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HP DVD100i DVD+RW Burner Tested
An anonymous reader writes: "I'm fairly sure this is the first review of a DVD+RW drive. Looks like it fared well in testing. The only downsides to the 100i are slow DAE with audio CD's, lousy manuals, and it can't read DVD-RW (note the dash instead of the plus) discs. Still a tad expensive at 599USD though. Are you reading, Santa?" I want this as a heavy-duty *external* drive :)
that can always be taken care of with a "video clarifier"
Does anyone know if that affects quality though?
Note that dvd+rw and dvd-rw drive can both write dvd-r disks that can be played in a standard dvd player. So it's not quite vhs vs. betamax.
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there are many different formats of dvd recordable/rewritable formats: dvd-rw, dvd-r, dvd+rw, dvd-ram...
http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/video/dvd/
chris
/.
While DVD+RW may eventually become the industry standard, you're still gambling until a true standard unequivocally (sp?) emerges.
Look at what 56Kb modem prices did once the v.90 standard was published.
SO, I'm still waiting!
--Charlie
The SuperDrive is Pioneer's DVD-RW/CD-RW drive. It does it all, including burning of DVD video (up to 2 hours with iDVD 2, Apple's free software for assembling video with a DVD interface that works on any DVD player or DVD-equipped computer).
There's still lots of infighting for standards, and the SuperDrive is list priced at $899, so I wonder which is the better bargain. "Combo" drives (plays DVDs, read/writes CDs) are used a lot with Apple hardware, and should be easily available for PCs, so I wonder what makes this drive so special.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
First DVD-RAM, then DVD-RW, then DVD+RW... the industry's parade of new and different recordable DVD formats has got to be awfully confusing to consumers. Until this article, I certainly couldn't keep them straight.
The funny thing is that the faster they crank out these new formats, the faster the previous ones become obsolete. We are accumulating dead media at a faster and faster pace. Will anyone own a working DVD-RAM drive in 10 years? Woe to those businesses, individuals or organizations who chose this as their archival medium...
I have one of those (DVD recorder is on the list to get) and it works fairly well. Get the Pinnacle DVD authoring software ($40 at Best Buy) because the bundled software isn't any good.
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At $15.99 a disk, the cost they mention in this CNet article http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-6909288.html from August 19, I don't think its all that affordable. With the drive costing $600, the total costs would just be too high. Sure you can record repeatedly for each $16, but you're going to want to have more than one thing on disk at any one time, requiring additional disks. I realize that's cheaper than competing DVD rewritables so far, but still too much.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
The best site I've found that goes through all the differences between DVD formats is in the DVD FAQ at DVD Demystified
You are incorrect. It will take about 24 minutes.
2.4x = approx 3Mb/s
Mmmmmmm
This isn't true. We have a Pioneer S201 which burns only DVD-R, not DVD-RW. Perhaps you mean the other way around?
-Dave
hi,
i've had one of these for the last month and have found it to be an incredibly reliable and useful tool.
i haven't run across a bad cd/dvd write yet with it, and while the software is very vanilla, it is still quite useful.
installation was very simple, and with media prices dropping, i'm happily looking forward to finally feeling secure about having enough back-ups...
-myrth
-- ABAP Guy
It looks like Pioneer's drive is now cheaper than the new HP one, and I think the disks are cheaper, too. Plus, it is readily available, and so are the DVD-R's and DVD-RW's. It also works with Linux, at least to write CD's. I've done it.
"Luncheon meats make the sawdust in your stomach explode."
CD-RW drives cannot burn DVD-RW or DVD+RW.
DVD+RW drives cannot burn DVD-RW, and visa-versa (until someone makes a drive that does both).
DVD-R media can be had for as little as $5USD apiece. Given that is 4.7GB, that is the equivalent of about 7 CDR's. Not too bad, in terms of price/MB.
Ever try to back up a 40GB drive to CDR? That's about 60 disks - a real pain. Eight or nine DVD-R's would be much easier and quicker.
If you can't beat them, embrace and extend them.
AFAIK DVD+RW drives cannot write to DVD-R media.
There will be a supplemental media released
"early" next year... DVD+R which will fill the
cheap recordable gap in the media line for
DVD+RW drives.
For the time being the only media you will be able to
get for the HP, Phillips, and so forth drives will be DVD+RW.
Which is one of the reasons I am holding off (saving up) for
a drive in a few months.
1. It will be clearer which standard is more compatible.
2. The media selection for both should be better at that point.
I put one in one of my Linux boxes last week. So far, I have read CD-Audio (grip) and CD-ROM (iso9660), DVD-ROM (iso9660), and a Video DVD ("Chicken Run") with no problems. I have written to CD-RW media, both CD-Audio and CD-ROM, with cdrecord.
As soon as I get some time, I will test DVD-Video and DVD-ROM formats on DVD+RW media. Any idea where I should post the results?
See? I got all those acronyms mixed up, too ...
What I meant to say is that there are no DVD+Rs available (although specced), not DVD-Rs.
In any case, with the prices of DVD(+/-)RW media going down, there is not much of a point in buying DVD-R media (which are available) or DVD+R media (which are not yet available).
-Martin
SoftMaker Office for Windows|Linux|Android
The HP dvd100i also uses RPC-2 for region protecting. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware itself. You can change the drive's region five times and after that you cannot change it anymore.
Bummer.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Pioneer A03 (DVD-R) is supported using this patch for cdrecord
HP DVD+RW drive is supported using this patch .
I believe that this is the one bundled in the PowerMacs.
Since it burns DVD-R at 2x, DVD-RW at 1x, CDR at 8x, and CD-RW at 4x, and is available for what looks like a relatively cheap price right now, it looks like what I'd put on my christmas list. :-)
Especially since Nero now supports burning VideoCD (mpeg1) and MPEG2 DVDs.
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