New to burning DVD's: Am I potentially stupid if I use one writer over the other?

[Soul Reputation]

(There's a ton of forums here I really didn't know where to put this. I apologize if this post is miscategorized.)

If you don't mind, in this thread I'd like to take a little of the sting out of the word "stupid" if I can. I'm smart in some categories of life, and stupid in other areas, aren't we all? To the point: even though my name is Jane, in this thread please go right ahead and call me stupid. Call me stupid in order to make your point, have a little fun, and because it's a question a n00b would ask. My question is coming right up, I promise, but first a very brief summary of my situation:

I have two DVD burners. One writer is built into my Dell XPS 400 desk top. The write speed is 16X. The other writer is one that I purchased at Fry's Electronics. It's made by Memorex. It also has a write speed of 16X. I posted the link to it down below. Unfortunately, this particular Memorex does not have any user reviews at Amazon, Newegg or anywhere else for that matter, so I can't tell if it's a Rolls Royce or if it's a junk yard special. My question: would I be stupid to use Dell's desktop writer as opposed to the Memorex writer? Or would there be no difference in the quality of the burn? To help smart people out there answer that question I'll provide the following details:

>last night I got schooled on DVD's. It appears that I'd be stupid to use a DVD other than the ones sold by TAIYO YUDEN and Verbatim, that's for sure. And maybe Sony, too. So I'll stick with those, for now

>this subject came to a head when I decided to get serious about finding the best way to back up my data. That's the main reason why I 'm learning the basics about burning. I have much to learn and thus I'm still a little stupid on the subject of burning, writers, DVD's, and all that goes with it

>i'm into photography big time. I'm not a pro, but I am a street photographer who lives to shoot, so I'll be backing up a lot of images to DVD's on a weekly basis

>i've never burned a movie or a software program to a DVD, because I've never done the P2P (peer to peer sharing) thing. but please keep in mind that that is something that's just right around the corner from me, maybe only a week or two away. In short time I'll be immersing myself into the world of Bittorrent (I have a few good Bittorrent tutorials bookmarked) so I expect to be an occasional P2P'er pretty soon

my one writer: http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-dr...5-3212_7-32339744.html



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[Blain]

Before you sail into BitTorrent waters, ghost an image of your HD, and keep it in a safe place. :laugh:

BTW, With good quality media like you've listed, you should be fine.
If I only had the burner options that you do, I'd probably go with the Dell burner

 

[corkyg]

I have a similar situation. In three machines, I have 5 burners - two internal and three external. In general, I prefer to burn on the externals. This is a carry over from experience a decade ago using SCSI externals.

I don't really think you can go wrong either way. Try it both ways and then let us know which is best.

 

[0roo0roo]

doesn't matter which you run
make double copies of anything you really want saved.

 

[bruceb]

Most burners are pretty reliable now a days. Personally I prefer Sony DVD Burners
and media .. LiteOn also makes good dvd burners as does Pioneer.

Have a look at this forum: http://club.cdfreaks.com/

They have lots of good information on cd and dvd hardware, media and burning programs.

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: bruceb
Most burners are pretty reliable now a days.

I would rephrase that to say burners equally suck now a days. They've been pretty unreliable in my experience, regardless of brand, so I always buy the cheapest that has the features I need.

 

[BladeVenom]

Dell obviously doesn't make burners, and I don't think Memorex does either. Both are just rebadged burners. So name brand there means little.

Make a few discs with both and do a quality test with Nero's testing tools.

Make more than one backup if something is important. I also like having a hard drive backup since it's quick and convenient. If it's really important use off site storage.

 

[Soul Reputation]

Check this out: someone in another forum said that they've burned somewhere around 500 DVD's without generating one coaster. A 500 to 0 success ratio. Isn't that incredible? I'm waiting for them to post what brand DVD they use.

 

[Cutthroat]

Originally posted by: Soul Reputation
Check this out: someone in another forum said that they've burned somewhere around 500 DVD's without generating one coaster. A 500 to 0 success ratio. Isn't that incredible? I'm waiting for them to post what brand DVD they use.

I call shens, no way. I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden disks and could not get anywhere close to that. I'll bet I haven't even had a 50 streak with no coasters.

 

[nerp]

Both should do the job OK but if you want true backup, buy a 500GB hard drive for backup AND burn it all to DVD. Hard disk prices are pretty good right now.

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

Originally posted by: Soul Reputation
Check this out: someone in another forum said that they've burned somewhere around 500 DVD's without generating one coaster. A 500 to 0 success ratio. Isn't that incredible? I'm waiting for them to post what brand DVD they use.

I call shens, no way. I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden disks and could not get anywhere close to that. I'll bet I haven't even had a 50 streak with no coasters.

I've been using Verbatim and Memorex discs for the last year now. I've burned over 100, probably near 150 DVDs and not had a single coaster that wasn't my fault. On my old laptop, I would end up having too much shit open at once and the software would screw up a burn.

 

[Soundmanred]

I can't recall the last time I burned a coaster. I use a Lite-On USB external with Memorex (RICOHJPN-R03-04) or Sony discs (DVD+Rs). I use Roxio EMC10 and DVDFab Platinum 4, and all are tested after burning. I usually get around 10x average speeds, so each takes about 6-7 minutes or so. I have an internal too, but I just use that for Lightscribe.
I burn around 300-350 discs/month.
I used to use a Samsung, but it died (all read, no write), so I go with Lite-On drives these days.
I bought a spindle of Maxell DVD's (forgot the media code) about a year and a half ago and over half of them I tried were bad. I quit after about 30 discs and took them back for Memorex and was up and running again.


Edit: I was going to post my DVDFab logs, but realized I just formatted last week, so that wouldn't do much good.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

Originally posted by: Soul Reputation
Check this out: someone in another forum said that they've burned somewhere around 500 DVD's without generating one coaster. A 500 to 0 success ratio. Isn't that incredible? I'm waiting for them to post what brand DVD they use.

I call shens, no way. I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden disks and could not get anywhere close to that. I'll bet I haven't even had a 50 streak with no coasters.

Are you using an NEC burner?

 

[bruceb]

Soundmanred,

You do know that DVDFab is now at V5.0.3.0
and if you bought your V4 license key prior to
May 2008 you can get the V5 key by requesting
it from the the DVDFAB web site. All users who
had bought before that date are still entitled to
Lifetime Free Updates / Upgrades and that includes
to newer versions. Anyone who bought after May 2008
will not be able to upgrade to say V6 without cost later on.
It is a very good program and was well worth the inexpensive
initial cost for the license key.

 

[phonefreak]

Well I have burnt a lot of dvds, and my personal opinion is that you can use any burner that is works for you. Just use some good media, it doesnt have to be the best it just has to be better than they cheap stuff.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I'm starting to backup my DVDs to the file server as well. Normal DVDs I just get the main movie from and convert to MP4. However, for the episode DVDs (tv shows & series, etc), I'm not quite sure what to do. I have DVDFab so far--not sure what other software I need to buy. I wish there was a single file format I could convert the entire DVD with menus to and have it work.

 

[themisfit610]

I haven't burned a coaster in years.

Of course, that means I burn the disc, use it for whatever reason intended, and then toss it (usually) within a day or two - unless it's in my car.

~MiSfit

 

[themisfit610]

Oh, and while we're at it:

>i'm into photography big time. I'm not a pro, but I am a street photographer who lives to shoot, so I'll be backing up a lot of images to DVD's on a weekly basis

That's an absolutely dreadful idea!!! DVDs are an awful backup medium. Get a separate hard drive for your PC, and a NAS too. Archive to both. Always. Don't risk your pictures!

~MiSfit

 

[heyheybooboo]

LOL @ Jane ... errr ..wait ....
Ignorance can be educated - Stupid lasts forever!

Lookee Here for Nero DiscSpeed to check your drives.

+1 for hard drive storage. Short term on DVD for easy access works for me but I always keep a hard drive backup. (And since hard drives have gotten so inexpensive I'm in the process of second hard drive backup to keep off-site)

Run defrag on your data disk before you back up your images.

For negatives I use a backlight with a SCSI scanner set to max dpi. I oversize to the extreme
(in the 300mp range) for my favs.

Verbatim media has been good to me.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

Originally posted by: Soul Reputation
Check this out: someone in another forum said that they've burned somewhere around 500 DVD's without generating one coaster. A 500 to 0 success ratio. Isn't that incredible? I'm waiting for them to post what brand DVD they use.

I call shens, no way. I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden disks and could not get anywhere close to that. I'll bet I haven't even had a 50 streak with no coasters.

Something is wrong then.

I use Taiyo Yuden & i cannot remember the last time i made a coaster, if ever?

I'd say you should either start burning at a lower speed (i never recommend 16x), or get a new burner.

 

[Cutthroat]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: Cutthroat

Originally posted by: Soul Reputation
Check this out: someone in another forum said that they've burned somewhere around 500 DVD's without generating one coaster. A 500 to 0 success ratio. Isn't that incredible? I'm waiting for them to post what brand DVD they use.

I call shens, no way. I use Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden disks and could not get anywhere close to that. I'll bet I haven't even had a 50 streak with no coasters.

Something is wrong then.

I use Taiyo Yuden & i cannot remember the last time i made a coaster, if ever?

I'd say you should either start burning at a lower speed (i never recommend 16x), or get a new burner.

I am using an LG burner right now, I'm not even sure if I've ever burned a disk with it, I haven't had it that long. But I don't burn too many disks, HDD space is cheap and easier.

The disks I have around right now are really old, can the degrade over time before they have been burned? I also have a tendency to multitask too much if I am burning disks, I may be making the software screw up from time to time.

Sometimes I just screw it up from my own stupidity, therefore even if I had 50 perfect disk and a perfect burner I still couldn't get them all done without a coaster.

Finally, I do use them as coasters, so it's no big deal. I can always use new ones.

 

[HGC]

No answer to your question but kudos for writing with style and picking a cool name!