[news] - XBIT - Ten DVD-Burners Roundup
- Thread starter Handruin
- Start date
The JoJo
Wannabe Storage Freak
DVD burners have gone down in price a LOT in the past six months.
We bought a Plextor burner to my previous workplace, and it cost something like 360 euros. Now the same thing is something like 200 euros.
I think some of my first cd burners cost about 250 euros....? Something like 2x (of course the currency then wasn't the euro...´).
We bought a Plextor burner to my previous workplace, and it cost something like 360 euros. Now the same thing is something like 200 euros.
I think some of my first cd burners cost about 250 euros....? Something like 2x (of course the currency then wasn't the euro...´).
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I remember when I bought my first CD burner and it was $350 for a 2X drive. That would have been in 1996 or 1997, I can't remember for sure.
I have my old 2x burner sitting in the closet. I believe it still works, it was a matsushita (panasonic) 2x4 50 pin SCSI drive. I got this back in 98 from my friend who had it sitting around from a warranty return which gateway never claimed. He had it returned because the drive tray made too much noise...it works fine. 
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Handruin said:I have my old 2x burner sitting in the closet. I believe it still works, it was a matsushita (panasonic) 2x4 50 pin SCSI drive. I got this back in 98 from my friend who had it sitting around from a warranty return which gateway never claimed. He had it returned because the drive tray made too much noise...it works fine.
And he gave it to you for free in '98? If so that was a great deal.
Yes he gave it to me for free. I lucked out big time because there was no way I could afford one at that time. I helped him with his computer all the time, so it was a form of payment I guess.
I went out and bought the diamond fireport 40 to run this drive at that time and I may have given that SCSI card to Clocker when I cleaned out my closet.
I went out and bought the diamond fireport 40 to run this drive at that time and I may have given that SCSI card to Clocker when I cleaned out my closet.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
I used a few of those Diamond Fireport SCSI controllers. They were 60 or 70% of the price of an Adaptec and worked just fine. Good, solid products.
I've had a Pioneer DVR-106 for almost a month now. I'm not sure why they reviewed the older DVR-105 in the article. But the DVR-106 works great. It burns DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW flawlessly so far. Hypermicro has them for $220. This is my first experience with DVD recorders and I'm sold on them now. I've transfered all my CD-R files onto DVDs reduced the rats nest of disks I had to a minimum.
Sorry to dig up an old topic. I noticed that compusa has the pioneer DVR-A06 (4x2.4x12 Internal IDE DVD+/-R +/-RW Drive) for $199 and I'm interested in purchasing this unit.
Based on this link the DVR-A06 is the same physical drive as the DVR-106, except it comes with authoring software. Can anyone confirm?
Seems like a good drive based on Flagreen's comments and the review at cdrinfo. Flagreen, have you noticed anything bad with this drive so far? My primary use for this drive will be large backups and occasional video recording. What brand media do you recommend for this drive? CDRInfo has a large list, but I wanted to hear your thoughts.
Compusa also has a DVD X copy for $29, so I thought I might buy that too...anyone use this product yet?
Based on this link the DVR-A06 is the same physical drive as the DVR-106, except it comes with authoring software. Can anyone confirm?
Seems like a good drive based on Flagreen's comments and the review at cdrinfo. Flagreen, have you noticed anything bad with this drive so far? My primary use for this drive will be large backups and occasional video recording. What brand media do you recommend for this drive? CDRInfo has a large list, but I wanted to hear your thoughts.
Compusa also has a DVD X copy for $29, so I thought I might buy that too...anyone use this product yet?
Jake the Dog
Storage is cool
I have the A06 and I'm very happy with it. I've yet to have it fail to write on the various media's I've tried (Verbatim, Melody, Princo, Ricoh & Shintaro. mainly -R & +RW). IIRC, 106 is bundled with almost the same software so you may be better of saving a few $$$ and getting that instead.
One thing to note; there is no region-free firmware for this drive, atm[/t].
One thing to note; there is no region-free firmware for this drive, atm[/t].
I can only echo Jake's comments. It is the same drive by the way. The A06 is the retail verision. But the write speed for CDs is 16X not 12X on the both. I have used Memorex DVD-Rs and DVD-RW, Verbatim DVD+RW and TDK DVD-Rs all without any problem. I just noticed that Hypermicro has the DVR-106 for only $179.00 now (no software). I love mine!
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Handruin said:
I would have a look at DVD Shrink for free before paying for DVD X Copy ( www.dvdshrink.org ) They have the 3.0 Beta out - it's on the where page, at the bottom. It doesn't have burning functionality however, but you could use whatever software comes with the Pioneer drive for that.
Jake the Dog
Storage is cool
good call Pradeep. DVDShrink works great on my A06, both v2.3 and v3.b5.
the OEM drive (106) should still come with Nero5.5 (at least in Aus it does) and Nero 5.5 can happily burn DVDShrunk rips :wink:
the OEM drive (106) should still come with Nero5.5 (at least in Aus it does) and Nero 5.5 can happily burn DVDShrunk rips :wink:
Well, I bought the drive tonight. I could have saved a few $ by purchasing online, but it's tough getting deliveries in an apartment. UPS always gives it to my next door neighbor, who I don't know. I'm afraid one of these days they'll figure out I like PC components and keep them.
Being as I'm new to the DVD arena, what media format is better, the "+" or "-"? As I wasn't sure, I bought a 4-pack of DVD-R media with the drive. I couldn't find 4X in anything under a 50-pack with a price of $100. So I bought the 4-pack of 2X until I can find some decent deals on DVD media. I could have bought the DVD+R media, but I thought it wasn't as good as DVD-R. I'll have to dig through google to find the pro's and con's of each type.
Being as I'm new to the DVD arena, what media format is better, the "+" or "-"? As I wasn't sure, I bought a 4-pack of DVD-R media with the drive. I couldn't find 4X in anything under a 50-pack with a price of $100.
So I bought the 4-pack of 2X until I can find some decent deals on DVD media. I could have bought the DVD+R media, but I thought it wasn't as good as DVD-R. I'll have to dig through google to find the pro's and con's of each type.I'll probably have some more questions once I get this thing plugged in and burning DVD's. This drive burns CD's faster than any CD-RW drive I've ever owned.
Thanks for the links for dvdshrink, I'll be checking that out soon.
Thanks for the links for dvdshrink, I'll be checking that out soon.
From what I've read the + is supposed to give better image quality. My DVD player only plays - so I haven't burned any DVD+R videos yet.
I've only used 2X so far as well. The 4X are too expensive and hard to find.
DVD Shrink is a god send for backing up DVD's.
I've only used 2X so far as well. The 4X are too expensive and hard to find.
DVD Shrink is a god send for backing up DVD's.
This may be old news, but this link has a nice list of compatible home DVD players. Looks like my home DVD player is compatible with DVD+R.
The 2X discs were fairly common at compusa...the 4x packs only cam in spools of 50 for $100. That's a bit too risky for my blood, so I bought a 4 pack to learn on.
So far I'm enjoying DVDShrink. I've also found DVD Decrypt which has the ability to burn as well as decrypt DVD's.
I've been trying like hell to put a car video on my DVD - RW so that it will play on my DVD player. So far no luck. I can get the pioneer drive to play it, but no other DVD drives can play the disk.
Is it just me, or does the lead-out of burning a DVD take forever? (so far I've only used the DVD - RW disk as I'm too afraid to waste the expensive media I bought)
The 2X discs were fairly common at compusa...the 4x packs only cam in spools of 50 for $100. That's a bit too risky for my blood, so I bought a 4 pack to learn on.
So far I'm enjoying DVDShrink. I've also found DVD Decrypt which has the ability to burn as well as decrypt DVD's.
I've been trying like hell to put a car video on my DVD - RW so that it will play on my DVD player. So far no luck. I can get the pioneer drive to play it, but no other DVD drives can play the disk.
Is it just me, or does the lead-out of burning a DVD take forever? (so far I've only used the DVD - RW disk as I'm too afraid to waste the expensive media I bought)
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Handruin said:
Yup lead out takes a long time. It does seem faster on the 4x discs.
Lots of players have no problem playing back DVD-R, but have issues with DVD-RW. If it's playing back OK on the -RW in your computer then just make a -R burn, it should work fine in your home player. At least with +RW I find you need to close the session for any non PC drive to read it successfully.
There is no picture quality diff between + and -, the encoding quality is up to the software being used. I just tend to use whatever media is cheapest at the time.
Hypermicro has some good prices on DVD media. I've had good luck using the Lead Data 1x rated at 2x on my Sony 500A. At around $80 for a spindle of 100 it's hard to beat. Looks like they also have some 4x for $99 per 100.
Retail stores are pretty crappy places to buy media unless they have the massive discounts you speak of.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
As a rule:
DVD-R > DVD +R > DVD-RW > DVD+RW
...with ranges from 95% of current DVD-ROM mechanisms supporting DVD-R down to 80something% for DVD+RW. Historically (comparing DVD-writable media to all DVD readers that have ever been made), compatibility isn't quite so good as that (topping out at around 66% for DVD-R, apparently), but it's becoming less an issue as more people buy newer readers.
This is from notes for a class I teach. No sources handy.
Also: I can't find any image quality differences between different media, having put the same source material on different discs. Just like the people who claim that pressed CDs sound better than the copy you made in the burner, I think.
DVD+RW is indeed a better deal for DVR use. On a PC, there's no practical difference between the formats otherwise, but for set-top DVRs, the fact that the +RW format allows inplace editing does make it a little better.
I recommend DVD-R for writing and DVD+RW for rewriting.
DVD-R > DVD +R > DVD-RW > DVD+RW
...with ranges from 95% of current DVD-ROM mechanisms supporting DVD-R down to 80something% for DVD+RW. Historically (comparing DVD-writable media to all DVD readers that have ever been made), compatibility isn't quite so good as that (topping out at around 66% for DVD-R, apparently), but it's becoming less an issue as more people buy newer readers.
This is from notes for a class I teach. No sources handy.
Also: I can't find any image quality differences between different media, having put the same source material on different discs. Just like the people who claim that pressed CDs sound better than the copy you made in the burner, I think.
DVD+RW is indeed a better deal for DVR use. On a PC, there's no practical difference between the formats otherwise, but for set-top DVRs, the fact that the +RW format allows inplace editing does make it a little better.
I recommend DVD-R for writing and DVD+RW for rewriting.
Jake the Dog
Storage is cool
Mercutio said:
I second that recommendation.
Thanks for the helpful tips on DVD writing, now I understand the differences better.
I was able to burn my first DVD video for a friend of mine. The DVD worked in all three DVD drives I have, one being my home drive. I was a bit puzzled at how jerky the video was...it had this weird flashy/refresh issue on my TV.
I need to find a guide that outlines recording video for DVD playback. The video I recorded has a very high bit rate, so I wonder if that was part of the problem. Using my ATI radeo (not the all in wonder) I recorded in 720x480 at 29.97FPS 1411KB per/sec.
I was able to burn my first DVD video for a friend of mine. The DVD worked in all three DVD drives I have, one being my home drive. I was a bit puzzled at how jerky the video was...it had this weird flashy/refresh issue on my TV.
I need to find a guide that outlines recording video for DVD playback. The video I recorded has a very high bit rate, so I wonder if that was part of the problem. Using my ATI radeo (not the all in wonder) I recorded in 720x480 at 29.97FPS 1411KB per/sec.
I'm sorry, I wasn't clear when I wrote that. The raw video has a bit rate at 1411KB/s and when I created the DVD video, I chose 6 Mbit/sec for the DVD (mpeg2 file was created). The video looks very "liney" as though it was severly interlaced or something. My source video may be the problem, I'll have to look into another way to digitize it.
Anyone use one of these analog to DV converters? I'm interested in finding a way to capture analog video and this looks like a solution. I've read two positive reviews so far.
canopus advc-50
canopus advc-50
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
If you are recording TV or VHS then you can probably drop the rez down from 720*480. Is the playback jerky on your computer? Perhaps you were dropping frames during capture?
I don't understand how you got a bit rate of 1411KB/sec when capturing 720*480? I've tried capturing that uncompressed and my X15s can barely keep up. You captured with some kind of compression, then compressed it again to get the MPEG2 file?
I don't understand how you got a bit rate of 1411KB/sec when capturing 720*480? I've tried capturing that uncompressed and my X15s can barely keep up. You captured with some kind of compression, then compressed it again to get the MPEG2 file?
I captured a VHS using my Radeon 64DDR and I don't believe it had any compression. (The capture was done using adobe Premiere) I chose 720x480 because I thought that was the native TV resolution. The playback is slightly jerky on my pc, but I think it's due to the high bit rate.
I captured to my atlas 10KIII and it barely captured the file, however I made sure there was no frame drops. (Premiere has that chart to show data rate and frame drops and I had none.)
The video is 1:14 in length, 720 x 480, 1.5GB in size, and as far as I can tell, there is no compression on the video. (well..now that I look at my own screen capture, it does say MS-YUV as a compression.)
And...it looks like I got my "b" incorrect. I wrote 1411KB and it should be 1411kb.
I captured to my atlas 10KIII and it barely captured the file, however I made sure there was no frame drops. (Premiere has that chart to show data rate and frame drops and I had none.)
The video is 1:14 in length, 720 x 480, 1.5GB in size, and as far as I can tell, there is no compression on the video. (well..now that I look at my own screen capture, it does say MS-YUV as a compression.)
And...it looks like I got my "b" incorrect. I wrote 1411KB and it should be 1411kb.
Handruin said:
I use one made by Sony - model DVMC-DA2 (no longer available) - and it's worked fine for close to two years now for me.
You can do the same thing with many Camcorders if they have an iLink connection and you have a firewire port on your PC.
Oops, you're right, that was the audio bit rate.The file does not skip on my machine, but the hard drive LED glows solid which I play the video.
I have not tried converting it because my ignorance thought it was not compressed. I thought UYVY was a capture method, not a compression, but I'm probably way off track. I'll give TMPGEnc a shot to see what happens.
FWIW, I did convert this large 1.5GB file to MPEG2 using the ulead software that came with my A06. The file is now 26MB compared to the 1.5 GB of the original file. Should I convert it using TMPGEnc and then turn it into the mpeg2, or does TMPGEnc convert right to mpeg2...(going to read about it now)
flagreen said:
I don't have a camcorder or anything with an iLink setup, that's why I was interested in the canopus unit. I'm guessing if I capture video from a VCR that it comes over in a raw format. (no compression) Then I can edit it and compress to MPEG2 and place on DVD...that was my hope anyway. I have a couple firewire connections which I assume this unit connects to.
Whatever you capture it with on your PC is going to compress it. It won't be uncompressed. To capture in DV you will need a converter like the canopus one you mentioned.
But to be honest you'd be better off buying a DVD / VCR player which a firewire or iLink out connection. When I bought my converter no one made a DVD player like that. But I'm pretty sure they do now.
But to be honest you'd be better off buying a DVD / VCR player which a firewire or iLink out connection. When I bought my converter no one made a DVD player like that. But I'm pretty sure they do now.
I'm converting a file now using TMPGEnc. It's going to take about 30 minutes, so I'll let it run while I sleep.
Thanks for the help, this utility lookslike it might do the trick. It has way more option than I expected. (which is a good thing) I'm not sure why it is creating two files. (one audio, one video) I'll have to read through the help and learn how to use this tool.
Thanks for the help, this utility lookslike it might do the trick. It has way more option than I expected. (which is a good thing) I'm not sure why it is creating two files. (one audio, one video) I'll have to read through the help and learn how to use this tool.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
I don't know of any DVD players with Firewire connections. The studios don't want you copying digitally.
Certain D-VHS decks have Firewire input/output, apparently works great for recording in HD, then transferring to the PC for editing etc. But your looking at $500+
The camcorders that I know of that allow you to use the analog ins and convert to DV and output on the FW interface are the Sony Digital 8s. The others tend not to AFAIK.
Apparently the DV capture devices such as the Canopus etc convert the incoming anlog video/audio into DV format, and send that over the FW interface. So it is already pre-compressed. I don't know if there is a "raw" option.
Perhaps you could try capturing on the fly to MPEG 2?
Certain D-VHS decks have Firewire input/output, apparently works great for recording in HD, then transferring to the PC for editing etc. But your looking at $500+
The camcorders that I know of that allow you to use the analog ins and convert to DV and output on the FW interface are the Sony Digital 8s. The others tend not to AFAIK.
Apparently the DV capture devices such as the Canopus etc convert the incoming anlog video/audio into DV format, and send that over the FW interface. So it is already pre-compressed. I don't know if there is a "raw" option.
Perhaps you could try capturing on the fly to MPEG 2?