[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

I'll write up an article - or maybe do another Photo Story - on how the actual process went for me. I learned a lot about audio recording in a short time...(though there's still so much more to learn).

The audio review was a nice change and the format worked well. Good review.

I think I'll hold fire on the drive itself, not least till the DVD burning clarity issue is resolved, and media prices drop.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

I'll write up an article - or maybe do another Photo Story - on how the actual process went for me. I learned a lot about audio recording in a short time...(though there's still so much more to learn).

The audio review was a nice change and the format worked well. Good review.

I think I'll hold fire on the drive itself, not least till the DVD burning clarity issue is resolved, and media prices drop.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Originally Posted by Gary Sheynkman

Jason I HAVE to do a review like that. No more spelshguhsrgu-ing errrorss :lol:

Indeed, I know where you are coming from. :wink: However, an audio review can take a lot longer than a written review for a listener/reader to get through. I often want to skim read a review and can get through a long written review thoroughly in a few minutes. With an audio review you have to listen to all of it. It's also often not possible to listen to an audio/video review at work, while you can usually read a web page.

Also, not all of us have speaking voices as good as Jason's. :wink:

[alandashby]

Jason,
just so you know HP has released a firmware update that speeds up the drive. From the first release of the firmware to the second it is an impressive improvement. I have been using and testing several of the HP Media Center PC's that ship with these drives the newer ones have the firmware already installed makes it alot better.

In your review you mentiond that simple disks take almost as long, this is because it burns like a CD in circles from the inside out. There are different quality print options which can also improve speed.

The HP CD are made by Verbatim.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by alandashby

just so you know HP has released a firmware update that speeds up the drive. From the first release of the firmware to the second it is an impressive improvement.

Cool, thanks for letting me know - I installed the first firmware update, but wasn't aware of the second one. Good to hear that it makes things faster!

Originally Posted by alandashby

In your review you mentiond that simple disks take almost as long, this is because it burns like a CD in circles from the inside out. There are different quality print options which can also improve speed.

Thanks, I had a hunch that's how it burned, but I didn't want to say anything without knowing for sure. I'm the kind of person that always uses maximum quality settings because I want the maximum quality, but it's good to know that you can dial back the quality settings to get a faster burn. What does a draft quality burn look like - lighter, more faded?

Originally Posted by alandashby

The HP CD are made by Verbatim.

Figures! That doesn't bode well for what I saw with the DVDs then...can you shed any light on that? Is the LightScribe layer pushed back further than it is on the CDs?

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

How fast does it take now? For the marginal improvement in looks, 20mins is way too long. The main use will be in professional applications, but with that kind of time..

BTW, regarding the screenshots, I noted JPEGs were used. Photostory doesn't accept GIFs?

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng

How fast does it take now?

A maximum quality burn takes about 28 minutes. I haven't applied the latest firmware though, so that number may go down.

Originally Posted by Lee Yuan Sheng

BTW, regarding the screenshots, I noted JPEGs were used. Photostory doesn't accept GIFs?

No, I used GIFs (I'm going to use PNG in the future). What you're probably seeing is the WMV compression.

[gandulfy]

Ok I got a 640i about a month or so ago and I LOVED it. The images look great it burns great all is good. So about 2 days ago I install my brand new operating system, windows xp 64. Only to find out that hp has 0 support for the 640i burner and when i asked them if they planned on making drivers there response was we do not know if we will be making drivers for that paticular product under windows xp 64. So basically here is my advice, if you plan to use xp 64 wait and buy a better burner or make sure they have drivers out first. Even though the product is great we have to deal with hp's sub par intellegence when it comes to computer hardware.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by gandulfy

Only to find out that hp has 0 support for the 640i burner and when i asked them if they planned on making drivers there response was we do not know if we will be making drivers for that paticular product under windows xp 64.

Ouch! That would be frustrating. Unfortunately, this is exactly what I expected - upgrading to XP64 is just like moving from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, because vendors have to provide new drivers. I won't be touching XP64 for at least six months for exactly this reason.

[suds]

I have this drive...not bad. Have burnt about 7 coasters out of a total of 130 burns.

Not compatible with RICOH manufactured dual layers discs (DVD+R DL) unfortunately. Be careful when purchasing this media. :wink:

[Wayne E]

I have a question concerning HP 640.
I've been trying to burn MPEG2 and ac3 files
to a DVD. I notice there's no dolby (audio)
files listed in the drop down menu. I can
only burn the video(mpeg2) part. Does HP
have a later rev where you can burn ac3
files (audio) as well?
otherwise, I have a silent picture going on here...