DVD burners

i will need a DVD burner/ player.
question is which one?
dvd+r?
dvd+rw?
dvd-whatever?

i want to play dvds and record my data.
recording mp3s a plus but not necessary.

input please.

 

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The important thing is that you match the recording capability of the DVD burner with the device on which you wish to then play the DVDs.
If it's purely for backup and you'll use the same device to read those DVDs then there is no worry.

However, early DVD players often used to only play either +R, or -R, and some didn't like the RW (rewritable) formats. So you had to be careful of matching the burner format to the player format.

But as James R says, most DVD burners and players these days can handle any format of DVD.


However, I would add that DVD burners, in my view, are only useful for burning video DVDs that you wish to watch on a DVD player somewhere else.

I can't recall ever using the actual burner on my DVD.
For recording data and MP3s I tend to only use usb-drives... you can pick them up from less than £1/Gb - e.g. a 32Gb stick might cost only £20 or so... they're more compact, more portable, and quicker to write to.

 

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I find that this magazine gives very good advice about most things connectede to a computer....

http://www.google.com/aclk?sa=L&ai=...utm_content=SHOP-SRCH&utm_campaign=Google-CPC

 

this is what i'm worried about.
i'm not planning to record DVD files/ movies.
i need to burn about 50 GB of data.
let's say i do that and get rid of my old machine and get a new one.
will i be able to save the old data to the new hard drive?
correct me if i'm wrong but if i burn at DVD-R then i must read at DVD-R right?

maybe.
i guess i waited too long to "clean" my hard drive.
when you have file folders with 30 GB of data burning with a CD is out of the question.

 

External hard drive would be the better way to go. They are fairly universal, and they are re-usable.

 

Yes, but most DVD players now play all types of DVD (+/-R, +/-RW etc).

Sure - CDs would not be good.

But recording on DVDs is not what I would recommend for you.

All you need with the USB drives are a computer with a USB port.
I have an external 250Gb that's a few years old, and I use it to swap large volumes of data between PCs.
Just plug one in and it should appear as a drive in Windows Explorer.

Personally, for convenience, I use the small solid-state flash drives (if you're in the UK, this one is 32 Gb and only £18: http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/18293083/-/Product.html) or, if you need or don't mind anything larger - get a (cheap) external HDD... where you can get 300Gb of storage for 10p per Gb, or up to 2Tb at around 3p per Gb.
The only issue with HDDs is that I can't fit one easily in my pocket.

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the problem i have with solid state stuff is static electricity.
its all too easy to ruin electronics that way.

i'm going to stick to the DVD burner.
but i do believe i will get one of those 200 GB hard drives though.

anyone have any idea it would take to record a DVD?
it takes about 5 minutes to burn 650 MB to a cd with my machine. ( according to ROXIOs built in timer )

 

I guess it depends on the write speed of the drive, but for me, it usually takes around 30-40 minutes to burn a full 4.7gb DVD.

What I've been using lately is an 80gb laptop drive with a cable like this:

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The laptop drive doesn't need an external power source, and can be powered with just the usb. It's much much faster and more convenient than trying to burn to dvd. They also make nice enclosures for these...but that's not how I roll.

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All I can tell you is that we got the HP dvd 1170e a year and a half ago because it's an externally powered DVD writer/player that can work not only on a netbook but also on a desktop and laptop with an inferior internal disc drive. USB cable came with it. Its seems to cover every DVD and CD format, if going by the lengthy list printed on the box. Nero-9 was the driver software that came with this one at the time, though that surely varies. No problems burning or playing anything on it -- the netbook handled it easily, but one should note that it was an Acer netbook with a traditional OS and and a GB of memory (not the dinky kind with only 128MB of memory and some system installed on it that sounded like it belonged on a smart phone).

 

wait a minute.
i'm really confused now.
i thought a DVD could hold approx. 8 GB with an absolute max of 16 GB.

 

He's referring to 4.7 GB as being the maximum data storage on the original, single layer type of DVD. What you're thinking of is the newer ones with dual (or even triple?!) layers, which double the capacity accordingly. I forgot to mention that the HP dvd 1170 we bought does burn double layer discs, with up to 8.5 GB stored thereby on one DVD of that kind. With 22X speed. By now HP might have an updated model of it out, since this was a year and a half ago and it had probably been out a while then. We've yet to try burning a dual layer DVD on it, though -- have only used the old 4.7 GB kind.

 

What the heck? Just get this or maybe this

http://www.directron.com/sbc06d1subl.html
http://www.directron.com/sdrw08d2su.html
http://www.directron.com/gp08nu6b.html

 

Imagine how much data is lost with a small accidental scratch on a DVD.

32 gig flash drives are $25 bucks or so. Or you could get a few smaller ones, and divide up your data accordingly. That's what my wife does with her email and writing, and it's just a matter of keeping up with the backups. Yes, we've had one fail after a while, but with her system it just meant we had to get a replacement, put the backup on it, and get caught up with the recent email still duplicated on webmail.

I've seen a 60 gig, but it's basically a mini SSD, and the price jumps way up.

 

as amazing as it sounds i don't have any problems with scratches but then again i keep my CDs in a sleeve and stored in a plastic case or box.
i use the cases (i have more than one) to store all the "extraneous" stuff and the box i use to store my OS and other apps i use often.