[Ti] 1st Gen. 17" v. SACD CD layer

[Dave Morrison]

>
> From: Peter Krug <pkrug at mac.com>
> Subject: Re: [Ti] 1st Gen. 17" v. SACD CD layer

Peter wrote:

> Dave,
>
> Can you hook up an external CD burner and see if it plays from that
> device?

Yep, plays from my LaCie external DVD writer via Firewire into the 17".

>   If it can, then it is a hardware limitation of the internal
> drive.

You got that right. It's the darn Matshita UJ-815 drive that can't see 
these discs. The model installed in the Rev.B 17" is UJ-816. I asked 
AppleCare if they'd be willing to swap the drive itself. They said 
"Sure, but you'll have to pay for the drive". Kinda makes me wonder why 
I bought AppleCare again.

>   Maybe this is a firmware issue?

I asked about this the first time I reported it back in Nov. of '03. 
They didn't know of any updates then and didn't again last night. The 
2nd level engineer/tech got really frustrated with me and acted like I 
was keeping him from going home....which I was!  I'm surprised he 
didn't suggest that I go back and get that Pismo that WOULD play my 
discs!!!! (naaaahhhhh)

>   You didn't by chance flash
> the firmware so that you could burn DVD's at 2X?

No, but I've seen the site you are referring to. I'm not even wanting 
to make the drive "Region-free"....couldn't care less about that.  All 
I want is the same functionality as a cheap boombox. I'm buying a lot 
of these hybrid discs and I can't use them unless I take Steve Martin's 
advice and rip another CD from the Redbook layer. I agree Steve, "Fair 
Use" if I've EVER seen it! Still a pain the butt, though.

>
> If it doesn't play on the external, maybe hook the external up to a
> computer that does play it from the internal drive.  If it plays in
> the external on the other computer, maybe you have a software issue.

When I took a couple of these discs to the local Apple store to do my 
initial test of newer units, the salesguy wanted to know what I was 
doing. When I explained, he suggested that all I probably needed to do 
was upgrade to Panther. I was going to do this anyway, but "hope 
springs eternal" and it (obviously) didn't help.
>
> I'm curious about this one since I have a Rev.A Lunchtray (Deluxe) 
> myself.

My condolences. Don't get me wrong...I love this thing....it's 
beautiful.....but this issue is pi**ing me off.

Just don't buy any discs that MIGHT be SACD's or you'll be out of luck 
too. Oddly enough, when the Stones catalog was remastered and 
rereleased on SACD's, there was nothing on the outside of the packaging 
that would let you know that it was anything other than a standard CD. 
Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" was a little more obvious in its 
format

On a slightly different note (and maybe as a way of salvaging this 
whole high-res audio playback dilemma), does anybody know of a 
DVD-Audio player for the Mac? I have a Echo Indigo audio card that will 
decode 24/96 audio but there doesn't seem to be a player that will grab 
this audio stream. I can play back the other audio streams on the 
DVD-A's such as the Dolby track, but I wouldn't call that "high-res", 
IYKWIM.
>
> Peter

Good luck Peter,
Dave