[MacDV] DVD burner or new Mac?

[Michael Winter]

On Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 04:27  PM, Norm Loomer wrote:

> * Buy an external DVD burner and use Toast. The LaCie DVD-/+RW, at 
> about
> $289,  looks like a possibility. (I've also seen a lot of discussion
> here about the Pioneer 105/106.) But my fundamental question is this: 
> Is
> my iMac too wimpy to burn DVDs? I realize that more horsepower is
> better, but can I get by with what I have? I'm patient and am willing 
> to
> wait overnight for a burn, if necessary, but will that be enough? Will 
> I
> be able to burn a one-hour iMovie, for example?

Just to be clear, I don't think the burning is a problem, its the 
encoding speed. So the actual burn will only take an hour, but the time 
it takes to encode the video into the right format could take overnight 
or more. I wish I could tell you how long the encoding process would 
take, but I don't have the most current version of Toast on my iMac at 
home (similar to yours, just the 450 MHz iMac DV).

> * Buy a 1 GHz eMac with SuperDrive for $1100 (educational price). That
> gives me a lot of computer at a reasonable price, but what are the
> limitations of the eMac? Why would an iMac be a better choice? Is
> expandability the issue?

If you can do it, that's a much better option. The biggest plus is that 
you know its going to work, and its going to be reasonably fast. I 
don't see the eMac as really having any expandability problems unless 
you really think you're going to be needing to add something that can't 
be added via Firewire or USB. Think about it this way, have you ever 
wanted to upgrade your current iMac and not been able to because it 
didn't have PCI slots? When compared to the iMac, you pay extra for an 
LCD display and Firewire 800. Not worth it IMO, but they are nice 
machines.

> The difference in cost of my two options is considerable--$289 vs 
> $1100.
> Cost is an issue for me--$1100 seems like a lot of money right now--but
> with the first option, would I be throwing good money after bad?

$1100 is a lot of money, so it is going to be a tough decision. One 
other option for you is to buy a decent external drive for burning DVDs 
and try it with your current iMac. If it doesn't work as well as you 
want it to, you can then buy the eMac without the SuperDrive and use 
the external one. The eMac with just the combo drive is $250 cheaper 
but has less memory (you'll want more in either case IMO) and a smaller 
HD. From there they go all the way down to $700, but you lose features 
at every step. The only real "gotcha" I see with that approach is that 
you still won't be able to use iDVD. You'll have to use the tools Toast 
provides or download others.

One further option that depends on your situation and the policies of 
your university. You may be able to put your project and Toast on an 
external FW drive and then take it to a fast Mac in one of the computer 
labs on campus (if they're available). Have that Mac do all the 
encoding etc, then take it home to burn.

-Mike