Rumor: Pioneer 1O7 DVD Burner to Get Native Support in 10.3.3?


Pioneer's newly-released AO7, 8x- DVD burner may be about to get native support in Apple's forthcoming OS X 10.3.3 update, Macbidouille reports.

The article cites a reader with access to a 10.3.3 beta seed, who says that the drive requires no drive description modification.

What is unclear is the extent to which Apple will support reading and writing +R/+RW discs with Macs equipped with the 107. At present, Apple has made it possible to read, but not write to, +R/+RW discs.

Apple's KBase document for OS X 10.3 does not even note system support for DVD-RW, let alone DVD+R/+RW. It also does not officially support CD-RW, although these discs are supported at the Finder level by applications such as Disc Burner.

Analysis: Although you can use Toast or Discribe to write to virtually any disc supported by your burner, Apple has been hesitant to support to +R/+RW, despite the plethora of 'dual' burners - i.e., most of them - now supporting both DVD formats, with some even writing DVD-RAM as well. Although this is unimportant for those using, say, DVD Studio Pro and a +RW burner, it means choices are more limited for those with SuperDrives and iDVD. It's clear why Apple doesn't want to have to support both formats though, particularly as it's staked a lot time and effort promoting DVD-R.