DVD burner upgrade... advice wanted please...

[Mark_Venture]

I have had my Sony DRU500a (currently using firmware 2.0E) in my primary PC for some time now.

I am thinking of moving it to my second PC, and getting an 8X burner for my primary PC. (secondary PC could use it for data backups.)

Now I see some of the Dual Layer burners are hitting the shelves. I know DL media isn't out yet, and a full DL disc will take 45 min or more to burn. But looking at the rest of the specs, it appears these DL burners have the same "rated" Single Layer burn speeds as the 8X single layer drives that have been out.

Is it worth paying the few extra $$ now for a burner with Dual Layer capability?

[Poppa_Meth]

personally I'd wait until DL becomes more widespread and has some track record to judge it by. I don't like buying things as soon as they come out. Chances are there are plenty of bugs that need worked out.

[Vanderlow]

Actually there are some compatability tests done. With 80-90% playable on standalone players. Read thread. And you don't have to pay extra - BenQ DW822A for as little as $86 (pricegrabber.com). Or wait for NEC to come out in June it's supposedly only going to be around $115.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=322675

[Chemcat]

The NEC- ND-2500A is only $80 shipped (from Newegg in black bezel) and is a great burner. It does 8× in -R and +R. In addition it has been shown to burn DL media fine after being flashed with modified HP 520i firmware. While I'm not going to recommend you go out and flash this burner as it will void your warranty, I have flashed mine with Herrie's DL bitsetting firmware and although I don't have DL media to test, it burns my 4×+R's(RICOHJPN01) at 8× and with bitsetting burns them as DVD-ROM. They play in everthing I have. So far the 3 people that have that burnt DL media have had success. I haven't read of any failures.

This drive whille acknowledged as being a great burner is not the best reader or ripper. I have a LiteOn LTD-166s DVD-Rom for those chores so that's no concern for me but might be for someone that is only going to have a single optical drive in their system.

[budz]

The NEC- ND-2500A is only $80 shipped (from Newegg in black bezel) and is a great burner. It does 8× in -R and +R. In addition it has been shown to burn DL media fine after being flashed with modified HP 520i firmware.

NEC has stated they do not recommend flashing the drive to have the capability to burn DL because it may not work correctly. I agree with Poppa Meth if you really want a DUAL LAYER BURNER I would suggest you wait awhile until all the bugs are worked out. That's just my opinion.

[Chemcat]

I won't be buying a DL drive for a long time most likely and this one burns current single layer ±R/RW media like a champ with the bitsetting DL firmware. Not enough testing on DL media has been done yet to tell how many of these drives are even capable of reliable DL burns. I'm sure we'll know within a few weeks. I'd buy this drive again even if weren't at all possible for it to do DL.

The price of the DL media will have to come way down before I switch to it in any event. I can't see me paying $5 or more per disc except for rare situations.

As far as NEC is concerned, of course they wouldn't want you to flash to DL in any event, they want to sell you a new drive. NEC has never even released a bitsetting firmware for the drives under their name although they provided this firmware to HP for the identical HP 420i drives made for them.

[RAAGAAman]

I think you better read the link a little closer. It indicates 90% compatibility but that is only for recognition. It does not indicate if the player can play the entire disk. Espiecally the jump from Layer to layer.

RG

[Mark_Venture]

So If I want to get a burner now, I should just get an 8x single layer drive?

[Chemcat]

Personally I'd wait on DL, because DL media is going to very expensive intially. I'll get a DL burner when decent media drops below $3 but can't really afford it before that. 8× ±R/W are getting really inexpensive now I don't think you can go wrong buying one.

In addition, no one really knows how well specific DL writers will perform with specific media and how compatible the discs will be with various standalones and other DVD-Rom pc players. Even if I had beaucoup cash I'd hold off on buying a DL writer for that reason alone.