buying a DVD burner... but need help!

[cyman3]

im planning to buy a DVD burner... its not a necessity, but it's convenient (these days, media files are SO BIG). plus, the DVD player on my xbox can play burned movies (so i hear from a friend...).

anyways, so planning to buy it within a month... but im lost

got a few questions

1)wat the heck is DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW

i understand R is recordable and RW is rewritable. but wats up with the "MINUS" and the "PLUS" ????

2)i hear u can buy one for $50 these days. are those decent? is there a special brand/model i should stay away from? do u guys suggest any brands/models?

thanks~

[chillzatl]

the +- formats are just that, competing formats. When dvd burners were being developed, there were two sides of teh fence, one that created the + format and another that created the - format. The two formats use different types of discs and different methods of writing the data to the discs.

Initially you could only burn +r discs on a +r burner and vice versa. Now you can buy dual format burners that are capable of burning both, albeit sometimes at different speeds.

So when you are buying, you want to get an 8x dual format burner. But, verify that it burns BOTH formats at 8x. Many times the burners are advertised as 8x dual format, but they only burn +r at 8x and burn -r at 4x. While it's not a big deal if you only plan to buy +r discs, there are times when you might see a good deal on -r 8x discs and they will be of little use to you.

oh, any DVD drive will read discs burned in either format, so it's not an issue as far as reading goes.

Check out plextor and lite-on drives. Those are some of the best. Sony also has some pretty solid drives, though I think they are a bit more expensive. I know the plextors and Lite-ons get great reviews though.

Once you narrow your choices down, let me know what you're looking at and i'll make some recommendations.

[chillzatl]

yes, you can get 8x drives very cheap. But you get what you pay for. Not all drives work well with all brands of media. Cheap drives only increase the likelyhood that you will not be able to burn at full speed (8x) even though the media claims to be 8x capable.

I have a samsung 8x drive and though I have memorex 8x media, it doesn't like that particular media so I can only burn at 4x with it. But at the same time, there are some brands of 4x media that I can burn at 8x.

You will find this problem with ANY drive. But like I said, it gets worse the cheaper the drive.

[DominiqueWilkins]

I'm glad you posted theses question, because I also have saw two DVD burners for $50, and it made my interest go stronger in getting one.

Good luck and let us know which one you select.

To bad they don't burn xbox games..lol

[Admin]

You can get 8x single layer DVD burners for 50-100 bucks or so. The prices are dropping through the floor on them right now because of the dual layer DVD burners that are out now. I would suggest getting one of those. You should be able to find one for around 200 bucks. They will allow you to get twice as much data on a disc than the single layer ones will.

Best bet though is to go on pricewatch.com and then when you find one that you like go to the makers website and read up about it. Try and get some customer reviews of the product as well. You might even look on Ebay for one.

[cyman3]

thanks GUYS...

like i mentioned before, this isint a necessity... but a luxury. so im not 100% sure, whether or not i plan to buy a DVD burner...

once i pick one out (could be today, tomorrow, a month, a year, who knows?) ill let u guys know... lol