Quick DVD Burner Question

[Farm]

Simple Question:

I'm looking for a DVD burner to serve 3 purposes right now:
1) Data backup
2) burning copies of our home DVDs to take on trips so my daughter doesn't trash our good DVDs
3) Also serve as a CDRW drive so I can get rid of my DVD drive and CDRW and free up a drive bay

I don't necessarily need the fastest drive to accomplish this, but I don't want to make 5 coasters for every 1 DVD.

Dual Layer might be nice for the future when the media is cheaper, but it isn't imperative.

Understanding this, I've been contemplating the NEC 2510A. Are there cheaper and still reliable alternatives? I'm a little leary of buying something cheap at Staples, OM, or OD with a goofy name like "Mad Dog", "The Ripper", "DVD Bomb", or "El DVD Conquistador".

Thoughts?

 

[airfoil]

It may be a good idea to wait for the 16X drives to be released before you buy. The NEC drive is a pretty good performer and you couldn't go wrong with buying it, Dual Layer & all. NEC 2510A.

You probably wouldnt find anything cheaper than this without losing out on reliability.

IMO, Plextor makes the best DVD burners but their drives are pricey. I'd steer clear of the Liteons, which seem more like a hit & miss sort of product.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

"El DVD Conquistador"

Thoughts?

I like the sound of that for a brandname .
the NEC ..or...DW800A for a burner

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: Farm
Simple Question:

I'm looking for a DVD burner to serve 3 purposes right now:
1) Data backup
2) burning copies of our home DVDs to take on trips so my daughter doesn't trash our good DVDs
3) Also serve as a CDRW drive so I can get rid of my DVD drive and CDRW and free up a drive bay

I don't necessarily need the fastest drive to accomplish this, but I don't want to make 5 coasters for every 1 DVD.

Dual Layer might be nice for the future when the media is cheaper, but it isn't imperative.

Understanding this, I've been contemplating the NEC 2510A. Are there cheaper and still reliable alternatives? I'm a little leary of buying something cheap at Staples, OM, or OD with a goofy name like "Mad Dog", "The Ripper", "DVD Bomb", or "El DVD Conquistador".

Thoughts?

Any of the Staples, OMax drives are fine. They'll be rebadged Optorite, NEC, BTC, etc drives. I wouldn't put too much stock in dual layer and the faster speeds coming out, anything you buy now probably will be Floppy slow in a couple of years. Pickup a 8x drive cheap and check out Amazon and Newegg for fairly inexpensive media. You should be able to get 50 8x drives for under $40 shipped.

 

[Cheetah8799]

I disagree with airfoil. While it would be nice to get a 16x drive, it'll be a long time before you get 16x compatible media. It's almost impossible to get 8x media, and also dual layer media.

Some of those OM/OD/Staples deals have the NEC or LiteOn drives in them, just with a different name stickered to the drive... I know I bought mine from OM, and it was a BTC drive I think. Anyway, it's been a good drive, 8x compatible, but I only use 4x media because I'm cheap... If you don't want to deal with rebates, then those NEC drives from Newegg are a pretty darn good deal.

Also, when you backup your dvd movies, keep in mind you will have to shrink them from the 9gb to 5gb to fit the regular single-layer media. The shrinking process will take a good 20+ minutes, even on a fast machine. So the speed of the dvd burning might be the shortest wait compared to actually ripping and shrinking the original dvd.

 

[airfoil]

Originally posted by: Cheetah8799
I disagree with airfoil. While it would be nice to get a 16x drive, it'll be a long time before you get 16x compatible media. It's almost impossible to get 8x media, and also dual layer media.

Some of those OM/OD/Staples deals have the NEC or LiteOn drives in them, just with a different name stickered to the drive... I know I bought mine from OM, and it was a BTC drive I think. Anyway, it's been a good drive, 8x compatible, but I only use 4x media because I'm cheap... If you don't want to deal with rebates, then those NEC drives from Newegg are a pretty darn good deal.

Also, when you backup your dvd movies, keep in mind you will have to shrink them from the 9gb to 5gb to fit the regular single-layer media. The shrinking process will take a good 20+ minutes, even on a fast machine. So the speed of the dvd burning might be the shortest wait compared to actually ripping and shrinking the original dvd.

Yo're right, finding 16x media is going to be tough, but it doesnt hurt to get a compatible drive in advance, does it? Especially when the price on 16x drives is not much higher than those on the 8xs. I would rather spend $80 on a drive that offers 16x speeds than buy an 8x for $70 and be stuck with a slower drive next year.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: ScrapSilicon

"El DVD Conquistador"

Thoughts?

I like the sound of that for a brandname .
the NEC ..or...DW800A for a burner

Yes. It should come bundled with a Cuban cigar in the box, too, for Dual-burning action.

On a more serious note, I don't see dual-layer being useful any time soon due to the current prices of blank DL media, but a 16x drive would be a nice thing to have. I picked up a cheap $30 4x NEC drive, and while it works just fine, it is kind of slow, because the burn takes 30min, and then the verify takes another 30min, so overall you are looking at an hour to back-up 4.xGB worth of stuff. (Using 1x Princo @ 2x here. Cut those times in half for true 4x burning speeds.) OTOH, the testing results that I saw, of 16x drives burning at 12x even, didn't look so good. A lot more errors and readability errors than older 4x/2x drives. I don't like that fact. I almost wonder if they are "pushing" the market a little more than they should, because I know that most mfg's want to skip 12x and go right to 16x, from 8x. After that though, there really isn't much of a speed upgrade possible. I figure Blu-ray will make recordable DVDs obsolete by then anyways.

So unless you want to buy two drives, wait just a little and get a 16x one, but be aware that 16x burns may be of less than stellar quality. So a good compromise if you do care about quality might be to get a good, cheap, 8x drive now, and wait six months for the newer, better-quality 16x and faster-DL drives to come out later.

 

[Farm]

I think I may just go with a proven drive in the 2510A for now. If it takes me a couple extra minutes to burn at a slower speed and ensure accuracy, fine.

I just wish the El DVD Conquistador would come down in price.