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Drives Supporting All DVD Writing Standards?

Posted by Cliff on from the one-burner-to-rule-them-all dept.

lnxslak asks: "I was asked today to research a viable DVD burning solution. I thought this would be a simple task, little did I know of the horrors waiting me just around the corner. There are 5 different DVD writing standards. DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. After coming to terms with this I figured I'd just get a drive that does them all. Is there a drive out there that does this, and (hopefully) more ? Have you guys had any experiences positive/negative with various brands? C-Net reviews are great, but I'd like some comments from people that actually know how to use a computer."

3 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Watch out for that Sony by phr2 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The new Sony unit does both the +R/RW and -R/RW formats, but I've heard (source: it's one of those "I read it on the internet, so it must be true" things) that the -R discs it writes have more compatibility problems than -R discs written by -R-only drives. I'd just pick a format (- or +) and stick to it. Besides, Sony is an arm of the evil MPAA--who knows what DRM the next firmware upgrade will have?

    Anyway, I currently don't see any significant advantage of +R/+RW over -R/-RW, given the people actually write these discs. So I think if I get a DVD burner any time soon, it will be a Pioneer DVR-105. This burns -R discs at 4x speed (maximum DVD+R speed of any current drive is 2.4x), though the 4x blanks are currently considerably more expensive than 1x and 2x blanks. I figure that won't last and DVD blanks will be like CD-R soon enough.

  2. Re: Sony DRU-500a problems? by mccalli · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Hmm...Slashdot problems as well by the looks of things...

    Anyway I've had one of these multiformat drives on order for a month now, and there's still no sign of stock. I've looked everywhere - no stock in the UK, and none I can find in the US. No-one has any delivery dates either - the retailer I've ordered from says his supplier won't even confirm a date, and they've already blown three of them.

    All this makes me wonder if the device has been withdrawn for some technical reason. I'm aware there's been a BIOS update already, but it does seem odd that no shop anywhere can get hold of these drives. Even Sony's own online shop says end of January before shipping.

    Has anyone heard anything?

    Cheers,
    Ian

  3. Re:My 2 cents by rottcodd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use dvd-ram to store some of my data-- since I generate data in chunks of less than a gig, the fact that it isn't session based is a real advantage-- I've been using ext2 formatted dvd-ram disks.

    That said, I'm a little scared of losing the supply of dvd-ram disks, and I've been thinking of trying to get an extra drive.