jhelm007 said:
I'm not sure what the issue is either. It maybe just a matter of them not devoloping and bundling drivers which would explain why patchburn and toast work so well. system updates play a big role in drives being recognized. With my optical 10.2.7 = no dice. 10.2.8+ = fully supported DVD burner. ***?
BTW that's awsome that you already have a drive that works with patchburn. Now you can blow that $$ on a different toy!
I agree with you that Patchburn is just, well, a patch...it's not a permanent fix. Any major update in the OS might break Patchburn, and you need to wait for the developpers to bring out a new Patchburn (which, in general, happens very fast though).
I've recently read an article somewhere that OS X is checking the brand and modell of the drive (information that is stored in the drive) and compares it to an existing list of drive names, then sets it to "supported" or not, and if the "supported" flag is not set, iApps can't use the burner. As it is not a driver issue (you don't need a specific driver for a specific burner, not on any OS), 3rd party apps can easily use the burner's full capabilities.
It is actually an unnecessary and useless "blockade" from Apple's side, as buying the same type of drive as an aftermarket part instead of the original Apple part is much cheaper than Apple-original, yet no big difference compared to others. The DVR-109 is normal priced (for it's capabilities, and compared to others) and it is a fully Apple supported drive, just like an "original" Superdrive.