I’m thinking of purchasing a DVD burner. Like a DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R DL and all sorts of thing. Well, the thing is that it gets kinda confusing with so much formats you know.
I understand the standards roughly. I am unclear of certain things. As much as I try to read here and there about DVD burners, it just doesn’t answer all my questions.
I am kinda hoping someone would answer these questions:
# If I burn all my photos into a DVD+R (or a DVD-R or whatever), can I use a normal DVD ROM drive to view the disc?
# Why the DVD burners I see can burn at 16x and there doesn’t seem to be any 16x DVD discs around?
# Which is the better format - plus, minus or ram - to burn in your opinion?
# Right now, the highest DVD burning rate is at 16x. Would it - in your opinion - continue to raise to things like 24xor 32x? For CD-R, it seems to be stuck at 52x already you see. I am hoping to see if this is the right time to purchase a DVD burner.
I understand emerging standards for DVD burning formats are coming out but I don’t think I am interested to wait for them to roll out.
Would any kind soul enlighten me? Thanks in advance!
Tags: technology
If I burn all my photos into a DVD+R (or a DVD-R or whatever), can I use a normal DVD ROM drive to view the disc?
- Yes.
Why the DVD burners I see can burn at 16x and there doesnâ??t seem to be any 16x DVD discs around?
- There will be. But it is recommended to burn data into DVDs at a lower speed if you want to be able to share it with anyone, even with other devices like a DVD Player. Faster doesn’t mean better.
Which is the better format â?? plus, minus or ram â?? to burn in your opinion?
- It doesnt matter. They all are the same. But DVD RAMs are more expensive.
Right now, the highest DVD burning rate is at 16x. Would it â?? in your opinion â?? continue to raise to things like 24xor 32x? For CD-R, it seems to be stuck at 52x already you see
by Event Horizon (Sep 14, 2005 at 2 AM)- Maybe. Like I said, faster doesnt mean better.
which format is better you asked., and that it doesn’t matter - sorry Event Horizon, is not true!
Many old drives (2003 and older) cannot read DVD+R/(W)
DVD+R(W) is closer to the standard DVD format. DVD-RAM is the same as a HDD, that’s why it is that expensive, including the error reserve area of a HDD, means a sector gets damaged, it automatically gets marked as bad sector and it useses another sector of the resrved reserve area to replace it.
16x is the technical maximum at the moment, like the speed you see with CDRs and CDRW. Unlikely that it raises too soon, if ever.
In this case you are correct, Mr Dew, faster than 52x for a CDR is not possible.
Sorry again to Event Horizon for putting you so wrong…
by Nafcom (Sep 14, 2005 at 2 AM)Correction…of course I meant DVD-R(W) is closer to the standard, not +.
by Nafcom (Sep 14, 2005 at 2 AM)1. What Event Horizon and Nafcom said.
2. There are 16x discs in the U.S. Have you checked the computer stores in SG?
3. I would find a burner that can do both plus and minus to be on the safe side since certain dvd players can’t read both formats. RAM is more expensive, though, so you may not want to get that.
4. The maximum speed is 16x because anything faster would crack the disc. I doubt there will be faster speeds anytime soon. A good 16x burner isn’t expensive and it’s unlikely there will be a big increase in speed when 16x is not the maximum.
I hope that helps.
by Jessica (Sep 14, 2005 at 5 AM)@Jessica: Nice that we agee on 4) here.
some burners&prgs allow to burn with minus flag on DVD+R(W) so that would make them compatible to troublesome drives again
by Nafcom (Sep 14, 2005 at 6 AM)Dew, I assume your wish to acquire a DVD burner is for the purpose of backing up your data in your computer. In this case, whatever format of DVD you choose ( + or - ), it doesn’t matter.
Here I am talking about data in your computer. And I’m not certainly talking about standards. Is there a standard to whichever method or media to perform backups? (In my case, I use an external 2.5″ hard disk and a program to facilitate my backups)
Or you could just get them all and see it for yourself. I use my DVD burner primarily to burn ISO files.
by Event Horizon (Sep 14, 2005 at 4 PM)Thanks Event Horizon, Nafcom and Jessica for clarifying my doubt.
DVD-RAM sounds impressive. I’ll go with a drive that allows me to burn that too. I have seen the LG multidrive, it can burn all 3 format and now I am considering that. I remain unsure if I would ever use DVD-RAM though, it seems expensive.
Nafcom: Does it mean that the older DVD ROM drives can read DVD-R(W)?
Jessica: I don’t think we have them in Singapore yet. I see 8x ones but not the 16x one. Event Horizon mention the possible incompatible issue regarding the higher speed discs and I think I will do fine with an 8x.
Event Horizon: I would like to do some back up. I would like to store photographs that I probably won’t be seeing any time soon in DVD format too. I would like to have a format that can be read by DVD-ROM drives, that’s more important for me. I think I may burn ISO files too, but most ISOs are in CD data format at the moment. Probably in future.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 14, 2005 at 7 PM)Mr Dew: I have ordered some DVD-RAM myself this year. I will let you know as soon as they are here and how I find them
(hopefully by opening the parcel, but you know…).
From all I have read I would suggest you to go for a LG GSA-4163B.
Yes older DVD drives can play DVD-R(W) but it depends on the used media.
E.g. my LG DRD8160B can handle Speer-Data DVD-R but not Verbatim!
For this I use the following great Media Compatibility List:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia
It’s a great list!
by Nafcom (Sep 15, 2005 at 3 AM)Nafcom: I was looking at this LG DVD burner (LG GSA-4160B) that burns DVD-RAM too. I have seen something like that in Singapore. I don’t think it’s the same one, the speeds are slightly faster in the one I have seen.
Thanks for the link. That would help a lot in choosing the DVD media.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 15, 2005 at 10 AM)Mr Dew: Yes, why not. Most LG GSA are kickers
but this one is like a year old, hmmm.
You are welcome for the media compatibility list
Well, it helped me, and it should help you, too.
by Nafcom (Sep 15, 2005 at 5 PM)@Mr Dew: On Monday, I will get my parcels with PC stuff, I will let you know about my experiences with the DVD-RAMs.
By the way: You have to buy those with removeable cartidges. Those with cardriges only work in special drives.
by Nafcom (Sep 18, 2005 at 3 AM)I found the DVD-RAMs with no cartridges or removeable cartdridges are hard to find.
I heard that you can buy it with the catridges and crack it open and you get the DVD-RAM. But there really is no need I think, don’t they sell DVD-RAM without catridges in Germany? I seen them in Singapore. I haven’t seen one without the catridge actually, hahaa… I heard some DVD recorders uses them.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 19, 2005 at 12 AM)Mr Dew: I heard this is not possible with all. I also heard that only some can be oppened (which is the same), and I have not seen any without cardrige. but removeable cartdriges can be used as protection.
by Nafcom (Sep 19, 2005 at 1 AM)hmmmp… Maybe you can check this out, they manage to do so it seems.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 19, 2005 at 6 AM)@Mr Dew:
Yes, that is exactly the type of DVD-RAM I have ordered! (type 2 disc).
My LG writer writes the bare disk
Thank you for the manual! I was about to figure it out myself…
by Nafcom (Sep 19, 2005 at 2 PM)But manual is much better, of course
Nafcom: You’re welcome!
by Mr. Dew (Sep 20, 2005 at 6 AM)Mr Dew: But then the DVD RAMs I have ordered write “removeable” so maybe no need to crack them? The parcel is… not here. All the worst to DHL
http://www.dhl.de/dhl?skin=hi&check=yes&lang=de_EN&xmlFile=4037
by Nafcom (Sep 20, 2005 at 3 PM)@Mr Dew: My parcels arrived today, and since the DVD-RAMs where officially meant to be removeable I had not to damage anything, so I can always put them back in! And I tell you they are awesome!
5 DVD-RAMs for 19 â?¬, that is just ok
by Nafcom (Sep 22, 2005 at 1 AM)Of course not as fast as a HDD but awesome. I do not want to scratch one to see wether it really works like a HDD, but I guess it’s fine from what I have experienced today
Nafcom: That’s good. How long does it take to burn a DVD-RAM? What’s the storage capacity of your DVD-RAM by the way. I only see the 4.7 GB ones in Singapore and I don’t see them in cartridges.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 22, 2005 at 6 AM)Mr Dew: You do not burn it, it works like a HDD…
by Nafcom (Sep 22, 2005 at 11 PM)So I cannot answer your question, really, sorry. Also it depends, the DVD-RAM I ordered is 3 x certified.
PS: Yes, Type II is 4.7 GB, but I saw 9-something GB DVD-RAMs, my writer cannot handle others than the one I have bought. It’s 1 1/2 years old…
by Nafcom (Sep 22, 2005 at 11 PM)9 GB? I haven’t seen them around actually. Is that dual layer ones? I haven’t seen dual layers DVD-RAM burners lately though. Or had I just missed it.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 24, 2005 at 6 AM)Mr Dew: thanks to google, I found this:
http://aplawrence.com/Reviews/dvdram.html
“With typical compression, you can store over 9 GB on one side of a DVD disk (you flip the cartridge to write the other side of a double-sided disk). Write speed is about 3 GB per hour. The speed and capacity are quite suitable for many typical small business servers.
Although a tremendous amount of data is packed into a small space, you shouldn’t experience any problems with scratches and other physical damage. In the first place, the media is packaged in a tough plastic cartridge. The Type 1 media remains in that cartridge forever; the Type 2 can be removed and can be used in some dual purpose CD/DVD drives. But more importantly, the DVD error correction is said to be 10 times better than that used with CDROM’s. When used for backup, where there would be no reason to ever remove the media from the cartridge, errors should be effectively non-existent.
Because of the extreme expected life (100,000 writes is 273 years of daily backup!), media cost should be far lower than tape (which typically will survive only a few hundred writes) - in fact, these units could pay for themselves in just a few years in many locations.
See http://www.toshiba.com/taecdpd/products/docs/dvdramwhitepaper.shtml for a white paper that explains the technology in more depth.
See http://www.panasonic.com/industrial/computer/storage/dvdram/prods/faq.htm for a DVD-RAM FAQ.”
by Nafcom (Sep 25, 2005 at 11 PM)NafcomL Thanks for the great information. I’ll use DVD-RAM to do backing up related things in future. It sounds good, but at a price. It cost more expensive than the other formats. I like the idea that you can work with it like a hard disk though. I can’t access t he Panasonic article by the way.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 25, 2005 at 11 PM)Mr Dew: Right it’s causing a 404 error now. Well, use http://www.archive.org/ …
Well, ca. 3.18 â?¬ per DVD-RAM is absolutely ok for what you get. and since Type 2 are removeable as you can read, I didn’t have to destroy the cartridge. Even without cartridge they are absolutely save and amazing!
by Nafcom (Sep 26, 2005 at 2 AM)PS: The quoting starts at ” and ends at “, I am not respsonisble for the quoted article, nor irs URLs, I guess you did not notice this
by Nafcom (Sep 26, 2005 at 4 AM)Nafcom: I didn’t note the quotes. I’m getting the DVD burners. It takes me so long to get one. Quite busy these days.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 28, 2005 at 6 AM)Mr Dew: Wow, more than one? :-O
by Nafcom (Sep 28, 2005 at 6 AM)Nafcom: hahaa… Well… It’d be completed soon. I took longer as I prefer to wait for the whole story to unfold on my side. The story hasn’t exactly ended actually.
by Mr. Dew (Sep 29, 2005 at 5 AM)Mr Dew: You can always do it like this way…Back To The Future
heheh
by Nafcom (Sep 29, 2005 at 8 AM)