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Buying a DVD burner and need advice!

I'm thinking on buying the dvd burner "NEC ND-3540A DVD Burner"

What I like about it is that you can burn DVD+R DL at 8x (up to 8.5 GB)
and burn DVD+R at 16x (up to 4.7 GB)

It's not the fastest reader but I'm not bother about that, I have other DVD readers.

I have never had a DVD burner and my main purpose for it is to burn data DVDs, however, I would like to burn my own home made movies.

Is it possible to copy a film on DVD with these drives?

Now, I understand that the best media to burn is made by "Mitsubishi Kagaku Media" which is sometimes sold under the name of "Verbatim"

Can anyone recommed places to get DVDs at good prices?

Any thoughts on my choice of DVD burner?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks a lot

Salvador
 
Excellent choice of dvd writer. You can buy it and your blank media from www.svp.co.uk - I'm sure that others will agree, SVP second to none. :)
 
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I agree with Unicast that svp are good for blank media.

I'd rather have the Pioneer 109 than the NEC drive though. In my experience the Pioneer drives are the best out there.
 
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I have owned several cdrw/dvdrw and have found that the best I have used are Plextor drives. They are alot more stable than the others I have had, Pioneer and Nec. The plexor drives are a bit more expensive, but you do get what you pay for. I recommend the Plextor PX-716A, I use this one, and never had any problems.

As for media, try www.burn-media.co.uk as they are very good, offer next day delivery and have a wide selection of media. I would also recommend Ritek discs with GO4 or GO5 dye as these offer a superior amount of reflectivity, hence the laser dont have to work too hard, which eventually ends up in laser coil failure.

Hope this helps.

Keith
 
I have a Pioneer dvr108..recommended to me by a mate,not had any problems. Cant recall the speeds though, but i'm not really bothered so long as it works.
I did not know svp..thats a good link.

Try here for any queries..they're a good site, the forums very helpfull too.

Video/DVD Help
 
Well,

I had a quick look at the plextor drive and it doesn't look, in paper, as fast in dvd+r dl mode as the NEC drive. Also it cost twice as much as the NEC drive but after reading a few reviews from people that bought them --> http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews-all-81897.html I'm not convinced is the drive for me.

cdfreaks has this to say about the plextor drive:

Final Thoughts:

What can we say about the Plextor PX-716A? Well, if we had to describe the Plextor PX-716A in one word it would be "promising". The drive has some very interesting technologies on board and it definitely has potential. It was just too bad that the drive showed poor all round media support and failed to impress us with its write quality. And then there's the price of the drive. It's twice as expensive as the popular BenQ DW1620.



As for the Pioneer 109, this is what cdfreaks had to say about it:

Pioneer DVR-109 DVD Burner Review - Conclusion
Posted by Tor Magne on 07 June 2005

Positive:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Supports 6x DVD+/-R9 Double Layer writing
Supports 16x CAV DVD+/-R writing speed
Supports 8x DVD+RW (in the future) and 6x DVD-RW
Excellent DVD+/-R Writing quality
Good CD-Writing quality
Reads DVD+/-R media at 12x.
Good DVD+/-R Double Layer writing quality with verbatim media
Reads DVD-RAM media.
Drive is solid constructed.
Negative:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Supports 8x DVD+RW only on the paper.
Very poor DVD+/-R media compatibility.
Very poor CD-R media compatibility.
Only 40x CD-Writing and CD-Reading speed.
6x DVD-RW writing quality need improvements.
Doesn’t support PIE/PIF error checking in Nero CD/DVD speed.
Problems backing up some protected audio discs.
Can’t overburn CD-Media.
Problems reading 99 minute CD-Media
Does not support Mt. Rainier.
Does not support bitsetting for +R/RW.
Drive gets hot to the touch under use.
Some reading tests indicated that the error correction capabilities of the drive are not the best.
Has a riplock at 5x for reading DVD-video discs.

To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: “If your main concern is DVD-Writing quality and nothing else – then this drive may fit your needs. But look elsewhere for a good all-round drive.”

I'm afraid I rather get a good all-round drive this time. Perhaps in the future, when I have more experience with DVD burners I will consider DVD-Writing quality only.

As for the NEC 3540A, this is what cdfreaks had to say about it:

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “An excellent choice for those who are interested in quality and needs a very fast DVD±R/RW drive”.

Well, that's me ;-)
 
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Hey, that is something worth looking into.

If the dvd rom in my laptop supports dvd RAM, this might be something of a bonus for me.

I just check the review for the LG drive and this is what cdfreaks had to say:

"Based on our tests and experiences during this review – we give the LG GSA-4163B our “Editors Choice award”. "

I'm impressed with the whole review.

In practical terms, can you be a little bit nore especific in the use of a DVD RAM please?


Thanks butler.

Salvador
 
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Thanks butler.

Talking to my son last night I got the idea of buying an external drive. Doing a litlle search I found one drive that I like. My concern is that my daughter's laptop has USB 1.1 only. Can anyone comment if it's a good idea to use external DVD burners? Would it be a problem to write a DVD through a USB 1.1 ( 12 Mbps)?

Any information would be greatly appreacited.
 
Well, all the research is done and I just made the order.

Having decided to use an external DVD burner I could not find one that I was 100% happy with. So, I ordered the NEC 3540A DVD burner and an external enclousure for it. I also ordered a PMCIA USB 2.0 card for my daughter's laptop. USB 1.1 wont do.

I decided to go for the NEC 3540A because the drive seems to be compatible with more DVD brands. I read a comment of somebody that uses non branded DVDs with excellent results. Also, the drive produces very good quality DVDs and it's the fastest drive at the moment.

Can anyone comment on what they mostly use DVD-/+DL? Can you actually fit 3 films in one DVD?

I'm now considering to undertake a video editing project. Over the years we have accumulated many camcorder tapes. I would very much like to save them onto DVD. Most of the videos were taken with a Sony analog camcorder. What would I need in terms of hardware and software to edit and burn the videos onto DVD?

Thanks in advance


Salvador
 
You can also a third party firmware on the NEC drives which will remove the "anti-rip" setting (which makes CD/DVD ripping very slow), as well as letting it burn media at faster speeds & also making the drive region free.

I've got an NEC 3520a with the above mod in 2 of my PCs, and no problems with any thing as yet. I got them to replace the Lite-On drives I had because the LO units were so fussy as to the discs used when burning :shrug:
 
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