Free movie drives "brisk" trade in Mac repairs

Posted on 17 Jan 2008 at 12:22

Mac dealers are enjoying a brisk trade in repairs to slot-loading drives damaged by a Mail on Sunday giveaway.

One Mac user who missed the small warning on the Jazz Singer disc and inserted it in his Mac, the local dealer is charging £60 plus VAT to fix the drive, and his Mac is not the only one.

"The Apple dealer advises that thanks to the Mail on Sunday, business is very brisk," he said.

As we reported on Monday, Sunday's free disc was printed on a new format called EcoDisc, which is half as thin as an ordinary DVD and can get stuck in certain slot-loading drives.

A spokesperson for the Mail on Sunday says the newspaper has had "a couple of people phoning up, but nothing major".

The EcoDisc's manufacturer, ODS, insists the disc won't break drives. "We've produced over ten million of these discs - we've had less than a dozen phone calls," says managing director, Ray Wheeler. "There are ways to get the discs out."

Wheeler says the problem stems from Apple's slot-loading drives. He said that the EcoDisc should work in other types of slot-loading drive, although admits that it hasn't been tested in the PlayStation 3.

Wheeler claims that the Apple drives do not conform to the DVD standard, though as Miacid has mentioned on the MacUser forums, the EcoDisc does not carry a DVD logo, suggesting it too does not meet DVD Forum standards.

ODS says only that the disc "plays like standard DVD5 in all current players".

Author: Barry Collins & Simon Aughton

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