DL burners?

[Nilfennasion]

Okay, I am pretty antsy at the moment because I want to get myself a dual-layer burner due to all the problems I have had with trying to retain DTS soundtracks and keeping the quality reasonable. So I am running a poll to find out how long after the technology is released before I should buy one.

[Faustus]

Orginally I was going to get one when they came out, and you never know I still might get a hair up my butt and do it. HOWEVER since then I've decided to wait at least until the media starts to come down, heck or wait untiil BOTH DL formats are out, then wait for the dual layer dual format burners that we KNOW will eventually happen.

[Cobra]

I am going to do the same as Flaystus is and wait for dual-layer, dual-format burners to come out and I'll need to wait for them to come down in price. Oh, and I won't buy anything but a Pioneer.

I got my first DVD+/-RW a couple of months ago. It's a Pioneer DVR-106, and it's a fantastic burner. Only 16x CD-R but it is a very reliable burner than works with any media I throw at it. That includes Princo discs, Flaystus!

Since I've only just bought a burner, I'm not in a hurry to replace it.

Cobra

[flaninacupboard]

i love my pioneer 104. it's only 2X but as i burn files from another machine on the network, that's fine.

i'll get a -R DL burner once they hit £180 or so, that's how much i paid for my 104! plus we have to wait and see what media, if any, is stable.

[raffie]

yeah those new pioneer drives look GREAT
i wait for a pioneer DL, -+, and looks like these:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_17221_72341396,00.html

oh, and hopefully DL burning will get a lot faster soon, cause i'm really fed up with waiting a full hour for a dvd (i have a 1x btw)

[DTSL06]

Already may have a DL capable burner. NEC 2500a hax to 2510, now waiting on DL media to test. Just hope the DL media dont cost like $15+

[mikesbytes]

Probably the right time to buy one is when you stop seeing the "Problem with xxx DL burner" and "where do you buy cheap DL disks" posts from the early adoptors

[flaninacupboard]

haha, we'll never stop seeing those posts!

[DeleriumMDK]

I'm waiting at least a year. I want to see 4X DL media, and drives, and wait out what I'm sure will be fallout when existing players have trouble reading this media. 2.4X is a bit too slow for that for me considering how many DVD's I back up that are DVD-9's...I'd be spending more time in front of this monitor then I already do.

[reboot]

I just got a dvdrw two weeks ago.
I'll wait a year :P

[gitreel]

I may have one already. I just might need a firmware update. I have an Emprex 8x dual format 1008 burner. If not, then I will wait for the consolidation of formats like was stated earlier.

[Nilfennasion]

I'm guessing, perhaps optimistically, that prices will come down a little faster in the case of DL burners than the original DVD-R drives. They already have a large market for the things. I am planning to wait until MoneyMas at the moment, myself.

Some very enlightening responses here, too.

[glockjs]

im gonna base my decision on the media price alone... as soon as it hits around $2-3 for good quality media... no reason to buy a burner that im not gonna use, specially if the media is $10-15 a pop.. and by the time the price does come down and i can actualy start using the burner i can buy a much better burner for the same price.. so to buy one when it first comes out for me doesnt add up. i can see some pohfessional video peoples buying em, but for us common folk i dont see it being worth it.



edit..some spelling not all, im not fully recovered from last night yet

[Nilfennasion]

That's part of the problem of living in a place like Maryborough, Queensland. Around here, it could take years for the media to become affordable. As I have stated in one post, here is a market that is virtually competition-free, so the stores can set whatever price they feel like. I guess I will be looking online for DL media.

[flaninacupboard]

i was going to say, i've never bought media in a shop! except perhaps floppy disks....
since that time it all comes from tinternet, much cheaper and comes straight to my front door!

[offline]

I've never bought media online. Shipping adds to the cost. I am paying
99 cents Australian at the moment for class 2 media - I'm happy with that.
I have a feeling that DL media is not going to be as DVD player friendly
as single so I'm going to wait. I have a Pioneer A06 and it burns
anything - even Princo as Cobra says.

[Nilfennasion]

Offline, you obviously don't live in a remote dump such as Maryborough, Australia, in that case. Even with the cost of shipping added, I can get 50 discs for a price that makes the cost of buying from a bricks and mortar store seem like throwing money away. Competition is a very essential part of any capitalist society, and this town is a perfect expression of what happens when you take that element away.

A point of comparison: 25 TDK 4X discs at Big W Maryborough (supposedly a discount store) = $70. 50 Taiyo Yuden 4X discs at The Disc Shop's Maroochydore branch = $68. Problem: Maroochydore is four hour's drive there and back. I am currently awaiting a shipment of discs that will cost about $73 when shipping is added. Still far cheaper than the Big W store.

I can't wait to hear Jack Valenti or one of his cronies arguing that competition hurts consumers like little old me.

[offline]

Some 3 hours drive north of Brisbane (the capital City of Queensland), Maryborough, with a population of 26,000 is the dominant commercial centre for the surrounding local government areas of Woocoo; Tiaro and West Hervey Bay.

Fraser Island, the largest sand based island in the world and the world heritage listed national park; Kingfisher Bay; Eurong and Happy Valley Resorts, are only 1.5 hours drive and barge trip, east of Maryborough. The wilderness areas, unique freshwater lakes, coloured sands, rainforest streams, shipwrecks and 140km of untouched ocean beaches, exhibiting protected flora and fauna, make Fraser Island an International tourist destination.

A remote dump you say.
I remember staying at Hervey Bay and eating coral trout and
cocktails while never wanting to go home again. U lucky bastard

PS. I have a brother in Bananna Land (Thorneside) - he complains about
the lack of DVD movies available so I have to send him some
every month.

[Nilfennasion]

Yes. A remote dump. When you have to drive 75 minutes either way to go and see a urologist, you live in a remote dump. No two ways about that.

Allow me to put it another way. If a store in Sydney charged what the Sanity branch in this town charged for DVD-Videos, it would quickly go out of business. I never thought I would outright say that city life is preferable to life in a small town, but when buying a DVD practically feels like being bent over a table, I wonder what I'm supposed to think. Problem is, it isn't much better in the cities of this country. At least in the USA, you don't have to live in New York or Los Angeles to get a decent price.

[flaninacupboard]

hey, you can buy DVD spindles in shops?!
the MOST you see round here is a pack of five TDK's in cases for around £10 (about $18 american [dunno australian])

[Nilfennasion]

Courtesy of www.xe.com, ten UK pounds is 25.43 Australian dollars.

As I have said, spindles of 50 can be bought online here for 70 dollars, give or take. So an urban centre like Parramatta will have them for a similar price. 50 discs will cost you $140 from a bricks-and-mortar retailer here. About 55.04 UK pounds.

[flaninacupboard]

still beats £100 for 50 discs in cases, which would be my only option if tinternet wasn't here. last i bought was 100xDVDR, 15x6disc cases, 40 single cases and 30 double cases. including delivery it was £75, or ~$187australian.

[Nilfennasion]

I tend to look at it in terms of relevance to income rather than actual price. I don't know what the average man earns in the UK, but for most Australians, $70 is between five and seven hours' income. Before tax, that is, and Australia is among the most overtaxed nations on Earth. Were my circumstances slightly different, it would be a choice between having DVD-Rs to write to and eating.

[offline]

@ flaninacupboard

Yes you can buy spindles up to one hundred over the counter.
I prefer to buy 100 in four packs of 25 as I feel the weight of
the 100 stack could damage the bottom dics. A pack of 50
costs $49.00 or for real alcheapo Princo/Shintaro/G04 you can pay
as low as $30 per 50 pack.

@ Nilfennasion

You want to see a specialist in Melbourne? 10 minutes drive and an
hour in the waiting room - same difference.

As for the US, they have a DVD market worth 23.7 billion pa. The DVD
market in Australia is only just over 2 billion pa. As far as buying power
is concerned we are way down on the list.

[glockjs]

offline

As for the US, they have a DVD market worth 23.7 billion pa. The DVD
market in Australia is only just over 2 billion pa. As far as buying power
is concerned we are way down on the list.

yeah but you gotta remember we sold our soul, so dont be too upset about it

[Nilfennasion]

Oh, I didn't even mention waiting times. That's just driving time. Can you imagine if I had needed a heart or lung specialist?

Getting back to the topic though, America's buying power highlights what the problem with Australia really is. Too few consumers spread over too wide an area. There are only 20K people where I am, so new stores looking for a startup don't consider it worth the investment. Existing stores think twice about opening a branch here or the nearest "urban" centre, Harvey Bay. As a result, competition is minimal at best, non-existent at worst. Do this experiment: drive around the town you live in. If you're in a place with several connecting suburbs like Greystanes or Wentworthville, drive around the non-central suburbs closest to your town, too. Count the number of rentailers and electronics stores you pass by on the way. For every shopping mall you pass, add two or three unless you want to go inside and get an accurate number of the electronics stores, or stores with an electronics section, in said mall. If you get a count higher than two, you have competition greater than here in your area. If you get a count higher than six, I would be the last person to complain to about pricing in your area.

[Chemcat]

I'm with glockjs, I didn't buy a DVD burner until the price of decent media got down to about $1/disc. I made do with SVCDs on CD-Rs. The price point for me would have to be at least down to $4/disc for good reliable media to make it justafiable for me to switch.

The initial price of the burner isn't that big a concern and like DTSLO6 I have a NEC ND-2500A which apparently looks like it can be flashed to a 2510 dual layer burner.