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 :)
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
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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The best site I've found that goes through all the differences between DVD formats is in the DVD FAQ at DVD Demystified
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.