DVD Writer RoundUp

CodeHog writes "Got socks instead of the new DVD writer you were looking for this holiday season? Tom's Hardware has a writeup on the latest DVD writers and their 'true speeds'. The conclusions may be surprising: higher speeds won't necessarily do any good as media availability continues to be a problem." From the article: "Despite the stagnation of write speeds for DVD-R and DVD+R at 16x, new DVD writers are regularly being marketed, since performance for other types of writing (RW and dual-layer) is still improving. But as is customary, manufacturers of writers have a lead on media manufacturers. For this article, we visited all the stores to see what types of media are actually available for sale, and once again the result was most enlightening. You can find 16x-compatible -R and +R discs, but in the other formats they simply aren't out there."

Dual Layer

[mysqlrocks]

And we weren't even able to find anybody to sell us dual-layer DVD-Rs!

Wow, really? Where did they look?
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=dual-layer+DVD -R [google.com]

ALL about DvD

[earthstar]

On a related note, http://www.dvddemystified.com/ [dvddemystified.com] has all the info about DvD's on its DvD FAQ http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html [dvddemystified.com].

Also see my journal about Nero 7 DvD burning probs.In short ,stick with Nero Version 6.X

Re:Some Advice

[ppz003]

The burning speeds listed are just the maximum possible speeds for each type of media. What the gp was trying to say is how does each burner work with the different chemical types of each media. Not all DVD-R's are alike.

Re:Some Advice

[undeadly]

This review would be much more interesting if they showed some quality data with each burner.

Optical storage reviews [cdrinfo.com] at www.cdrinfo.com does this.

Re:What's the physical difference?

[Anonymous Coward]

Track width tolerance. The faster the disc spins, the more it matters.

Re:Strange things...

[klui]

Stop using cheap (rather than inexpensive, but good) media. Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim are good brands.

Re:Where are the good SATA burners?

[Crilen007]

http://plextor.com/english/support/PX-716SA%20moth erboard%20compatability%20listing.htm [plextor.com] Others support it. (seems like plextor doesnt support firefox though)

Re:cheap != good

[Shanep]

I recently switched backup media to DVD+R from -R, and upgraded the Pioneer's firmware, and put them both on USB 2.0 instead of FireWire, and they both work well now. Something about the Pioneer and my cheapo USB + FireWire cages was resulting in complete FireWire bus hangs.

There is a USB2/Firewire chipset (Prolific PL-3507) which is just downright broken. The A revision is not flash upgradable without desoldering the chip and the subsequent revisions are flashable, however the "fixed" firmware is pretty much still broken. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of PL-3507 based USB2/Firewire units out there and it seems they are single handedly taking some shine of the perceived quality of IDE-Firewire enclosures. I wonder if that is what you had?

The PL-3507 insists on using a fixed firewire ID, so you can't have more than one on a chain. Why anyone would want more than ZERO PL-3507's is beyond me however.

I use a Lite-On DVDRW drive in an older Iomega USB2 CDRW cage to burn DVDR's on my Mac mini within Tiger. The "Iomega" CDRW drive I pulled out of it was actually a Lite-On LTR-5226S drive, with the Lite-On sticker on the top and the Iomega branded black faceplate. ; )