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Looking for a dual-format DVD writer, main focus is on the quality of the drive over the speed, since 8x discs are farily uncommon/expensive at the moment.
Main things would be a good software bundle, good quality, and a brand name (as it's not for me, and badges tend to impress).
Thanks
hi m8 i would go fo the pioneer 106 retal box its a 4x dual format
writer
Personally I use the Panasonic DVD Burner II. Maybe not the fastest, but totally reliable & multi format.
The best drive at the moment is the Plextor-708A. You don't need to worry about getting 8x media as it burns most 4x discs at 8x.
NS
I've got the LG dual format writer here for Work Caged, I'm very impressed with it, not just the software for writing but, lots of additional tools (like a system that sets a side a 4.7GB "removable disk") so you can build up stuff to burn a DVD on.
I've found it very useful, it also comes with power dvd and something from ulead.
It was about £120 but to me the drive visually looks great too.
TiG
I've just been asked to find a DVD/RW +/- that'll write to cheaper media, is there anywhere out there I can find a compatability chart?
There is a site that I found before with huge databases or CD-RW DVD-RW, media compatibility and reviews, but I cant find the damn thing now. Still looking, as I can't remmeber what it was called...
NS
Got it.
They have info on all the drive available, just do a search for the drive under DVD Writers.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com
NS
How quiet are those DVD writers? I intended to make my main PC a sort of entertainment box as well. Probebly with two logins one tweaked for work and one using www.myhtpc.com
:) I use the NEC ND1300A and it seems very good indeed. Nothing fancy to look at (no brand on front) but it's easily flashed to support loads of media, multi-region and full speed rips. Biggest (only?) downside is it only writes CDs at 16x (5min per 700MB CD). It is a silent runner, big bonus for me!
The only time this Plextor is audible is when it is at 40x, and it is very quiet, you know like a suppressed air sound, like the very very quiet drives....
NS
What media do you use Austin?
Also what software would you reccomend to buy? (or bundle?)
I'll keep your drive in mind Nighshade as 8x burning is quite attractive. What media do you use?
Also some drives have HD burn does anyone have experience of this?
HD Burn?
Anyway, I haven't actually burnt any DVD's with the drive yet as I am having trouble finding cheap 4x DVD+R media. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Apparently the Orange bulkpac burn fine at 4x.
Have been hearing alot that 1x burns at 2x, 2x burns at 4x and 4x burns at 8x. So speeds seem to be higher all round.
NS
HD Burn is a halfway house option for writing 1.4gig to a CDR using standard CDRs and the higher quality DVDRW laser.
Its an invention by Sanyo of Burn-Proof fame.
http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof/HD-BURN/
lol, the cartoon is quite comedy.
rofl, that cartoon is funny.
Never heard of HD-Burn and don't know of any drives that do it. I sense compatibility issues though....
NS
i would go for the new plextor or the sony duo recorder.
As nightshade says, apparently it burns 4x media at 8x anyway!
;) Only got my drive very recently so have had very little time to play. What you should do as soon as you get your drive is use Herrie's 1.08 firmware, std 1.06 type firmware was far less compatible.Quote:
Originally posted by Gunbuster
What media do you use Austin?
Also what software would you reccomend to buy? (or bundle?)
I'll keep your drive in mind Nighshade as 8x burning is quite attractive. What media do you use?
Also some drives have HD burn does anyone have experience of this?
INFO ON NEC ND1300A (you can type any other model in too):
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.p...&Search=Search
HERRIE'S ND1300A FIRMWARE INFO (rpc1 = regionfree IIRC):
http://forum.rpc1.com/viewtopic.php?...herrie+nd1300a
http://herrie.rpc1.org/
DVDINFO (reading the media code from discs):
http://www.dvdinfopro.com/
QUOTE: "Personally I have very good experience with discs that have LEADDATA01 as MID (Media Identifier). They are sold as 'That's Write', 'Sunstar', '1One', 'Accu' and 'DupEz'. I can recommend That's Write discs since they seem to be good quality for a good price. Sunstar isn't very reliable at 4x. Often discs will only work at 2x. I have very good experience with Mitsui MAM-E 4x too."
SHOP: http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/
I would like to use my first post to pimp the lite - on drives. I think lite-on are the best quality/value on the market. They have both a 4X and an 8X drive available, for £88 and £125 respectably. take a look
http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/
just look in the hardware section. They also stock some other drives,(4X pioneer for £89) and ive found them to very cheap and reliable in the past.
blah blah blah
lite on forever
good luck with your drive purchase m8.
btw - anyone hear anything about wrtitable dual layer drivers coming next quarter??
Lite-On and Plextor are the two best Optical writing manufacturers around, so yeah, anything from Lite-On is likelt to be good too.
NS
Optorite and MSI (I think) do HD Burn:
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/company...doptdd0401.htm
The OptoRite DD0401 is currently on special at Microdirect for £122 for the retail version and its an 8x DVD+R recorder.
Argh, I can feal my money burning up in my pocket as we speak.
;) LiteOn are top notch for both CDRW and DVDROM but they have some wekanesses in DVD Writing which may be addressed via firmware or alternatively require new hw revisions. I looked into the LiteOn options as I've only bought LiteOn drives (for me and others) for several years now BUT it simply wasn't worth it for the LiteOn DVD Writer when I looked heavily into it a month or so ago.
I was tempted by the lite-on, but a few too many complaints about its compatibility with cheap media in places like cd freaks forums was enough to dissuade me. Also, its 8X only for + format yet I'm likely to start off burning - media for potentially higher compatibility with a couple of old dvd players.Quote:
Originally posted by funnelhead
I would like to use my first post to pimp the lite - on drives. I think lite-on are the best quality/value on the market. They have both a 4X and an 8X drive available, for £88 and £125 respectably. take a look
I've just ordered a pioner 106 (A06 but OEM) with the £5 nero 6 from the SVP place recommended on earlier posts here.
Well, at www.cdrlabs.com, most people (in the forum) seem to agree that the Pionner is good.Quote:
Originally posted by NightShade737
The best drive at the moment is the Plextor-708A. You don't need to worry about getting 8x media as it burns most 4x discs at 8x.
NS
The Pionner (106) seem to be highly compatible with most medias.
The Plextor on the other hand.. was rated *very* highly in the review, was one of the most desirable DVD burners in the forum..
However, some people have also pointed out that the Plextor didn't have the best write quality.
And considering its price, and the rate at which new DVD burners are released.. I wouldn't go for it personally.
Having said that the Lite-On 8x DVD burner apparently can't burn 4x media at 8x. So if you really wanted a 8x burner, the Plextor would be a better bet.. maybe (I'd wait for more choices personally).
HD-Burn sounds similar to something similar Plextor has been offering with its 52x32x52 Premium CDRW. And like Plextor's offering, I can see it compatible only with certain drives that supports it..
:) Yeah it's certainly a great idea but I think it will be much like those 120MB (IIRC) floppy drives which could read and write like a normal floppy BUT also write to special floppies which could hold 120MB instead fo 1.4MB. I think it will prove very useful for data backups and stuff where the added capacity on the same cheap CDR media will be a benefit over compatibility. With Suspicion over lastability of 700MB on CDRs (possibilities of < 2 years) I would question how safe any data would be when writing 1.4GB on them. Anyway it certainly sounds useful but with DVD writers and media ever declining in cost it may be too late for it to catch on or prove useful.
PS. Also reminds of all those guys punching an extra hole in a 720k floppy disk to make it store 1.4MB .... and those who forced the floppy to store more than 1.4MB on it via sw too!
Lol I can remember installing a DS0: device driver to my Amiga 1200 so I could store 960kb on a DD disk rather than 880kb.
that cartoon strip is most hillarious. I like the DVD players with flowers at the end, LOL. :D :p :D
mmm Amiga, diskspare was a great program/device driver, much more reliable than the original FS.Quote:
Originally posted by Gunbuster
Lol I can remember installing a DS0: device driver to my Amiga 1200 so I could store 960kb on a DD disk rather than 880kb.
fond memories...
I just used a HD floppy drive and got 1.76 meg out of each disk :D
Umm anyway, I've got a Sony U14A and it seems pretty decent so far :)
I'm sure there was some reason why you couldn't so that..... if not only for the fact that most Amiga drives wouldn't read 1.44MB disks anyway...Quote:
Originally posted by Stoo
I just used a HD floppy drive and got 1.76 meg out of each disk :D
I'll probably remember later. Still have my 1240T here, going to set it up again shortly.
AAAANyway, Are - DVD-Rs generally more compatable with set-top DVD Players? I though it was the other way round, and if it isn't the other way round I am going to kick myself....
NS
Its usually stated that DVD - is supposed to be '5%' more compatable than + media on older DVD drives. (new drives are supposed to be ok with both)
Sounds like a somewhat guessed at figure to me, but perhaps I will soon find out. I've ordered a veriety pack of +'s to try in addition to some - ones.
Im looking for one as well, has anyone heard of Optirite?
Optirite 8x DVD Writer (Multi Format DVD+/DVD-)
£139.99
I think it's a rebadged lite-on?
Well yeah, other amigas couldn't read them unless they had a HD floppy drive as well, but that didn't really matter to me, and it most certainly did work, Power Computing used to sell them :)Quote:
Originally posted by NightShade737
I'm sure there was some reason why you couldn't so that..... if not only for the fact that most Amiga drives wouldn't read 1.44MB disks anyway...
I got my case and CD ROM drive (Black, Caddy, SCSI) from them. Didn't like their prices though. They seemed high.
Still makes me laugh how Amigas can read Amiga, PC and Mac discs and PCs cant.
NS
I had a rocking 2x cdrom on my amiga and a 120mb HD. My mate had a 68030 50mhz 10mb ram and a 80mb HD, he could just run Lightwave.
Anyways I'd be interested in that Optorite too, otherwise my other option is a retail box Sony 510UA for £130 at dixons of all places.
Remember the cheaper sony U10A can be flashed to the 500A.
I had a 540MB Drive, 10MB Ram, 68040 (25mhz), 4x CDRom and some other stuff.
Still recommend the Plextor. Has brunt all the crap media I have thrown at it, and has burned discs that would burn at all on my other drives, at 40x.
NS
yup, and the u14a can be flashed to the u510a as well :)
:D Amigas ruled! It's a shame C= just sat on the technology and got fat on profits until the rest of the world sailed by .... then too late they decide to up the ante with A600 & A1200 ... no HDs and no 2MB floppy drives ... dumb a$$es! Whatever happened to those alledged 'new' Amigas? Sorry off topic, don't worry.
AmigaOne running the still being developed OS4 on G3 and G4 processors...
http://www.eyetech.co.uk/amigaone/oct252002a.php
http://www.eyetech.co.uk/search.php?...SearchCat=AMA1
And as you can tell, I'm an addict - http://atomnet.co.uk/amiga
Oh, and yeah, sorry for going off topic.
NS
What Like this Austin: http://www.walibe.com/article16.html
Also Worth a squidge: http://www.t-bone.org/amiga/
Not sure about HD-Burn, but I think the main problem with the Plextor is that it is too expensive.. £70+ for a CDRW, why not pay a lil more for a DVD Burner.Quote:
Originally posted by Austin
:) Yeah it's certainly a great idea but I think it will be much like those 120MB (IIRC) floppy drives which could read and write like a normal floppy BUT also write to special floppies which could hold 120MB instead fo 1.4MB. I think it will prove very useful for data backups and stuff where the added capacity on the same cheap CDR media will be a benefit over compatibility. With Suspicion over lastability of 700MB on CDRs (possibilities of < 2 years) I would question how safe any data would be when writing 1.4GB on them. Anyway it certainly sounds useful but with DVD writers and media ever declining in cost it may be too late for it to catch on or prove useful.
PS. Also reminds of all those guys punching an extra hole in a 720k floppy disk to make it store 1.4MB .... and those who forced the floppy to store more than 1.4MB on it via sw too!
As for the quality.. Well, I haven't had it too it too bad from old disks.. My TDK discs are fine, and my Taiyo Yuden Discs are mostly fine even though my CDRW was pretty dead then..