optorite dd0203 combo burner with High Density CDR=1.4GB, $145 retail

[prom3theus]

Anyone have experience with one of these? It's a 4x dvd+-rw burner. The HD-Burn is sanyo tech. and through a better error algorithm and tighter pit arrangement squeezes about 200% onto a normal CDR which can be read in I think dvd-roms definitely and same probably as dvd+-r's in terms of compatibility % in players. But considering you probably would use the dvd-r for a dvd, and the HDCd-r for a pc-movie or just data, like a ghost image or something, I think it rocks (considering most new pcs come now standard with dvd-rom at least, and anyone with an extra 15 or 20$ adds a combo to his configuration).

The best price I've seen is from http://www.pcsupplysource.com, through http://pricewatch.com, retail new delivered for $145 or so. I've seen no oem's or refurbs yet.

Here is the company site: http://www.optorite.com/dd0203.htm

I'd really like to hear from anyone burning with this, dvd-+r compatibility you've seen, if you've used HD cd-rs, etc. It packages with B's Recorder GOLD5 Basic, which i've read is really good burning software for bundled. And I wonder if the interior is black, which i've heard cuts down on reflection and thus helps eliminate coaster production. This looks like a really nice value though. The price might even drop a bit in a month or so when the 8x start selling. And really, isn't 4x a pretty good dvd-r rate anyway? Isn't that like 30minutes or less for a full (4.7GB) dvd-r burn? I wouldn't really bitch too much about that one:)

[atreides93]

I'm not sure I understand why there is an HD CD format?? Are the HD CD-R's a lot cheaper than DVD-R's ? Before DVD-R became affordable, I could see a reason for HDCD but not now.

[prom3theus]

Well, I guess it is up to personal preference. But, if you just want to pack more mp3s, more install files, more crap onto a cdr than you could before, using a cdr at 1GB sounds great to me. It's not a huge feature for me, but it is an extra little nugget that would make me go Optorite over say Pioneer, if it has good media experiences.

Granted even though it's 20% the cost to burn a cdr as a dvd+r, or less, that's still comparing things that are less than $2, and possibly $1 or less. But, I like buying a 100spindle of cdrs for cheap, and if I can fit 1.3GB safely onto one, I'll make two copies, store one, and have say an entire south park season on one hd-cdr I can play on my computer just fine. OR, two copies of my win2k install image which fits nicely into 1.3GB of space. Basically I think it really helps the redundant backups. At $1.50 a pop, i probably won't make 2 copies of my stuff, and just hope that dvd+r doesn't scratch and lose my movies. At 0.20 a pop, I'll just burn a backup, or hell maybe 2 backups:)

[snn47]

All (links) you might want to know (or not) are here Sanyo introduces 1.4GB CD-R burner/DVD Burner (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34377&highlight=HDBurn)

[henry_nettles]

Originally posted by prom3theus

<snip>
And really, isn't 4x a pretty good dvd-r rate anyway? Isn't that like 30minutes or less for a full (4.7GB) dvd-r burn? I wouldn't really bitch too much about that one:)

A full 4.7 gig burnt onto a DVD+R at 4x will take about 14 minutes. For a DVD-R, about 16 minutes. The difference is due to more overhead on the "-R".

My optorite is a good drive, I would recommend it to others. I have never burnt an HDCD disk, because at present there are zero other drives which will read said disks.

[prom3theus]

I went ahead and bought one when they started nearing 130$ with free ground shipping.

So far:

1) No problems at all with my eject. I have a June 2003 manufacture, so maybe the problems all got worked out, or I got lucky.

2) Upgraded firmware to 2.16 easily, no crashes in win2000 doing this, and when I upgraded my nero 5.5 to the latest upgrades to today, nero recognized the buffer, allowed dvd burning, and so far has had no problems with cdr and dvd-r I have used.

3) The spin noise is kind of loud at full speeds, but what you would expect. It's nice and smooth sounding. The cd is stopped completely before the tray is ejected, which is a nice simple feature to have in a drive. I've had ones that eject a still-spinning media.

4) I purchased some very cheap dvd-r media to test. Optodisc 25pc 4x pack from http://store.yahoo.com/supermediastore/optodisc-white4x-25.html, price was around 1.30 or so after shipping. I also purchased DVDPro to see how it burned. So far, I burned 1 optodisc successfully at 4x, even though a review I read here: http://www.extrememhz.com/dd0203-p7.shtml which mostly drove my decision, listed their optodisc burns at 2x for 4x media. So for whatever reason, I was able to burn to mine at 4x.

5) HD-BURN. My Imations 80 min failed to burn. Check following posts for compatibility list.

I will post more media results as I have them. Here is the program to check your dvd+-r disc data fyi: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd-r_tools/advdinfo.cfm

[snn47]

For HD-Burn there exists a HD-Burn-CD-compatibility-list
See above link.

[prom3theus]

Here is what I've found from Sanyo web site:

HD-Burn compatible media list (http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof/HD-BURN/hd-product.html)

Somewhat obviously this is not meant to be excluding any disc not tested, but confirming they had success with the ones listed.

Also, RE: Nero 5.5.10.50 : does not have an HD-Burn feature. The review I mention above shows the options available in Nero 6 for HD-Burn burning.