Can anyone help me - I'm looking to buy one of the new dual-layer burners -
as the new media won't be out for a few weeks I just wanted to know what is
the next best format to buy (DVD-R or DVD+R) in both quality & value for
money.
Thanks
Doesnt really matter. The more important thing is what quality is the
specific make of DVD and how compatible it is with your burner. In the
early days of CD burners there was a lot more compatibilty issues -
specific makers and brand of burner. Now you run into it sometimes but
in general my Liteons and even generic brands can burn almost
anything.
NECs are known to burn to a wide variety of media but DVD burners
havent been around as long as cd burners. The optorites and other
brands had lots of compatiblity problems you could see from the posts
at various sites and all the brands had and probably still have some
issues with some brands.
My 1300 NEC had big problems with the early white vinyl top COMPUSA
branded disks but not the silver top ones. They seem to have improved
the quality of the COMPUSAwhite vinyls and I dont have any problems
now. When I was throwing away the early white vinyl tops I bent them
to crack them to throwaway in the rubbish and they came apart really
easily. DVD disks are kind of a sandwich and the layers came apart
really easily with those. The ones I got recenty I threw away one and
it was very difficult to crack and it didnt come apart.
The Khypermedias - I hate to bash them because they look physically
well made in terms of not coming apart and people tend to bash them
relexively because they were often given away or sold at deep discount
after rebate. I dont know if its my NEC and NECs as I said are one of
the better DVD burners in terms of compatiblity - they tend to produce
a lot more coasters than other brands.I thought it would be another
compatibility thing - like the white vinyl COMPUSAs and things would
get better as NEC adjusted the firmware. I have the latest firmware
and overall Id say the Khypers are just a bit spotty. Not only have I
had a lot more coasters overall than COMPUSA brands, Philips,
HP and some other brands --- I checked a few Khypers two nights ago
and to my horror the data was all corrupted on them. Im going to
recheck all my burned Khypers tonight . A real pain the ass.
Ive seen a few warnings on packs Ive received - a pack of Khypers that
said dont use on Pioneers unless you got the latest firmware and a
spindle of some online stuff that said they wont work with the NEC
1300s - so there are still compatiblity issues going on. Also the 4x
Khypers I got recently on sale - they burned OK but my two older DVD
roms wont recognize them at all, all the other brands 2x stuff work on
them. Overall Im kind of down on Khypers right now and sticking with
the generic white COMPUSAs as my cheapo brand.
( )