Best burner for semi-commercial work

[MrBing]

I'm a newbie with DVD burners. Could the experts please comment on what I am thinking of doing:

I'll be burning about 50 DVDs with slideshows on them. They will be played in all kinds of DVD players - new and old, good and bad.

After reading this site quite a bit, this is what I am thinking about getting:

Pioneer 106D burner
Nero 6 software
Ulead.com PictureShow2 slideshow software
Ritek + disks

Does this sound like a good bet for reliability and compatibility with a wide variety of DVD players? MrBing appreciates your help and sharing of knowledge...

[MysticE]

-R's seem to play in more standalones.

[SLICK RICK]

I'm a newbie with DVD burners.

What burners do you have already, Why are you looking to get the Pioneer?

SLICK RICK

[overloaded_ide]

Although either format is probably just as good in reality, -R is probably more compatible with most older DVD set top players.

From what I have read your choice on burners might be a good one. I myself have a toshiba sd-r5200 2X and never had an actual coaster yet.
I have burned cheap disks (leda/princo 1x) and Ritek G03 at 2x.

Only disks I have problems with were burned with Nero! Some players won't reconize the disks. The media is not the problem! Same media burned with DVD files from Tmpgenc DVD authors burner program work fine, so it is the way Nero burned the disks. So beware and read up on Nero burning problems.

[MrBing]

I haven't purchased anything yet, and have no experience with DVD burners. I have used cheap CD burners with good results, however.

There is no particular reason I was looking at either Nero or Pioneer except for what I have read in this and other forums - they appear to be popular and work OK. That's why I was checking here. After your advice I will learn towards -R media.

[macleod]

for what you are planning to do, you got a good bet. As other posters have mentioned, read up on some issues with nero 6. I personally use nero express(latest NON 6 version) with great success.

I have the 105 burner and have been VERY happy with it. It is a -R burner and I recommend -R based on that. to be honest, I have converted several +R folks I work with because they have had problems. Course if you knew them, its probably user error

Without starting a format war, since you are getting a dual format burner, buy a little of both and see which ones are the most compatible (look on the left) with the dvd players that will be playing your media.

[MysticE]

DVDshrink (free) - easily convert DVD's to DVD-/+R

Although Shrink is a nice program it is rather awkward to use and does not compare with the ease and resultant video quality of InstantCopy 8 (so easy to drop logos, warnings, trailers, seemlessly and completely), which can take a video down to less than 60% and still look great.