DVD burners: Which one to get?
 

I'm looking to get one, but don't want to buy the newest sony one due to the price. Is it good to have both DVDR-/+RW and DVDR+/+RW? I'll probably burn the occassional movie but I will be mainly be using it for data storage. I want to get a cheap 4x but not sure which combination to go with. I'm hearing different things about DVDR-/+RW and DVDR+/+RW. Any suggestions?

Both are still fighting to be the standard, I'd wait it out longer if you can.

yeah i almost bought one yesterday, that 4G backup would be nice, and at 4X its somewhat bearable, but totally agree with what juanvaldes says, so i wait it out. Plus i think the speeds will start to climb very soon, a 4X CDRW is slow enough, i cant imagine switching from a 48x CDRW to a 4x DVD..

comp usa had a bunch in stock, none of em did it all and the ones that did the most seemed really expensive. like +400

Well I already have a 48x Lite-On which I use to burn cds. I want to get the dvd drive to get into dvd authoring and back up my anime that I download.

Sony has a +- model out that is about 350, if you can afford it, you dont have to worry about the standard war.

I have a Sony Dru500Ax (works with booth formats) its a great burner. I highly recommend it.

It should be noted that a 4x DVD writer is not the same thing as a 4x CD burner.

The original standard for a CD-Rom was 150KBps, so each x after that was a multiple of it (so a 4x CD-Rom/writer would be 600KBps)

A DVD is based on roughly 1.4MBps. (So a 4x DVD is actually 5.6 MBps, as compared to 600KBps)

A full 4.7GB DVD would take about 15 minutes to burn.

Take into account though I've never actually burned a DVD, thats just how the math *should* work out :)

The Pioneer A-06 will share the same write speeds as the A-05 (4X DVD-R) but will add the +R writting standards as well was the CD-RW. This drive is set to ship June 1 from Pioneer if you can wait. Retail price is still the same at 299.00

On words of the Sony DRU500AX - I have see way too many of these come back on RMA although they are more stable than the old firmware model DRU500A. I would be careful if you are going to buy this drive, we have had almost a 10% return rate :eek:

I bought a Cendyne 4x -R/-RW (Pioneer A05) for $150, and it works great. I've burned a few dvd-5 dvds and about 20 PS2 games. I was thinking about the Sony for compatbility, but who knows when a standard will be settled. By the time one standard wins out, 4x will probably be outdated and I'll be ready for a new drive.

Are there any sony users out there that regularly interchange media, or is it pretty much a novelty? I know a couple of peope that pretty much stick with one.

I went through this debate with myself a couple of months ago, here is the result. If you are using it primarily for data storage, it doesn't matter which format you use, since the drive you are writing with is the drive you will read with. If you are going to burn the occassional movie, it doesnt matter which format you use, as most dvd players support both formats at this time.

From what I can tell, the next big thing is going to be the laser color. If the blue beam becomes the standard, you can play red-beam created material on a blue machine, no problem. However, blue created disks won't work with red lasers.

Get one that you can afford, either format should work for you. If things change radically, you can either change, or just buy a ton of media for what you have.

www.vcdhelp.com <------------------this site will have all the answers