POLL: Best DVD type burner...

[alanjudy]

I purchased the Sony DRU500 recently and have played with all the different formats. Here is my take.

1. Your choice of format will depend on the compatibility with your set top box. Neither -R or +R are 100% compatible and what you will want to use will be entirely driven by the end device where you want output. Before my purchase I asked friends that had these different formats to lend me disks to help me in my choice. I am lucky that my Sony 550 DVD Settop and my Apex support both, although in my case +R seems better on the Sony 550.

2. Media costs are an issue if you are going to be generating large numbers of DVD's. DVD+R is available for $2, DVD-R is available for $1. If you generate 100 Disks a year you've saved yourself $100. This cost issue may change if DVD+R prices fall to match the -R prices. The Sony DRU 500 doesn't really like the low end DVD-R media, and in fact the only coasters I have created were with DVD-R, so for me I'm not sure I can use the $1 media anyways. I was using CD's with XSVCD format for my archives which generated 3 CD's per 1 hour show. I can fit about 3.75 hours on one DVD or the equivalent of 10 or 11 XSVCD CD's. Media price wise this was about $1.60 worth of CD's... Paying 40 cents more for a DVD+R and not having to get up and change CD's is definately worth it.

3. I've only tested the 2x/2.4x media, I've not yet played with the 4x media (both 4x -R and +R are supported with the DRU500 with the available firmware upgrade). Using the 2x/2.4x media I definately prefer +R... here's why

-RW is still limited to 1x
-R works at 2x

Both -RW and -R must be "finished" which takes considerable longer. If I have only 10 minutes on a DVD then the authoring of the minus formats take longer than the coresponding plus formats.

+RW and +R support 2.4x and don't suffer from the finishing problem. The added advantage here is with +RW which lets you try something out without creating a coaster. Compared with -RW which is only 1x this is a substancial difference... this was very important and noticable when I first got the drive and did everything first on a RW format because I was so worried about creating coasters. Now I'm authoring straight to +R or -R because I'm more confident.

Now this may completely change with 4x media. If -R 4x media gets into my local computer store months before the +R 4x media then I'll definately take another look.

=alanjudy

[Wooly]

FWIW, I have an A03 with the modified firmware that allows 2x burning on all media. I purchased a few 100 cakes of DVDPro (Princo) DVD-R from Supermedia.com. I have burned...let's see...about 150 of them so far. I have produced 5 coasters now (all my fault, doing dumb things that I should have known better). Basically, what I'm saying is that this is a great burner, great compatibility with nearly every DVD player I've tried out, and I can burn 2x.

Oh...did I mention that the media only costs $0.60 each? And the burner can be had for under $200?

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. But then again I never was very smart.

[rd001]

Originally posted by Wooly
FWIW, I have an A03 with the modified firmware that allows 2x burning on all media. I purchased a few 100 cakes of DVDPro (Princo) DVD-R from Supermedia.com. I have burned...let's see...about 150 of them so far. I have produced 5 coasters now (all my fault, doing dumb things that I should have known better).

Hmm... I tried one 2x with DvdPro media on my DVR103 and it froze twenty minutes in. I hadn't heard anyone claim to get such outstanding results with the DvdPro media. A lot of people claim compatibility problems with some players that they don't get with using other media or burning at 1X.

All of these 150 DVDs you've burned were at 2x?

Are you using Spruce or Maestro or something else?

Are you burning with Nero or something else? Which version are you using? What type of DVD (UDF, ISO, UDF/ISO, etc.)? Burning DVD images or on-the-fly-files? What standalone player(s) are you using?

More info please. I wannabe a 2x kind of guy (with a cheap burner and cheap media) just like you.

[rd001]

As far as the original topic of the thread, didn't I read somewhere that Sony was making a new DVD-R drive? That it wasn't going to support DVD+R? Seem to recall it.

I think the +R/+RW media will fall in price to be about the same as -R/-RW in every way. Media price shouldn't necessarily determine your purchase. What may be more important is what the standalone VCR-like consumer recorder/burners and the cheap set-top players will support. Still a guessing game right now and what us early adopters are using may not determine what the industry chooses to support eventually. For instance, I read that the new Apex players aren't supporting SVCD. No one seems to know why. I suspect they want to support MPEG4/WMP and don't want to put in a bigger ROM so they're dropping the SVCD stuff to get extra ROM room but that's just my guess.

I don't think anyone can promise you which media type will eventually dominate or whether the standalones will eventually accommodate either or both over the long haul (5 years out).

I'm running a generic Pioneer A03 and have good results. I'd look hard at the Sony combo-media drives if I were buying now. But I don't think you're likely to go wrong with an A05 either. At least, not in the short term. Even with the Sony, you still have to guess which media will eventually dominate the market or you might eventually have a collection that happens to be on the wrong type of media that the industry didn't end supporting.

My advice: flip a coin.

[Wooly]

150 DVD's Yes - I've burned another 4-5 today, all at 2x, so I'm confident that it isn't a fluke. I've ordered Princo's steadily during the past several months, so I don't believe I've gotten a "special" batch or anything.

I'm burning with Nero 5.5.9.9 - Do NOT use Nero 5.5.10, as it has a serious bug creating DVD's that verify fine, but are essentially "coasters". I've had equal success with DVDecrypter (the latest one as of today) as well. All burning fine with 2x.

As for type, I simply choose DVD Video (the third selection, I believe) and go to town. Plays fine on both my Sony as well as my Apex 1100W (of course, burnt toast plays on the Apex, so that isn't a real test).

I use Spruce simply to create Title sets, I have never burned inside the program (I much prefer Nero's stability and buffering capability, plus it will verify burns).

BTW, found a company that sells Princo at $0.65 ea (in cakes of 100) with free shipping:

http://www.allmediaoutlet.com/P-DVDR-4.7-GENPrinco.html

Originally posted by rd001

All of these 150 DVDs you've burned were at 2x?

Are you using Spruce or Maestro or something else?

Are you burning with Nero or something else? Which version are you using? What type of DVD (UDF, ISO, UDF/ISO, etc.)? Burning DVD images or on-the-fly-files? What standalone player(s) are you using?

More info please. I wannabe a 2x kind of guy (with a cheap burner and cheap media) just like you.

[rd001]

Wooly,

I've got about 125 white-label DvdPro media onhand that I got from Supermediastore.com. From what you've said, I gather these are made by Princo and are just rebranded for discount. Is that right or is a real Princo a better disk for 2X compatibility?

Good point about Nero. I'm using 5.5.7.2 so I'd better update to 5.5.9.9 and give it a try. Even my older version came close to working.

Thanks for sharing your info.

[hancocks]

Guys,

Here's a bit of an odd duck...

Had a few issues with my A03, and Pioneer was gracious enough to replace it with an A04. It worked fine (on cheap media) until it started to burn coasters with "communication failure" error messages, using Nero 5.5.9.14. Consistently. I called Pioneer, who said that their drive was not certified to use with the A04 (!), and I should use their Veritas s/w (RecordNow).
I tried it, and it hasn't missed since. BUT, I can't seem to get it to burn at 2x....go figure. An inconvenience. The Pioneer tech said that they are certified with Roxio, however...which I can't find in the house :-(.

Anyone with similar strangeness, please post.

Tx,

- Stu

[Wooly]

Sounds like you've got Princo's, which are damned good as cheapo-media goes. Congrats!

I cannot stress enough - do NOT upgrade to Nero 5.5.10. Big compatibility problems with DVD Video mode. Stay at 5.5.9.9 or below.

BTW, you can find out what media you have by going into DVD Decrypter, go into Write mode, and put in a blank DVD-R - on the right hand side it'll tell you the type of media you have. Also, there is a prgram floating around that will give you buco info on your media...I think you can get it from here:

http://www.dvd-recordable.org

Originally posted by rd001
Wooly,

I've got about 125 white-label DvdPro media onhand that I got from Supermediastore.com. From what you've said, I gather these are made by Princo and are just rebranded for discount. Is that right or is a real Princo a better disk for 2X compatibility?

Good point about Nero. I'm using 5.5.7.2 so I'd better update to 5.5.9.9 and give it a try. Even my older version came close to working.

Thanks for sharing your info.

[Wooly]

Have you upgraded the A04 with the 2xall modified Firmware? Afterwards, you have to power cycle both the drive AND the computer (if it's in an external USB2/Firewire case). Also, try upgrading to Nero 5.5.9.9. Alternatively, try using the latest DVD Decrypter to burn the DVD - I have had tremendous success with both of those (as well as the ones you mentioned).

I DID have some issues with earlier versions of Nero, but I don't remember which ones. It was quite some time ago, however (4 months or so).

Originally posted by hancocks
Guys,

Here's a bit of an odd duck...

Had a few issues with my A03, and Pioneer was gracious enough to replace it with an A04. It worked fine (on cheap media) until it started to burn coasters with "communication failure" error messages, using Nero 5.5.9.14. Consistently. I called Pioneer, who said that their drive was not certified to use with the A04 (!), and I should use their Veritas s/w (RecordNow).
I tried it, and it hasn't missed since. BUT, I can't seem to get it to burn at 2x....go figure. An inconvenience. The Pioneer tech said that they are certified with Roxio, however...which I can't find in the house :-(.

Anyone with similar strangeness, please post.

Tx,

- Stu

[rd001]

Thanks, Wooly!

[hancocks]

Wooly,

I'll try both suggestions and let you know. Yup, I did do the firmware upgrade, and believe I powercycled (it's all sort of a blur at this point, so will repeat).

Also, back to an earlier Nero...

Thanks,

- Stu