PCA Forums

what do you guys think? is it worth buying dvd burner. what are the advantages of having one besides braging about it.


thanks


David

Depends on what you are going to use it for. Are you going to take those home video's and burn them to a DVD-R so you can get rid of all those dated tapes? Or are you going to burn some games on them to share with your friends? If you are doing the latter, I would say no because even though DVD-ROMs have become much more popular, they still aren't a "standard." It would suck to take the disc to a friends house only to find out he can't read it...

I personally will wait until (1) they burn quicker or (2) DVD-ROM's become standard so you can easily read a DVD-R at anybody's house.

i started to think about it and came with the same conclusion.
thanks for the advice.

Theyre nice to have if you also have a digital camcorder, so you can make your own MPEG2 movies. Otherwise, CDR's are still the more practical solution for almost everything.

DVD-R/RW is a standard. DVD+R/WR is another. I think they can both read each others discs.

I have a DVD-R/RW drive and every stand alone DVD player and PC DVD drive has been able to read my discs. Granted I have a limited number of devices at my disposal but they have all worked.

DVD-R/RW is cheaper media wise right now. I don't know which one will become more prevalent but DVD-R is in the lead now as far as I know. I think down the road burners will probably support writing both standards.

I don't have this terrible fear that I won't be able to read discs I burn today down the road because they have worked in all the PC drives I have tried.

I would have to say yes it is worth it. Then again I own a drive so I am biased. I can back up so much more to a single disc that the price of admission was worth it to me.

Just wait a lil longer. Sony announced the DVD-burner DRU-500A and that one works with DVD-R(W) and DVD+R(W) plus it burns regular CD-R(W).
It should be available end of october for around $400.

DVD-R 4x (requires highspeed DVD-R material)
DVD-RW 2x
DVD+R(W) 2.4x
CD-R 24x
CD-RW 10x

There'll also be an external firewire and USB-2.0 model following soon.

Is this drive available now?

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?edc=425705

They make it look like it is. Hmm... Looks like an interesting drive. DVD-R upto 4x is appealing to me. I think I will wait and see what the competition comes up with. I have a Pioneer 104 right now. I have been using TDK 2x DVD-R media with great success. At 2x burning a full disc takes something like 30 min but it is tolerable. It just reminds me of the 2x CD-R days.

My date/price are estimates, just send them an email and ask
This drive shows how uncertain the industry is about the future DVD-rewriter standard. This Sony drive is like a videorecorder that runs VHS and Betamax

Have to agree with Schwartz on this one!

I have the Pioneer A04 and love it