Pioneer DVD Writer A06

[vsenapati]

I am planning to get this particular DVD Writer as I have read a lot of good report about this product in this forum. This model costs about Indian Rupees 12,000/- in India. The Moser Baer DVD-R media cost Indian Rupees 150 each. I feel they are rather costlier than what they sell in the USA and other countries. I am quite new to DVD writing and I have few questions.
1. What is the difference between DVD-R/DVD+R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW ?
2. Which format is readable widely in Standalone DVD Players ? I have a Philips DVD 65 K .
3. The speed of Pioneer A06 is 4x. What is the equivalent speed in CD writers ? How much time would it take to write a complete DVD of 4.7 GB ?
4. Is it the right time to purchase a DVD writer now or wait for some higher speed writer and new format to evolve ?
Thanks,
Vsenapati

[The other Colin]

Hi,

The answers to your first three questions can be found on this site. As for your last question, opinions will vary but here's mine.....

I bought (well, my wife gave me the money for my birthday, and said "go buy") a Pioneer A06P (Australian retail version) for $335 AUD last month. They're now down to $285 (and OEM is even less). No doubt they will fall even further in the lead-up to Christmas (YMMV with cultural differences) and they'll probably be giving them away when the A07 is released.

If you have a use for it now, then buy it now. If not, wait until you actually need it; they're not going to get any dearer.

Should you wait for an 8x writer? Only if you're going to churn out so many discs that saving 7-8 minutes or so a disc is worth something to you.

Should you wait for Dual Layer? That's a tricky one. It depends on what you intend to do with it. It'll make backing up DVD-9's even less of a no-brainer and you could make even longer home movies. But I'm happy with what I have for now, just as I was when I paid $350 AUD (I think) for my first CD-R/RW writer a few years ago.

Tip: Practice with +/- RW's until you get a feel for it all.


Regards,

Colin
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[bnbhoha]

That's about $263 US, You can get an oem version for half of that in the US (6000 rupees)

1. DVD-R/DVD+R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW : That's just a format war going on. Both sides think theirs is better. I would stick with dvd-r, it seem to be the most popular right now and I read an article that sadi it has more compatiblity (by 5%) over dvd +r

2. 2x speed takes about a half hour to burn a full 4.37gb movie, a 4x would take 15 min. I would save your money and get 2x media

3. Nows a great time to purchase a Dvd burner. In the last couple of months have fallen down in price. I would recommend getting the A06/106, especially if you have family in Canada or the US that can bring it over along w/ media. Go to rima.com, I belive they ship outside the country. I would recommend the ritek Go3 media; the A06 can record this at 2x speed. This same player would have cost $275 last year. My grandma always goes to India, too bad I don't know you Good luck

[DatMuthapucka]

-R is the way to go for compatibility if you are looking to buy discs... you can wait for dual layer but it would probably cost you alot more for the drive and the media when it does come out.. you could also wait for the pioneer A07, but burning 6-7 mins faster is not that big of a deal , when you can buy the current model for less.. and not ALL retail A06's can burn ritek G03 at 2x ... it varies with the firmware that comes with the drive .. my a06 burns ritek 03 at 1x only. you can fix this by flashing the drive with new firmware...but you better know what your doing.