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What DVD Writer Would You Recommend?
Artemis Entreri asks: "I've decided that the next paycheck is going to buy me a DVD burner. The storage capacity is sexy, and the ability to make backups of movies and PS2 games is irresistible. I've done some research, but not enough to really reassure me. Between the three technologies (DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM), and the various companies making burners, I'm not sure what to get. Any ideas on which format is going to prevail? Anybody know which burners are the ones-to-get?"
The pioneer-A03 is very nice, not too extortionate and can burn dvd's that are readable in standalone players
I have a DVD-RAM drive, and although it's great for my needs (storing mpegs from a survelance camera) the media is locked in what are basically fat 5.25" floppy disk like jackets - read: won't go well in your PS2, etc... Drive works great and the media prices sure have come down, but I don't think this product's feature set intersects your needs.
Wheeeee
Again, i'm not one to advertise, but GameCopyWorld and their daughter sites are imo the best for information on stuff like this. They are the ones that lead me to my decision on which CDRW to buy and I have been nothing but happy with it. You can find a link to a DVD Comparison of theirs Here which gives a comparison between them and different drives and such. They will also give you links and info on DVD Backup software that you can use.
(Score:0, Interesting)
I consult for a video production company that has 2 DVD-R(W) drives. We test drove 5 different drives and settled on 2. We have a Pioneer DVR-103 (thats the "superdrive" thats in the new Apples) and a Matsushita LF-D310.
We use the drives for a couple of different things, permament archiving of Data, outputting video when it won't fit on a CD, and we have one in house production that we sell on DVD which we burn in house (1-2 copies a month).
I like the Pioneer because it burns at 2 speed, and reads and writes DVD-RW. It however is finicky about firmware versions, and doens't like to do more than 3 or 4 multiple copies.
The Matsushita accepts DVD-RAM and DVD-R (Both formats) and I really like that feature. It however only burns and 1 speed and I always have to do a test burn. I would recomend the Pioneer over the Matsushita for the average person, because DVD-RAM media is so expensive.
Shop around when looking for DVD-R media, if you buy in bulk (more than 10 units) you can often get media for $6 a piece. E-mail me if you need a link to buy the media.
Rule of Life Number 2: Remember, it can all go to hell at any minute. --Jimmy Buffet
an article in ZDNET states that Hitachi is coming out with a multi-format DVD player/recorder. Read it ata ch i_develops_versatile_dvd_drive_1.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20011105/tc/hit
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I ended up with a Pioneer drive because I bought a Macintosh G4/733 at a local store on closeout that came with it (for less than a new Quicksilver 733 w/o, but that's another story).
I like it because it works. The DVD-Rs work in all but one DVD video player I tried (an old Toshiba from 1998) and all the PCs I tried. It also does DVD-RWs (though NOT with Apple's software, and they definately don't advertise this), though those don't work in nearly as many players (they all work fine in my main Pioneer DVD video player though).
If you get a DVD-R drive, get the blank's from Apple. They're selling 5-packs for $30 (including ground shipping!) This is a total steal. The local store (same one that sold me the G4) wants $16 for each blank!
I've copied 1 commercial DVD that I own just to see if it would work, and it came out fine. I've made numerious UDF data disks which are great, and also taken footage from my Mini-DV cam, trying different MPEG2 encodings, and all of them played great (though it looks really crappy at 6mbps).
- Turbo