POLL: Which type of DVD burner do you own?

[amendsen83]

Sony DRU-510A
Best of both worlds. :P

[shyrath]

SONY-DRU500a ...

Why? My laptop dvd drive (pioneer) swallows -R only.
my 2 standalones will not run -R

btw.. I get very cheap +R drives.

On a slight chance of getting off-topic.

Come first of July 2003 the Dutch government will tax the writable DVD´s to accomodate "copyright".

The -R will get a 1euro uplift (normal disc costs about that much now!!)
The +R will get a 0,50 euro cent uplift.

This difference in price has (hearsay) to do with Philips (manufacturer) being in the commity for this tax. And apperantly has proven better security on +R discs.

My point? ... It seems in that due to enormous cost benefits the Dutch will "en masse" migrate to +R after July 1st....

Anyway, just my 2 cnts

[txpharoah]

The -R will get a 1euro uplift (normal disc costs about that much now!!) The +R will get a 0,50 euro cent uplift.

This sounds a bit bogus to me.

[letgoofmyears]

I currently have two drives, the 104 & 105, but I'm looking to replace them with a combo drive. The reason for this is that recently, I have found some great deals on +r media, putting them at around 1x -r prices(when bought in bulk). However, compatibility still being a problem, I would like to have the -r option, just in case. I could just buy another drive, but my thermaltake case only has 3 bays available, which are all taken at the moment.

[txpharoah]

I currently have two drives, the 104 & 105, but I'm looking to replace them with a combo drive. The reason for this is that recently, I have found some great deals on +r media, putting them at around 1x -r prices(when bought in bulk). However, compatibility still being a problem, I would like to have the -r option, just in case. I could just buy another drive, but my thermaltake case only has 3 bays available, which are all taken at the moment.

Wait for the Pioneer A06

[shyrath]

This sounds a bit bogus to me.

True, I agree.

However, ask anyone from The Netherlands to translate the section out of the Goverment Announcement that was made last week.

Or see this link
http://www.tweakers.net/nieuws/27307

[Faustus]

Wow that looks bad... wait sorry. It needs to be TRANSLATED. Crud, babel fish seems unable to help.

[shyrath]

Wow that looks bad... wait sorry. It needs to be TRANSLATED. Crud, babel fish seems unable to help.

Ack,.. I agree it´s a weird language :P But trust me. It says a tax will be in effect from july 1st.

And it is (specially the cheaper DVD -R) a 100% increase in price.
50 % increase on DVD+R.

Hence my statement about more usage of +R after this.

[SLICK RICK]

I have a Sony but so far I only have burned -R.

SLICK RICK

[RaidenUK]

Well i just got a NEC Duel Format and i have only used the -R so far but it's safe to say it's not the best duel Format on there

[Kennyshin]

Ricoh is back, after the first 2.4x DVD+RW writer, MP5120A, originally released in October 2001, with MP5240A, with about 66% faster writing speed.

Ricoh's own MP5240A, 4x DVD+RW and 24/10 CD-R/CD-RW, for 22,000 Yen.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70070

This will be also added to my DVD writer collection soon.

[indolikaa]

I got the Optorite DD0203 dual-format burner.

I figured, hey! This allows me to be flexible. I can say "+R/W Sucks!" or "-R/W Sucks!" depending on the flow of traffic and still be able to claim I have the "other" format, which will of course win the format war.

This is like being a registered Independent. You can claim affinity to whichever party fits the situation, and not be locked down to a committment! Thank you, Optorite! :P

[PhilipL]

Hi

It seems a format is emerging as a clear winner, as I have speculated before, if the media format itself refuses to become a standard, the hardware will adapt and standardise instead.

We have already seen Microsoft accept this fact with its announcement of support for DVD-RW/DVD-R in addition to plus. Sony and NEC are selling hundreds of thousands of dual-writers a month, Pioneer have now gone dual (something like a 500,000 a month capacity from memory), with the likes of LG-Hitachi also producing writers that do all.

Dual-writers will become the defacto standard and contract prices are continuing to fall according to http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=3916 who link to a digitimes report.

Above and below this news on Cdrinfo are also product announcements for more dual-writers!

There is obviously room enough in the market for DVD-RW/DVD-R and +RW/+R to co-exist quite happily.

Regards

Philip

[thayne]

EUG, eeeeeeeeeeeeerf! This is the way i feel and if these people stay honest on this forum...I will bet my dollar to your donut, that -R/W drives prevail in this poll. :P

Who cares?

[LrngToFly]

Hey wow! I'm the first to vote DVD-+RW & DVD-RAM w/ my LG GSA-4040B drive.

It's cool being the first on the block.

And the best thing is I can ignore all those threads asking "which format is best"! (at least until the various blue laser technology formats arise!)

[hoyboy]

just gave into temptation last week and bought the new A06 from pioneer. Looks good but the software that came with it is a bit basic- don't even give you the full version of nero, just nero express.

[HeeD]

Got the Sony 510A external. So far it burns every media I throw at it.

I am using it mainly for DVD-R now. I will burn DVD+RW for backing up and testing authored DVDs though. If the Sony wrote the book type as DVD-ROM on DVD+R media, I would probably switch to DVD+R but for now they are just not as compatible with booktype DVD+R. Maybe a future firmware will fix this!

[lchiu7]

I bought the DRU500A about 3 months ago and it's burnt everything I have thrown at it (CDR, CDRW, DVD-RW and DVD+RW, Princo and Ricoh bulk). I upgraded the firmware to 2.0f the other day in anticipation of perhaps gettign 4X media but I have so many blanks disk at the moment, that this will be some time in the future

Good burner

[RNR1995]

Sony DRU500A DVD-+RW/Cd

[ofbarea]

Still happy with my HP DVD200i

[tleonhar]

A little bit of Deja Vu here. VHS is more common, Beta is better quality... I've had my Sony DRU500A for about 4 months now with no problems, in Minnesota, the + format seems to be more common in the stores and the price is the same as the -. After reading the pros and cons of each format, I decided I didn't want to buy something that may soon be out of date so I opted for the dual format.

By the way, anybody want to buy a Betamax? (just kidding)

[Greenspock]

they say that +r/rw will be the "likely winner of the format wars" because it is faster and more advanced than -r/rw, although they admit it is less compatible.

Well, thats great logic, for sure!

Can't anyone besides me smell "spin" or am I the only one here over 25?
BTW, if any of these writers can actually predict the future, why don't they just pick this weeks lottery numbers and retire?

If any one is going to start a format war, read this first...

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3.5

It clearly explains that DVD+RW is more

compatible with many existing DVD readers

. And this is no 'spin'. Trust me, I'm sittin on the fence as far as which media is better. All I care about is if it'll play on my DVD players.

As far as the furture, I bought a DVD+-R(W)-RAM drive. Hows that for covering all the bases.

[Greenspock]

... I wouldn't be too hasty in declaring that either -r or +r will win. I honestly think they are only hybrid formats until a proper home digital disc recording system becomes available.

NOOOOOOO! Not another format! ACK!

Actually the DVD-R was split into two different formats... Authoring and General. And soon possibly a third.

See...
http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3.2

[Greenspock]

]Is this another crappy war-of-the-dvd-recordable-formats-topic or what??!

Are you kidding?? My GSA-4040B rules!! (just kidding)

[thetoe]

dvd-r/rw/ram

panasonic sw-9571

works great for me!

[Mad Burner]

TDK 440N works great for me!!

The +R media doesn't play with my Panasonic DMR-E80H DVD-R/RAM recorder.

I'll upgrade to the Plextor 708A once it's released

[Kennyshin]

Latest additions:

Ricoh MP5240A
Lite-On LDW-401S
NEC ND-1300A
Buffalo DVM-4242iU2
Pioneer DVR-A05
Pioneer DVR-A06
Sony DRU-500A
Sony DRU-500AX
Toshiba SD-R5002

So the types I do not have are DVD-RAM and DVD Multi.

[Hardcoreruss]

SONY DRU-510A + and - R and RW. Only just got it so have not really played around yet. Seems pretty good though

[vitualis]

If any one is going to start a format war, read this first...

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3.5

It clearly explains that DVD+RW is more

compatible with many existing DVD readers

. And this is no 'spin'. Trust me, I'm sittin on the fence as far as which media is better. All I care about is if it'll play on my DVD players.

If you truly are trying not to spin then perhaps you should read the DVD FAQ properly. Your quotation is completely out of context. Here is what it actually says:

This, plus the option of no defect management, allows DVD+RW discs to be written in a way that is compatible with many existing DVD readers.

There is no comparison of being "more" compatible than anything else. The DVD FAQ simply says that DVD+RW discs can be read on many DVD readers which is not particularly surprising!

I suggest that you have a look at the CDLabs survey on media, burners and readers. DVD+RW and DVD-RW are less compatible than the once-write media by a fairly substantial margin. The "-" media/format is more compatible than the "+" media/format by a small margin, but only for older equipment.

Regards.

[Greenspock]

@vitualis

Ok... so maybe you're an -R person. If you had read the whole FAQ yourself, it was relative to the all the prior discusions of the -R(W) media (if you want to split hairs). In the interest of space I kept it short and sweet. Thus I included the link. I have no preference. In fact, I've spent the last couple of days burning movies on different media and trying them in my players to see which ones work for me. Sorry if you felt as if there was a 'spin'. I wasn't trying to say one format was better than the other but to simply supply what seems like a fairly comprehensive FAQ on the subject.