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HP DVD100i DVD+RW Burner Tested

Posted by timothy on from the hardware-lust-spirals-upward dept.

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 :)

12 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Santa is listening... by Xenopax · · Score: 5, Funny

    An anonymous reader writes: "... Are you reading, Santa?"

    Yes, but who do I deliver to?

    -Santa

  2. $600? we'll all own one in three years by Frothy+Walrus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    this is great. $600 now means they'll be $150 three years down the line, and they'll be as ubiquitous as CD-RWs are now.

    boy there's gonna be some piracy problems :D

  3. PC Magazine Review by wiredog · · Score: 5, Informative
    Right here. They compare it with the Sony dvd+rw.

    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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  4. Re:Comparison to Apple SuperDrive? by yipyow · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

  5. Apple got there first by Andy_R · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe the poster of this article should look for reviews of Apple's G4 desktop macine, it's been shipping with a Panasonic DVR-103 DVD-RW drive as standard for quite a while now.

    --
    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
  6. Re:Comparison to Apple SuperDrive? by martin-k · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Well, there is:

    * DVD-R & DVD-RW (Pioneer/Apple)

    * DVD+RW (HP, Ricoh et al.)

    * DVD-RAM (Panasonic)

    Ignoring DVD-RAM (it needs cartridges and is not really DVD at all), and DVD-R (there are no DVD-Rs available AFAIK, but all DVD-R recorders can also burn DVD-RWs), it boils down to deciding whether to go with DVD-RW or DVD+RW.

    If I had to decide NOW, I'd choose DVD+RW for the simple fact that it can burn at 2x while DVD-RW will always be written at 1x.

    Better of course to wait for a couple of months for prices to come down and speed to go up ...

    -Martin

    --
    SoftMaker Office for Windows|Linux|Android
  7. Recordable DVD format chaos = more dead media by Artifice_Eternity · · Score: 5, Informative

    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...

  8. Re:Heavy Duty External? by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are plenty of advantages to an external. First: an external must by SCSI, 1394, or USB, so it won't use up one of your limited motherboard IDE ports. Second: you can swap an external between many systems -- beats having to transfer gigabytes of data over a network. Third: you can turn an external off when you aren't using it. My external CD-RW has probably been on for less than 2 days in the three years I've owned it. This will extend its life. It also saves energy. Fourth: with all external drives, you can have a pizza-box computer. If you want hard disks, cd, cd-rw, dvd, and dvd-+rw in the same case, it has to be an enormous tower.

  9. VHS to DVD by wiredog · · Score: 4, Informative
    Now you can move your vhs tapes to dvd for less than $1,000. The Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge is $300 (it comes with a ieee 1394 card (Lucent chipset)) and converts analog inputs (from the composite video jack on the tape deck) to digital video, which goes over the 1394 link. The VCR looks like a digital camcorder to the card. Be advised that DV takes up about 15Gb/hr.

    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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  10. DVD Demystified by Agave · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  11. how about 40 GB per disk for $100? by turbine216 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...It's called a hard drive. They're REALLY cheap these days, and they have INCREDIBLY FAST seek times. Oh, and they can be written to and read from without any additional software. Oh, and they're compatible with ANY operating system.

    Seriously, though...these things are still WAY too expensive to justify buying one, unless you're one of those guys making a six-figure salary who buys everything, no matter the cost. Then again, i guess they have to go through this phase before they're going to bring the price down anyway, so whatever. But for now, I'll take a bunch of hard drives over a DVD-RW or DVD+RW any day.

  12. That is not correct by cqnn · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.