HP 300I vs TDK 420N any comments

[sll99]

I'm looking to buy a DVD+ recorder and have kind of narrowed it down to one of these 2. Any comments on strength's/ weaknesses ect. I will be using it mostly to make Video's from my digital Cam corder...Thanx

[Metaluna]

I'm pretty sure the HP unit allows "bitsetting", which can be important for maximum compatibility. Bitsetting is a technique whereby you change some configuration bits (called the DVD book type) in the DVD+R's on-disk file structure that make it look more like a DVD ROM. The idea is to change the ID bits that say "This is a DVD+R" to instead say "This is a DVD-ROM". This can be helpful for DVD players that refuse to play discs with the DVD+R booktype. If they think the disc is a regular, pressed DVD-ROM, they often will play it just fine though.

Many burners, most notably the Sony DRU-500A and the NEC-1100 do not allow bitsetting. I have no idea who makes the TDK but it could conceivably be a rebadged NEC.

So if you are interested in maximum compatibility with the widest range of old and new DVD players, you should consider the bitsetting feature to be an advantage. If you only care about compatibility with your player, or only with new players, then you might not care. New DVD players have a much higher chance of being +R/RW aware. My new Sony 325 plays all +/- formats perfectly, for example.