So, which DVD burner should I buy?

[MrNoogies]

Well, I finally got sick of these puny 700mb CDs, and am going to take the big leap to DVD burning. What I'd like to ask is for you to recommend the most up-to-date, most format compatible, dual layer capable, most cutting edge and fastest DVD burner out there now, October 3rd 2004. :confused:

Please reply, I'm sure this'll benefit others. Thanks.

[MrNoogies]

Ah yes, I've looked at that on the Plextor site. It looks like a gorgeous piece of kit, and it comes out on Oct. 15 MSRP'ed $149. Ooh, this looks like the drive for me - unless anyone thinks LG's offerings are better.

[MrNoogies]

Why, Plextor's site of course. Look in the Press Releases section, and check out the release about the PX716A and PX716UF.

[2ndary]

I am new here to these forums but I'll give you my advice on your new burner. I have a Sony DRU700a 2.4 x 4 x 8 write-speed burner w / dual layer capabilities. The Sony supports every format out except DVD-RAM as I remember it including but not limited to DVD+ and DVD- in both R and R/W and this was a main reason why I got it. I mainly burn in DVD+ because it is supported by more DVD players than any other format. I have been wading through the burning / capturing quagmire for many months now and have burned about 250 DVD's so far. I'll try to be somewhat coherent about this but I did say "try", OK. I do DVD and video work about 8 hrs / day 7 days / week including building my computers to handle the work so I base this info on that experience.

I may not have this exactly correct but as I see it write-speed has at least three govering factors besides your CPU capacity. I use an Athlon xp 3200+ CPU which is the fastest 32bit chip out by AMD and competes well with the fastest 32bit Intel chips. You are going to need a fast CPU just to render and burn a 4x DVD-5 disc in an hour or so and that includes no editing time.

1) & 2) The burner itself and the media----a 8x burner can burn at up to 8x speed when supplied with 8x media----it can only write as fast as the media & faster media costs more. 8x media is just a few cents more now than 4x. The burn-speed cannot exceed the media speed so, for example, if you buy a 16x burner but cannot find or afford the 16x media you have not gotten anywhere except preparing for the future availability and affordability of that media. (as far as I know 16x media is not available yet but I may be wrong here). A good example of this type of problem is w / dual layer media---it is barely available and extremely expensive like by 20 times as much as DVD-5 (regular single layer 4x & 8x media right now).

3) The software----burning software can limit your write-speed. If it has a top supported speed of 4x then that is your limit no matter if your burner is 8x and your media is 8x.

About dual layer media---it sounds like a great idea but after sorting it out I think not. It is super-expensive, burns extremely slow and burn time becomes very important in DVD's because they take so long due to the file sizes, if you waste one and that WILL happen, it makes for one expensive coaster. Two single layer (DVD-5 4x or 8x) discs cost about $1.00 and hold much more than one dual layer (DVD-9) disc at about $10.00 each the last I saw but that was a short while ago. Many factory DVD's cannot be backed up on one dual layer disc anyway. Besides backing up factory DVD's I capture a lot of TV movies in analog and edit out the commercials etc. and make my own DVD's of them. A DVD-9 is about useless for this purpose because many will not fit on one.

Look, burning DVD's is fun and I think you will enjoy it but it is quite a different world than CD's. It is deep, intense, can be creative, time consuming, can be frustrating, but is very rewarding (for me) if you enjoy such hobbies.

If I can further help anyone with the hardware, software etc. I would be more than happy to---it is a welcome break for me. I get email notification for any of my posts so I will respond to any reply soon. There is just way too much to tell in this one post. I do not claim to be an expert at all of this but I will say I had to get fairly proficient in all of it to get it all to work and do so with reliability and consistancy. I do home theater & surround sound also and have a digital projector and a 5' x 10' screen and all my computers, network, audio, video, projector etc. are all integrated into one system so I can watch huge screen TV, DVD's, play computer games, use my screen as my computer monitor to do anything etc. It has taken a lot of work to to get this far besides the money but it is really cool to work with. I am fortunate to have the time to devote to it.

"hope this helps"

2ndary:sly:

[alexnoe]

Pioneer DVR-A08.

Reason against Plextor:
- Plextor 708 has poor write quality
- Plextor 712 has poor write quality even after 5 firmware updates ("poor" as in "the drive is horribly expensive, and its write quality does not justify the price").
- I don't see a reason why the 716A should be any better if they don't get 8x and 12x right

Reason against Sony DRU700:
- poorest write quality i've ever seen in any serious DVD writer test

Look at those scans (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/PlexTools_Prof_Scans/DVD/) (more plextor scans proving that it has crappy write quality will come later on)
3) The software----burning software can limit your write-speed. If it has a top supported speed of 4x then that is your limit no matter if your burner is 8x and your media is 8x.If you indeed have such software, then immediately delete it from your hard disc and throw the installation discs away.

[mudda_t]

I second alexnoe's opinion, the a08(108) is a very sweet drive. I've played with many drives and always come back to the Pioneer. Plus, you can get it for around $80 bucks at newegg.com, keep the $70 in your pocket or buy some blanks with it. (make sure you have the latest firmware for whichever burner you pick)
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@2ndary
...You are going to need a fast CPU just to render and burn a 4x DVD-5 disc in an hour or so and that includes no editing time.
I'm not trying to pick a fight but that just isn't true. I've rendered and burned with a 533p3 and 600celeron before with extreme ease. I've even had success with p2's.
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But if you want to do more than that, especially editing, then you'll definitely need a fast cpu.

[2ndary]

Originally posted by mudda_t


I'm not trying to pick a fight but that just isn't true. I've rendered and burned with a 533p3 and 600celeron before with extreme ease. I've even had success with p2's.
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But if you want to do more than that, especially editing, then you'll definitely need a fast cpu.

No problem here---I do a lot editing & my comment was not exactly clear on that so I am glad you cleared it up for me.

Mudda-t I have some Q's for you please or anyone else that can answer. When doing the actual burn my Athlon XP 3200+ runs at almost 100% load with my Sony DRU700a running at 4x and using 4x media. What improvements will I see using 8x media and 8X speed as far as burn time itself? What I fail to understand is if the CPU is under 100% load at 4x speed how can 8x decrease the burn time? Where exactly does this improvement come from---what does the extra or faster work? I am going to try 8x but I have a big stock of 4x right now and I would like to understand how this works.

Thanks.

[MrNoogies]

Thank you so much for the replies, everybody. :thanks:

Looked at the Pioneer site, and found this model. DVR-A08XL (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_103674852_138950237,00.html). What do you guys say? After the bad news alex gave about the Plextor, I'm staying away from them. So how about this A08XL? It's supposed to have the same stats as the 716a, including DVD+RW DL.

[hendrix]

Originally posted by MrNoogies
Thank you so much for the replies, everybody. :thanks:

Looked at the Pioneer site, and found this model. DVR-A08XL (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_103674852_138950237,00.html). What do you guys say? After the bad news alex gave about the Plextor, I'm staying away from them. So how about this A08XL? It's supposed to have the same stats as the 716a, including DVD+RW DL.
I have the A08XL and love it - it burns great. of course i burn with DVD Decrypter and use Mitsubishi(Verbatim) Media

[magixsword]

The Pioneer DVR-A08XL looks cool to me but our country, Singapore seem not selling :( I m now having problem with my TDK DVDRW0404N. It seem inconsistence in burning movies. From the device manager, I have saw there is a virtual drive call Image Simulation SCSI CdRom Device. Is it necessary to be installed inorder for it to work?

[MrNoogies]

OK, I bought the A08XL. It arrived yesterday, and it looks sweet. Now, if anyone could suggest the best possible media for it, that would be great. Thanks!

PS: By the way, to anyone considering buying a speedy drive such as the A08XL, keep in mind you'll need a 80 pin IDE cable for it. I'm buying one as well.

[Mug Funky]

hmm... i've so far tried 2 DVR-108's (OEM of the A08) and they're shithouse.

i don't know what to expect from DVD drives, but the LEAST i expect is:

(a) that they work without me having to unplug everything else in my box.

(b) that they can read the backup DVDs i made of all my data. without this, i'm up the creek, and the 108 looks at these discs with disdain.

i don't know much about standards, but you'd think that if there's a standard called "DVD-R", a disc with this stamp on it should be readable in a player with this stamp on it. i know often this isn't the case, but for God's sake, why does it have to be this way?

i bought a 108 a month ago. it was faulty. i was on the way to take it back and it got stolen out of my car.

i get some more money together (i'm not exactly dripping cash), buy another one and i find it has EXACTLY the same problem - conclusion is that it doesn't "like" my computer.

i shuffle some cables and now it can at least read a commercially pressed DVD without spitting I/O errors at me. but my data backups are immediately useless because i cannot read them (i know the data is intact, btw).

this is just not good enough! why are discs and drives sold under such blatantly false pretences? surely if these things aren't interoperable, then they cannot be standard compliant.

did i miss something?

sorry... rant over. i hope the A08 works harmoniously with your system. if it doesn't, unplug other IDE devices, twist the cables around, anything.

[alexnoe]

a) agreed.
b) not really. Some DVD-R are of so crappy quality that this won't work

As to not liking your computer, it could be the chipset drivers which it doesn't like. That would especially explain your problem with (a).

[Mug Funky]

hmm. chipset drivers for what end of my PC? the mainboard? there's not much i can do about that at this point, i think. very old box.

i just got the drive today, so i haven't flashed it yet. i tend not to do stuff like that unless i'm certain it will help.

it seems the drive works with my ricoh mp7163a only if it is the master, and is plugged in with the "middle" IDE plug thingy (not one of the ends). it's looking ugly at the moment. i'll have to take them both out and swap their places when i can (right now the cable is twisted around itself unnaturally).

[edit]

it seems to burn okay. only tried it on +RW, but that played right through to the end on my standalone :)

[MrNoogies]

Well Mug, as you said, your computer is pretty old. Not only may your chipset and OS drivers be outdated, but most likely you did not connect the drive with an 80 pin cable. Older machines use 40 pin cables, and all of these could have been contributing to your problems with this high speed drive.

[Mug Funky]

lol! yeah, i'm'a have to get another 80 pin cable. didn't think of that one.

but would that really help with reading discs? it seems it came from the factory with latest firmware (1.14), which apparently improves readability (not toooo sure what context that is)

just for speed sake, i think i'll grab an 80 pin cable next time i'm at the geekstore

[TheSeeker]

I personally have had excellant experiences with LG Electronics drives. They seem to rip dvd's faster than any other as well as handling heavily scratched disc very nicely. Plus they have a DL burner for under 100 dollars. Cant go wrong.

[mudda_t]

@Mug Funky
it seems it came from the factory with latest firmware (1.14)
Out of curiosity what is the production date on your 108? My friend just bought a 108 (in the U.S.) and the production date was a month ago and it had 1.06 firmware.
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The reason I mention this is because you might have gotten an oem drive that someone tried to flash to 1.14 (official or hacked) screwed up and took back, and then you got it. I was a little surprised your drive had the most up to date firmware right out of the box.

[JReiginsei]

I currently have a CD burner connected to my Abit AN7 with a 24" 80-pin IDE cable. I can't use the maximum allowed standard 18" cable because the IDE slots on the Abit AN7 are at the bottom of the motherboard. The standard cable isn't long enough to reach my CDRW at the top of my case. I have never noticed any problems with my burned CDs. I would like to know if anyone has a DVD burner connected with a 24" or 36" IDE cable. Do you experience problems? I want to buy the Pionner DVR-A08XLA.

[dvd_maniac]

Mudda-t I have some Q's for you please or anyone else that can answer. When doing the actual burn my Athlon XP 3200+ runs at almost 100% load with my Sony DRU700a running at 4x and using 4x media. What improvements will I see using 8x media and 8X speed as far as burn time itself? What I fail to understand is if the CPU is under 100% load at 4x speed how can 8x decrease the burn time? Where exactly does this improvement come from---what does the extra or faster work? I am going to try 8x but I have a big stock of 4x right now and I would like to understand how this works.

Do you have DMA enabled? It sounds like you do not.
If you are reading from your Hard Drive then that needs to be DMA enabled as well.