What's the scoop on DVD/CD/combo drives?

[jimmyj68]

I have traditionally had a CD-Rom drive and CD burner in my computer. When I wanted to copy a CD I put it in the CD-Rom and the blank media in the burner. Now the market has combination drives that do everything (even things I don't wnat like copy DVD's).

How does this work? Do I get just one drive or do I still need a source drive? Mostly I download music from ITunes or Rhapsody and compile CD's for the car. Occasionally I'll copy a CD to CD.

 

[BlueWeasel]

The only real difference with one drive is you can't copy CDs "on the fly". Using a single combination drive, you'd have to read the entire source disc first, and then burn it to a CD.

 

[jimmyj68]

does that take any longer than the other way? I mean in time worth being concerned about?

 

[Zepper]

I like to be able to burn/copy on the fly so I always keep two opticals in my main machine. Currently they are a DVD+/-RW burner and a CD-RW burner. A DVD-ROM drive and a CD-RW burner (or Combo) is a typical combination these days. If my CD-RW drive finally goes TU, I'll probably replace it with a CD-RW/DVD Combo drive - I can't see paying about the same bucks for a one-trick pony any more...

.bh.

 

[snoopy7548]

 

[Zepper]

My that was a useful post there Snoop...

.bh.

 

[Arcanedeath]

If you are buying new drives I'd suggest just getting a DVD burner as they do everything and are fairly cheap, If you don't need to burn DVD's but do need to burn CD's I'd suggest getting a CDRW/DVD combo drive (can be had in the $30 dollar range) and in either case I'd still suggest getting a normal stand alone DVD-rom drive for reading purposes and so you can do on the fly copies to save time.