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8 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

The DVD drive died and don´t think any cheap third party external DVD-drive can work as a replacement

Why? Any external DVD drive with a USB 2 interface should work, although some "portable" ones may need a special double-USB cable or a separate power supply to burn disks. I prefer tray loading DVD drives to the thin portable ones, so a few years ago I bought an LG model GE24NU "Super Multi" like this one on sale at a local Best Buy outlet for about $35, but there are dozens of cheaper ones with fewer features to choose from.

ATM, the LG is connected to an ancient 2008 MacBook to do some archival disk burning, but it works equally well with an old 2008 iMac, with my 2012 iMac, etc.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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Then you´re a lucky guy. I tested 3 before a friend gave me his original Apple external Superdrive from ca 2012 which "simply" works. 

The crux is the minimal power supply of the the USB ports. I ordered one at least with 2 cables 1 for power 1 for data - didn´t work. Then I tried to use Apple USB power adapter of my iPad. Shall work - but no DVD mounting. Then I got a more powerful USB power adapter: Some DVD mounted some not - DVDplayer.app throws warnings at me regarding damaged DVD after 10 min - a brand-new DVD fresh from the box. Never happened with my Macs prior Intel-generation.

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41 minutes ago, SrPx said:

Geez. In a PC one would just change the card... (though even the cheap ones tend to come with DVI and HDMI ports, and there's a ton of super cheap adapters of every flavor.... ). 

Please check out the links I have posted to this discussion. If the iMac has a Thunderbolt port (& essentially all of the 2011 or later models do), it supports Mini DisplayPort, so unless it is a Thunderbolt 3 port (which uses the same connector as USB-C) a dirt cheap Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor should work.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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1 minute ago, PixelPest said:

The crux is the minimal power supply of the the USB ports.

As @R C-R said, you may need to use two USB ports or a separate power supply if you want to burn discs. If you’re only reading from discs, not writing to them, the power output of a single USB port should be sufficient.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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OMG - I tried my best with 3 different brands and no luck - just to keep my large DVD film library alive.

It got solved at the moment the original SuperDrive was plugged in. I´m not a friend of these slot-in drives as already 4 of 5 internal died which was the reason to go third-party.

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5 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

The crux is the minimal power supply of the the USB ports. I ordered one at least with 2 cables 1 for power 1 for data - didn´t work.

Yes, powering DVD drives over USB 2 connections, particularly high speed ones, can be unreliable, but that is because a standard USB 2 port can deliver only ½ amp at 5 volts (2.5 watts) & a standard USB 2 cable is not designed to handle more than that. So if the drive needs more than that even briefly, like to spin up the disk, or to burn a disk at greater than "1x" speed, it probably won't work. For the same reason, a lot of the cheap USB "Y" cables use a standard gauge USB 2 cable so if or when the drive demands much more than ½ amp, it can't get it from those cables & it stops working.

To avoid that, get a DVD drive that comes with its own power supply, or the maker offers one as an accessory, or at least get a "Y" cable from a reputable manufacturer who specifically says it uses the appropriate cabling (wire gauge & shielding) to power those drives.

Perhaps ironically, a lot of cheap PCs don't strictly follow USB 2 specifications, so they don't shut down power to ports that try to draw more than ½ amp, so they may work better with these drives than Macs or more carefully designed & expensive PC's.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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26 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

I´m not a friend of these slot-in drives as already 4 of 5 internal died which was the reason to go third-party.

If you have ever taken apart a dead slot loader, it is easy to see why they fail so frequently. To begin with, they are so thin that few of the moving mechanical parts can be made thick & sturdy enough to resist bending or flexing. Worse, the cooling systems on computers with internal ones usually draw in air through the slot so airborne dust gets lodged in nooks & crannies over time, which causes excessive wear & flexing.

Like I said, I much prefer tray loading drives for this reason.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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File closed. Thanks but I´ve been all through this already. Funny thing: the latest with 2 cables work on a MBPro from 2006 without issue - but not on my iMac2011. I start to think there is a ghost in the machine.

Did I mentioned Huion wants me to buy an original Apple Thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter to use it with their pen-displays? Good boy; there´s no available.

 

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4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Like I said, I much prefer tray loading drives for this reason.

Yeah - and that´s why I told already to go third-party with an external. I have already made my experiences - as I said....

And I was at iFixIt already; SuperDrive internal =40 bucks but you have to take off the display completely - and I´m not going that route to put the same shit in.

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12 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

Funny thing: the latest with 2 cables work on a MBPro from 2006 without issue - but not on my iMac2011. I start to think there is a ghost in the machine.

There is a non-ghostly explanation for this, but it is complicated, related to arcane technical issues like the difference between downstream & charging downstream USB ports, bidirectional data transfers, & such; so I won't go into it here. Anyway, if you really want a DVD drive that will work with essentially any computer (Mac or PC) with USB 2 ports, the LG is a good choice.

25 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

Did I mentioned Huion wants me to buy an original Apple Thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter to use it with their pen-displays? Good boy; there´s no available.

Yeah, Apple only makes Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI adaptors, so the Thunderbolt end has a USB 3 form factor plug that won't fit your iMac (& would not work even if it did), but there are many 3rd party Thunderbolt 1 or 2 adaptors that will work as a display adaptor & are much cheaper than the Thunderbolt 3 versions. The only problem is that does not guarantee an adaptor will work bidirectionally to send touch data back to the iMac, or even if Huion's drivers can support that combination.

If Huion can't help you with that, I would look elsewhere for a different product.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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45 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

I got an older original Apple external SuperDrive which works just fine.

for now ... :/

46 minutes ago, PixelPest said:

I tend more to XP-Pen tablets right now.

From a quick & not too thorough browse of the site, those tablets look like a better choice, particularly if they use a USB interface. But personally, I would invest in an iPad & Apple Pencil instead (if I had not already done so). :)

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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XP-PEN 22E is now there just for 400$. Woah. 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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  • 10 months later...
On 2/3/2018 at 5:14 PM, Milos Micatek said:

Well, I am not an expert and I've never have a chance to test Wacom Cintiq so I cannot compare it with my XP-Pen Artist 15.6. But this tablet works quite well with Affinity Photo and Designer. I haven't got any errors, the apps "are talking" with pen pretty good. Only problem I have is that express key for Undo doesn't work in AP or AD for whatever reason. But Brush and Eraser tool can be switched with express keys so for me it's OK. 

 

Here is short speed video showing my poor drawing skills in AD using XP-Pen tablet ;)

 

Hi! I've been using XP-PEN Artist Pro 12. Upon using Affinity Designer, I've encountered problem with pen pressure sensitivity. I have to activate Windows Ink on the Pen Tablet settings and the pressure sensitivity will be enabled. But when I tried using AD with pressure sensitivity enabled, here's what happens. I hope you can share solutions if ever you know how to set settings for this tablet. Thank you!!!

Sometimes, then pen is working well but most of the time I have to disable pressure sensitivity since it's happening more often.

001.JPG

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  • 4 months later...

I recently bought an XP-PEN Star G640S graphics tablet to use primarily with Affinity Designer. I'm almost certainly the age of many users' grandparents, but I have found it difficult to find any guides to using this equipment. There are plenty of promotional videos but not a lot for someone who isn't surrounded by young budding artists.

Can anyone suggest what used to be called a "primer" which doesn't assume a) you don't already know the answer b) you are using a Mac or Android tablet?

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On 10/23/2020 at 10:57 AM, Paul Martin said:

I recently bought an XP-PEN Star G640S graphics tablet to use primarily with Affinity Designer. I'm almost certainly the age of many users' grandparents, but I have found it difficult to find any guides to using this equipment. There are plenty of promotional videos but not a lot for someone who isn't surrounded by young budding artists.

Can anyone suggest what used to be called a "primer" which doesn't assume a) you don't already know the answer b) you are using a Mac or Android tablet?

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but if you're looking into getting started, there should be a website from the manufacture where you download the drivers for the type of tablet you have. Setting up the tablet and then downloading the drivers are usually the steps to start using it.

Does downloading from the page help? https://www.xp-pen.com/download-58.html

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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  • 3 weeks later...
43 minutes ago, Paul Martin said:

Thanks, but I really meant "how to use a graphics tablet to produce artwork etc".

Once you have your tablet correctly set up, you should be able to treat its ‘active area’ like a piece of paper and the stylus like a pencil. Have you tried simply choosing the Pencil Tool and making various kinds of strokes (straight, zigzag, spiral, etc)?

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks, Alfred. Yes, I've wiggled the stylus about a bit but generally found it much less handy than a mouse! The plus side is that I find I rather like Designers pencil which we feels "smoother" than anything that I have used before. (I usually draw with the pen tool and go back to add the curviness.)

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  • 1 month later...

So I just bought a month old XP-Pen 12 to test the waters before I buy a bigger and more expensive one.

I've downloaded the new Beta UI driver set: XP-PENWin_3.0.8.201225(New UI Beta Driver) (Windows)

For windows, what other software are people using with this to work well with AD and AP? Someone mentioned a 3rd party driver?

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