DVD burner- which one's the best?
 

Looking for some feedback from people who have bought dvd burners and what their experiences have been with them.

I've heard bad things about the HP 200i or 200e I think.

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you. :thumbsup:

Anything by Liteon seems to get praise.

I *think* TEAC do DVD burners too.

Aren't there still two standards?
If that's the case I would wait a bit. unless you really need it.

It is just a thought because I don't know anything about it, but maybe worth looking up:confused:

...there are 1 layer and 2 layer disc's and as with CD-R you need a compatible disc to achieve certain write speeds. The Pioneer DVR-AO5 looks pretty decent.

tbh I'd stick to a decent brand of which HP are not, Liteon, Pioneer, Phillips and so on I've had no problems with before.

Think I was wrong about Teac too. :eek::rolleyes:

That DVR-A05 looks good. I've never installed an extra drive in my computer before. How hard is it to do? I'd probably replace the CDROM that I have now.

Basically there are three connectors; power (obvious; 4 pin molex from power supply), the IDE ribbon (again obvious; big mofu ribbon to mobo) and the analogue; this will connect somewhere on your mobo*, if you're replacing a drive then just leave all things connected at the mobo side and disconnect them from the drive end.

* The analogue can also be hooked up to other devices like sound card or modem (which in turn can be interconnected just to confuse) which can be spooky but most motherboards will have a socket or three, on my mobo these are nestled between PCI slots, they're quite small with only a few pins, the cable is round and usually grey ;)

If you're using it as an additional drive the analogue you need will be next to the other CD drive's connection obviously. Normally one analogue is master so if you change those things - via jumpers at the back of the drive - remember to switch analogue's too.

That's about as complicated as I can make it ;)

Never understood what the analogue was for and never noticed a difference when it was plugged in or not?

I've a hunch it's something to do with playing CD audio hence it can be connected direct to a soundcard.

I figured so, but it seems to work the same without the plug, what's the actual purpose of it? In other words, what does it do that the ATA plug don't already?

The Sony DRU-500A. Internal, IDE. Supports DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and CD-R, CD+RW.

w00t.

DVD-R is @ 4x, too. :)

CD-R is @ 24x
CD+RW is @ 10x


and for about $320, it's priced just over other burners, that only support one of the standards sets ("-" or "+").

Haven't had any problems with my TDK 40/12/48B. Burns a CD in three minutes, haven't had any coasters yet.

It does sound like an aircraft preparing to take off at times, though. ;)