Best Recommended DVD Writer

[Pan]

Hi

I posted about four months ago to ask if the time was right to change from
CD to DVD for long-term backups (five years at least). The long-thread
which developed primarily established that it was, as long as caution was
widely employed to check the backups thoroughly as well as each backup
appearing on multiple disc (with different writing media for each).

I've now decided to buy a DVD-Burner for this purpose to replace my
current CD-Writing drive. Can anybody suggest or recommend a drive for
this purpose? The following criteria are particularly important to me.

* Wide compatibility with DVD media
* Writing quality
* Multi-standard support (i.e -/+ R/RW, DVD-RAM would be useful too, along
with other standards. I'm sure all drives do this already, but CD-R/RW
support is very useful, since I won't have another drive for it. ).
* As future proof as possible, I don't intend to change it for 18 months
or so if I can help it.

The following drives were suggested to me at the time. However,
DVD-Writers have moved on at least a generation since then, so most of the
drives below are not sold at the places I usually purchase things.

Benq 1620, Nec 3520, LG 4163, Pioneer 108, Pioneer 109

Thanks to anybody who replies.

Regards,

Pan

 

[Peter]

I posted about four months ago to ask if the time was right to change from

CD to DVD for long-term backups (five years at least). The long-thread
which developed primarily established that it was, as long as caution was
widely employed to check the backups thoroughly as well as each backup
appearing on multiple disc (with different writing media for each).

Backups? Do you really mean backups, or archiving? I assume archiving.

I've now decided to buy a DVD-Burner for this purpose to replace my
current CD-Writing drive. Can anybody suggest or recommend a drive for
this purpose? The following criteria are particularly important to me.

* Wide compatibility with DVD media

You will still need to check your new media batch, to develop some trust in
it. Then buy bigger volume of the same blank DVD stock.
DL media becoming cheaper. But it will be still more than a year (my guess)
until it will threaten SL price/GB cost.

* Writing quality
* Multi-standard support (i.e -/+ R/RW, DVD-RAM would be useful too, along
with other standards. I'm sure all drives do this already, but CD-R/RW
support is very useful, since I won't have another drive for it. ).
* As future proof as possible, I don't intend to change it for 18 months
or so if I can help it.

As long as media is available and you keep the same procedures, they should
work until they die.

The following drives were suggested to me at the time. However,
DVD-Writers have moved on at least a generation since then, so most of the
drives below are not sold at the places I usually purchase things.

Benq 1620, Nec 3520, LG 4163, Pioneer 108, Pioneer 109

Yes, that is quite old list.
Nec 3540, LG 4167, Pioneer 110D work fine for me.

BTW, I wouldn be spending much time on research, unless I would have a
volume of more than 500 DVDs per year.
I don't. What about you?

 

[Rod Speed]

I posted about four months ago to ask if the time was right to
change from CD to DVD for long-term backups (five years at
least). The long-thread which developed primarily established
that it was, as long as caution was widely employed to check
the backups thoroughly as well as each backup appearing on
multiple disc (with different writing media for each).

I've now decided to buy a DVD-Burner for this purpose
to replace my current CD-Writing drive. Can anybody
suggest or recommend a drive for this purpose?

I like the panasonics myself.

The following criteria are particularly important to me.

* Wide compatibility with DVD media
* Writing quality
* Multi-standard support (i.e -/+ R/RW, DVD-RAM would be useful too,

DVD-RAM does remove quite a few from the list.

along with other standards. I'm sure all drives do this already,

Not DVD-RAM

but CD-R/RW support is very useful,
since I won't have another drive for it. ).

* As future proof as possible, I don't intend
to change it for 18 months or so if I can help it.

The following drives were suggested to me at the time. However,
DVD-Writers have moved on at least a generation since then, so most
of the drives below are not sold at the places I usually purchase things.

Benq 1620, Nec 3520, LG 4163, Pioneer 108, Pioneer 109

Neither of those Pioneers support writing to DVD-RAM

The 110D does tho.

 

[Pan]

I like the panasonics myself.

Hey Rod. Thought you might post if you were still here

Obviously there are quite a few DVD Writers made, so it's a bit of a
minefield to get into at first. I'm mainly looking for a few models that
are recommended so I can check them out further and choose.

DVD-RAM does remove quite a few from the list.

It would be useful to have DVD-RAM. However, I don't think I'll write
backups with it, because it's less common than the other standards and
there's always a risk it might disappear in the future. More likely I'll
archive with -R and +RW or some combination like that.

Not DVD-RAM

Actually the whole statement is invalid, so I'm not even sure why I said
it..... Must of written it without thinking.

Neither of those Pioneers support writing to DVD-RAM

The 110D does tho.

Last time we spoke, you recommended the Pioneer 109 out of the lot. Do you
have any specific recommendations at this stage? Need to make a serious
choice at this stage and go with it

Thanks

Regards,

Pan

 

[Pan]

Backups? Do you really mean backups, or archiving? I assume archiving.

Archiving yes. Sorry about that, should of been more specific. I do
temporary backups onto hard disks.

You will still need to check your new media batch, to develop some trust in
it. Then buy bigger volume of the same blank DVD stock.
DL media becoming cheaper. But it will be still more than a year (my guess)
until it will threaten SL price/GB cost.

Agreed. I did this with CD as well. Did some small research on a good
brand and went with it.

As long as media is available and you keep the same procedures, they should
work until they die.

The dying is the part that worries me

Yes, that is quite old list.
Nec 3540, LG 4167, Pioneer 110D work fine for me.

Thanks, I'll check those out. Looked at the Pioneer yesterday,
good-looking drive, but had some weak areas which I'd like to contrast
with other drives.

BTW, I wouldn be spending much time on research, unless I would have a
volume of more than 500 DVDs per year.
I don't. What about you?

No where near. I'm only considering DVD now because my monthly archiving
is now becoming increasing multi-volume and because I want to migrate some
of my older CD's to DVD to reduce the possibility of data loss on the
former.

I doubt I'll burn more than 11 or 12 a year for archival purposes
(probably double that with duplicates to reduce data loss).

Regards,

Pan

 

[Peter]

I doubt I'll burn more than 11 or 12 a year for archival purposes

(probably double that with duplicates to reduce data loss).

Then just get one of recommended drives and burn your data on good and
tested brand DVDs.
Make two copies, one one on each separate brand.

Obviously check burned data every single time. I do not trust burn with
verification. I always copy data back to a separate directory and perform a
binary compare with original. You should use CRC verification (Winzip or
else).

Keep them clean/dark/dry and cool. You should have no problems.

 

[Rod Speed]

Hey Rod. Thought you might post if you were still here

Obviously there are quite a few DVD Writers made, so it's a bit of a
minefield to get into at first. I'm mainly looking for a few models
that are recommended so I can check them out further and choose.

It would be useful to have DVD-RAM.

Yeah, always handy to have extra formats if that is easy.

However, I don't think I'll write backups with it, because
it's less common than the other standards and there's
always a risk it might disappear in the future.

Yeah, its certainly more risky in that regard.

More likely I'll archive with -R and
+RW or some combination like that.

Yeah, that is what I do.

Not just archive either. I've replaced all the VCRs with a
PVR that can record 4 channels of digital TV simultaneously
and that uses hard drive space at a hell of a rate, 2-3G per
channel per hour, so I use +RW for overflow with that stuff.

Actually the whole statement is invalid, so I'm not even sure why I
said it..... Must of written it without thinking.

Last time we spoke, you recommended the Pioneer 109 out of the lot.
Do you have any specific recommendations at this stage?

Yes, the 110D that replaced it.

Need to make a serious choice at this stage and go with it

Yeah, I was too when I started recording the digital TV to hard drive.

Real bonus with other stuff too, some of the bootables
now come in DVD format like knoppix etc.

 

[Pan]

Thanks to both of you for your advice. I purchased two of the three
suggested by Peter, the Pioneer and the NEC, the Pioneer recommended
by Rod as well of course. Those replaced the two drives I originally had
in my PC, so all is settled now

Thanks again.

Regards,

Pan