The 18x Sony DRX830U drive reviewed here was replacedby the 20x DRX840U, which was available fromfor about $80. It has since been disscontinued and replaced by theslower, slimmer SonyDRX-S77U, which is currently (mid 2010) avaliablefrom Amazon.com for about $60 in eitheror.It should work with USB Macs every bit as well as the older drives,albeit more slowly.My was about how to ripyour DVDs to your computer. This time around, we'll be looking at theDVD burner.

Option 1: Update drivers automatically. The Driver Update Utility for Sony devices is intelligent software which automatically recognizes your computer’s operating system and CD / DVD model and finds the most up-to-date drivers for it. There is no risk of installing the wrong driver. The Driver Update Utility downloads and installs your drivers quickly and easily. Drivers for External. All Sony Optical external units are plug & play with Windows, no drivers are required for. The Sony Electronics.

Whether you need a burner for data backup of allthose MPEG-4 files you just made or to burn custom DVDs, this Sonyburner may just be what you're looking for.These days, just about every computer comes with a DVD writer or aDVD/CD-RW combo drive. My camewith a 4x Apple branded SuperDrive, which has worked for the past twoyears but is really quite picky about media. Lennardigital sylenth1 64 bit for mac. When I was lucky, it wouldburn at the full 4x speed, but most of the time, it burned at 2x - oreven 1x.I'd thought about getting a fast external DVD burner, both to get anice speed boost and also to be able to use it with whatever computer Ineeded to connect it to.As Mac users, we're fortunate to have an excellent operating system,great free software, and some pretty long lasting computers. But make atrip down to your local Staples or, and you're instantly reminded that we live in a Windowsworld.Just head over to the internal/external drive aisle and count theMac compatible items:. Hard drives?

Good. External hard drives? Good.

Internal DVD writers? Not bad. External DVD burners?

TerribleOr is it?I spent months trying to decide on an external burner. Each one inthe local stores read 'Windows only'. I looked online, and the Maccompatible burners were always sold at an average of $60 more than theWindows version!It's just not fair. We Mac users should be treated equally with ourdifferent OS brethren.

General software, that I can understand. Butcan't a company write a simple OS X driver for a burner withoutinflating the price?Well, I was fed up. I had chosen the Sony DVD DRX830U 18x burnerbecause it was fast and cheap - and the reviewers on Amazon gave itgood marks. As I was scrolling through the comments, I started tonotice that a lot were from Mac users - and how this particular burnerworked fine with Macs.I set off to the store, determined to take my chances. I'd plug itin, and if it didn't work, oh well. There's always.The box was clearly labeled with Windows; no Macintosh compatibilitywas stated whatsoever, not even in the documentation. I unwrapped itall, plugged the cable into the USB 2.0 port on my PowerBook, andturned it on.No response at first from OS X, but when I opened the drive and puta blank DVD in, it showed up!

No strange patches to install, no thirdparty software needed. It worked just the way we Mac users would expectit to. (Note: This was under Tiger. I have yet to try this usingPanther.)I'm a big fan of Toast, and the latestversion works great with this external burner.

I've experienced writespeeds much lower than the box stated, though. So far the top speed(with any media) is 8x for DVDs, which is still pretty decent.The burner worked great with both my iMac and my PowerBook.

So farthe device has only given me one or two coasters, which were likelycaused by software and not the drive.I feel like I've added some incredible functionality to mythree-year-old iMac, and that's what Low End Mac is all about, right?Join us on, follow us on or, or subscribe to ourBrian Gray is a journalist from North Carolina who enjoys writing, the beach, and tinkering with Macs. Download free cyberview x mf for mac. Today's Links. Mac of the Day:, introduced 2002.01.07. The iMac is redesigned with a flat panel display and G4 CPU.Recent Content.

Hi guys, I keep going back and forth on this one. At first I thought that due to the newest version of X, I could just buy any old external DVD burner, but now after reading some of the other discussions, I am not so sure.Please let me know if the SONY DRX-830U USB2.0 external DVD burner will work with OSX, I don't think its gonna be a problem, but dont want to deal with the return issues etc, in the case that it is a problem.

Its a great deal, I usually buy lacie or something comprable from the Apple store but at this point now that its all Intel why bother, when there is lots of cheaper, 'quality' stuff out there.Thanks in advancemactel mini, tibook Mac OS X (10.4.8). I have that same Sony model hooked up to my intel mini and it works fine. Although I don't use idvd, it does work fine with mactheripper and roxio popcorn.

It rips and burns pretty fast.I did a little search on the net and this link has some info about a second model that comes with Toast 6.0 for mac.I beleive the drives are the same the difference is one comes with Nero software for PCs and the other with Toast for macs. As far as price goes I found the Sony on sale at Bestbuy for $69.00 and with a 10% off coupon it was less then $63.00. The model at BB is the one with PC software but again the drive itself works fine.Mac Mini 1.66 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 60 gb hd, 2 gb ram, 250 gb ext drive, 5g ipod, 2g ipod. I'm sorry I can't tell you specifically about the Sony burner you have in mind, but I would caution you not to consider the matter of compatibility to be one related to the hardware platform as such. The switch to an Intel platform doesn't have much impact on whether devices work or not because the issue is one of driver availability/compatibility and OS. It would be likely to work on an Intel Mac running Windows under BootCamp or Parallels, but not at all certain that the same system running MacOS would recognize it.I would also wonder, given the prices that seem prevalent for that unit, if it might not be possible to source a cheaper external, perhaps in a firewire enclosure which may be a better solution. Why is it that the internal drives in enclosures seem to be more compatible?I wasnt really hoping to use the burner with the tibook, just the mini, and basically just to record lots of my shows from eyeTV, and free up my external drives.

As far as the price, I dont really want to put in on blast but its on sale for 69.99 and its sony, so I figured it would be a good deal if it works. From some of the research I had been doing, I though that with tiger and the new iLife that foreign drivers were sort of a thing of the past. I suppose the best way to find out for sure is to try it? Are there any helpful workarounds, and/or drivers that anyone knows of??mactel mini, tibook Mac OS X (10.4.8). I have that same Sony model hooked up to my intel mini and it works fine.

Although I don't use idvd, it does work fine with mactheripper and roxio popcorn. It rips and burns pretty fast.I did a little search on the net and this link has some info about a second model that comes with Toast 6.0 for mac.I beleive the drives are the same the difference is one comes with Nero software for PCs and the other with Toast for macs. As far as price goes I found the Sony on sale at Bestbuy for $69.00 and with a 10% off coupon it was less then $63.00. The model at BB is the one with PC software but again the drive itself works fine.Mac Mini 1.66 Mac OS X (10.4.7) 60 gb hd, 2 gb ram, 250 gb ext drive, 5g ipod, 2g ipod. Apple Footer.This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.

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