Check out this site for a list of DVD players compatible with Apple's new SuperDrive:
http://www.apple.com/dvd/compatibility/
"The Apple SuperDrive writes to DVD-R 4.7 gigabyte General Use media. These discs are playable in most standard DVD players and computer DVD-ROM drives."
Ah, but how many of these will be models available in the UK?
Not many, I'd guess - though it is only a guess.
Bob C
I was talking to Mygate yesterday, trying to find out when I can go along for my new G4 demo. They answered my question by asking me if I knew that there is a new iMac available, all in pretty colours. I told them (politely) that my children had got theire quota of toys for Christmas.. I asked again, when can I see, (and touch) the new super drive? When pushed into this corner, the answer was.....silence.
I have to say, I love apple, but I'm not to sure if the superdrive will do all they say it will. Even OS X will not be shiping with the new G4, for the foreseeable future.
From my point it's frustrating, I have customers queing up for resonable cost DVD's. I even have a list of people who have VHS tapes they want converting. I just hope that when the drive gets here, the software is as compatable as apple says.
Regards, Lou
------------------
[email=lou@imagefx.co.uk]lou@imagefx.co.uk[/email]
www.imagefx.co.uk
I've just ordered a new G4 with the DVD burner.
I read a review in a US magazine which said that the DVD is marketed by Pioneer and that it costs $4,500.
Apple have put it into a cool PC, and are only charging about £3,500 for the whole thing!
That seems like pretty good value to me.
Stuart
I am a little envious Stuart. Please let us know your experiences with it, especially on compatibility.
I got my 733 Mac with Superdrive last week.
The discs it produces are 4.7GB DVD-R they play in basically all setop DVD players of the past 18months to 2 years and around 75percent of players prior to this.
The safe bets for 4.7GB DVD-R compatability are the Pioneer and Panasonic players and the PS2.
Notable exceptions are old Toshiba players like the 2109 and earlier, the newer ones are fine
A US Superdrive owner took a disc to the local electronics store and it played in ALL 10 players the store had on demo.
My 733MHz G4 turned up yesterday.
It looks fantastic and I'm glad to hear about the compatibility of the DVD writer.
I got a blank disc with the PC, but who knows where you can buy them? The Apple store says that blank discs won't be available until next month!
Stuart
Reviews of iDVD and the new macs please !!!
Could anyone tell me how it handles DV material captured in iMovie . Does it allow you to just drop the imovie project file on the iDVD application and the whole edited imovie is ready for turning into a DVD track or do you have to import and exported DV file or quicktime.
What's the simplest procedure for getting an edited final piece on DV tape into the iDVD application. Can iDVD capture straight from camera??
How fast is the mpeg 2 compression in iDVD?
any urls of online reviews??
There was an early review in the latest MacUSer recently but it reviewed the software without having the hardware which seemed ludicrous
any more thoughts welcome
thanks in advance 
BTW where did you get the Macs from that they came so quick ????
answering my own post, here is a must read multi-user review of iDVD and the new G4
http://www.macintouch.com/idvdreview.html
Generally very positive for the software and process with some good tips and comments.(it seems final cut pro fits in better with iDVD than imovie )
Top tips from this page
*** to avoid coaster when burning iDVD DVDs
"It turns out that you need to turn off AppleTalk, File Sharing, Network Time Sychronization and Web Sharing while you burn disks. It also helps to increase
iDVD's RAM allocation. I set mine to 250000K and I have had no more problems.
**** when using imovie with iDVD read this technote and update imovie to 2.0.3 http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n12002
" Updating to iMovie 2.0.3 provides export to iDVD, stability and performance enhancements. "
***** Also there's a one hour limit on material with iDVD
Their will be Verbatim media available soon I got a sample this morning and have burnt one and it works as good as the Apple media
My 733 came from Creative Graphics near Reading. Apple say production is ramping up on 733 with Superdrives now.
I have not tried iDVD and have been making a test disc in DVD Studio Pro.
The 1 hour limit is only in iDVD as it uses 7.5Mbps CBR video compression and 1.5Mbps PCM audio (due to licening issues).
Thanks for the updates guys. It's looking good!
"The 1 hour limit is only in iDVD as it uses 7.5Mbps CBR video compression and 1.5Mbps PCM audio (due to licening issues)."
Could you explain this please digitalsafari? By my reckoning, a total data rate of 9Mbps will give 71.3 minutes on a 4.7 GB disk.
See Jim's FAQ at: http://www.dvddemystified.com