Advise needed on best DVD format

[Ade007]

Hello all,

Anyone know what is the best DVD format to get? I see so many different writers out there and I would like to get a DVD writer that can burn movies and data to work with my stand alone player and the dvd drive on my computer.

Thanks.

[naturalzinc]

whats that i smell? oh, its a post that will draw mostly opinionated answers and flames!

seriously tho, both +/- work great! its mostly a matter of opinion. my drive is an el cheapo pac digi (optorite re-badge), but it is a dual format, which is key in my opinion. dual format drives burn both kinds of media. there are much more expensive burners, but mine is wonderful, never had an underun and very few coasters (all CMCs), but it even burns those too!

im sure i'll draw fire for this comment but, i dont like NEC burners, but every1 and their mother has one. they use em alot in OEM for Dell and comps like that. had some bad experiences w/ an ND1100. thats a fairly old model, so who knows, now they might be on top of their game.

like i said its all opinions, but def. go w/ the dual.

[mats.hogberg]

the best DVD format to get?

Agree with above, dual format writer. Until you've tried, you can't tell what your stand alone likes best (if you can't find out from a review). Then there's different DVD+/-R manufacurers, that may work or not with your writer/player. But it's all up to your combination of hardware what works best.

/Mats

[VinnySem]

As stated above, get one of the recommended dual-format burners: Pioneer, NEC, Plextor, and get a small pack of each format, + and -. Test them with your set top player and stick with whichever works. If they both work, then the whole argument is moot, just buy whichever one is available at a better price.

I think the differences between the 2 formats are minute and a wash, it's more important to get quality media than one format being better than the other.

[handyguy]

"data to work with my stand alone player and the dvd drive on my computer. "

Which are what?

[888888]

In this age of dual layer and 12x burning, are there any single format drives left???

[gshelley61]

Buy a multi format burner. They are just too inexpensive nowadays to bother with a single format unit. Then you can burn to any format you need to.

I think that DVD-R is generally more compatible when dealing with older DVD players. For example, my 4 year old Panasonic won't play -RW, +RW or +R discs, but has no problems at all with -R.

[DVD_Ripper]

According to Lordsmurf and many other threads I have read the DVD-R is the most compatible format. But compatibility is only as good as the media it is written on.

But a dual format drive... one that will write -R and +R's...

My laptop at work will only read +R's (go figure)... so data is written on my +R's and DVD's on the -R's

Now the question is, Internal IDE, USB, or Firewire?

[TerminalVeloCD]

Get an NEC ND-2500A/ND-2510A, install it and throw whatever media you can afford into it! The burn quality of this drive is as good as it gets, even for the poorest of poor media, but of course, I recommend the good stuff for exceptional results, e.g. like TY, MCC, and RITEK.

Regards,
TerminalVeloCD

[mats.hogberg]

Now the question is, Internal IDE, USB, or Firewire?

With nothing but my knowledge on these interfaces ability to transfer data fast and reliably to support me, I'd rate these in the following order:

IDE
Firewire
USB

I tend to trust stuff that I can plug into the MoBo much more that stuff that I connect to the 'puter using a cable... Of course, if you want to use the same device on many computers on many locations (or are out of IDE connectors), Firewire or USB have their advantages, but if not...

/Mats