go to www.ezq.com and look at the Monsoon drives). I've had great luck with EZQuest drives (I own 2 hard drives and a CD burner) so I'm going to stick with a company I know. Also, they include Toast 6.0 Lite with their drives.

I don't know about internal DVD drives for the iBook. You might want to start a new thread on this forum to find out about that.

Good luck.

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Answer 3

RandF

Level 1

0 points

Oct 3, 2005 9:49 AM in response to Claire JR

I've bought one of these drives and it works well. The reason the answer is both "yes" and "no" is that it officially is a PC burner, but it works well in OSX with a free driver called "Patchburn", available at www.patchburn.de. I use a G3 iBook and Toast 6.

Very handy burner, having Firewire and USB 2,0 ports. Hope this helps. Better late than never.

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Answer 4

Claire JR Author

Level 2

450 points

Oct 6, 2005 7:26 AM in response to RandF

Thanks for the reply. I still haven't bought a DVD burner and the price on the LG 5163 keeps dropping, so it's good to know it'll work with Tiger and patchburn. I'm waiting until the new EZQuest is available here (I live in Israel) and then I'll compare prices and specs and decide on either the EZQuest or the LG.

Thanks again for the info.

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Answer 5

Alan_01

Level 1

15 points

Nov 11, 2005 5:24 PM in response to Claire JR

I am running an ibook G3 7ooMhz 650MB RAM on OS 10.2.8 and have bought a Lacie d2. It works fine and burns CDs and DVDs.

Does anyone know if I can get it to work with iDVD? or does that only work with a built-in superdrive?

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Answer 6

aleks

Level 1

135 points

Nov 26, 2005 9:39 PM in response to Claire JR

Alan, to answer your question, if you have tiger installed in your system I am almost positive that you can use iDVD and burn to an external DVD burner. go ahead and check with the Apple site on OSX but I believe this to be correct, as that was a big selling point for tiger and also for iLife, for those that din't have it yet. Or at least that's why I upgraded to both. Let me know if I am wrong on this one.

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