I have a late 2009 iMac running OS Yosemite. I purchased an LG Slim burner #GP60NS50 SL R which the manufacturer claimed was compatible but wasn't. It appears that the compatibility (from looking on the web) is inconsistent depending upon which OS is used. Can anyone recommend a good burner that will work with Yosemite? I assume that the Apple model would work but it is a lot more expensive than others. Thanks.
iMac
I found this, but it's old i.e. last updated in November 2013, and I wouldn't be confident it would work with Yosemite or that the hardware devices are even still available. I would bite the bullet and buy an Apple DVD drive.
For good looks and 100% compatibility, the Apple Super Drive comes well recommended. They go for around $50 on eBay; that's where I got mine.
But if you're looking for an alternative, OWC has several options:
Since the Tiger OS, I have been using LaCie d2 DVD+RW 22x external burner w/light scribe. Came w/a 2 yr warranty. Came w/USB & Firewire (400) cables, 2 each. Still working like a champ! Worked on my G5 iMac. Currently still working on my 2008 MBP using Snow Leopard & my current Intel iMac on Yosemite.
Just checked the LaCie site & they longer have this model. Did find the same model on Amazon.
Also, check out the OWC website. They have quite a few that will work w/Yosemite.
Ok, thanks to all but I am confused. I'm told that the Apple Superdrive will not work with my late 2009 iMac because the drive needs more power through the USB that can be supplied by computers originally shipped with an internal Superdrive. So, I need a recommendation for a drive that will work with my year iMac. Thanks.
I purchased this external optical drive for use with the 2011 27" iMac: 24X OWC Mercury Pro 800/400+USB3 SuperMulti-Drive for 3 reasons:
1 - it's drawer loading which avoids jamming by some warped or paper labeled disks.
2 - it's self powered.
3 - it has USB 3 and FW 800 connectivity. Since I burn all of my video DVD at the slowest speed possible the speed isn't important. However, I rip an lot of audiobooks and CD so I wanted something with faster through put than USB 2. Since it has USB 3.0 capability it will be an even faster throughput when I get a new iMac with USB 3 capablity.
I didn't consider the Apple model since is was a slot loader and only USB 2 and not designed for Macs that have/had internal optical drives when manufactured.
OWC has an excellent reputation of quality hardware, warranties and customer support.
Thanks for the recommendation - makes sense. So I would be better off using the Firewire port? Jim
Yes. You would get a faster throughput when reading, i.e. playing videos DVDs, ripping music or audiobook CDs, etc. I don't like to burn at the higher speeds even for data disks so as to give the laser more time over any spot to do its job. Makes for better quality burns, particular for burning video DVDs.
Right that's how I burn- slow and thoroughly. Thanks again. Jim
Old Toad: I took your advice and purchased the OWC burner you recommended using the firewire cable. I tried dropping 4 mp4 videos onto the disk, each about 4 Gbs, and it burned them but although they will play on the drive, my regular DVD player considers them to be blank so I tried burning them with Toast Titanium and Toast wants to encode them which takes hours and hours- about 2% per hour. What am I doing wrong? Thanks.
How did you burn the disk with the OWC drive? You need to use video authoring software like iDVD or Toast with the burner in order to create video DVDs that will play on a DVD player. Just burning via the Finder only creates a data disk.
You should follow this workflow to help assure the best qualty video DVD:
Once you have the project as you want it save it as a disk image via the File ➙ Save as Disk Image menu option. This will separate the encoding process from the burn process. Both iDVD and Toast can save the project as a disk image.
To check the encoding mount the disk image, launch DVD Player and play it. If it plays OK with DVD Player the encoding is good.
Then burn to disk with Disk Utility or Toast at the slowest speed available (2x-4x) to assure the best burn quality. Always use top quality media: Verbatim, Maxell or Taiyo Yuden DVD-R are the most recommended in these forums.
I also have an iMac 27" (mid 2011) computer with OS X Yosemite 10.10.5. The optical drive that was original on the iMac has stopped working. I have posted a description of the problem earlier and so far no response. i was interested in your comments about the OWC external drive you recommended. Were there any compatibility issues with your iMac? I am not a heavy user of the optical drive and use one mostly to convert old photo files to more compatible data storage for todays computers and process videos for friends who only have DVD players. Any comments you may have are certainly appreciated. Thanks.
The drive was plugin and play/read. No problems whatso ever. I have it connected via a Thunderbolt/FW connector as all my other FW ports are filled. I use it's included power supply so I don't have to draw the power from the port it's plugged into. More reliable that way.
There are less expensive drives that will work but I wanted the connectivity options it gave and a drawer loading system. If I upgrade my iMac at some time in the future this drive will go with me to the new iMac.
Thanks Old Toad, I think I will be going to the external optical drive also since the internal one no longer works. Thanks again.
The OWC drive that Old Toad recommended works fine. It's pricey but for older iMacs the external power supply is necessary and with firewire it burns faster than the Superdrive.
Recommendation for External DVD Burner
