I want to buy TWO new DVD-RW for my new comp

[dmuk]

What two would you recommend? There aren't any problems with having two are there? I currently have a lite-on DVDRW and a liteon dvdrom drive, but they are going to be sold with the old computer to make way for new.

I'm currently looking at the Liteon SHM-165P6S-09C 16x DVD±RW/RAM (Black) for one of those drives at about £30.

Feature requests;

-Fast burning that supports Double Layer, DVDRam, and DVDRW + and -
-BLACK front face

My way of thinking is that if one media isn't like by one drive, hopefully the other drive will have no problems with it. Big 'hope', really.

Cheers.

[AlecWest]

There aren't any problems with having two are there?

I don't think so in your case since your OS is XP. When I bought my current system, I posed the same question to a "guru" I know. He said that since I was using a dual-boot (98SE/XP), the XP side would recognize both DVD burners but the 98SE partition would not. Currently, I only have one burner ... but that's about to change. I have relatives and friends in the UK and Australia and would like to use one burner to burn PAL discs and another to burn NTSC. As I understand it, most burners only allow you to "switch" formats a finite number of times. By having 2 burners, there wouldn't be any need to switch. And, if one of them died, I'd still have the other - which I could switch format on if need be.

One note (and this is just me, hehe), if and when I get a 2nd burner, it will be a different brand or model so I'll be able to tell the difference between the two. The one you want to get is probably OK. Here's another one to consider for £32.61:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EJCZV4/

Edit: BTW, they also have one of those in black for £36.84:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EJGGIC/

but (snicker) that's lightest shade of black I've ever seen. You might want to query them by phone or email first to make sure the item really IS black - if that's the color you wanted:

[sho95]

I just picked this up
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135062
great burns 8x 12x I have not done the 16x yet. It comes also in black but no bitsetting.

I picked this up today for its bitsetting and scanning and just like just incase one drive does not like one media maybe the other will pick it up.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101010

As far as the Liteon SHM-165P6S I did not like it. I got this one last week for a build I did not like the scanning report using TY media. It was ok but not even close to the ASUS

[redwudz]

No problem with having 2 burners. You could look at a Pioneer DVR-111 for one of the writers.

[BobK]

I have relatives and friends in the UK and Australia and would like to use one burner to burn PAL discs and another to burn NTSC. As I understand it, most burners only allow you to "switch" formats a finite number of times.

That is not correct (as far as I know). Most DVD drives only allow you to switch "regions" a finite number of times. Region is not directly connected to format, and it only matters when you're trying to read a disk that's not region free.

When you burn a disk you are burning data to the disk. It makes no difference whether you're burning NTSC or PAL video- there is no switching required and no limit to the number of times you can switch between burning PAL and NTSC.

[KBeee]

I have 2 NEC ND 4550A's (Black) installed with no problems.
Though they might be 4551A's - I bought 4550's, but WinXP System Properties tells me they're 4551's.... However, the newer NEC ND 4570A (Black) is available for £27.28 (Inc. VAT) from -
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.asp?CatID=12&Category=DVD+%2F+DVD%2DRW&ThumbNails=Yes

[Bjs]

Dvd burner's will burn either format's .

What you are refering to is region's , which is playback .

If burn dvd project's have no region code set at time of authoring , then it will play in almost any home player .

However , if you send dvd's to friend's in au , these should be in pal format , just to be safe , and burnt to dvd-r .

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If you want 2 drive's that support everything , dump liteon's as they have been well known for issue's ... and grab the lastest in lg unit's , they support everything .

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Windows 98se has no issue with having two dvd burner's ... who ever said that was talking crap ... period .

I have one here with 3 , 2 x dvd burner's , and one combo for ripping (if ripper screw's up , no problem , I'll grab another) .

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Forget dualboot , try quad boot (xp pro / nt 2000 / win98se / win95b) , and bootable linux (when required) .

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Having two different model's or brand's will not guarantee the media will be accepted by the other unit should the first not accept it .

There is "dud" media out there ... tdk now produce's it since they out sourced to another company for the manufacturing of the media .

Bunch of mug's .

[bevills1]

Some drives specify to set as master or slave, and you'd not want 2 that specify master or 2 that specify slave settings unless you have additional IDE connections or want to add IDE adapter card. There should be no problem if selected drive doesn't specify master/slave setings.

[RabidDog]

Get at least one NEC as they are the leaders and get one that does labelflash to really impress the rellies/friends. Ram is good to have.

"However , if you send dvd's to friend's in au , these should be in pal format , just to be safe " and marked Non-valuable

[dmuk]

Thinking of getting

LG GSA-4166BL 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-040-LG) £30
NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) £30

Do you need special discs for lightscribe?

[redwudz]

Yes, special discs for lightscribe. And it takes 20 - 30 minutes to burn the label. They are also not full color, just the color available on the disc. For prices, do a Google search for 'lightscribe discs, UK'.