When in doubt, break it
A while back I'd bought a Pioneer DVR-111 for a ridiculously low price from an online vendor, with the expectation that I'd upgrade the internal SuperDrive on my Power Mac G5 from an 8x single-layer DVD burner to a 16x Dual Layer DVD burner . I got it out of the box a few days after it arrived only to discover that the drive's bezel knocked against the top of the G5's tray opening.
It missed by maybe a quarter of an inch. But the tray bezel was just a bit too high for the narrow opening of the G5, which made it wholly unsuitable. I noticed that the OEM drive, manufactured by Hitachi/LG, used a much smaller bezel -- one that didn't cover the entire front of the tray opening, just the edge of the tray.
Ah well, I figured. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'd find a new use for it eventually.
Well, I was tooling around with the bare drive today and it struck me that the bezel must be removable somehow. Sure enough, it comes right off if you twist it the right way (rotating upwards).
Long story short -- I've got the DVR-111 in my drive now. Tiger recognizes the drive, and I'm happily burning dual-layer discs as we speak.