DVD burners

[cookie]

anyone got a first hand recommendation for a dvd burner?

my cd burner manufacturer of choice would be Plextor 'cos they are the bollocks as far as build quality goes.

however, i also own and have fitted several cheap samsungs that perform well.

should i go cheap or quality?

 

[Mucky Helmet]

-R +R ???

I've got a Panasonic DVD burner that works well with most burning suites but is a right royal pain on media. It will only burn to DVD-R and it's taken me a while to work out who's media it prefers. At the moment I use TDK DVD-R and the burner seems to like them. I've tried the cheapies and other brands of media over the last couple of years with little luck but have noticed the newer burners are much less fussy with media. That's the cost of being a gadget freak!

The model I have was one of the first around so wasn't spec'd for mutliple DVD media types. Not a problem you should have when buying now.

I think, and I stand to be corrected, there's only a handful of DVD engines out there and most of the units you'll see are re-branded.

If I was buying now I'd consider the Plextor as long as there was decent media support for unbranded DVDs of any flavour.

As an aside, I keep the DVD burner on the same channel as my "stuff to be burnt" disk to try and keep the flow away from the data disk.

HTH

 

[Clive]

I can recommend the Plextor PX-708UF (this is an external one which I needed as it has both USB2 and Firewire connections) - the only problem I have had is that it doesn't like "cheap" DVD-R , but is fine with e.g. Memorex DVD-R.

I've not had the same coaster burning problems with "cheap" DVD+R though e.g. BulkPaq

Might be a bit on the pricey side?, not checked recently.

 

[cookie]

am now looking at pioneer A07 retail or 107 OEM burners. dual format with good customer feedback @ about £70 to £90.

never burn "on the fly" nowadays, so channel separation not an issue.

as an aside, with cd-r i have given up buying cheap overprint discs. had much sucess with a couple of hundred of them in the past. last 100 i bought (£8.99 + VAT) were rubbish.

only use branded stuff now. ritek are very good & no hassle at all.

http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog/catalogbody.html

 

[franco]

Burner

Cookie, I use the Pioneer 107D which I got here for the equivalent of 60 quid. Very good, although like you, I always buy branded disks, but never had an issue with it...Here's the details.

http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/product_detail.jsp?product_id=7108&taxonomy_id=43-92

 

[Keyframe]

I've got a stand-alone Sony DVD burner which I run on a fire-wire connection. Comes bundled with "sonic" buring software which is pretty good to get you started.

Not cheap but a solid performance for mastering. However, spend time reading the manual and experimenting with your DV editing software, encoding to MPeg 2 for burning to DVD is a bit of a black-art so use a short 30 sequence with quite a bit of movement and action. Write up notes of your codec settings for each exported clip. If it any of the sequences looks jittery start reading up about "field order"

I've no experience of burning/copying DVD films or editing using DVD software.

Have fun

 

[Clive]

I've no experience of burning/copying DVD films or editing using DVD software.

If you want to start, then I can recommend this site http://www.videohelp.com/

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

i have a Panasonic DVD burner too it works well it's a -R one

i also use cheap bulkpaq orange and white label discs and have very little fails.
i found that a slower burn turns out better IMO
i burn at two speed
firmware upgrades is also important they can made the burnner a lot better.

but for all you ever need to know and stuff about firmware go to

http://www.cdr-info.com/

GREAT SITE, LOADS OF INFO!!!

 

[cookie]

cheers chaps.

i'll be back later i 'spect when i try *backing up* movie dvd's. got a couple of progs to try: clone dvd & x copy.

not the main reason i'm buying, my living room dvd doesn't play recordables anyway.

 

[Deleted account 220427002]

THE BEST PROGRAM I THINK

NERO

http://ahead.de/en/631923346585938.html

Nero Recode 2 A GREAT PROGRAM

 

[cookie]

dealt on A07 from SVP (not quite the cheapest) cos i'm buying discs from them & it will keep postage down. also i know they are a good company to deal with.

using nero 6 for cd's & i think it does dvd too. miles better than easy cd when you get to grips with it. much harder to learn though IMO.

i still can't work out how to get cd audio properties to default to a 0 second gap between tracks.

 

[JediJase]

Svp are great, I brought a A106d from them and it hasn't missed a byte. Go to http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ for any help on which programs to use lots of tutorials aswell. I use Alcohol120% for iso images, CD Architech for audio cd's easy to remove the 2 sec gap, Dvd shrink and Anydvd or Dvd decrypter to burn movies.

 

[Keyframe]

Cheers Clive, nice link.

Well up and running with AVID now but could've done with this site last year.

I've got some really great coasters though!