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"DVD Writers for mon PC."

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Wed 28/04/04 at 16:56
Regular
"Teal'c"
Posts: 3,617
Right chums, I'm looking for a decent DVD Writer for under £50 please. Can someone also tell me about these + and - signs I keep on seeing, and what is it they effect on the DVD.

Also, on ebuyer I can see numerous ones that say OEM (No S/W).
What the hell does this mean.

Thanks muchles.
Wed 28/04/04 at 16:56
Regular
"Teal'c"
Posts: 3,617
Right chums, I'm looking for a decent DVD Writer for under £50 please. Can someone also tell me about these + and - signs I keep on seeing, and what is it they effect on the DVD.

Also, on ebuyer I can see numerous ones that say OEM (No S/W).
What the hell does this mean.

Thanks muchles.
Wed 28/04/04 at 17:29
Regular
"Twenty quid."
Posts: 11,452
Presedenté Nash wrote:
> Also, on ebuyer I can see numerous ones that say OEM (No S/W).
*****

Basically they're ones that should've been built into an off-the-shelf system. 'No S/W' = no software.
Wed 28/04/04 at 17:36
Regular
"Teal'c"
Posts: 3,617
Huzzah, I was thinking it was important. I have KaZaa.
Huzzah.
Wed 28/04/04 at 17:48
Regular
"+34 Intellect"
Posts: 21,334
£50?

Hmmm, thats a bit tight. If you wait for the dual layer burners to be released first you may be able to benefit from a price drop.
Wed 28/04/04 at 17:58
Regular
Posts: 14,437
[URL]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3754&item=4126090429&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW[/URL]

This is the same unit I have. It's a fantastic drive and I've never had any problems with it (it even over-burns without forcing it to at times!).

It's the best you'll get for that money at the moment, but like Cookie said, a price drop is looming soon - you might want to hold on...


Oh, and there are rumours that the firmware on this drive is upgradeable so it will effectively be a dual-layer writer when the time comes. I can't confirm that though, as I'm still trying to find out myself :D
Wed 28/04/04 at 18:13
Regular
"Teal'c"
Posts: 3,617
Hmmm
I was thinking of getting [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=52074[/URL]
With some [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=51178[/URL]

But a) that e-bay one looks good, and b) this price drop malarkey makes my brain melt.

What are the benefits of having a duel layered DVD anyway; I thought we could practically fit everything on normal ones. You yourself, CM, said you could fit films on the DVD by simply cutting out the crap that wasn't needed, extra languages and stuff.
So tell me - what's the point?
Wed 28/04/04 at 18:16
Regular
Posts: 10,364
Original Equipment Manufacturer
Wed 28/04/04 at 18:16
Regular
"+34 Intellect"
Posts: 21,334
Presedenté Nash wrote:
> What are the benefits of having a duel layered DVD anyway; I thought
> we could practically fit everything on normal ones. You yourself, CM,
> said you could fit films on the DVD by simply cutting out the crap
> that wasn't needed, extra languages and stuff.
> So tell me - what's the point?

Well, essentially the point is that with a dual layered burner you wont need to cut anything at all. Which saves a bit of time, especially when you have to use mulitple dvd's for just one film (LOTR being a prime example).
Wed 28/04/04 at 18:17
Regular
Posts: 14,437
Presedenté Nash wrote:
> Hmmm
> I was thinking of getting
> [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=52074[/URL]
> With some
> [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=51178[/URL]

That looks pretty decent. It's only a 2 speed though. If you don't mind waiting, it should be suffficient.

> What are the benefits of having a duel layered DVD anyway; I thought
> we could practically fit everything on normal ones. You yourself, CM,
> said you could fit films on the DVD by simply cutting out the crap
> that wasn't needed, extra languages and stuff.
> So tell me - what's the point?

You can get a full movie on a standard DVD, but it means dropping things like special features and animated menus. A dual layered DVD will let you keep all the fancy stuff.
Wed 28/04/04 at 20:58
"I love yo... lamp."
Posts: 19,577
OK from the top. You know how with CD burners it is all simply CD-R or CD-RW? Well, with DVD burners there are several competing formats. Like VHS and Betamax. There is DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD-RAM. Few people use DVD-RAM, it is kind of obsolete. It was a DVD in a plastic casing like a floppy disc. Don't worry about that.

But DVD-R and DVD+R are both still around and are roughly equally popular. Now you want to be able to burn to both really, so that you are fully compatible with whatever discs get thrown at you. Or that you "acquire" on the cheap.

Hence dual format burners, ones that burn to both DVD-R and DVD+R. I have one, the MSI DR8-A or something like that. It is an 8 speed burner, which at the moment is the fastest on the market. 2 speed is rather slow. As is 4 speed at that. So what you want is an 8 speed dual format burner. Still with me?

What cookie and Bullett were talking about, dual layer. Well, you know how sometimes you are watching a DVD, there is a slight pause and then it carries on? That was it changing layer. Some DVD movies have so much data in them that they are bigger than a single layer blank DVD. At the moment all the DVD burners are single layer. Dual layer burners will be out soon. With a software upgrade that Pioneer driver that there was a link to will burn dual layer blank DVDs.

Unless you are likely to be copying DVDs, it isn't that big a deal. What they were also saying is that if you wait until they come out, then single layer burners might become really cheap so that they flog them quickly because they are then no longer the latest technology.

Now then, OEM drives... Some of the cheap drives you see on ebuyer or some other places are just the drive, not like you would buy out of PC World with a bunch of software etc. Now, until recently that was a bad idea because then you would need to spend an extra £40 on the burner software. However, [URL]www.cdburnerxp.se[/URL] is a freeware burning package and it works just about as well as the full versions of Nero etc. In short, it is amazing.

So back to drives...
Sounds good [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=56658[/URL] and also in black for a few quid more.

Nice fast retail drive [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=55438[/URL]

Cheapest, but I'm not so sure about it [URL]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=59360[/URL]

Ebuyer are probably the cheapest.

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