The Ulltimate DVD Burner?

prostoalex writes "The DRU500A by Sony burns DVD-R/-RW, DVD+RW/+R, and even CD-R/CD-RW discs. The price sticker is relatively high, but for those worried about the compatibility issues of DVD burners this one looks like a solution." FYI: I recently ran a poll on this very topic.

Comments

"The price sticker is relatively high"

[briglass]

Yet it is one hundred dollars cheaper than the very first 4-speed CDR burner I bought.

Compatibility

[Junior J. Junior III]

Compatibility isn't just about what I can read on my device(s), it's about what other people can read on their devices.

Sure, maybe I can write a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, etc. etc. etc. but if I don't know what my contacts can read, it won't help me any unless I want to send them redundant copies in every format I can think of.

It'd be nice if they could just come up with one standard and make it universal, or at least compatible with other standards.

Wrong compatability issue

[TFloore]

I don't care about being able to record in every writable dvd format available.

I care about being able to burn one disc, and have it usable in every dvd reader I come across.

This is not a good thing. This is simply a less-bad thing while we wait for these bozos to decide on a single recordable dvd format. Unfortunately, I don't really believe that will happen, so this may be the least-bad option available.

Adding to the bad side, as has already been commented, it's a Sony. What kind of restrictions does it come with, anyway? Simply by putting the Sony nameplate on there, you know it isn't your hardware. It belongs to Sony, they are just letting you use it in a few restrictive ways for a little while.

Re:Not that expensive...at first...

[swb]

You're right, doing anything that looks halfway professional with computer-based video isn't cheap or easy.

But do most people care? Considering that they can barely edit at all with a tape-based medium and that most home movies I've seen have a good 4-5 minutes of an extreme close-up of some guy's crotch and "IS THIS FUCKING THING ON?!?!?!?!?!" coming over the speakers, I'd bet that just being able to snip shit out and stick it straight on DVD without the animated, made-in-hollywood DVD menuing is good enough for most people.

Region coding?

[yerricde]

Besides that, I would presume (since Sony is one of the core members of DVD Forum) that this will automagically region code any video-format DVDs' you create, unless such coding is already required in the writable DVD specifications.

Each DVD Video title contains a set of flag bits that determine whether to block playing the title on a particular region. If your encoder software requires you to specify a region set, tell it to encode for the following set of regions: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}.

unless such coding is already required in the writable DVD specifications.

DVD Video is an application of DVD. I don't think the writable DVD specifications say anything about the applications, except that the Key Area (used to hold digital restrictions management keys) shall be burned with 0 bytes during manufacture.

It sucks that for DVD's there won't be a company that can readily capitalize on the market and the product like MP3.com did with music

That's because the price of producing a feature film still hasn't fallen to consumer level. (Music arrived when 16-channel trackers and wave editors came out.) Very few Flash movies you can find on the Internet are feature-length.