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Apple will still quite happily sell you a USB optical SuperDrive. What's 'super' about is is the non-removable USB type-A cable, at a time when all their new m

Apple will still quite happily sell you a USB optical SuperDrive. What's 'super' about is is the non-removable USB type-A cable, at a time when all their new machine are type-C only...

reaperducer 5y ago
Coincidentally, at this very moment I'm ripping an old home video from DVD using an Apple SuperDrive on an M1 Mac. The SuperDrive happily works with the M1, as long as it's connected via the little Apple adapter. When I try to use one from Anker or Amazon, the drive won't spin up, and macOS complains the device is drawing too much power. I've ripped about 100 home movies for friends in the last couple of years. What I love about the SuperDrive is that even though it's old and slow, it is the most reliable piece of gear for this task. Generally speaking, I start with a Pioneer Blu-Ray drive because it's fast fast fast. If that can't read the disc (because people are simply awful with the way they treat their most precious memories), then I try a Sony DVD drive. And if that fails, I go to the SuperDrive. So far, I've only had two discs that the SuperDrive couldn't read.
- gkop 5y ago
  Would you share the software you use?
  - reaperducer 5y ago
    Since it's home videos, and thus not slathered in DRM, nothing special. Just Handbrake: https://handbrake.fr https://handbrake.fr
    - gkop 5y ago
      Thanks. In the CD ripping world, Exact Audio Copy does a lot of tricks in software, eg. I think it puts the drive in raw mode and will read slowly and several times, so you can get good results on arbitrary hardware. Does Handbrake do similar? Is there some fundamental difference with [the non-DRMed] DVDs where the hardware is more important, and software is less able to compensate?
      - duskwuff 5y ago
        No. It's unnecessary. The contents of a DVD are compressed, so any errors would be highly visible at playback time -- so the format has enough error correction built in to detect and correct errors. This is a fundamentally different approach from audio CD, which doesn't have sufficient error correction built in, but relies on the inherent resiliency of the raw audio format to conceal errors.
        gkop 5y ago
        Ah, of course! Compression, doh. Thanks.
        LeoPanthera 5y ago
        More practically, DVDs and blu-rays are files on a filesystem. An audio CD does not have a filesystem, it's a raw stream of pits and lands, which do not correspond directly to bits, they must be decoded first. The reason why ripping an audio CD is such an "art" is that without a filesystem there's no easy way to tell where the laser actually is on the disc. If it jumps or skips you might not realise.
goosedragons 5y ago
What I wonder is do they still actually make those or are they just burning through current supply? I can't imagine they still sell too many 10 years on...

Apple will still quite happily sell you a USB optical SuperDrive. What's 'super' about is is the non-removable USB type-A cable, at a time when all their new machine are type-C only...

reaperducer 5y ago

Coincidentally, at this very moment I'm ripping an old home video from DVD using an Apple SuperDrive on an M1 Mac. The SuperDrive happily works with the M1, as long as it's connected via the little Apple adapter. When I try to use one from Anker or Amazon, the drive won't spin up, and macOS complains the device is drawing too much power. I've ripped about 100 home movies for friends in the last couple of years. What I love about the SuperDrive is that even though it's old and slow, it is the most reliable piece of gear for this task. Generally speaking, I start with a Pioneer Blu-Ray drive because it's fast fast fast. If that can't read the disc (because people are simply awful with the way they treat their most precious memories), then I try a Sony DVD drive. And if that fails, I go to the SuperDrive. So far, I've only had two discs that the SuperDrive couldn't read.

gkop 5y ago
Would you share the software you use?
- reaperducer 5y ago
  Since it's home videos, and thus not slathered in DRM, nothing special. Just Handbrake: https://handbrake.fr https://handbrake.fr
  - gkop 5y ago
    Thanks. In the CD ripping world, Exact Audio Copy does a lot of tricks in software, eg. I think it puts the drive in raw mode and will read slowly and several times, so you can get good results on arbitrary hardware. Does Handbrake do similar? Is there some fundamental difference with [the non-DRMed] DVDs where the hardware is more important, and software is less able to compensate?
    - duskwuff 5y ago
      No. It's unnecessary. The contents of a DVD are compressed, so any errors would be highly visible at playback time -- so the format has enough error correction built in to detect and correct errors. This is a fundamentally different approach from audio CD, which doesn't have sufficient error correction built in, but relies on the inherent resiliency of the raw audio format to conceal errors.
      - gkop 5y ago
        Ah, of course! Compression, doh. Thanks.
      - LeoPanthera 5y ago
        More practically, DVDs and blu-rays are files on a filesystem. An audio CD does not have a filesystem, it's a raw stream of pits and lands, which do not correspond directly to bits, they must be decoded first. The reason why ripping an audio CD is such an "art" is that without a filesystem there's no easy way to tell where the laser actually is on the disc. If it jumps or skips you might not realise.

goosedragons 5y ago

What I wonder is do they still actually make those or are they just burning through current supply? I can't imagine they still sell too many 10 years on...