Dvd Burner

[mushmush]

I'm thinking of buying a dvd burner.Any of you guys got any recommendations as to which to buy and what specifications to look for.

I'm from the UK.................Much appreciated.

[Amarjit]

I would say the Sony DRU500A. It is a compatibility wonder; you an write DVDs to the following formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. And of course it rights to all of the CD formats.

But if backing-up is your purpose, go for the LG 4x2.4x16 DVD +/-RW & 2x DVD-RAM Combo Drive

But I'll wait until they drop in price and increase in speeds. At the moment they are quite slow. As you can see, their speeds are around 4/2x.

And a USB 2.0/FireWire is no better than an EIDE. I'll wait until it is moved to either SCSI or RAID Level 5.

DVD Spin Speed = 1.355Mbps (1x)
CD Spin Speed = 0.15Mbps (1x)

So DVD equalls around 5.42Mbps (Max)
CD = around emmm 52x = 7.2Mbps (Not justified)

So that'll take around...let's see....9.4 GB in a double sided DVD so that would be around:

1024 x 9.4 = 9625.6 MB in a DVD
/ 5.42 = 1750 secs = less than 1/2 an hour ....mmmm I'm gonna wait

Also, don't forget to check out that Philips DVD+RW drive!

[ShareDaddy]

Originally posted by mushmush@31 March 2003 - 11:32
I'm thinking of buying a dvd burner.Any of you guys got any recommendations as to which to buy and what specifications to look for.

I'm from the UK.................Much appreciated.

I would agree with AmarjitSingh, the Sony DRU500AX is the way to go.

I have this exact drive and it is wonderful. A lot of the blank media on the market right now is not compatible with all of the burners, however so far all different manufacturers blank DVD-R's have worked in my drive and at twice the posted speeds. Most times you will find the -r format is the cheapest to buy and work great, after burning movies will play in low cost dvd players as well as Sony's Playstation 2, meaning they are totally compatible with every form of DVD playing device I have come across.

Yes, that is right you can buy the 1x dvd-r's really cheap and burn them at 2x with the Sony drive. At 2x all of the DVD's I have burned took less than 1/2 hour to complete, very cool and works like a charm.

My only suggestion is to make sure you keep a DVD-Rom drive in your system, this Sony works great for burning files but ripping them does not, I use my regular DVD-rom drive for that kind of stuff.

[Amarjit]

Originally posted by ShareDaddy@ 31 March 2003 - 18:22
My only suggestion is to make sure you keep a DVD-Rom drive in your system, this Sony works great for burning files but ripping them does not, I use my regular DVD-rom drive for that kind of stuff.

Yeah, too true. If you're going to use a program such as DVD Decrypter to "rip" your DVDs then it's best to use a 16x DVD-ROM drive for that kind of stuff. But having both a DVD+/-RW and DVD-ROM as two seperate drives is a beauty; you can use a program such a Pinnacle Studio SE to make 1:1 duplicates of DVD-Vs!!!

So, get a DVD-ROM and DVD+/-RW then rent a bunch of DVDs, copy 'em and return them the next day!

[mushmush]

AMARJIT and SHAREDADDY........Thank you for your advise.
I'm going to take note of what you said about the price and speed and hold fire for a while.

[ShareDaddy]

Originally posted by mushmush@31 March 2003 - 14:19
AMARJIT and SHAREDADDY........Thank you for your advise.
I'm going to take note of what you said about the price and speed and hold fire for a while.

The Sony is going for about 349 dollars US, but I have seen it for less at places such as PCConnection on the net. Just an FYI.

[imported_computerfreak76]

i would recommend waiting until the costs go down and the speeds go up which will be about a year.

[Jibbler]

Once again, +R formats are losing popularity. -R is what you want, the media is cheaper, and it has been proven, yes proven to be more compatible with standalone players.

The Pioneer A05 was $261 + tax, and I've haven't burned a coaster yet. Forget all that technical garb posted above. The bottom line is that the format is constantly changing, and they are currently working on a new format of DVD, which will hold a considerable amount of data, and will be multi-layered (current DVDs are single or double layer).

So for less than $300, you can be making full DVD quality backups that will play in any machine. As the format continues to evolve, the prices will like remain the same. The burners will become faster and faster, but the price will likely remain the same. You don't really save anything, you just get more for your money.

[Amarjit]

You can get the Sony DVD+RW for around £170 UK from here.

You might want to check out the Philips DVD+R/RW Drive DVDRW228, around £260 from Amazon.co.uk

Good luck choosing a burner mushmush!

[mobboss01]

I would say the Sony DRU500A. It is a compatibility wonder; you an write DVDs to the following formats: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. And of course it rights to all of the CD formats.

Yep, got it, love it.