Upgrading To A Pioneer internal DVD RW

Hi Bhuna and welcome to discussions.

Simply swapping optical drives (in this case a Sony CD-RW for a Pioneer DVD+/-RW) is fine. Instructions for removing the old drive (including a QuickTime movie) can be found here (under Drives - CD/DVD Drive):

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75314

Installation of the new drive is simply the reverse process. Both drives use the same type of ribbon cable connector and power connector. Note you do have to replace the existing drive, as despite appearances the QuickSilver can only support one optical drive.

The front plate on the Pioneer drive will have to be removed before installation and use. This can be easily done by pulling away at the bottom of the tray's face plate and pushing upward. Be careful not to break the tray itself. You will likely need Patchburn ( http://www.patchburn.de ) to make the drive useable with iTunes, iDVD, etc.. The drive works fine with Toast 6 or 7. My 110D works fine in my MDD.

Regards,

Why does replacing the optical drive with a new one make it incompatible with Apple software (ie iPhoto, iTunes, etc)?

It is the firmware installed on the drive. Apple-supplied drives have special firmware for full support for i-Apps. There are work-arounds though, to make third party drives compatible ( http://www.patchburn.de ). Both my original DVR-104 and 110D drives work great.

Regards,

It's not necessarily the firmware for all the iApps and Finder, rather with device profiles.

It appears only dual-layer buring in iDVD that is sensitive to the firmware version, probably using a firmware check -- but I can't say for sure on that. Apple OEM optical drives usually have different firmware from the ones that you buy, and usually this doesn't make a difference. One verified problem with different firmware came in the early days of OS X, where drives with PC firmware would cause kernel panics on wake if you left the disc in the drive of Pioneer Superdrive. There was a workaround for this, and I believe, but haven't checked that the was later in later versions of OS X.

With Finder and iTunes, the issue isn't the firmware of the drives but rather with device profiles (files or files). Going back to iTunes and disc burning on OS 9.x Apple was and still writes and updates these device profiles as new drives hit the market -- so the various apps know what drive is installed and being used. This is why for instance the Pioneer 109 didn't have support early on with Tiger, but the 10.4.3 update brought native support (without the need for Patchburn).

So if the drive you're installing, e.g. Pioneer 110D, is too new, and Apple hasn't yet written the profile for it. Part of what Patchburn is to supply the requisite profiles for these drives that are too new or drives from manufacturers, Apple may have never officially supported. A lot people thought the 10.4.4 update would bring full native support for the 110D, but alas it's still not there -- I checked when I installed mine. I've installed a lot of Pioneers over the years, great drives which Apple still uses. (Just installed a 110D in my DA, and a K05 in my PB and Cube.) Usually get full compatibility with these -- I say usually since there is the issue of the iDVD5 dual-layer burning. We'll have to see if iDVD6 removes the alleged firmware check.

If you're still stuck in 9.x, you can find patched device profiles at xlr8yourmac. I used one with a Pioneer 106.

DA-Giga 2x1.33; Cube-Giga 1.3; PB 15" 1.33-Hitachi 100GB 7K100, Pioneer DVR-K05 Mac OS X (10.4) Cheetah 15.3K, ATTO UL3D, Radeon 9600 Pro

Is there a simple listing of compatible drives for the latest OSX? Can't seem to find it on Apple's web site? XLR8 is kinda confusing.

I just installed iDVD6 and DL burning is supported on my new drive.

Regards,

I just installed iDVD6 and DL burning is supported on my new drive.

WWJD, thank you for that. Music to my ears.

O.k. so now I need to order iLife6 -- got to family pack it for my 3 Macs. 😉

There used to be a list. But I can't seem to find it either:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/burn/

But even when it was there it was often out of date.

The trick with the XLR8yourmac database of drive reports is knowing the particular drive you're considering beforehand. Then you can use the drive brand to filter the reports, and then see whether the drive can boot your Mac (not all can), supports iTunes, etc.

As I mentioned before, Pioneer Superdrives enjoy great compatibility. I still need Patchburn for Tiger, but after using it System Profiler shows Apple Supplied/Supported. And it will boot my DA.

Also looks like we got support for DL burning with iDVD6 based on WWJD's comments below. Sweet! (There was a patched version of iDVD5 that enabled it, but nice that support is there without having to rely on someone patching the app.)

DA-Giga 2x1.33; Cube-Giga 1.3; PB 15" 1.33-Hitachi 100GB 7K100, Pioneer DVR-K05 Mac OS X (10.4) Cheetah 15.3K, ATTO UL3D, Radeon 9600 Pro

I was hesitant installing the iDVD5 DL patch knowing that version 6 was supposed to support 3rd Party Drives and DL. I hate to modify the apps too much as problems can occur with future updates, etc.. My 110D is installed in my MDD Dual GHz machine.

Regards,

As I posted in another thread, just last night I was able to swap out the old Pioneer DVD drive for my friends Plextor 8x DVD drive. The system recognized the drive model and make, and I'm able to burn directly from the finder and iPhoto.

I'm off to try finding a newer 16x DVD drive since I proved the swap works. I think the only issue is if the current MacOS supports the newer drive, therefore work seamlessly with the finder and apps.

As mentioned above, I guess the XLR8 website is the best list of compatible drives. More to come...