DVD burner

CM · Post by CM » Wed Mar 31, 2004 1:53 pm

What brands should i be looking at as well as what software? Any clue guys? No this doesnt have anything to do with illegal stuff.

smass · Post by **smass** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 4:51 pm

Plextor, plextor, and plextor.

Seriously - I have always had good results with Plextor burners - they are not the cheapest - but they are the highest quality.

Check out http://www.tomshardware.com for some good independent reviews.

I have seen the Plextor 8x drive on sale for $179 with a $30 rebate making it $149 after rebate. You can't go wrong.

CM · Post by CM » Wed Mar 31, 2004 5:33 pm

Thanks smass. There is a shop here called TopD they sell everything wholesale. They have really good prices.

They have a Plextor PX708A for 250 sfr. Good deal? Its internal just the way i like it.

I got the specs:

PX-708A (internal version)
E-IDE (ATAPI) Interface
8x DVD+R, 4x DVD+RW, 12x DVD-ROM
4x DVD-R, 2x DVD-RW, 12x DVD-ROM
40x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, 40x CD Read

The website is:

http://www.plextor.be/English/products/ ... rders.html

So should i get it?

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:11 pm

If looking for a DVD-burner at this time, I would actually suggest to wait a bit. The Dual-Layer burners are hitting the shelves and starting to fall in price. Might be worth it to wait for them to become affordable, instead of buying a Single-Layer Burner now.

Of brands - well A-open usually also makes some quality burning hardware, so Plextor and A-open are generally the brands I look for.

CM · Post by CM » Thu Apr 01, 2004 4:51 am

Ok what is dual layer and single layer? Plus how big are the DVDs? 1 gig?

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:03 am

Single-Layer means that the information on the DVD is bruned in 1 layer. I can't remember precisely the size of the discs, but I belive they can hold around 3.5 GB.

Dual-Layer means the DVD is written in 2 layers, and thus can hold twice as much informatin as a single layered DVD - 7ish GB.

Most movies for instance, are are printed on single sided dual-layered DVD (single sides, just means you don't have to flip it over like a record) to make room for all the special features etc.

CM · Post by CM » Thu Apr 01, 2004 7:03 am

Ok cool. Thanks. I have seen dvds that are like 4.7 gigs, i just talked to a friend. That means a dual layer would be 10.4 gigs on 1 dvd?

So a dual layer dvd burner would allow me to burn 10 gigs roughly or 7 gigs on 1 side of a DVD?

smass · Post by **smass** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 7:03 pm

Here are two links to some info about dual layer drives. The first link is for general information on the dual layer format. The second is information about Sony's upcoming new dual layer model.

http://www.dvdrw.com/press/duallayer.htm

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5092.cfm

It seems these drives will be out in the next few months - they will burn to dual layer discs as well as standard one layer discs. The dual layer technology will raise single DVD disc capacity to 8.4 gigabytes and allow for full DVD movies to be copied. The only issue seems to be that of compatibility for existing DVD players.

I might wait a bit and not buy the first generation of this technology. I would advise you to either buy the current technology now - or wait until second generation dual layer drives come out.