In The Market For A Dvd Burner


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Well I have finally decided that I am going to replace my non working cd-rom drive with a new dvd burner. But where to begin?!? I have never installed a drive before, and I have only installed memory sticks, and a video card. But I am willing to learn by installing one of these suckers. I have pretty much decided what drive I would like to purchase, but I am still reading reviews and havent placed any order yet. THIS or perhaps THIS drive. I would like some feedback on what you guys think of these drives. I dont really care for drive speed, but I am looking for duribility and one that burns well. I am going to use this drive mainly to back up dvds, and perhaps burn some video clips to dvd discs.

Now I have seen drives that burn +R,-R media and +RW, -RW media? Whats the difference? In some reviews I've read about coasters? What exactly are coasters? Hahahaahahaa well I'm going to shut up now :D, If I have any more questions(which I probably will) I'll keep posting them here.

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Personally, out of the two, I would go with the liteon drive. I've heard negative comments about Plextor drives.

Like, you, I plan on purchasing a DVD burner soon as well. I am personally waiting until the day after thanksgiving (Black Friday) to see if perhaps some store might have one of those for a very good price. If not, there are a few drives I'm already looking into.

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Cool, I will probably end up buying the lite on drive. But now I have stumbled upon another drive. This Rosewill drive, but I cant figure out if it does in deed burn dual layered discs. And seeing this drive is a couple dollars more than the lite on drive, I might as well go with this one right? But does it burn dual layer?

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Have you tried ebay for price reduction on that dvd drive? I mean dvd burner.

Look it up and see if you can save a buck or two!

Ebay it here!

Price is not the issue, although I have narrowed it to 2 drives I just need to know whether the rosewill drive burns dual layered discs. And any thoughts of this drive would be great.

hahahaa and just to add, on ebay the price is a couple dollars higher on the rosewill drive.

EDIT#2:

I guess the rosewill does burn to dual layered discs? See HERE?

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I've been trying to find a review for that Rosewill drive and I can't seem to find one. That doesn't mean that it isn't a good drive, but it does seem like more of a gamble. I did find a review of dual-layer DVD burners at anandtech.com that should help a little. Sometimes anandtech's reviews get a little overly technical, but if you skip to the summary sections at the end they are quite helpful.

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I've been trying to find a review for that Rosewill drive and I can't seem to find one. That doesn't mean that it isn't a good drive, but it does seem like more of a gamble.

I agree. I couldn't really find much information on those drives, and I've never heard of them before.

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Thanks for the feedback guys. I have pretty much decided to purchase the lite on drive. I have perhaps one final question that needs answering. I know its a simple question, but I dont understand it. I have poked around google and other sites but I dont quite understand the different media type discs.

What exactly is the difference between -(minus) and +(plus) media? Which one is best? Which do you guys recommend?

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DVD-

developed by Pioneer

used primarily by Apple and Pioneer

can only be written to in one layer on the discs surface

cheaper than the “plus†format

DVD+

supported by Philips, Dell, Sony, HP, and Microsoft

can be written to in multiple layers

slightly better and more disc storage than the “minus“ format

slightly more expensive

R disk can be written to only once.

RW disk can be written to, erased, written to, multiple times.

So if I want to keep adding data to a dvd disc (without removing any data)

You can do this with either, as long as you don't close the burning "session".

Most newer readers, will read both formats. It's really just a matter of, which you prefer better.

Since the Lite-On writes to both of the formats, it's really up to you which format to use.

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Wish I had a pc that could handle a dvdrw? Got a laptop and a old pc of junk.

Hahahahaa that sure stinks dont it?

Well I have another question here so bare with me. First let me give some background infomation. I recently did a reformat and I deleted all partitions including my compaqs recovery system thingy. Well in the process of copying the files from the xp cd, my drive quit on me. (hence the buying of a new dvd drive). So when I finally got xp up and running I quickly noticed problems with it. Long story short I want to do another reformat.

Well since my current drive doesnt work, I was wondering if I can install my new dvd drive (when I purchase it), and then do a reformat? Do you guys recommend I do this?

And also does the lite on drive come with a new IDE cable? Or is that just the jumper cable in the picture?

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that cable in the pic is for the sound, it goes from dvd to sound card. The ide cable is flat with 40 strands (newer ones are round ) but thicker than one shown. New ide cable should only cost couple of bucks

JD

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