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Hacked: Mac Pro DVD Drive

Swad

By Swad

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My mother always told me that life was about unlocking potential. I suppose that's true... until you brick whatever you're working on.

 

Hardmac did a little digging inside a Mac Pro to discover that Apple has been shipping a few different Superdrive models that have some hidden talents. TUAW has this non-Hardmac, non-translated-from-French report:

Although some of the new Mac Pro towers ship with the familiar Pioneer DVR-111D optical drive, the majority of the systems contain the apparently non-existent Sony DW-D150A. I say non-existent because the ubergeeks over at HardMac noticed that DW-D150A isn't a recognized Sony model number. After some more thorough research, it came to light that the drives billed as Sony DW-D150A are in actuality NEC 4570 mechanisms. You're probably asking yourself right about now why on earth I'm going on about something as innocuous as differing model numbers, and in most cases, you'd be right to question my sanity. However, in this rare instance, I have reached through the haze of confusion that normally clouds my mind, and at least for now I have a firm grip on the real world. The significance is this:

 

The NEC 4570 kicks the pants off the Sony DW-D150A in almost all aspects of reading and writing, and has some extra features to boot.

You can catch up on all the action (with pics!) at Hardmac. Let us know if you're willing to attempt this!

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John the Geek

I have this drive in my Mac Pro too, but I'm not too excited about the "added-extras" to spend any time on this hack. An extra second or two faster at reading or writing isn't much, and DVD-RAM just sucks. I can make my movies region-free so my player doesn't have to be. (This is very rare for me anyway. Maybe for the French it matters more, I don't know) but I'm not getting any goose bumps over this.

 

=)

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djfuq
Don't you mean shame on Sony for stealing NEC's DVD drive and slapping their label on it? I have a Sony dvd burner and am wondering what it really is.

 

Its because it makes NEC money to print on a "Sony" label... NEC is a wiley marketing weasel too!

Isnt that how u profit off of fanboys?

 

 

 

 

POP! goes the marketing weasel! :)

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decypheri

You have to wonder why apple, with all its "high specs" de-specs the hardware that comes inside its computers? What is their problem? - surely it's better to have a 48x than a 32x and ram over not-ram.

 

Unless the added extras did not meet their so-called rigorous hardware testing.

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br0adband

Now if only someone could find a way to fix the problems with the damned Mat{censored}a UJ-857 drives they use in MacBooks/MacBook Pros/iMacs I'd be happy.

 

:)

 

Interesting turn of events though, that much is certain. Why Apple does stuff like this (and other things like underclocking the ATI X1600 so much - to 300/300, down from "normal stock speeds" of 470/470) just makes me wonder. Sure it runs cooler, but just over a 33% cut in speed? Screw that, I'll put up with the heat... geez.

 

Bleh.

 

bb

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br0adband

"Let me count the ways..."

 

First, take a peek at the topics here (you don't need to read any of them, just take a look through the topics):

 

Apple Discussions - Optical Drive and your MacBook Pro (relates to MacBooks also, same drive)

 

Then read this to see what happened to someone that decided to vent at those same forums and was quickly silenced over simply stating the truth - the Mat{censored}a UJ-857 drive is a piece of {censored}:

 

Mat{censored}a UJ-857 units flawed. zebra silenced by Apple.

 

So, I went out the other day and grabbed a nice Firewire/USB 2.0 external enclosure, grabbed a Plextor 760A 18x burner to put inside it, and now happily install, rip, and burn software or whatever in far less time with far less hassles than messing with the internal Mat{censored}a that is problematic and slow.

 

Just my experience, mind you, and not everyone is having the issues that person and others (myself included) are, but I don't want to mess around with this craptacular internal drive any more than necessary. I'll use it if necessary, but at home I'll keep the Plextor for all CD/DVD related duties.

 

Hope this helps...

bb

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macmaniac

What a coincidence. I just recently swapped out the stock matsu {censored}y out of my powermac G5 dual 2G and put in a Sony DRU-820A. While faster than what it replaced, I'm not entirely happy with it. It makes noises.

 

The plextor PX-755SA in my hackintosh is a much better optical drive.

 

Besides, sony is having "issues" these days.

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defiancex0x

Here's an update, every time now i play dvd's in my drive my computer freezes up when i press stop and hold it there for awhile. When i go and play it again, The dvd drive doesnt respond. I had to reboot several times now, if this keeps on happening, im gonna reflash it back to the old sony d150a

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