I have this crap (no offense to the folks who have this burner) HP 420i that I've had problems with numerous times. It's always having firmware problems and I'm fed up with it. So now I'm in the market again for DVD burners and I wanted to get some feedback on internal vs. external drives. Which do my fellow afterdawners prefer? Thanks for the suggestions, in advance!
Hey nik21, I haven't heard many good things about hp dvd burners. Quite a few members sending them back to HP for new ones-different brand names or credit on pc supplies at hp's store. Internal or External? I agree with internal all the way,as long as you got the room in your tower. There's some great prices on quality dvd burners here: http://www.newegg.com/ Just ordered a 2nd benq1620 for under $60 that performs as flawless has my other 1620. No fw updates performed so far on these drives. They were burning up a storm right out of the box. Good Luck!
I dont understand how can a different burner make any difference to the burning of a dvd what effects does a bad burner have on a dvd
swenyb, when it comes to burning dvd's and playing them through the pc- They all usually perform great. But how many of us watch those backups on the pc? I don't. I may scan it for errors,fast forward-reversere,and check out the ending. Stand alone players are where I Play the majority of my backups.It all comes down to compatability.The better dvd burners will play better on more stand alones than the lower ones. I had a khpermedia +8x on my pc when I bought it.It would not play those backups in my bedroom pc. I ordered an I/O magic 16x which turned out to be made by benq,and have yet to find a player that won't accept it's + burns.Perfect compatability. A few weeks ago,purchased another I/O magic 16x for my spare pc,and it turned out to be a generic 16x made by EMPA of the middle east. By far,the weakest of all my burners.Great backups looking at them through windvd on the pc,but compatability down the tube on more of my players. My reliable sony player had no trouble with any of these burners. The others did. These 1620's can book-type dvd +r discs to Dvd-rom,making them more compatable.You don't have that feature on every dvd burner. It all comes down to compatability.Week burners vs. Strong burners.This is what I have witnessed on my 5 dvd burners.
saugmon: In your last post you mentioned that you have an I/O Magic 16X burner. Just curious how pleased you are with it. I bought one (model IDVD16DD) dual format, this past Friday during a CompUSA 6-hour sale (haven't installed it yet) and don't really know anything about I/O. I liked the price - $89.00 with $40.00 rebate. Anyone else own this brand and have any comments about it? Thanks.
The I/O magic 16x? You don't know which manufacturer made these until you install them! It's just like buying media,lol I bought the staples,day after thanksgiving sale last year I/O magic 16x. It was actually built by benq,model 1620. A very good burner for $39.94 after rebate.Perfect compatability on 20 or so stand alones/pc drives/and ps2's that play my backups.I got lot's of family and friends. I like to keep them happy. I was having an issue with my kypermedia +8x,even installed it in my backup pc. My apex would not play that backup. It did not like that particular burn.I could re-rip those kh backups onto the I/O and cyberhome home burner and that apex would play them perfect. Staple's again had the I/O magic 16x on sale for $39.94 after rebate several weeks ago.This one turned out to be a generic ide-16x according to dvd shrink/nero/and my pc. Turned out to be made by EMPA DRW1016IM. After a firmware update,the compatability was by far poorer in my lite-on/benq roms/home burner/and apex."No disc inserted errors". My sony played anything from any of these burners,near perfection.I could get the dash format to work better,but not to my satisfaction.Those backups view great playing them on that same I/O empa drive,compatability very poor when playing them on stand alones.Again,my lite-on dvd-rom will only recognize the dash backups, I can re-rip those dash discs onto my benq on the fly and perfect playback on my apex player. That's why it comes down to compatability. Both I/O's came in near identical box,same model #IDVD16DD. The only difference-the empa drive had a slightly larger box and had powerdvd and nero. The I/O made by benq,just had nero only.The box will tell you what software comes with it. To fix the compatability issues so I can relax and not worry about which burner will play in which player/s and formats: I got another benq 1620 from newegg.com. You can get them anywhere from $55-$70, depending on what else,"software", you get with it.
Thanks for the quick reply. As I said, I haven't installed it yet (just opened the box today). However, it did come with Nero OEM Suite & PowerDVD 5. I might just return this one and buy a NEC or Pioneer. My system is almost 4 years old and not very fast. P4, 1.5ghz, 512mb ram, 40gig hd (21gb free), Toshiba CD-ROM, Plextor CD burner, and a POS LiteOn 851S external DVD burner. The LIteOn is the main reason I was in the market for a new burner. Guess I should bite the bullet and buy a new system, but this one has proven to be very reliable -- just old and slow like me. Thanks for your info. Tom
Good Move tsquare, You should be ok with pioneer and nec. All very fine burners. Also that I/O empa: It had max dual layer burning speed of 4x.That benq I/O is only 2.4x.Another difference that I forgot about. Your pc specs are doubled up from my measley little backup pc: Celeron 598 mhz,256 mb rimm,30 gig hard drive,xp home-sp1. I can still get 16x out of those benq's on sony +1x-8x media.Even slower,but that new burner works like a charm in her. Good Luck.
Well i have a liteon LDW-411SX good or bad burner? and when i burn a dvd on my tdk non-printable it seems to work every time without fail, when i burn on others so far i have tested Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden and datawrite printable and all burn but then stutter when i play them back, i burned a dvd-5 onto a dvd the other day thinking it was the media but it still stutters. Is it my burner?
Can you view them on your pc using windvd or powerdvd player? You need to view them using the drive that burned it. Are you using paper-adhesive stick on labels? Are you multi-tasking during any of the dvd backup process? What programs are you using for: Ripping/compressing/and burning?Also all dvd programs on your pc. Also tell us the process of how you are backing them up.
Sorry for the late reply been laying carpets in my house, right, i have been playing the dvds back in my dvd writer before actually playing them on a stand-alone player and it has worked so far but i dont understand why, the process that i am using is decrypt with dvd decrypter, transcode with shrink and then burn using nero. i dont use labels and i usually leave the computer to get on with it
Hey sweenyb, Those darn pesky standalones. All those variations between burners-the same goes for stand alone players.It's like every laser is just a tad different. Dvd players are meant to play the regular,pressed in dvd format-no actual burn involved. Now on dvdr-these are totally different formats.Some players will play anything you throw at them.Some players may prefer a certain format:+ or minus. And some may not play any of them. I only had "no disc inserted" errors,no pixellating or freezing. You are using the same programs that I am using,but I rarely use dvd decrypter on my main pc. Usually dvd shrink and nero do most of my dvd backups.On my backup pc,I mess with dvd decrypter because of only a single dvd-rw drive. Can you try burning with dvd decrypter? Trying this burning program,see if you notice any difference on your next backup. Are those playback issues random or are they at a certain part of your backup-like the end? Do you backup entire dvd or main-movie only? You might want to defrag your hard drive if you have'nt lately. There's a whole slew of things that could be the problem. At least your stand alone is trying to play your backups-that's the good news.
the glithes are different to each dvd i burn say for instance when i done the chronicles of riddick it only freezes every minute or so when i done the village it freezed every 10 secs, but, one of my dvd players will play them without any problems, but i dont want to watch them on that one. Also one media unfortunatley the none prinatble will work without fail on the stand alone that wont play the prinatbles. Oh well i guess i'll just have to settle for none prinatble backups.
Hey swenyb, I am not sure of the programs your are using to backup your dvds. Some people do have playback problems when they try to backup the entire discs. I usually prefer main movie only with dvd shrink/nero/and sometimes fart around with dvd decrypter. You may want to try another burn program.Can't hurt any. I do have some verbatim +8x full hub printables ordered. Just put in my new epson r-200 yesterday. Later
