Buying my first dvd writer, recommendations please?

[gangrene]

hi

i'm going to buy a dvd writer and have no clue what to get. you guys prolly get asked this a lot but what's a good dvd writer for under 100 bucks? if possible i'm looking for a good combination of speed and reliability. don't want too many coasters at the same time don't want to spend more than 30 minutes burning a dvd.

also what is the most common burning software?
authoring software?

thx in advance

[budz]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=27-129-157&DEPA=1
PIONEER above
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-131-326&depa=1
PLEXTOR above

Plextor will be releasing their newest drive 716A in a week, although some Best Buy stores are selling them for $149-$179. Pioneer should be coming out with their latest drive by the end of the year or early next year.

NERO to burn.
TMPGE DVD AUTHOR to author.
DVD SHRINK to compress.
DVD DECRYPTER to rip & burn ISO images.

[ghoster]

if possible wait. thats what i am going. i am waiting for a +/- DL burner....

[budz]

if possible wait. thats what i am going. i am waiting for a +/- DL burner..

There are already DUAL LAYER +/- burners on the market like LITEON, NEC, PIONEER, BENQ to name a few and PLEXTOR's 716.

[gavmiester]

That is kind of misleading......are there actually any dual layer burners on the market yet that burn dual layer - ? This is the reason why im still holding out b4 buying a new burner. That, and my trusty old Sony 500a thats been going more than 2 years is still churning out disks reliabley, and the cost and availability of 8 x media is just becoming reasonable in Australia.

Can anyone shed some light on when true dual layer, dual format burners will be on the market?

[Heff]

The BenQ DW1620 is a true dual layer dual format burner and its only $67 at Newegg.com. Cdfreaks reviewed it on Oct 24 and gave it an editor's choice award. It also may be the quickest 16x burner on the market. review below.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/159/1

Why care about dual layer - media anyway? Why care about single layer - media if you have bitsetting that autosets + media to DVD-ROM like the BenQ.

[budz]

Why care about dual layer - media anyway? Why care about single layer - media if you have bitsetting that autosets + media to DVD-ROM like the BenQ.

Benq isn't the only brand that has bitsetting capabilities. Plextor now has bitsetting with their 708A, 712A & the 716A will as well by using the latest firmware, PLEXTOOLS and the latest NERO BURN. LITEON drives also have bitsetting as well as NEC drives.

[rhegedus]

That is kind of misleading......are there actually any dual layer burners on the market yet that burn dual layer - ? This is the reason why im still holding out b4 buying a new burner. That, and my trusty old Sony 500a thats been going more than 2 years is still churning out disks reliabley, and the cost and availability of 8 x media is just becoming reasonable in Australia.

Can anyone shed some light on when true dual layer, dual format burners will be on the market?

They're already on the market.

I replaced my old Sony DRU500 with a DRU700 that burns DL, though my first consideration was 4x+RW and 8x+R capability.

That said I tried a DL disk and it does burn DL quite nicely, but unfortunately, none of my set-top DVD players support DL.

I'll wait until there are more reports of DVD players that play DL before buying one.

[ghoster]

if possible wait. thats what i am going. i am waiting for a +/- DL burner..

There are already DUAL LAYER +/- burners on the market like LITEON, NEC, PIONEER, BENQ to name a few and PLEXTOR's 716. :) :)

could you please show me where i can get a burner that can burn +DL media and -DL media?

[rhegedus]

There's no DL- media as yet, but those burners can burn +/-R 4.3Gb media as well as DL +R.

[handyguy]

mabbe you could say what kind of computer you have? Is it for a Mac?

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters

[ghoster]

i guess i should have said it differently. what i mean't to say is i am waiting for a burner that can burn both +DL media and -DL media when it comes out.

[rhegedus]

....bit difficult to say when there's no DL- media about at the moment (or in the near and not so near future!)

[steve2713]

I've heard less than favorable things about Benq drives, and my 822 sucks with DVD-R media. It is also a hassle to install - I cannot get it to work in an external USB case, and many people have to set it as a slave drive for it to work internally. Maybe the newest drive has fixed their previous issues. I think that NEC drives are awesome, that is my recommendation (3500 for around $70 at Newegg.com).

[budz]

Best Buy is now selling 16x VERBATIM DVD+R media.

steve2713 wrote:

I've heard less than favorable things about Benq drives, and my 822 sucks with DVD-R media. It is also a hassle to install - I cannot get it to work in an external USB case, and many people have to set it as a slave drive for it to work internally. Maybe the newest drive has fixed their previous issues. I think that NEC drives are awesome, that is my recommendation (3500 for around $70 at Newegg.com).

Benq 1620A drive just got the editors award from cdfreaks.com.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/159
As for the LITEON drive it's a known fact that their drives work better with DVD+R media. As for using a external USB case, dvd burners work better with FIREWIRE cases. The USB seems to have more compatiblity issues than FIREWIRE.

[steve2713]

I looked at the review of their latest drive and it does look like they've resolved most, if not all, of their DVD-R problems that they did have. I would not recommend their older drives, but it looks like they are really making progress with their latest drive. I'm still a big fan of NEC myself - my main drive that I still use the most is my 1300, which does great with anything that I throw at it. Everything that I've read says that the newer NEC drives have only gotten that much better. My other two drives, a Benq and a Toshiba, don't burn nearly as well as my NEC. Just pointing out my preference for NEC.

It does look like the newest Benq is nice, though. I wouldn't touch a LiteOn for burning, I'm not sure if you thought I suggested that or what. As for Benq being USB unfriendly, I've read that many of their drives are like this. I have no idea if the newest one is similar, I just thought I'd mention it if he was considering using the drive externally as USB. I tried my Benq in 3 different external cases, and it refused to work in any. My 3 external cases work flawlessly with about 10 other drives, from DVDRW to CD-RW to CD-ROM to DVD-ROM, so it is definitely a picky drive.

[only_emo_kid]

i LOVE my NEC 3500

[samijubal]

i LOVE my NEC 3500

Ditto on that.

[only_emo_kid]

nooo coasters yet

[samijubal]

Same here, discs scan very fast in DVD players. The ones from the LG used to take longer to scan sometimes.

[jtommyj]

i LOVE my NEC 3500

Ditto on that.

Double Ditto

t

[gangrene]

thx for the input everyone


how long does it take for the ned 3500 to burn a full dvd? assuming with the fastest compatible media allowed.

[jtommyj]

CDFreaks.com you can see some results but i would say the fastest speed mine has done is around 6 minutes or a little over on 8x media from Sony and Fuji that will burn at 16x.


Tom

[TerminalVeloCD]

My personal record: 5min48sec using Nero CD-DVD Speed "Create Data Disc" with the NEC ND-3500A. Usual time is around 6min.

Regards,
TerminalVeloCD

[only_emo_kid]

around 15mins for me with 4x.. i'm in no hurry tho

[Tattman]

Just purchased my second dvd burner, Pioneer DVR 108, one of the fastest burning on the market. Only $99. at http://www.winlandcomputer.com/scripts/listbyCat.asp?Cat=DVDR. Works great.

[budz]

Just purchased my second dvd burner, Pioneer DVR 108, one of the fastest burning on the market. Only $99.

Newegg.com is cheaper- $76.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-129-157&depa=1

[airbear]

The Plextor 716A is just now hitting store shelves. I bought one at BestBuy 2 days ago. It does both DVD+R and DVD-R at 16X and double sided burning at 4X. It also does DVD+RW at 8X, CDR's at 48X and CDRW's at 24X.

Using the included 16X DVD+R media I burned 4.4GB of data in around 6.5 minutes.

So far I'm very happy with the drive.

AirBear

[Heff]

Get a BenQ DW1620 for $67 at NewEgg. Why pay more .... Auto bitsets to DVD-ROM for maximum compatibility, overspeeds more 8x media at 12x and 16x, very good burn scans esp + media, good build quality and quiet operation and a company that releases official firmware updates to make more media compatiable and improve the burns.


http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-101-630&depa=1

[samijubal]

Pay more to get more, that's why. I only paid $9 more for the NEC.