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Technology

Which DVD-Recordable Drives? 201

Posted by Hemos from the which-one-to-get dept.
We've had a couple stories recently about DVD-RW and such. I'm wondering what ones out there people have used, how well they work, what's the support etc etc. I'm also still on my quest to build the ultimate quiet machine, so any comment on the amount of noise the drive generates would be great - I love my Yamaha Drive for burning - but it's a *loud* one.
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Which DVD-Recordable Drives? More

Which DVD-Recordable Drives?

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  • I recently got a plextor 16x burner, man that thing is super fast and super quiet.

  • Dual layer (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sabalon ( 1684 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:00PM (#2287626)
    The linked-to article mentions 9.6 GB - isn't that dual layer, and don't all the current DVD-R drives coming out now just support single layer (4.8GB)?

    So, when will be see dual-layer DVD-R's - the MPAA's true nightmare. Or even better, the quad layered DVD's that the spec originally had in it for 17+GB!!! :)

    • Re:Dual layer (Score:3, Informative)

      by gmplague ( 412185 )
      Double-sided discs. (4.8 + 4.8 = 9.6)

    • Re:Dual layer (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      IIRC The 17+GB Discs were 2 sides of dual layers. Not single-sided quad-layered.

    • Dual layer discs have less than 9.6GB per side. Sorry, I can't remember the number off-hand. I think one of the limitations of dual layering is that you don't get double 4.8GB.

    • Re:Dual layer (Score:3, Informative)

      by Telek ( 410366 )
      the "quad layer" was really a double sided dual layer disk for 17.1GB if I remember correctly.
      • I though I remember in the original specs something about 4 layers per disk and 4 different laser frequencies or colors or something like that, which made me think that when pushed to it's max, DVD's could hold the 4 layers on one side...could put all the episodes of some of the failed TV shows on one DVD.

        Automan on one DVD :)

    • Re:Dual layer (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:03PM (#2288002)
      The discs referred to in the article have been "hacked" with a hole puncher. Users will now be sued by the RIAA, MPAA, and the producer of the disc, because doubling the capacity steals their revenues.
      • Ah yes, the infamous flippy floppy... I remember it well! I still have a box of some 5 1/4 disks from an old TRS-80 Model III that I punched to double the capacity. This, of course, was back when a box of 10 5 1/4 floppies single-sided floppies cost $25.00.

  • www.dvdwriters.co.uk (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:05PM (#2287664)
    This web site is good for news on DVD recording
    technology:

    http://www.dvdwriters.co.uk

  • Slightly offtopic (Score:2, Interesting)

    by halftrack ( 454203 )
    Is DVD+RW going to be the next DVD-burning standard? (That's what I've heard) Isn't it the only standard wich will burn DVD's that can be played in a DVD-movie-player for the TV? Where is DVD-R and DVD-RAM in this?

    • I think its DVD-R (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ZxCv ( 6138 )
      IIRC, it's actually DVD-R that can be played in regular DVD movie players. As far as I've seen, the new Mac G4's that have the SuperDrive, which is specifically touted as being able to make DVDs which work in the movie players, is a DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive. Maybe DVD-RW can also be played in DVD movie players, but I am fairly sure it is the DVD-R drives which are mainly being promoted as DVD player compatible...

    • Re:Slightly offtopic (Score:5, Informative)

      by Namarrgon ( 105036 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:10PM (#2288031) Homepage
      Here [dvdplusrw.org] is a lot of good info about DVD+RW.

      From what it says there, DVD+RW is both cheaper and more compatible than DVD-RW, for about the same capacity. DVD+RW uses a slightly different technique that reduces gaps between data to give compatibility with the "vast majority" of existing DVD players. It is also apparently more flexible in burning compatible discs, 7x faster to close the session, and allows erasing of individual sections, rather than just the whole disc.

      HP are shipping their first dvd100i DVD+RW drive this month for US$599. DVD+RW media will reportedly sell for about US$16 (compared to the US$24 I've seen for DVD-RW media). Philips have announced their standalone DVD+RW unit, and will ship the bare drive in October.

      Apparently, initial units will only support DVD+RW/DVD-ROM/CD-R/CD-RW/CD-ROM, but DVD+R (analogous to DVD-R, but apparently also cheaper/more compatible) is promised shortly via a firmware upgrade. DVD-R media support may also be available.

      FWIW, my own experiences with DVD-R are mixed; 2 of the 4 DVD players and DVD-ROM drives I've tried DVD-R discs with would not recognise the discs at all. I plan to get a dvd100i as soon as they're available :-)

  • I recommend... (Score:1, Troll)

    by Anonymous Coward
    the AWTEC Pleraziba 6313D.

    Supported by windooze and linux.

    I have no clues about the *BSD support, though.

    The large windooze software bundle is cool, too.

    It makes rarely any noticable noise.
  • recently purchased the 16x scsi (i believe 2100S is the model #) and i agree, it is extremely noisy. i sometimes fear the cds will literally be torn apart by the vibration, but they haven't so far, and it's quite fast. i haven't had the first buffer underrun or any other burning error.. well except for when i tried to burn at 16x on cd's only made to handle 8x.
    • I had a friend who purchased a yamaha drive that was noisy when burning. He took it back to the store and got a new one which did not have this problem. It seems that there was a batch of drives that had this problem.
      • yeah, had i checked the reviews on the drive before purchasing i would have seen that they (or at least the first batch as you mentioned) had this problem. i thought of returning it, but since i invariably have mp3s or movies or tv playing, it doesn't bother me enough to ship it back to CA..
    • I have the 2100S too, purchased it last saturday, and i haven't managed to overburn with it, my previous recorder was a 6x teac, and i had no problems burning 712MB on a 700MB samsung CDs, the yamaha denies to overburn :(. Somebody else with this problem?

  • This may seem obvious but.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sir_Real ( 179104 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:23PM (#2287795)
    Will these drives allow dvd ripping analogous to the cd ripping we're seeing now. Will people be able to rent a dvd, and copy it?

    • Re:This may seem obvious but.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by SuiteSisterMary ( 123932 ) <slebrunNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:31PM (#2287838) Journal
      No, not as such, because the DVD ring that stores the CSS key is zeroed out on blank DVDs. That having been said, you could, in theory, run a DVD through DeCSS then burn the unencrypted video to the disc, but there are DVD players out there that won't play unencrypted video.

      • Re:This may seem obvious but.. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by (void*) ( 113680 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:50PM (#2287940)
        Which goes to show that the DVD Consortium thinks about YOUR copyrights. They are allowed to use CSS to scramble their disks for their "copyright protection", but someone who wants to protect their own creation must pay up and join in their cartel. Why?
      • Hey, I usually live in Mississauga too, perhaps I know you =P.

        Are you sure that there are players that won't play unencrypted DVDs? Because I have a pack here of unencrypted DVDs, and they seem to work fine in all DVD players around here. (Mind you, I am in France right now). However I'd assume that any video that's not copyright or protected (i.e. broadcasted TV, or perhaps commercials or music videos or those "how to use your super duper vacuum!" VHS tapes that you get, I'm sure they don't need to be encrypted. ?

      • Re:This may seem obvious but.. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Molf ( 265303 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:55PM (#2287963) Homepage
        "there are DVD players out there that won't play unencrypted video"
        Are you serious? What about all of the *legal* films (and other multimedia whatevers) which are on unencrypted DVDs? I personally own an unencrypted DVD - it came with Diablo 2 and contains all the cinematic sequences, plus a lot of other stuff. Are there companies that make DVD players which *intentionally* won't play my DVD, simply because they can't distinguish it from one that *might* be pirated? What happens when people start burning home video to DVD, without encrypting it? Tough luck? If this is true, and especially if the players are not advertised as having this `feature' (which must surely be illegal, as it would be unable to play a disc conforming to the DVD standard), I fail to see how the manufacturers would justify it. The purpose may be reasonable, but taking away a person's right to use something they legally own is most definitely not.
        Wait a minute, that argument seems vaguely familiar...

        • Non-conforming players (was Re:This may seem...) (Score:4, Insightful)

          by pastie ( 80784 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:45PM (#2288179)

          ...which must surely be illegal, as it would be unable to play a disc conforming to the DVD standard

          Sorry, but there is no way that players not conforming to the standard are `illegal' in the sense of the law. If they were, then there would be many manufacturers of early DVD players who would be being sued by consumers for non-100%-conforming players, which wouldn't play their discs properly.

          Hmmm, consortium-based standards.
          • Sorry, I understand; I didn't state myself well. I really meant that it would presumably be in violation of trading standard to sell a device which purports to follow one standard, but instead acts in a way which breaks part of it - much as people have suggested that the recent copy-protected CDs should not be labelled as CDs, because they do not conform to the standard. I hope that clears it up (of course, I still could be way off. Ah well).
      • " there are DVD players out there that won't play unencrypted video."

        Aren't unencrypted discs officially region 0, or something like thar? I find it hard to believe that players would have this limitation.
        • I am not sure of the details, but I have some region-free discs (which I suspect are hong-kong knock-offs) that won't play in my toshiba but will play in my Apex. A sales-rep at FutureShop claimed that to be region free they had to be unencrypted, but I don't trust people paid minimum wage + commision to have a clue. My understanding was that no region really meant "all regions".
          • I believe that in the early days, some Hollywood discs actually went out without CSS, or were region free. Of course, they keep quiet about them to protect the sales of more expensive versions in other markets. The DVD FAQ has lots and lots of good info [dvddemystified.com].

            I too have had experiences with FutureShop reps: I tried to buy a multi-DVD player/changer and told them that I needed one that supports CD-Rs... they told me that they only had one that handled CD-Rs, and it just happened to be the most expensive one there. After getting it home, I found that it didn't support CD-R's at all. Wankers! One of the few reasons I use FutureShop is their good returns policy ;)
      • Really? We release a good percentage of our discs without CSS encryption, and haven't had any reports of player problems. Either this is a REALLY tiny minority of players, or it's just not true.
      • I think we should promote the usage of open systems - like linux boxes - for widespread playing and processing of media, in liu of "industry standard" dvd/pvr/cd/etc devices. Such promotion would help competition, and bring prices down... but more importantly, hardware manufacturers will be more reluctant to make stealth changes to hardware if there is a large user base of open standard systems that will take notice and be alienated. Example: if it is true that there are dvd players that will only play encrypted media, it may be only a matter of time until all dvd players are like that.

      • Re:This may seem obvious but.. (Score:5, Informative)

        by Beatlebum ( 213957 ) on Thursday September 13, 2001 @12:44AM (#2290584)
        Horse-shite. Another /.er with an elevated opinion of what he actually knows.

        1) There are 2 DVD standards

        a) DVD for authoring
        b) DVD for general use.

        2) DVD for authoring DVD-Rs can only be burned on drives that support this standard. Currently the cheapest of these drives is still $5k+

        3) DVD for general use does not support encryption or region coding.

        4) 99% of standalone DVD players built in the last 18 months support DVD or General Use DVD-Rs.

        5) It is completely possible to copy a commercial (DVD authoring std) to a DVD-R for general use, however, it must be decrypted first. It must also fit onto a 4.7G DVD-R disk, 75% of commercial DVDs will not fit. I have verified that it is possible to produce a perfect digital copy of a commercial disk.

        6) There is a lot of misinformation floating around re: DVD-RW & DVD+RW. Both standards work well withe existing h/w. There is not much to choose between them.

        7) I have the Pioneer A03 IDE DVD-RW drive. It's an excellent piece of h/w and can be purchased for $650. I have used it for burning home movies (boy, is that a long process!) and for data backup.

        8) DVD-R media can be had for $8. DVD-RW for $21. Checkout www.meritline.com if you don't believe me.
        • It must also fit onto a 4.7G DVD-R disk, 75% of commercial DVDs will not fit.

          What you're saying is that 75% of commercial DVDs can't be copied onto the DVD media that 99% of us will use, right?
          • Basically, yes....

            4.75G is basically a single layer one sided disc... most DVD's out there these days are actually double layer... most movies are between 5G and 7.5G depending on extra tracks, etc...

            BUT... You might select what audio/video streams you want to copy, reduce the total size and fit it in a DVD-R most of the time... but it would loose the authoring made on the original DVD (menu's and all that)... and you will need an authoring tool to make a simple menu for you stripped down mpeg-2 file.

            Haven't seen a free authoring tool yet... they either run from cheap/simple to expen$ive/full authoring.

            I've only used a trial version of dvdit, quite simple to use though...
    • We can already rent DVDs and copy them. It's called DeCSS/VOBDEC/etc.

      As far as comparing "DVD ripping" to "cd ripping", they're completely different things. DVDs use a normal ISO9660 file system, and the movie is stored as encrypted files.

      "DVD ripping" is just copying the file and decrypting it. A 1x DVD-ROM from way back can rip DVDs.

      • Can you suggest any site, that have DVD ripping instructions? The only ones I have found are for DivX, and seem quite tedious. I'ld like to ripp some, so that when I fly out to AR I can watch a few Sopranos. Then again, who knows if the airlines will even be flying then...
        • If you have a big enough hard drive on the laptop (I'm assuming), there's no need to compress the file with DivX to watch it. Just rip it to your hard drive and use a software player like PowerDVD to play the decrypted .vob files.

          This is what I do with Netflix rentals. As soon as I get a DVD I rip them to my hard drive and send the DVD back. Then I watch it when I want to. If I like it, I'll compress it with DivX, otherwise I'll just delete the .vob files.

          From ripping I use SmartRipper. I've used CladDVD in the past which is also good.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • DVDs use a normal ISO9660 file system, and the movie is stored as encrypted files.

        Nope, they use a normal UDF filesystem, but otherwise, you're correct.

  • ON TOPIC (Score:5, Informative)

    by firewort ( 180062 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:36PM (#2287868)
    There are two widely used mechanisms for consumer priced DVD recording drives.

    There is the Pioneer DRV-103/A03 unit that is used in the G4 Power Macintosh computers.

    It is a DVD-R / DVD-RW /CD-RW/CD-R drive.

    It writes and rewrites DVD and CD media, and it's DVD movies are playable in set top box DVD players.

    The other prevalent drive is a Panasonic unit that is DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, CD (no CD recording, just playback.)

    Plextor, Yamaha and others are largely reselling these mechanisms.

    Expect to pay about 500-1000 dollars US for one of these units. These are DVD General drives, and cannot be used as Masters for DVD reproduction use. The DVD Authoring drives are SCSI, cost upwards of $5000, and the only one I know if is a Pioneer unit. (Doesn't mean there aren't others, but I haven't done my homework to find them.)

    God bless America, and may her enemies cower in fear.

  • DVD+RW (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:37PM (#2287875)
    the DVD+RW drives coming out soon will likely be the best balance of compatibility and flexibility, since the drives burn discs usable in almost all standard DVD players, not to mention CDR and CD-RW discs. Also, from what i understand, the upgradable firmware will allow for when future capacity increases.

  • good site for information (Score:3, Informative)

    by Villain ( 19081 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:40PM (#2287891)
    This article [cdmediaworld.com] at cdmediaworld has good reviews as well as links to other sites with reviews.

  • Compatability not much of an issue. (Score:5, Informative)

    by davco9200 ( 13848 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:40PM (#2287898) Homepage
    People have likened this latest round of DVD-RW and DVD+RW to the beta v. VHS wars, but a crucial distinction is the fact that both drives will read each other's wares.

    Check out

    http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#4.3 [dvddemystified.com] for a nice compatability grid.

    Because of that, I would go for price or bundled software.

  • heres quite (Score:4, Funny)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @03:43PM (#2287909) Homepage Journal
    What ever you get, make it an external scsi, and then put the drive 6 meters away,in a closet.

    You said nothing about convinent...;)

    Actually putting it in an external case may make it less audible.
    • External SCSI cases are loud. I've owned a number of them and finally just ended up putting them interna because the noise was so bad. Most of the noise comes from the fans used to cool the power supply of the external case. Also, a lot of higher-end CD-RWs/DVD-RWs have their own fans, which generally are not the quiet ones. I have an old 4x SCSI CD-R that is noisy as hell, I can't put it in my server (which is in my room) because it's too loud at night. The closet idea might work, however.. as long as you don't overstep the distance limitations of SCSI (I forget what they are offhand.) In that case, there's always FireWire.... :)
  • is the Mac Superdrive... I think someone(s) else has already pointed out that it is the drive made by Pioneer.

    I haven't done much with it, as the computer it is in is not mine and I only got to use it for a day (so very sad).

  • Linux Support? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Great_Jehovah ( 3984 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:09PM (#2288022)
    Do any of the DVD-R drives work under Linux just for archiving data? It would be nice to make video DVD's but I would just like to use them to make backups.

  • max pc (Score:3, Informative)

    by RestiffBard ( 110729 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:13PM (#2288039) Homepage
    the sept. ish of max pc has a pretty interesting and informative article on the new formats and drives coming down the pike for dvd recording. I don't believe it's online at maximum pc [maximumpc.com] but its on the newsstands and max pc is a pretty great mag. its their dream machine issue.

  • Making Yamaha drives quiet (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:16PM (#2288055)
    I had a really noisy Yamaha burner as well. This was a bit of a problem for me as I have wrapped all of his hard-drives (and lined all of his cases) with rubber matting, underclocked all CPU's and removed all fans in an effort to make my "server room" (home office) quiet.
    With all machines totally, truly silent (except for one with a really old hard-drive) the Yamaha sounded like a damn airplane!
    Luckily I had an empty bay underneath so I just took the bottom of the drive housing off, unplugged the original fan and put a much quieter case fan under it, pointing up at the only chip which got hot.
    It still makes some noise while it's actually burning, but at least it's no worse than a normal CD drive. That factory fan is the culprit!
    • <aol mode>Me too!</aol mode>

      My Yamaha CRW-8424 has a horrible little 25mm fan in it that makes more noise than the rest of my PC together (partly thanks to QuietPC [quietpc.com]). I'm just waiting for Papst [papst.com] to actually have stock of their funky temperature sensitive quiet fans in 25mm... Apart from that, and no CD-TEXT support, it's a great little drive though.
  • Personally, I intend to buy this standalone unit [panasonic.com], which not only records DVD-R, but also has DVD-RAM functionality, and can be connected to a computer for use as well. I watch most of my DVDs in the living room, and most of what I want to record is either on TV, or available from other equipment that is part of my A/V, not my office, setup.

  • Writable DVD (Score:5, Informative)

    by JBob-S ( 264875 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @04:29PM (#2288118)

    Back when DVD-ROMs were first developed, pleas to include "linking areas," also called "run-in" on magnetic media, were ignored. This meant that there would be no space to write bits to allow the data clock to be recovered. This is not a problem with a continuously written disc, as the "earlier" data can be used.

    However, with most technologies, the start of writing can vary hundreds of bits from its nominal location. This means that if you write sector 1, and later write sector 2 on its tail, there is no way to align the data clock to the data in time to read the data of sector 2, since the first bits are used to recover the clock.

    DVD-RAM addressed this problem by introducing a new format. There are small embossed address headers to mark where each sector might be, and a small written run-in for each recorded sector. This media is highly susceptible to scratches, since the embossed headers are easily obscured by dust or a scratch. Also, having the embossed headers means that these discs are INCOMPATIBLE with DVD-ROM drives.

    DVD-RAM discs also use land/groove recording. This means changes to the servo mechanism just to follow the track. A DVD-ROM drive must add in special reader circuitry to handle the data coding, different block architecture (ROMs use blocks of 16 sectors), different servos for land/groove structure, etc. DVD-RAM is endorsed by the DVD Forum, so is the "official" format.

    DVD-RW is also endorsed by the DVD Forum, but for video use. Its intended application for reliable use is to not put data in the first block where you first start writing (it becomes your run-in). The "link point" where writing begins and ends occurs about 1.5 sectors into the 16 sector block. This means that the first 1.5 sectors, while readable, have unrelated data to what you just recorded! Also, some amount of the beginning of what you did write will be unreadable because the data clock needs to be recovered, and the words synchronized to a sync mark. Realistically, the first two sectors will be trashed in any sector that contains a link point. These sectors are recoverable by ECC, but it severely reduces the amount of recovery that can be done on your real data!

    DVD-RW uses a shallow, low frequency, wobbled groove with some high frequency "ticks" (occurring at a low frequency) to gain some positional accuracy. These ticks are extremely susceptible to dirt, etc.

    Overall, DVD-RW is best used as a re-usable DVD-R.

    DVD+RW uses a shallow wobbled groove. However, this wobble is a continuous high frequency, and uses phase modulation to contain address information. The link point is a few bytes from the end of the sector, meaning that only a few bytes are sacrificed to the ECC gods (instead of 4K in the case of DVD-RW), and sufficient data exists to act as the run-in for the newly written sector.

    The logical layout of DVD+RW is identical to the logical layout of DVD-ROMs. Any drive that conforms to the DVD-ROM standards will read a DVD+RW disc. Unfortunately, some manufacturers took shortcuts (like assuming a low reflectivity disc is a dual layer disc, rather than reading the proper parameter from the media).

    The design characteristics of DVD+RW are such that it works well for randomly written data, and is compatible with DVD-ROM drives.

    In short, DVD-RAM only works if the reader was deliberately designed to read it. DVD-RW is readable by properly designed ROM readers, but is a very fragile format. Finally, DVD+RW is readable in properly designed ROM readers, and has the most robust inherent design.

    Standards that describe these DVD formats are available from ECMA [www.ecma.ch].

    Disclaimer: I work for HP, and used to work in their DVD group. Opinions expressed here are mine, not HPs.

    • Re:Writable DVD - Slightly OT (Score:4, Interesting)

      by FastT ( 229526 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @06:20PM (#2288981) Homepage Journal
      Who the hell decided to use the abbreviations "DVD-RW" and "DVD+RW" for two significantly different formats? These couldn't be more confusing, especially since there is no clear way to even verbally articulate the difference. Why not "DVD-RW1" and "DVD-RW2"? Hasn't the hardware industry learned the lesson that causing confusion for consumers is detrimental to them?
      • RW1 and RW2 are more meaningful than -RW and +RW? Why don't we call them Jim and Harry? Or Blue and Red? Or Wet and Dry? All you've done is replace one enumerator with another, so you've added nothing. You can just as easily say 'dash RW' or 'plus RW as you can 'RW one' or RW two'. Same number of syllables, same degree of differentiation, same lack of any meaning.
        • Absolutely more meaningful, though of course, not ideal. DVD-RW and DVD+RW are completely arbitrary labels. What about the next format, will it be DVD/RW, or maybe DVD*RW. Why not DVD^RW or DVDln(RW). How the hell do you even pronounce these? If a consumer can't pronounce it, he/she probably won't buy it.

          At least something containing a number is pronouncable, includes a sequence, and indicates an order to how the formats were developed and released.
    • Since you worked on one of these drives, do you happen to know where one might find documentation on the SCSI commands used to control them? There is a proprietary version of cdrecord that is supposed to be able to control DVD-R drives, so this implies that there are some additional commands necessary beyond what is normally used to drive a CD-R drive. My hope is that this is documented somewhere on t10.org [t10.org].
  • I've got two creative drives, one which is a dvd (not a dvd burner). And both are really loud. I'd recommend staying away from creative for low noise drives. I don't have a creative dvd burner though so who knows, maybe they've got them quieter now, I doubt it though.

  • dvd (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    i have two of the pioneer dvd r/rw they work great. no problems or underruns. I have burned around 90 dvd's between them. The Media is very expensive around $20 for a 4.7 gig disk which is too small for most movies and not worth the cost

  • I wouldn't recommend any proprietary storageFormat (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The ownership of the dvd format may decide to hold our data hostage! I won't buy a dvd recorder until I can use it with 100%gnu/linux.

  • Good site for DVD player compatibility (Score:3, Informative)

    by Polo ( 30659 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2001 @05:37PM (#2288597) Homepage
    a good site is:

    vcdhelp.com [vcdhelp.com]

    which is generally for VCD's, which will only play on "compatible" dvd players.

    However, they have lots of background information, including a huge section [vcdhelp.com] on DVD players with compatibility information - showing which will play DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW. Also sections on all kinds of other issues. I believe they have the domain dvdhelp.com, but there's not much to it.

    They also have a huge, well documented and well organized Links [vcdhelp.com] section to other information.
  • ...I'll probably buy one. But not before. Plextor makes some of the best (if not the best) CD burners in the world - I bet they will create killer DVD+RW drives too.
  • If i wanna watch movies: S-VHS. Music: mp3 or CD, large storage: 4mm tape.

    Can a storage format be fascistic? DVD certainly is getting close.

  • DVD Info (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nudibranchOne ( 260727 )
    There is the Pioneer DVR-A03 (same as the drive in the Mac version but newer BIOS) and the Panasonic RAMBO LF-D311.
    Both are great drives. Software with the Panasonic is more versatile, shipping with VOB's INSTANT CD/DVD+ (UDF, VCD, ARCHIVING,BACKUP) vs. Veritos Primo DVD (Prassi).
    Basically the differences in the drives are:
    Pioneer: DVD-RW:
    records DVD-R (Gen'l purpose), DVD-RW (Gen'l purpose), CD-R and CDRW
    US software: Sonic MyDVD for DVD authoring, Veritos (Prassi) Primo DVD for CDR(W) and Cyberlink PowerDVD.
    European software: VOB only.
    Panasonic: DVD-RAM/DVD-R:
    Records DVD-R (Gen'l Purpose) and Rewritable DVD-RAM.
    Software: Either Sonic DVDit Standard or NEODVD (Mediostream) DVD authorizing software, VOB Instant CD/DVD+, and Cyberlink PowerDVD.

    If you need to record CDs, or make VCDs, then the Pioneer DVR-A03 is the one to get, no question.
    If you need system backup, serious video editing, network backup, or if archiving is a priority, then the Panasonic LF-D311 wins. DVD-RAM is a true rewritable media and has built in error correction that DVD-R(W) can't match.

    Best prices I've seen are $618 for the DVR-A03 and $534 for the LF-D311 (both with free shipping). http://www.esbuy.com/dvdram2.html
    (found a 10 pack of DVD-R media there for $60!)
    Both drives are quiet, and are multi-read compliant (exception: The Pioneer does NOT read DVD-RAM)
    DAE is surperb for either drive.
    I'm using both of them and can't find any bad habits about either. If the Panasonic did CDR it would be perfect (have to wait 'till January, I guess).
    I've tried the resulting DVDs made from both the Pioneer and Panasonic machines on Sony (including PS2), Panasonic, Pioneer, and Toshiba DVD home players and all work great with the exception of DVD-RW media, not all players will recognize DVD-RW.

    The DVD+RW from HP and Sony probably won't be available on the market for another 2-4 months.
    Panasonic will be releasing a "Super Drive" in January that does DVD-R, DVD-RAM and CDR(W).
    Pioneer is releasing a table top model in the Fall, the PRV-9000.

    It should be noted, if you have a Mac, your only real choice is the Pioneer DVR-A03 with Roxio's Toast Titanium. At this time, only the DVD-RAM side is supported by the MAC (Software Architech SAI DVD-TUNEup has unreleased beta drivers for the DVD-R side).

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