321 Studios DVD BURNER is which Brand/Model?

[defense]

321 Studios is offering a DVD burner for $99 when you purchase one of their software products...such as DVDXCOPY..etc.

Just curious what model DVD player they are rebadging and calling "321 studios DVD BURNER." Anyone know?

[SVCDummy]

Honestly... Who Cares!?!

All of the 321 Studios programs are outperformed by free or very cheap packages that are listed in the tools section of this very board. If you read the ad carefully it explains that you will be paying full retail for their software in order to get the cheap DVD burner. The cheapest package they have is nearly $70.US so why bother.

Heck. If you buy one of the retail versions of burners available for as low as $150.US you get a bunch of bundled software as well to do some of the same stuff that 321 studios packages will perform.

Just look for the best reatil deal you can find. That way you have a place to return a defective unit to without the hassle of dealing with a vendor that normally only sells software that they NEVER have to refund money for and (almost) NEVER have to replace.

Just MHO but I think you'd be better off this way.

[defense]

@SVCDUMMY, I don't personally like or use any of the 321 studios packages. I am also aware that particular deal is for the purchase of software in order to get that $99 price. Those weren't my questions though. I am curious as to what brand of 4X DVD BURNER they are using.


As far as your statement for better programs offered as freeware goes. Well, that's not completely true. If a person wants to keep their menus and extra's, while not losing ANY QUALITY whatsover, and they don't mind splitting a movie on 2 DVDR's...then DVDXCOPY is still the BEST OPTION for that job.

As I said...I don't personally like or use 321 studios products...I was just curious if anyone knew which burner they were selling as the "321 studios DVD burner."

Anyone know?

[poopyhead]

@defense,

i'm not sure if they've gotten all the bugs worked out of DVDXCOPY..

(i.e. sometimes DVDXCOPY wouldn't split a movie at the right place between 2 DVDs, etc...)

[defense]

@ poopyhead, all programs have bugs. Some are just more minor then others. I'd have to think that DVDXCOPY has gotten most of the major bugs out of their program by now....and regardless..it's stil the best option in terms of quality, extra's, split over two disks.

But again, I didn't post a question about 321 studios software...I was curious as to which manufacturer's burners they are selling along with their program as a package.

[tompika]

Not too many DVD+R/W drive has 8MB buffer!

I found that the Philips/BenQ DW400A had the same specifications

Write 4xDVD+R, 4xDVD+RW, 16xCD-R, 10xCD-RW
Read 12xDVD, 40xCD
8MB buffer

But I could be wrong because this BenQ supports Mt. Rainier but 321 doesn't mention it.


But not bad for hundred bucks if somebody buys a 321 product anyway

[Bob W]

The only 321 program I use is DVDx Xpress which does a nice and easy job of backing up DVD's.

[-jsl-]

Yeah it must be a Benq DW400A. The specs are identical @321 studios site and @Benq's site.

[Bob W]

I thought 321 was being sued by the movie industry. Did 321 win?

[tumbar]

321 Studios is being sued. Think if the suits prevail they will remove the decrypter and go on.

I like Acer or now BenQ products. I've had 3 different cd burners for 3 different machines. One external and 2 internal. They have always worked well and were inexpensive....just a good value for the buck...like liteon.

regards

[mkelley]

Go to the 321 forum and ask there -- you're sure to get the skinny as it is frequented by the 321 guys themselves. (I don't have the bookmark here at work but if you can't find it write again and I'll post it from home).

I don't want to get into a war here, but I really like DVDXCopy -- and I have *all* the other tools. For making the absolute best 1:1 copy of a DVD9 disk (no compression) I can't find anything that even comes close (indeed, short of doing the manual edit with IfoEdit I can't even find a program that will split the disk correctly: DVDFab doesn't work for me).

Now, Express is another story... I have never gotten it to work and much prefer DVDShrink. But you never have enough tools...

[defense]

@ jsl, do you know what that BENQ drive retails for? I was just curious to see what kind of a deal people were getting...and it does look like that's the drive...because the specs are the same.
Thanks for checkin that out.

[-jsl-]

According to Pricegrabber the retail version sells for $170-200.

[vitualis]

321 Studios is being sued. Think if the suits prevail they will remove the decrypter and go on.

Umm... not if they lose a multimillion dollar suit they won't...

Regards.

[mkelley]

Actually, Mike, the suit isn't for damages.

It's pretty complicated (if you want to read all about it you can visit www.eff.org and follow the trails) but 321 actually brought the suit first against the studios (once again, not for damages but to establish the principle) and the studios countersued.

The 9th District has the case under consideration right now, but regardless of the outcome it's sure to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Even a best case scenerio looks like this could take a year or two to decide -- and even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the studios 321 won't suffer damage costs (although, obviously, legal fees are expensive for anyone -- EFF is amicus to the defendents but not supplying legal aid, AFAIK).

The real irony of all this is it isn't the final word by any means on what DMCA means here in the States: there is currently legislation being introduced that may indeed curtail the legal scope of the act (and ironic in that it was RIAA's actions that are prompting some Senators to reconsider the power implied in that original legislation). My own personal hunch (FWIW :>) is we won't have a definitive answer on the legality of making backup copys of your own personal DVDs before the end of this decade -- by which time technology will have changed the rules and playing field.

[defense]

@ mkelley....thx for that info. I was also under the impression that 321 studios was being sued for a monetary amount. There was another case I read about recently which was solely for principle as well..which surprised me because there seemed as though plenty of money could of been made.

The case was for the 7'1 Chinese basketball player who plays in the NBA for the Houson Rockets. His name is Yao Ming Basically, Coke is clearly the biggest softdrink manufacturer in the world, as well as the most profitable. Especially in China, where they sell millions of cans a day. Anyway, Ming signed an endoresement deal with Pepsi for exclusive rights to Ming's picture and John Hancock.

But after the deal, Coke made these commemorative cans with Ming and a few of his teammates on the Chinese Olympic basketball team. Pepsi was obviously pissed as was Ming, so they sued coke for ONE PENNY to immediately stop the production of those cans with Ming's picture.

I believe Pepsi won the suit and collected their penny. lmao...crazy..but it was principle. I was surprised in that case though because the Coca-Cola company certainly has plenty of money to pay out in a suit like that. I guess Pepsi didn't want to go through the legal hassle for a case like this..they just made it a point to make sure Coke doesn't use Ming's picture or signature again...or else.