Buying a DVD writer

Can't anyone help me here?

I've got to assume noone here has got a DVD writer!!!

I've got something like this one in the link

How's it work?

By that, I mean how well does it work?

mine works well but I prefer to use +DVDR and +DVDRW vs the - media. I have 10 DVDRW's and about 15 DVDR's. I do alot of video and photo presentations and archiving of the pictures I take.

Re: Buying a DVD writer


Yes Wilso, most drives today are "dual format", meaning they will record to either the "+" standard, or the "-" standard for DVD's. Some of the drives also record to the much more rare DVD-RAM format, I wouldn't worry about this one as it's not a common standard. There is also an emerging DVD+R DL (Dual Layer) format, for discs that use two layers to get 8.5GB's onto a single sideded disc, not all drives support this yet, but many do. I'd look for one that does if you think you'll ever want to put more than 4.7GB's per disc. The DL discs are still very expensive ($8-$12 per disc), but in six months to a years time they probably won't be so bad.

Brand wise, Sony, TDK, Toshiba, NEC, Pioneer, Plextor, Lite-On, Memorex; they all make excellent drives. Any real differences in them is minor.

Internal, external; no real functional difference, external is easy to move from PC to PC, but will add another power cord and USB or Firewire cable to the mess of cables you already have.

Just visit your local computer store, Best Buy, Office Depot, whatever and see what they have in stock. Most of the drives will be very visibly labeled as to what formats they support, at what speeds.

I suggest going to accupc.com or tigerdirect.com They usually have the cheapeset prices. NEC puts out a really good drive for about $85 that will write -/+ and RW disks. it's an 8x drive. There is also a good one by LG (same specs).

Here's a CNET Roundup of current DVD burners.

For an internal drive, my dual-format Plextor PX-708A hasn't disappointed me yet, and I've had it about a year now. No coasters that weren't my fault, and it is pretty fast. If you want digital audio extraction, you'll hafta provide your own drive-to-soundcard cable, but I dunno if thats really a big deal ... never bothered me much, since I use a suitably equipped CD-RW drive for audio CDs anyway. If its gonna be your only optical drive, thats something to consider, anyway. The software bundle is adequate ... not stellar, just adequate. It has performed just fine with every burning app I've tried it with.


For an external, I've been fairly happy with the performance of the all-format Iomega Super DVD Writer USB 2.0, though it is sorta pricey, kinda clunky, and doesn't come with any spectacular software bundle. I like it for its All-Format capability; its the only drive I have that handles DVD-RAM. I sorta wish it was a UB 2.0/Firewire drive, but ya can't have everything. It hasn't turned out any coasters yet, and it too works pretty well with just about any burning app I've tried, though it seems faster with Roxio than with others ... thats subjective; I haven't really put it to a stopwatch test.

New on the market, and I have no experience with them, are dual-layer drives. I'm sure to get one, just haven't figured out which one yet.