As the topic says I was gonna get a DVD writer for my PC but don't really know what to look out for in the specs other than a multi layer one? what minmum buffer sizes, brands, speeds etc etc

oh btw, internal or external I dont really mind.

off to watch "The Crow, The - Wicked Prayer" then "Donnie Brasco" with a few stellas so will check for updates later!


Colin

They are all about the same. I've had a couple of Sony writers which seem fine. 16x speed Dual layer.

Something like this:
[url="http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=92093"]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=92093[/url]

ever used one of the lightscribe ones? sounds pretty cool

[url="http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=11992930402&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=92706"]http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/in...oduct_uid=92706[/url]

looks good but means you will pay more for your blank media.

[quote name='Colin P' date='Oct 15 2005, 07:32 PM']As the topic says I was gonna get a DVD writer for my PC but don't really know what to look out for in the specs other than a multi layer one? what minmum buffer sizes, brands, speeds etc etc

oh btw, internal or external I dont really mind.

off to watch "The Crow, The - Wicked Prayer"  then "Donnie Brasco" with a few stellas so will check for updates later!


Colin
[right][snapback]295083[/snapback][/right][/quote]

As others have said there are a lot of good ones out there. If you are going to do a lot of intensive writing then speed will be a consideration. An external one is far handier although they are usually a bit more expensive.

aha didnt realise there were Lightscribe specific media, still, it's not a huge amount to pay for CD's and DVD's so i'll probably give it a go.

now..... where's my swicth card





I won't be writing a lot Kent

I just bought a Lite-On one, 8x write speeds and worked great in the Mac, only cost me something like 45 quid and that was from PC World

Bargain

was just going to say lite-on

Ive always had good results with pioneer dvdrw drives
a friend of mine is a naughty lad and is always writing dvds and he's been using a pioneer for years and its never let him down. more important is the type of discs you use, Ive always used -R discs that use the Ritek dye, as they seem to be very reliable and compatible with anything i want to use them on. lightscribe i think is a cool idea, but you can only print in monochrome, I use an epson printer that can print in full colour onto printable dvdrs in photo quality, they look very impressive.

Yeah the Pioneers are alright, I had an A03 when they first came out and it lasted a few years before packing up, didn't actually write that many DVD's though, I cane this Lite-On as I don't have a telly so I just burn anything I want to watch and take it downstairs

I was in the same boat as you a few months ago and found that the BenQ Writers although cheap, are the fastest and produce the least amount of "errors"/"jitter" on written media. The Plextor PX716 series of drives come in second, but they offered certain other features like:

GigaRec - burn upto 900mb on a standard 700mb CD
SecuRec - protect your burnt CD's/DVD's with a password
VariRec - Change the "strength" of the laser being used to burn the media

I'd definitely check out the BenQ DW1640 and the Plextor PX-716 though . If you want more information on them read up on club.cdfreaks.com.

[quote name='Brettster' date='Oct 16 2005, 12:44 PM']Ive always had good results with pioneer dvdrw drives
a friend of mine is a naughty lad and is always writing dvds and he's been using a pioneer for years and its never let him down. more important is the type of discs you use, Ive always used -R discs that use the Ritek dye, as they seem to be very reliable and compatible with anything i want to use them on. lightscribe i think is a cool idea, but you can only print in monochrome, I use an epson printer that can print in full colour onto printable dvdrs in photo quality, they look very impressive.
[right][snapback]295262[/snapback][/right][/quote]

We have a DVD authoring studio, and write very many DVD-R's. We found that although Samsung, Lite-On, Sony, Aopen, Plextor etc. work fine, but only the Pioneer A05/A07/A09 give consistent compatibility with all our client's DVD-Video players. And we prefer the Maxell 8-Speed DVD-(minus)-R discs for them.

The A09 will do dual layer too, but not many DVD-Video players react well at the layer break, only recent Sony players don't seem to problems with these DVD-R9's.

Hope that helps,

RX-Men-8

ok, decided on a BenQ 1640