DVD-/+R Burner Opinions

HoFS wrote on 7/10/2003, 11:08 AM

Can some of you share your experiences about which DVD burner you bought and why? I am looking at 3 right now: Sony DRU510A, TDK AID+440, and the Pioneer DVRA06USPK. Can't really make up my mind. I want three things with my writer: under $350, speed, and a solid software bundle. From my reasearch I've noticed that Sony had the best speed and the worst software, TDK the best software and least speed of the three (and it's black which will match my comp), and the Pioneer is okay with speed but I haven't really read about the software bundle included. Would appreciate your input and any other suggestions as far as DVD burners would be welcome as well.

Comments

clearvu wrote on 7/10/2003, 1:30 PM

I've got an HP burner. It's fast and the software isn't bad either.

swampler wrote on 7/10/2003, 2:15 PM

I have the Pioneer A04 equivalent. It works great; however, Pioneer forces you to use media that is certified by them for faster than 1X burning. So, if you want to use cheap 2X media, you can't until Pioneer certifies it and updates its firmware for it.

dvdude wrote on 7/10/2003, 8:59 PM

I have the Sony DRU-500A. As I distribute the created DVD's, I felt that the flexibility to use either +r or -r media might provide a little security against "picky" DVD players.

When I bought it, it was only capable of 2.4x +R burns but could do -R at 4x. Sony saw fit to issue a firmware update allowing the machine to burn +R at 4x also. In this respect, I feel that the purchase of the machine was the right choice for me, given that, at the time, single format machines were selling for more.

Hope this helps.

Andy

JohnE wrote on 7/12/2003, 8:06 PM

Agree with You - dvdude - Sony DRU-500A is good tool
BTW - what release nmber firmware are You running ?

T.I.A

John

Bear wrote on 7/13/2003, 9:32 AM

I have the Sony DRU500a and love it but the software that came with it caused conflicts with vegas dvda. So I do not use the software, I use dvda and like it. For other stuff I use EZ CD/DVD Creator 6 which does not seem to confilct with anything. I saw you mentioned speed. I have found with any dvd burner if you are making copies for others that may be played on older set top players you really should only burn at 1x, this topic has been extensively discussed and the "experts" agree that the high speed burning caused quality degredation at the least and failure to work at times in some machines something about the elongation of the burn at speed, I do not have a technical background but can tell you from real world experience that I agree. I can see a difference in the quality of a dvde burned at 1x and one at 4x also if you contact any dup house they will tell you if you are sending a dvd to them to dup your shuld burn it at 1x.

HoFS wrote on 7/24/2003, 12:34 PM

Thanx for all your info guys! I've decided to go with the Sony DRU510A becasue it burns CDs faster than the rest and I tend to trust the Sony brand name. Might as well fully upgrade, you know? They also got a nice rebate ;) I'll be burning my DVDs at 1x for sure. I'm also gonna put my money in Roxio EZ CD/DVD Creator 6 since 5 was so good to me in the past.

rtbond wrote on 7/25/2003, 6:42 AM

Another distingusihing feature in DVD writers is the ability to set the DVD Book Type, independent of the DVD media being used (sometimes referred to as the "compatibility bit setting").

Where this is most often used is with DVD +R media. The writer can set the Book Type to DVD-ROM (rather than DVD+R). Why do this? The primary reason is that it increases compatibilty of older DVD video players that only recognize a Book Type = DVD-ROM. Some older DVD video players will abort their read attempt (even though the DVD video player most likely can play the disc from any optical perspective) if they encounter DVD media with an unkown Book Type value. Basically the old firmware in some of these DVD-video players don't understand DVD+R or DVD-R booktypes, but do understand DVD-ROM Book Types.

I've seen this Book Type "trick" work beautifully for my old Toshiba SD1200 DVD video player, which only plays DVD+R media when the Book Type is set to DVD-ROM.

I beleive the Book Type issues also applies to DVD-R media, although I'm not sure if any DVD -R writers support this capability.

The NEC ND1100A sold by Dell defaults to using a DVD-ROM Book Type with DVD+R media (rather than a DVD+R Book Type). I understand HP DVD writers also support this capabilty, but the SONY drives do not. I understand that it is the writer's firmware that controls what Book Type is written for recordable media, and whether the Book Type value can be controlled by the user (typically via the burning software, like Nero).

Something worth considering in making a purchasing decision if compatibilty with older DVD video players is a concern.

--Rob