DVD+RW Drives

[Kerle]

Well, the last old peice of hardware on my machine finally bit the dust - my old Memorex CRW-1622 2x CD burner finally died. (I recently upgraded to an Athlon XP 1800+, but kept the same drives - all of which have, one-by-one, finally given up.)

I was looking at replacing it with another, top-of-the-line CDRW, but then I realized that I have a 60 GB hard drive - does 700MB of storage really make sense?

Looking at DVD+RW drives from 3/4 manufacturers, I've noticed that all of them are below $500 now, with several hitting closer to $400. These are looking really tempting - has anyone had any experience with them? Are there any that are reccommended, or that I should steer clear of?

I'd love to be able to burn my own DVDs...

 

[Eug]

If you want to burn your own DVDs, you may want to look into DVD-R/DVD-RW drives instead of DVD+RW. DVD-R(W) is supposedly much more compatible with standalone DVD players than DVD+RW.

 

[Kerle]

Actually, I think you have that backwards - DVD+RW is pretty much standard compliant to DVD. DVD-R requires support in the hardware. My Apex 500A will read DVD+RW as far as I know, but I don't think it reads DVD-R.

 

[Kerle]

At least according to the information here or at the DVD+RW website, it appears to be the most compatible, though unfortunately it doesn't look like ANYTHING is completely compatible. (Heck, even some commercial DVDs don't work in all players).

 

[Eug]

<< At least according to the information here or at the DVD+RW website, it appears to be the most compatible, though unfortunately it doesn't look like ANYTHING is completely compatible. (Heck, even some commercial DVDs don't work in all players). >>

Well, that's the DVD+RW public relations website. Actually, from what I've read, DVD+RW has better features, but the non-biased sites claim that DVD-R (which current DVD-RW writers can write) is more compatible than DVD+RW. See here. DVD+R might be an improvement, if the DVD+RW people are to be believed.

By the way, I wouldn't use the Apex machines as a gauge. Some of them are clearly different from other standalone players. Indeed the transport on my Apex 600A is just a modified DVD-ROM drive. Way back when I even took it apart and installed the thing on my PC. Worked fine and Win 2000 recognized immediately. Rips CDs pretty well too. Oh and my Apex is dual boot too.

 

[Kerle]

DVD-R is not part of the DVD standard - I've looked around, and as far as I can tell, if your player doesn't claim to support it, there's a good chance it doesn't. DVD+RW, at least on paper, seems to hold to just about every standard that normal DVD has to fit. The reflectivity is only as good as a dual-layer DVD, but considering just about every player on the market supports dual-layered discs, that shouldn't be a problem.

By the way, that site isn't DVD+RW's PR website - that would be this one. As far as I can tell, the website I specified is independent of them. Edit: this is backed up by this post.

I know what Apex's are - I got mine specifically because of the "hackability" of it - currently, my Apex 500 thinks it's an Apex 703, has a region selection menu, and has background and screensavers modded by me. But I also know that it's more standard as a DVD player than either my friend's Sony or my Pioneer. Or at least, it has less problems playing discs than either of those do. Haven't run into a disc yet - DVD, MP3, or SVCD, that it couldn't play.

VCDHelp.com is a great resource for a lot of things - I used them when I first started burning SVCDs - but I'd really like to know where they got those figures. All the other ones I've seen seem to contradict that.

 

[wasssup]

last i read DVD-R/W was a bit more compatible that DVD+R/W...anyway, my Aiwa NDV526 home theater system and Pioneer 525 (not to mention my PS2 ) read DVD-R's and DVD-RW's flawlessly (PS2 doesn't read DVD-RW though), so I feel I made the right decision a few weeks ago.

 

[Kerle]

Cool; that's more what I was looking for - anyone else have any experience with any of these drives? DVD- or +RW.

 

[Pariah]

Here's a DVD+RW compatability list:

HP

Apex AD 500W is on the list. For future support, DVD+RW should be your choice. The larger companies seem to rallying around it.

 

[Kerle]

Thanks. Unfortunately, the AD500A and AD500W are COMPLETELY different models (I know, I was suprised, too) - so there's still no guarantee. Then again, I only paid $69 for the sucker, so it's not a big deal.

Thanks for the list. It looks a little odd either way, really; DVD+RW costs a bit more, and oddly enough, a few of the drives that originally claimed to be compatible with DVD+R turn out not to be, so it's best to wait a month or so to see how things turn out - even through DVD+R should have a virtually complete compatability due to higher reflectivity. But DVD-RW and DVD-R are compatible with my DVD and most that weren't made in the first year of DVD player production, and should continue to be supported. And as they're not the newest thing on the block, they cost a bit less.

It's a little hard to decide right now; I think I'm going to wait for a month and see if the Phillips drive turns out to have good DVD+R support, and whether HP will offer a DVD+R firmware patch for their DVD+RW drive...

 

[amnesiac]

My friend has a DVD-R (Apple Superdrive) and he burns DVDs that work on other DVD drives and even on my PS2.

 

[Jerboy]

DVD-R's are expensive. $9 or so each.

Don't count on pirating DVD movies with DVD quality either. Its not that easy to copy so I hear..

 

[Kerle]

That's not a prime concern; I've got a DVD collection a good 60 titles strong - a friend has one about 450 strong, so I'm not lacking in movies.

But I would like to burn movies that are rare, or aren't out on DVD, to prevent myself from losing them when the video degrades. Silly stuff like Cemetary Man - there'll never be a good DVD of that. And I'm quite familiar with video encoding; it was a duty of my former job; I burn SVCDs all the time.

Mostly, though, I don't want to have to burn 12 CDs to back up a music collection - that kind of thing. Let's face it, CDs just haven't scaled well with hard drive sizes.

 

[Jerboy]

<< That's not a prime concern; I've got a DVD collection a good 60 titles strong - a friend has one about 450 strong, so I'm not lacking in movies.

But I would like to burn movies that are rare, or aren't out on DVD, to prevent myself from losing them when the video degrades. Silly stuff like Cemetary Man - there'll never be a good DVD of that. And I'm quite familiar with video encoding; it was a duty of my former job; I burn SVCDs all the time.

Mostly, though, I don't want to have to burn 12 CDs to back up a music collection - that kind of thing. Let's face it, CDs just haven't scaled well with hard drive sizes. >>




A DVD-R holds about the same amount of info as 7CD's. A quality CD-R costs 50cents a piece and its still only $3.50. A quality DVD-R costs about $15 and cheap ones about $10.

I'd wait until media price goes down a bit.

 

[Diable]

You can get blank DVD-R's for $5.95 at Computer Geeks.

 

[Jerboy]

<< You can get blank DVD-R's for $5.95 at Computer Geeks. >>



Do you really want to put almost 5GB worth of data at stake by cheaping out on no brand cheapie though? we all know how those no brand cheapie CDR can go awry

 

[Eug]

The PC world seems to be buying the DVD+RW hype, and yes it does offer some good features. However, the bottom line is that until +R's are available (or so they say) it's just not as compatible as -R's. DVD+RW's own site, and that ultra-pro DVD+RW site you linked are simply not reliable sources of information for real world decisions. The ...plus...org site is well known. It's clear but obviously very biased. VCDhelp gets their info from people actually testing their machines. Some of the info is a bit biased since it seems less people have tested with DVD+RW than DVD-R, but nonetheless most people I've conversed with online seem to agree that DVD-R is far more compatible overall.

If it's any indication, Apples (which are king in the 2D graphics world) ship with only DVD-RW for what it's worth. I suspect one reason for this is because of the compatibility issue.

I'm not saying I wouldn't consider DVD+RW. It actually may make more sense in your case because your Apex supports it. I'm just saying, don't believe the hype. That said, I'd love to have a DVD+RW machine, but what's holding me back at this point is the cost. I'd prefer higher compatibility though and that's why I've said not to rule out DVD-R.

As for my own DVD players I've got all bases covered. My Panasonic RP91 standalone DVD player supports DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, MP3, and DVD-Audio. The DVD-RAM support is interesting, since my friend has a DVD-RAM camcorder. I can take the disks directly out of his camcorder and stick them into my RP91 standalone player and it works fine. My Apex supports DVD-R, but dunno about DVD+RW. I only use my Apex for multiregion and PAL though, because for video quality in general Apex's aren't very good.

 

[amnesiac]

<< A DVD-R holds about the same amount of info as 7CD's. A quality CD-R costs 50cents a piece and its still only $3.50. A quality DVD-R costs about $15 and cheap ones about $10. >>



Jerboy, don't talk out of your arse; it's unbecoming and smelly.

DVD-R media is $3 if you buy generic, and $5 apiece if you buy direct from Apple (highest quality).

 

[freebsddude]

I am in the same situation, although I can't justify spending $400-500 for something
that will possibly be in the same price range with better features as a CDRW.

I will probably get one of these in the mean time!

Best Wishes.

 

[Apex]

Now the challenge is... where to find DVD+RW disks for the least amount of money? Is about $7-8 the best so far?