[G4] Adding a Sony DVD drive

[Ramsey French]

On 3/15/03 1:38 PM, "Ramsey French" <rammjet at bisnaga.com> wrote:

> On 3/15/03 1:19 PM, "David Crandon" <tdc at attbi.com> wrote:
> 
>> OK, so it can be done? I'm asking cause a friend is about to buy a
>> DP1.42 G4 but has many friends with various PC's and he wants to be able
>> to trade DVD's with them.
>> 
>> It looks like the iMac is the only one with the Sony drive as OEM now.
>> But he could buy the Sony drive as a second drive and install it
>> himself. Overstock.com has them for $299.
>> 
>> David
> 
> Yes, I've been considering the same thing.
> 
> The refurbished drive at Overstock is the older DRU-500A not the latest
> DRU-500AX.  Flashing the firmware should give the 500A functional
> equivalency to the 500AX.

Note:  The firmware updater is Windows only.  Maybe Virtual PC can handle
it, but if not, the drive will have to be temporarily cabled into a PC in
order to perform the update.

> Also, he may need to get Toast in order to burn the DVD's since Apple's Disc
> burning software may not recognize the add-on drive (OSX 10.2.4 might have
> added partial support, but I'm not positive).  I prefer Toast anyway.