What DVD Burner/drive for saving home video?

[Taqbascoman]

I have a Canon Elura Mini DV recorder which I am taking home videos of.

I want to buy a DVD burner to save these videos to instead of tape so I can keep them safe as well as distribute to family.

What burner type (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, etc) do you recommend? What brand model can you suggest? I do not plan on using DVD's over again, just once. I would prefer to buy a combo drive that can burn CDR's as well so I can back up data from computer....currently so not have one.

Also, I planned on buying a basic IEEE 1394 PCI Adapter card off auction site for $20. Any recommendations here.

I have Windows Xp home.

thanks

 

[Lilvtec]

I have a Panasonic D311 DVD-R/DVD-RAM Burner and I am quite happy with it. It can burn the dirt cheap generic DVD-R's that you can get out there fro about $1.25, you can also use the DVD-RAM rewritables for data. If you have or buy a newer Panasonic Progressive Scan DVD player I've noticed some of them also play the DVD-RAM's if you want to preview before making it permanent. The DVD-R's I've been using are just dirt cheap and so far have worked on every newer DVD player I've tried (2 yrs or so). I also think the only ones that can burn CD-R's are the DVD-RW's. I know my Panasonic can't use them, only read, you can pick up one of those 24X burners in the hot deals forum for less than $20 though. My two cents, get one that can do the cheap DVD-R's and get a seperate burner. It's worked pretty well for me so far.

 

[Taqbascoman]

I think I am going to go with the Pioneer A04 which seems to be selling for $300 on Ebay.

Besides what comes with unit, do I need anything else to be able to convert from DV camera to DVD for family movie burning?

I have a software called "Cyberlink PowerDirector 2 PRO"...is this enough? http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_order.jsp?ProdId=45

What kind/brand DVD media do I need to burn DVD movies from DV camera to play on DVD players?

thanks

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Taqbascoman
I think I am going to go with the Pioneer A04 which seems to be selling for $300 on Ebay.

Besides what comes with unit, do I need anything else to be able to convert from DV camera to DVD for family movie burning?

I have a software called "Cyberlink PowerDirector 2 PRO"...is this enough? http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_order.jsp?ProdId=45

What kind/brand DVD media do I need to burn DVD movies from DV camera to play on DVD players?

thanks

I think you can buy that model from online shops for around $300, maybe less. I was almost set to buy that one, but now I'm just going to wait (probably awhile) for DVD+R. Right now, I'd recommend a DVD-R drive, the A04 is probably the best bang for the buck right now (some HP ones can be had for a similar price). DVD-RAM is only good as a 4.7GB optical backup, there's no way it will play in any DVD players out there. DVD-R at least *should* play on most DVD drives just fine. Personally, I'm waiting for DVD+R (and DVD+RW) to become the standard, which is basically designed from the ground up to be compatible with all DVD drives.

I'd recommend cheaper generic DVD media (the difference is like $1 vs $5-10 for name brand stuff right now). I'm not too familiar with the burning software; I think ahead Nero Burning ROM works with DVD drives, so I'd recommend that. You probably need a firewire (IEEE 1394a) PCI card (if you don't already have firewire) since most DV cameras use that.

 

[Taqbascoman]

Which one is better: the Pioneer A04 or the Cendyne currently on sale at Officemax?

http://www.officemax.com/max/soluti...xpansionOID=-536892754&prodBlockOID=536982525