DVD burners

Akashio · Post by **Akashio** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 1:15 am

Whats the difference between a DVD-RW drive and a DVD+RW drive???

Any suggestions as to which internal DVD burner to buy?

Ashyukun · Post by **Ashyukun** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 7:13 am

What kind of media they use, and to a lesser extent their compatibility with set-top DVD players. I've seen so many conflicting reports as to which has better compatibility, I don't know anymore. I seem to remember Vic doing a test and finding that the +R/RWs played in slightly more standalone players, but from what I've heard (and from my experience) -R/RW seems to do better in more computer drives.

Edo · Post by **Edo** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 9:00 am

Well the two types of DVD's -R and +R are foramts on how the dta is recorded onto the disc, the TOC is a bit different really, security also plays a role in it too. That's all I know about that, as for looking to buy one well I canget get you the best of both worlds!

The Sony IDE internal 4x DVD+RW/CD-RW!

This baby burns all, and reads all at high speeds! Plus it comes in three different colors!!!

Check the specs at www.harddrive.com under DVD Recorders/RAM There you will find other types too!

To buy you'll find the best prices at www.pricewatch.com!

Sony's DVD Birner Price list:
In White ("Sony DRU white" in pricewatch search engine) - $241.49------\
In Black ("Sony DRU Black") - $253.49 ----------------------------------- Tax and S&H included

In silver (Have to get at www.harddrive.com) - $369.00 ------- No idea about Tax & S&H :\

Also Check out Plextors DVD-Burners. . . Tho they only do DVD+RW's

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 12:28 pm

I have the Sony DRU 500a, and I really like the versatility of being able to write all major formats.

That way, you can burn which ever is more compatible with your set-top player, and/or buy whichever type of discs are on sale. I find the nearest Best Buy usually is out of -R discs by the time I get there, but they usually have some +Rs left.

Other stuff: +RW has better error correction capabilities in some cases than +R, -R, -RW.

I like the slight speed boost I get from using +R 2.4x discs over 2x -R discs.

One note about the Sony: It is limited to 2x ripping on DVD-Video discs for some reason, which kind of sucks.
My old Samsung 6x DVD ROM whips its ass for ripping footage.

Since I don't need a separate CDRW with the Sony in there, both DVD drives happily coexist in the same machine now.

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 1:26 pm

FurryCurry wrote:I have the Sony DRU 500a, and I really like the versatility of being able to write all major formats.

That way, you can burn which ever is more compatible with your set-top player, and/or buy whichever type of discs are on sale. I find the nearest Best Buy usually is out of -R discs by the time I get there, but they usually have some +Rs left.

Other stuff: +RW has better error correction capabilities in some cases than +R, -R, -RW.

I like the slight speed boost I get from using +R 2.4x discs over 2x -R discs.

One note about the Sony: It is limited to 2x ripping on DVD-Video discs for some reason, which kind of sucks.
My old Samsung 6x DVD ROM whips its ass for ripping footage.

Since I don't need a separate CDRW with the Sony in there, both DVD drives happily coexist in the same machine now.

I have the same unit (which I like to...just to add to the comments) and was wondering if there was some firmware upgrade. I seem to remember downloading one that was supposed to make our writers write at 4x and read at 4x or something...am I mistaken?

You must be wondering why I don't know this, but I haven't burnt a DVD in a long time. It takes awhile to get 4.7 gigs to burn off my HD since I use it for LEGITIMATE back-up purposes

FurryCurry · Post by **FurryCurry** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 2:03 pm

dwchang wrote: I have the same unit (which I like to...just to add to the comments) and was wondering if there was some firmware upgrade. I seem to remember downloading one that was supposed to make our writers write at 4x and read at 4x or something...am I mistaken?

You must be wondering why I don't know this, but I haven't burnt a DVD in a long time. It takes awhile to get 4.7 gigs to burn off my HD since I use it for LEGITIMATE back-up purposes

There was a firmware update posted a couple months ago on the Sony support website, to enable 4x burning and improve media compatibility, and it seems to have worked pretty well.

The cheapo Riteks I bought in a pinch once now burn fine at 2x, whereas it would only let me burn them at 1x before the update.

Verification of a 2 or 2.4x disc happens noticably quicker that the actual time the burn takes, so I'm pretty certain it's reading data discs at 4x.

DVD-Video however, is still limited to 2x reading. Kind of slow when you want to pull 20-30 eps out for an AMV, or when I imaged some R2 discs I bought so I could watch them on TV through my region-locked set top player.

One of these days, I'll actually burn a disc at 4x, but I have most of this 100 pack of 2.4s to get through first.

dwchang · Post by **dwchang** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 1:37 pm

FurryCurry wrote:There was a firmware update posted a couple months ago on the Sony support website, to enable 4x burning and improve media compatibility, and it seems to have worked pretty well.

Hmm...perhaps I should buy some 4x compatible media to test this out then.

The reason I was asking is because, like you, for ripping footage for AMVs, it still seemed to be reading at 2x, which you explained.

P.S your sig intrigues me.

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 2:49 am

The local Best Buy had some advance copies of the new Pioneer DVR-A06. This is a dual-format (+ and - ) writer that competes with the Sony drives. They had it priced at $330, $20 less than the Sony DRU-510A.

None of the usual e-tailers are listing it, but I saw a press release claiming it should be in general distribution soon (this summer).

The only spec difference I can see is the 2 MB buffer vs. the 8 MB on Sony's latest (DW10 or something like that). The write speeds are all the same.

Org Profile · Post by **Phade** » Tue Jun 24, 2003 2:38 pm

Hey,

I've got the DRU-500a as well. 4x media is nice! A full disc burns in about 17 mins. I bought an external drive case so I can use it on my laptop and on my desktop machines via firewire. It has been an excellent drive for me so far.

It is me or is the only difference between the 500 and 510 is the CD-RW burning speed?

My $0.02...

Phade.

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Wed Jun 25, 2003 11:16 am

Phade wrote:Is it me or is the only difference between the 500 and 510 the CD-RW burning speed?.

That's what I was told. Maybe it's just a firmware change between the two (?).