DVD Burners

[hoffm11]

I am looking to get a DVD burner. What should I look out for? What do you recommend?

[The Yaz]

Before you go and get a DVD burner, you've got to read the fine print. There are multiple recording formats (+r, +rw, -r, -rw) and they need specific blank stock and older DVD players do not read all of the formats.

Your best bet is to fine a friend/co-worker who already has one and ask to borrow a DVD they burned. Test it out on all of your electronic devices so you know if that format is compatible. If it is, look for that formatted drive in the highest speed (8x is standard, but there is 16x either out or on the horizon).

If you are willing to invest a little more, you can get a drive that will burn in all of the formats. Sony makes such a drive that has gotten good reviews, but it is pricey compared to the one format drives.

Have fun researching.

Steve 8)

[Falstaff]

I've been shopping around for a DVD+-R/RW lately also. I was really interested in this Sony. (http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10358222&loc=18133) It has very good speeds for burning all formats and at buy.com it is only $146. Plextor (http://www.buy.com/retail/computers/product.asp?sku=10352851&loc=18133) also has a very nice drive (same speeds) and it has a $50 mail in rebate (bringing it down to $123) until 3/31. I would reccommend going with a dual format drive. I decided that I was going to wait until April or May, as Phillips (I think) has developed an 8.5 GB dual layer DVD+R and I want to get a compatible writer. Either of the two above would be great though, and I've seen that current drives may get software updates to burn dual layered disks.

[Falstaff]

Forgot to mention, to check compatibility with your devices with DVD+, check out this site. (http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Compatibility.asp?mid=0&sid=2&aid=59)