What DVD burner brand/model is the best?

Fredv wrote on 2/26/2004, 6:11 PM
The computer store where I got my system from installed a NEC DVD burner. First thing I found was that is that it's not supported by Vegas Video, and doesn't perform at all (locks up the program).

They installed something called InterVideo WinProducer 3 which is suppose to compensate for this. It works on small projects, ( < 10 minutes), but tonight I tried making a DVD from 34 minutes of video shot at my daughter's orchestra concert. Each time it would render for about 1/3 the time, crash, exit, and I couldn't get the DVD out till I rebooted. I tried burning at 1x, and 2x. The computer has 160 gb or temp file space, and another 160 for projects. I'm not close to filling it.

I think it's time to come to grips and trade this NEC DVD for something else.

What brand/model works the best for making a DVD right out of Vegas 4.0? Any manufacturers to stay away from? Any think I should specify, (ie 4x, etc)?

Any help would be appreciated.

Fred

Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/26/2004, 6:52 PM
Depends on who you ask. I use the Pioneer A06, and have had not one problem thus far.

J--
JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/26/2004, 6:57 PM
I had a Pioneer A03 and now have a Pioneer 106D (the OEM A06) and I've had no problems with either. Pioneer was one of the first manufacturers to have an affordable DVD burner and so they enjoy the most software support.

~jr
DGrob wrote on 2/26/2004, 8:14 PM
I have an NEC+R/RW in my Dell Precision M60 and it works fine. DGrob
TVCmike wrote on 2/26/2004, 9:42 PM
Pioneer is a great choice for a burner. Plextor is also very good. Those are my two favored brands overall. Dual-format is nice but -R is really the essential format to burn to if you need to save some cash.
JL wrote on 2/26/2004, 10:05 PM
The NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A that came with my Dell Precision 450 works fine with DVDA. So far I have burned Verbatim, TDK and Memorex +R disks at 2.4x; no coasters. The last project (50 minutes) was encoded at a bit rate of 9Mbps and the DVDs played fine all the way through in 10 out of 10 set top players that were used in an informal test.

One thing though, the NEC 1100A does not want to burn vid to +RW media. I've only been able to use the +RW media for data; not sure why.

JL
ArmyVideo wrote on 2/27/2004, 3:48 AM
While I cannot attest to it's being the "best", I use the Sony DRU-530A and have no complaints. It works with DVDA perfectly and the resulting DVD's are excellent.

Brian
farss wrote on 2/27/2004, 4:53 AM
If I read what you're saying correctly i don't think it's a burner problem.
You say it gets 1/3 of the way through the render and then goes belly up but the render phase has nothing to do with the burner.
Try prepare separately and see if just that phase works OK, if it doesn't changing the burner probably will not help.