What's a good DVD+RW drive to get??

[NFS4]

I'm looking to replace my CD-Burner and my DVD drive with a DVD burner...I mainly want it for data storage. I'd also like to know how fast a typical DVD burner can burn a full 4.7GB DVD disc.

Any suggestions?

 

[ElFenix]

sony and HP brand a 2.4x... i think that makes it like an hour or something. but thats a -RW. cendyne brands a +RW 2x.

 

[John]

What's a good DVD+RW drive to get??

The Pioneer A04 seems to work very well.

 

[Pariah]

Around 25 minutes for a full burn. The only +RW/+R speed currently available is 2.4X, so all media is certified for that speed.

 

[Workin']

OK --

Sony and HP are both +RW (and 2.4x speed)

Pioneer is -RW (and 2x speed)

I have a HP DVD200i (+RW) and it works fine. It takes about 40 minutes to write 4.7GB and is perfect for data backup.

 

[Shagga]

Apparently a lot of DVD drives have problems reading DVD-R media when created with a DVD-RW Drive. The Sony DRU-120A solves this by all accounts. Why DVD+RW out of interest. Not clued up with the differences...

 

[Pariah]

"I have a HP DVD200i (+RW) and it works fine. It takes about 40 minutes to write 4.7GB and is perfect for data backup."

I have one too along with a 100i, and it takes under 30minutes including setting the disc up and closing? The write itself should only take about 24 minutes what is your drive doing the other 16 minutes? Also, you can only fit 4.38GB on a disc, not 4.7GB.

 

[HendrixFan]

The Sony DVD-R/DVD+R drive is supposed to be out relatively soon. I think it will be the perfect choice, barring some huge price markup. Ive been anxiously wanting to get a DVD burner, but I wanted a format to win out and the price to get reasonable. The price is now reasonable, but there isnt a clear cut winner for the two formats.

 

[Workin']

Originally posted by: Pariah
"I have a HP DVD200i (+RW) and it works fine. It takes about 40 minutes to write 4.7GB and is perfect for data backup."

I have one too along with a 100i, and it takes under 30minutes including setting the disc up and closing? The write itself should only take about 24 minutes what is your drive doing the other 16 minutes? Also, you can only fit 4.38GB on a disc, not 4.7GB.

I don't know what it's doing, but it takes longer than 30 minutes! The manual that came with the drive said writing a full disc takes "less than 40 minutes". I didn't time it using a stopwatch, I have better things to do. And I know it's 4.38GB, but the media says 4.7GB. Guess it's the difference between "real" gigabytes and "one billion bytes"? I'm sure you know, since you know everything

 

[Sid59]

i'd wait a little longer for one. They are bound to come down in price and maybe 1 standard will prevail ( i doubt it). I also wouldn't throw away that burner. Most DVD burners are slow (10x) when it comes to burning audio cds. Not exactly slow, but if your current burner is that fast, you'd mind as well use it.

 

[BlakkIce]

im waiting on the Sony combo drive that seems to be the answer to all the probelms

 

[zippy]

Not to butt in, but what is the difference between +RW and -RW? Thanks.

 

[HendrixFan]

DVD+R and DVD-R are two competing formats, much like Beta and VHS. They are incompatible with each other, meaning if you have a DVD-R drive you cant use DVD+R discs and vice versa.

There are some structural differences between the two, but from what Ive read they are both about equally compatible with existing standalone DVD units and DVD-ROM drives. The uncertainty then is whether or not you buy the "wrong" format. If you get DVD-R, and DVD+R wins out, you will need a new drive to continue buying media for example.

 

[Shagga]

Apparently, according to a few sources DVD+R has better compatibility when it comes to playing DVD+R/DVD+RW on stand alone DVD players.

I believe there is not a lot to choose between the DVD-R and DVD+R drives in which is better to go for at this stage. Anands FAQ says basically that th DVD+R drives are better in terms of technology/features. It's up to the individual from what I can gather. If it is solely for storing Data, playing DVD on your computer then the DVD-R is sufficient. You just get a little more compatibility when playing DVD+R media in DVD players generally. However, I don't have personal experience of this. That is until my Sony DRU-120A arrives in a couple of days. I will let you know how it goes and if any of the above is actually true and affects the generall day to day stuff.

 

[WyteWatt]

Will there be any DVD burners coming out anytime soon that can burn a whole 4.7 DVD in like 2 to 10 mins or less? I am guessing not anytime soon.

 

[Eug]

I'm looking to replace my CD-Burner and my DVD drive with a DVD burner...I mainly want it for data storage. I'd also like to know how fast a typical DVD burner can burn a full 4.7GB DVD disc.

You should consider a DVD-RAM/DVD-R drive then, although it depends on your usage. I went this route, simply because I wanted reliable drag and drop data support. DVD-RAM has read/write capability in Windows XP, and all writes are verified. (In fact, you can't turn off write verification. The speeds quoted for DVD-RAM include this write verification (at 1x). Unfortunately, currently shipping drives would take about 1 hr to write 4.3 GB.) The way Windows XP deals with DVD-RAM is simply to look at it as a hard drive, with FAT32 support. I know you don't like Macs, but for the record Macs look at DVD-RAM the same way, and support read/write with both FAT32 and with HFS+. The benefit of the current Panasonic LF-D311 DVD-RAM drive is that it supports DVD-R as well, but again only at 1X. The new Panasonic LF-D521 will support 2X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RAM, and 1X DVD-RW, but it's gonna be $$$.

1X (eg. Panasonic LF-D321/311): <60 mins (but the 1X DVD-R media is the cheapest by far)
2X (eg. Pioneer A04/104): <30 mins (most common and cheapest drive in existence)
2.4X (eg. Philips 200i): 25 mins (fastest RW times)

I have a HP dvd200i (+RW) and it works fine. It takes about 40 minutes to write 4.7GB and is perfect for data backup.

Weird. See above.

Anands FAQ says basically that th DVD+R drives are better in terms of technology/features.

Hmmm... Well, I guess it reads that way, which probably means I should update the FAQ. However, in practice it all depends on what you're doing, and on paper specs don't always translate to the real world.

DVD+R and DVD-R are two competing formats, much like Beta and VHS. They are incompatible with each other, meaning if you have a DVD-R drive you cant use DVD+R discs and vice versa.

There are some structural differences between the two, but from what Ive read they are both about equally compatible with existing standalone DVD units and DVD-ROM drives. The uncertainty then is whether or not you buy the "wrong" format. If you get DVD-R, and DVD+R wins out, you will need a new drive to continue buying media for example.

Sorta, but for the reasons you've mentioned it's not like Beta vs. VHS. Beta and VHS are totally incompatible with each other. OTOH, +R and DVD-R are both compatible with the vast majority of DVD drives out there, for read capability at least.

Apparently, according to a few sources DVD+R has better compatibility when it comes to playing DVD+R/DVD+RW on stand alone DVD players.

It seems that +R and DVD-R is similar. Some reviews have +R slightly better, but many have the opposite result. (I'm excluding authoring 3.95 GB DVD-R here, even though it is by far the most compatible. The reason I exclude it is because it's a professional format, and the discs are $15.) Most reviews have +RW slightly worse than DVD-RW though.

Will there be any DVD burners coming out anytime soon that can burn a whole 4.7 DVD in like 2 to 10 mins or less? I am guessing not anytime soon.

Nope. Both +RW and DVD-RW will have drives in the near future that will do 4X (ie. 15 minute) burns. My guess is though that the +RW and DVD-RW speeds will only be 2.4X and 2X respectively. Mind you these drives are all still vapourware. DVD-RAM is 2X (including write verification) come October. (The 2X DVD-RAM drive has already been seen at shows, etc.. but it's likely gonna be expensive.)

Didnt cdrinfo.com have some info on a Sony unit that can write to DVD+RW/DVD-RW ???? That would be interesting.

It's still vapourware, but rumours have it that Sony will come out with this in the not-so-distant future. It might make sense for them, since they make +RW PC drives, but their set top recorder and the Vaio's use DVD-RW. However, as far as compatibility goes for +R and -R I don't think it's going to be a huge improvement to have both, since both are already quite compatible, and there's no guarantee that an old DVD player that doesn't work with one will work with the other. So, if the price is competitive, it may be a good drive to buy, but if the price is significantly higher, I'd stay clear of it (except for a small subset of users).