iDVD and third party burner?

Hey guys just a quick question. I have the 12" PowerBook with combo drive because the superdrive is a rip off. I'm going to get a USB 2.0 or Firewire external dvd burner. Just curious though when I run idvd now it says I don't have a superdrive so I can't burn. Will it keep saying this and not burn even with a 3rd party external? Just don't want to buy an external one and find it doesn't work on the mac with idvd and such, I'll just get a cheapy internal one for my pc instead. Thanks!

I dont have the mac laptops, but, from windows based laptops, it's plug and play. You may have to install some drivers whatever, but it should work fine ;P

the only third party external dvd burners idvd or itunes will recognize are lacie, I think, Im like 95% sure

Wrong, iDVD won't burn to any external drives normally. Only internal ones.

There is a workaround though:

You need to download 2 files and place them in your Home folder (files called hurz, pfurz - google for them)

Then you ctrl-click the burn button and can select an external drive, or save the dvd as a disk image and burn on another comp or using toast.

So the answer is: no, not officially but yes, with a workaround.


Hope this helps!

Hi that helps thanks. Just because for like $60cad at tiger direct I can get a dvd burner for my Dell, or its like $160 for the cheapest external firewire or usb 2.0 one for the mac. I really like idvd even though I don't have a digital video camera, but thought I'd rather get the burner for my powerbook. I just didn't want to buy it and then have none of the programs work and have the mac keep saying I don't have a dvd burner even though I do. With a program like roxio toast or whatever external would work fine though would it not? Thanks.

Aptmunich said:

Wrong, iDVD won't burn to any external drives normally. Only internal ones.

There is a workaround though:

You need to download 2 files and place them in your Home folder (files called hurz, pfurz - google for them)

Then you ctrl-click the burn button and can select an external drive, or save the dvd as a disk image and burn on another comp or using toast.

So the answer is: no, not officially but yes, with a workaround.


Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Never knew that, thanks for the tips and for the future..

yes, toast works fine with external burners.