Recomended DVD burner?

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-07-19 06:34am

Being down to my last 6 GB of memory, I managed to convince my parents of the need of a dvd burner.
Does anyone have a good one to recomend?
(Preferably one that is available in the US, since I'm flying there for 22 days this saturday)

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-07-19 06:42am

I have alvays found Plextor to be an exelent brand.

Check out PX-740A

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-07-19 07:35am

Looks good, one more question:

What is the writable dvd format that can burn from both sides for maximum capacity?
(I want a dvd for storage purpose, of large amounts of comics)

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2005-07-19 07:37am

It can burn dual layer ~8.5gb or so but DL disk are horrible expensive right now.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-07-19 09:55am

I have the Plextor and heartily recommend it. Its CD audio ripping is blazing fast, it does a good job with burning single or dual-layer DVDs, and it's quite good at reading discs with surface scratches.

As for dual-layer DVDs, they are quite expensive right now but that doesn't make them useless; it just means that there's no point pirating commercial DVDs which might only cost 50% more than the blank. I use dual-layer DVDs for backing up important information, because I don't like having to span it over multiple discs. I also use them for making compilations of pornography, so I can cram lots of selected scenes onto a single disc for the sake of convenience (in this case, there's no illegality because I own the original disc as well; it's the porno equivalent of a "mix tape").

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-07-19 10:28am

Another solid brand is Iomega. I've used them before, and burning a full 4.7GB disc took roughly a half hour. Not had any problems with the particular burner while I had access to it.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2005-07-19 11:26am

The NEC 3500-series drives are also excellent buys and relatively inexpensive. Plextor is always top-of-the-line but you do pay a price premium.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-07-19 11:31am

phongn wrote:Plextor is always top-of-the-line but you do pay a price premium.

The price difference is quite inconsequential, compared to what you're getting. The difference between a garden-variety burner and my Plextor was less than what I typically spend taking the family out for dinner.

Jew · Post by **Jew** » 2005-07-19 12:32pm

phongn wrote:The NEC 3500-series drives are also excellent buys and relatively inexpensive.

I recommend the NEC drives too. I bought a bare drive from Newegg.com for a good price and it is serving me well. (I bought the bare drive because I'm using Linux and thus the bundled software and drivers that come with the retail version are useless for me.) I think you can get a bare NEC drive for less than $40 now; retail versions are about $50.

Plextor is an excellent brand too. (My old CD burner was a Plextor.) The price premium over NEC is only about $10 now, so if brand matters to you I'd say go with Plextor. I opted not to buy Plextor when I made my DVD burner purchase because at that time I'd heard that the NEC drives played nicer with Linux than the Plextors.

Tiger Ace · Post by **Tiger Ace** » 2005-07-19 03:35pm

Plextor rocks, but if you can't get it here in a reasonable price(commen occurance) try BenQ.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-07-19 03:38pm

Tiger Ace wrote:Plextor rocks, but if you can't get it here in a reasonable price(commen occurance) try BenQ.

How easy is it to find in the us, southern canada or washington dc?

Also what model BenQ? Do you recomend Bug or bothering with Newegg?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-07-19 03:55pm

Jew wrote:Plextor is an excellent brand too. (My old CD burner was a Plextor.) The price premium over NEC is only about $10 now, so if brand matters to you I'd say go with Plextor. I opted not to buy Plextor when I made my DVD burner purchase because at that time I'd heard that the NEC drives played nicer with Linux than the Plextors.

Where did you hear that? I just used NeroLINUX to burn a video DVD at 8x on my Plextor, and it went off without a hitch. It also has incredible performance with grip.

Tiger Ace · Post by **Tiger Ace** » 2005-07-19 04:00pm

the .303 bookworm wrote:
Tiger Ace wrote:Plextor rocks, but if you can't get it here in a reasonable price(commen occurance) try BenQ.
How easy is it to find in the us, southern canada or washington dc?

Also what model BenQ? Do you recomend Bug or bothering with Newegg?

No clue. Also, for model...not sure, check Newegg.com or Anandtech for reviews.

Bug, never buy from Bug, do not support them unless you must. Do not vist their stores, do not associate with that horrible chain.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2005-07-19 04:05pm

Tiger Ace wrote:
the .303 bookworm wrote:
Tiger Ace wrote:Plextor rocks, but if you can't get it here in a reasonable price(commen occurance) try BenQ.
How easy is it to find in the us, southern canada or washington dc?

Also what model BenQ? Do you recomend Bug or bothering with Newegg?
No clue. Also, for model...not sure, check Newegg.com or Anandtech for reviews.

Bug, never buy from Bug, do not support them unless you must. Do not vist their stores, do not associate with that horrible chain.

So bug has the same premium for burners as they do for da players?
Where did you buy your burner?

Tiger Ace · Post by **Tiger Ace** » 2005-07-19 04:11pm

Bug just sucks, nevermind their massive mark-up on anything.\

I got my DVD burner like I got the rest of my PC, newegg.com, father picks it up. I get it whenever someone flies to Israel.

Jew · Post by **Jew** » 2005-07-19 05:35pm

Darth Wong wrote:Where did you hear that? I just used NeroLINUX to burn a video DVD at 8x on my Plextor, and it went off without a hitch. It also has incredible performance with grip.

I use K3b. It was a while back, and the Plextor I was looking at was brand-spanking new. It reportedly didn't work out-of-the-box with the distribution I had already installed.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2005-07-19 10:17pm

I have the NEC-3500 (I of course had to get it just a week before the 3520 revision came out - oh well) and I love it; it's also a very popular model overall. I think either one (NEC or Plextor) will suit you just fine.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2005-07-19 10:37pm

I have always used LG. Never had any trouble.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2005-07-19 11:28pm

A friend of mine (who's a bigger computer geek than me) recommended this one (+http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827152053).

Note: I have not actually ordered it myself yet (been kind of strapped for cash lately) but I plan to before I go back to school in late August. And yes, it has DL capability for the future...

Right now I just have a plextor CDRW burner that gets the job done, but it's from late 2000, and has no DVD burning capabilities.