Which is best DVD burner: A03/A04/A05 or other?

[Dave Fickas]

I need to buy an external DVD burner soon.
I've heard that the A03/A04 Pioneers are the reliable workhorses that most pro's are using.

Are the above available as either an external or internal unit?

As I understand it, The A03/A04 usually gets bundled with myDVD. If I start out with myDVD or Dazzle DVD Complete and then graduate to more sophisticated software like DVDit or Ulead MediaSudio Pro, which of the above burners will produce the most compatable DVD-R's?

Should I wait for the A05, which is due for release this month?

My system:
PC/PIII-1Ghz/256MB RAM/20GB 7200RPM/40GB 7200RPM/
Pinnacle DV500+
Premiere 6.0

Thanks,
Dave Fickas

[jkl]

some people have been having problems. some people haven't. seems that everyone who buys one upgrades the firmware as soon as they install it. i have a Pacific Digital 24xcdread-6xdvdread-2xdvdwrite i got from compusa. more quiet than my harddrive. never upgraded the firmware(didn't look to see if one is available.don't need it). never made a coaster out of at least 42 dvd-r's(had one but was ifoedit related)

the choice is ultimately yours. you'll get more post from some diehard pioneer fans. just try not to jump on the band wagon.

i suggest that you also search the forum for pioneer a04 and ao3 and read the post made by some other members

[LanceSteel]

Personally I like my Pioneer a04. Its a 2x writer that burns the cheaper (but still reliable) media at 1x. I've never burned a coaster with 70+ dvd's burned. At the time that I bought it it was the cheapest drive on the market. Now you can get other drives cheaper. I don't think that the a03/a04 come as external units but you can buy an IDE -> Firewire encloser to make it external. Both drives will give you the same dvd-r compatiblity.

If you are looking a dvd writer, why not get the Sony dual drive that does -r/+r?

[Thorn]

The a05 is supposed to burn at 4x for DVD-R, but will be more expensive. You can get an OEM version of the 104 (104=OEM a04) for about $250 or get it for $300 with software (last I checked). I don't know about other brands. If speed is your main concern, the a05 will be faster than +R drives. I don't think +R is a big deal, but it has a few fanatics. Also -R is better for compatibility right now, but it's hard to say about the future.

I think the a03 is more expensive than the a04 simply because DVD burners were expensive when it came out. Since it doesn't have anything that the a04 lacks, there's no reason to worry about it.

BTW disc quality is the most common compatibility issue, not burning drive. Any drive that can't burn a compatible disc is a piece of crap. Authoring software can be tricky, but again should produce compatible title sets.

[Dave Fickas]

Thanks for the input!

Dave