DVD Burner Recommendations

[gf4200isdabest]

Hey everyone. I was looking for some recommendations on what kind of DVD burner to get. I have an extensive movie collection (.mpg and .avi files) that is really clogging up my hard drives. I spent some time debating whether to get an additional hard drive or whether to get a DVD burner. Since my TV at home can't play VCD's, I decided to go for the DVD burner.

A couple questions:
1) How long does it take to burn a DVD at the various speeds? I looked around and though I found 8x dvd+r burners; i couldn't find any 8x media!

2) Is there any practical difference to the home user between the various formats? I don't think re-writing is a big issue for me; i just make the disks and leave them...if I need to burn more, i buy another disk. Besides burning my movie collection on to DVD's I'd probably also want to store some rather large .zip files so that they don't clutter my hard drive.

What's your recommendation for what I should buy. The three obvious main considerations are:
A) price (i'm a poor college student, after all)
B) speed (I remember the days of 2x CD burners; not very fondly though...)
C) disc quality (I don't want to put in my DVD a year later and find out that the data is not accessible; Are there certain writers that burn more layers than others and hence are more resistant to scratching?)

I haven't been paying much attention to DVD burners and now find myself caught behind. I've been trying to read through online FAQ's but it's a little overwhelming. Thanks in advance for your recommendations

 

[bluntman]

How long does it take to burn a DVD at the various speeds? I looked around and though I found 8x dvd+r burners; i couldn't find any 8x media!

Since you're on a budget, stay away from the newer 8x drives, 4x is fine. Compatible 4x media on a 4x burner would burn an entire disc in about 15 minutes (1x would take about an hour and 2x around 30 minutes). Notice I wrote the word "compatible", that's because some media, eventhough they are rated at 4x by the manufacturer, won't burn at that full speed on some burners, most drop down to 2x. Princo media is a good example. I have Princo CDRs that are rated at 48x but they only burn at 24x on my Yamaha F1. I also bought some of their printable 4x DVD-Rs and they only burn at 2x on my LG-GSA 4040B. Some drives are pickier than others, but it's usually just a matter of the right firmware to come along to fix their incompatibility.

Is there any practical difference to the home user between the various formats? I don't think re-writing is a big issue for me; i just make the disks and leave them...if I need to burn more, i buy another disk. Besides burning my movie collection on to DVD's I'd probably also want to store some rather large .zip files so that they don't clutter my hard drive.

The difference between "-" and "+" media is really the way that the discs are burned. Of course you should also look into which format of media your standalone DVD player supports. If you are looking to off-load some of the files from your computer you may want to look into DVD-RAM drives. DVD-RAM media can be used just like a hard drive.

You may want to look into the DVD burner that I have, the LG-GSA 4040B. It's cheap, cheaper than the more popular Sony, Pioneer and Plextor models. It's fast, it's a 4x burner as well as a 24x CDR burner, it's multi-format - it does "-", "+" and "DVD-RAM" - so compatibility is not an issue. As far as media and data longevity goes, stay away from Princo, although they are cheap I've read many horror stories about them. Stick with a name brand like Ritek.

Check out DVD-R Help for more information on DVD burners and media.

 

[Eug]

Check my sig. The DVD FAQ was updated today.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

Well, my DVD player supports both + and - formats but I might want to bring a DVD I burned to a friend's place so I guess the - format sounds attractive because of compatibility.

DVD-RAM doesn't sound very appealing since I won't be able to use them on standalone players

The DVD FAQ was helpful but doesn't really go into what's out on the market. Right now I'm looking at either the Pioneer A06 or the LG-GSA 4040B. What other models are worth consideration?

One random question too; if you have a movie file, how do you determine if it will fit on a DVD? AVI files are compressed video so i assume that when you convert to the DVD video format you would have a much larger file. For example, the AVI backups I made of the LOTR extended edition DVD were about 2.15GB's per DVD. However, the commercial DVD is probably dual layer. Would I be able to re-burn those on to two DVD's or would I need to start breaking them up?

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
Well, my DVD player supports both + and - formats but I might want to bring a DVD I burned to a friend's place so I guess the - format sounds attractive because of compatibility.

Flip a coin...seriously...nobody can say right now which format will win. Doesn't matter anyway, in a couple years there will be a totally new format and -/+ will be irrelavent.

One random question too; if you have a movie file, how do you determine if it will fit on a DVD? AVI files are compressed video so i assume that when you convert to the DVD video format you would have a much larger file. For example, the AVI backups I made of the LOTR extended edition DVD were about 2.15GB's per DVD. However, the commercial DVD is probably dual layer. Would I be able to re-burn those on to two DVD's or would I need to start breaking them up?

A DVD holds ~4.3gigs, so you do the math. When you recode to MPEG2 (DVD), you will need to set the bitrate so that it fits on one disk. Keep in mind you will also need a program to author the disk. (Nero is an all in one solution, I believe.

At 4x, a full DVD takes about 15 minutes to burn.

 

[maluckey]

If you haven't already checked here, you should

excellent CD/DVD site!

 

[maluckey]

Please delete double post