Hi there, I am new to DVD burning and would like some input. I am getting tired of my young children trashing their dvd's and would like to back them up so they can use the copy while I save the original. I need an external DVD writer as my desk top is to slow and will be using my laptop. The laptop has USB and fire wire. What is the preferred external burner to use? Locally, HP +/- burners on sale. Are these any good? What kind of blank DVD’s should I get (+ or -)? What is the difference between +/-? Any recommendations on which software to get? DVDX Copy? Thanks in advance for your help cwl
hp's are good brand, make sure you get the fastest one possible since dvd's have so much information on them, should be 8X speed now. of course with that speed, the media is going to cost a lot more too as well. any name brand like tdk, sony, verbatim all make good dvds. and the -r dvd is more likely to be compatabile with standalone dvd players, but youll never know until you burn it and play it in there.
A few points and considerations: 1) When using an external burner, the main consideration is that you have USB 2.0 support to run the burner since USB 1.1 can't handle it. To verify you have USB 2.0 support try the following: Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Once in Device Manager scroll down to Universal Serial Bus Controllers and expand it. Now look for any entries that say "enhanced" - that indicates a USB 2.0 controller. If you don't have USB 2.0 you can always look for a drive with firewire support. 2) I've no idea what your budget is but since external drives tend to be more expensive than internal ones you may be interested in looking at the Lite-On SOHW 812SX. Lite-Ons are very good performers and are very nicely priced. Plextor also makes a very nice external drive (PX-708UF) but is a bit pricey and I believe TDK makes one though I've no experience with it. My last bit of advice on drives would be to list some makes to stay away from - LG, Pacific Digital, Optowrite and I/O Magic. All three have spotty quality and performance records. I'm not sold on the HP drives personally, but others may recommend them. 3) The "+ or -" issue boils down to what your standalone players prefer. Some like both and some can be picky. Here's a link to check compatibility: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers 4) The best deal for media would be Ritek G04, great quality, compatibility and price. 50 packs can be found on the net for $40 shipped. If you're buying in a store, I'd recommend Verbatim (Metal AZO preferably) or Maxell if you can find them. One other point - it's well worth it to pick up a couple rewritable DVD's (RW) to use until you get the hang of it. 5) Now to the software. If you really enjoy headaches, frustration and throwing away money then by all means get DVD Xcopy. Otherwise you can do everything you need with two freeware apps - DVD Shrink and DVD Decrypter. Both can be downloaded from our Software section and there are very good guides for both in our Guides section. Most here use Shrink and Decrypter and are more than happy to help with any problems you may have with them. 6) This site has a wealth of information so read, read, read _X_X_X_X_X_[small] JMLS-166S/Plextor PX-708A/Plextor Premium[/small]
Hi cwl, I have a lite-on external drive, works great. I paid like $110. us dollars. It's dual format( meaning will accept +/- dvds) but I have better luck with + format. Good Luck, Sher
Thanks to everyone for the help. I will be getting an HP external dvd burner tomorrow along with maxell dvd -r's since they are both on sale. cwl
I'm going to have to disagree with HPs being good burners. Besides the fact that HP doesn't manufacture any burners (not even CD-RWs), they're known for selling very cheap burners and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. For a cheap burner I'd recommend any Lite-On with a model number that doesn't start with a 4 (I know the first Lite-Ons were NECs) or a Pioneer which is basically the brand that all other burners should be compared against. Both companies make good drives, and while the Pioneers tend to be more expensive, they're still very reasonably priced.
I can get a Pioneer DVR-S606 external drive (based on the DVR-A06 internal drive) for just $50 more than an HP drive. The Pioneer specs are: Cache Size 2 MB, DVD+R Write Speed 4x, DVD+RW Rewrite Speed 2.4x, DVD-R Write Speed 4x, DVD-RW Rewrite speed 2X, CD Write Speed 16x, CD Rewrite Speed 10x, The HP has Data Access Time 150 ms Data Buffer Info Not Available DVD Read Speed 12X DVD Rewrite Speed 4X DVD Write Speed 8X CD Read Speed 40X CD Rewrite Speed 10X CD Write Speed 24X The speed of my maxell dvd is 2X (due to price considerations). With my media burn speed limited to 2X the burner speeds exceeding that shouldn't make a difference right? Am I better off with the Pioneer or the quicker HP?
Go with the Pioneer. They're the gold standard for DVD burning. After owning a Pioneer (104) and a Sony, and having a couple of friends with other burners, I haven't found anything that can beat the Pioneer drives for reliablity (and most can't even equal them), and that's really the most important thing. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night. Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life Backup A DVD With DVD Rebuilder & CCE Basic: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial.cfm[/small]
I am looking at possibly getting an internal drive now and using one of those external enclosures for it. Does anyone know if the transfer rates would be to slow via firewire with one of those enclosures? Would the transfer rate be the same as a regular external dvd writer hooked up via firewire? thanks cwl
I have a Bytecc firewire/USB2 enclosure that I use for a hard drive, and I get great performance from it on the firewire connection, so I don't think it should be a problem. One thing you do need to remember with that type of setup is that you'll probably have to put the drive in your computer if you need to update the firmware, but other than that it shouldn't be any problem.
