I'm wondering why Apple isn't putting in higher speed DVD burners?

Is this burner even Mac compatible?
http://www.benq.ca/Products/DVDRewriter/in...cfm?product=443

if not, is there one that fast that is? Does dual layer mean anything if Blueray/HD DVDs are coming out? I'm just curious.

Apple usues it's own DVD burners. I don't believe you can add one. Please correct me if im wrong however.

they use some special firmware i think

I can't tell from that link you gave, since it just redirects me to the Benq main page for Canada.

LaCie makes good external products... http://www.lacie.com/caen/products/range.htm?id=10014

Those are for External DVD±R products, up to 16x and Dual Layer.

Also, Apple does not make their own drives and such, they buy them from third parties. The drive in my PowerBook is a Panasonic brand drive.

Edit: Ok, I got your link to work, but couldn't get a price. http://www.cdw.ca/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=687858 is an internal drive from LaCie that does the 16x burning and dual layer. http://www.lacie.com/caen/products/product.htm?pid=10568 for more in depth product specs on that model.

Thanks for the links, I was just curious as i saw the Benq offered for 100 bucks at a local electronics store

www.xlr8yourmac.com has a compatability database built up from user experiences with products in their macs.

just search for DVD±RW drives and your specific mac, it'll show you what drives people have used and what problems (if any) they had.

I put a Pioneer DVR-109 in my PMG5 yesterday, absolutely no problems with it so far.

Also remember that pretty much any burner will work in a Mac if you are using Toast for your burning needs. Only the Apple burning apps (iTunes, Finder, Disk Utility, and iDVD) require "supported" burners. For supported burners, it's best to stick to Pioneer for desktops and Panasonic for notebooks, since those are the main ones Apple uses.

http://www.patchburn.de/ has a hack that enables many third party burners to work with the iApps

Yeah, I meant to mention that, thanks.