CDRW or DVDR ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim Scott
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim Scott

I hope this is the correct ng to post this. So here goes.
I was just about to go out and buy a CD rewriter, mainly to back up all
the stuff I have aquired over the years in anticipation of my aging
Pentium 300 going bang!
However when I mentioned this in passing, I was advised that a DVD writer
would be better as it is bigger and will eventually replace the CD
anyhow.
Comments please.
--
Jim
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This is true, a cd holds anywhere from about 650mb to 800mb. A dvd-r holds
4.7 gig, but is readable only in dvd drives. Dvd's will eventually replace
*mostly* cd's because of the ever increasing size. As a matter of fact
there are some proggies out there that are already on dvd. However the
thing you should know, most people buy a dvd-rw drive to burn dvd's.
However most dvds are bigger than the dvd-r that you buy currently. So
without downgrading the video and recompressing it you will not get a 1:1
ratio when copying dvd's. Sometimes the ratio is as high as 3:1 (3 dvd-r to
1 movie on dvd). However they are still great for burning home videos and
such.
 
I hope this is the correct ng to post this. So here goes.
I was just about to go out and buy a CD rewriter, mainly to back up all
the stuff I have aquired over the years in anticipation of my aging
Pentium 300 going bang!
However when I mentioned this in passing, I was advised that a DVD writer
would be better as it is bigger and will eventually replace the CD
anyhow.
Comments please.
Click to expand...

A dual format DVD writer (the ones that burn both + and - DVD formats)
will burn both major DVD formats as well as almost all the CD formats
(exception being Mt Ranier. There aren't even that many CD drives
that support that in the firmware yet)

DVDs will replace CDs for data storage as they hold 4.7Gigs vs 650Megs
for a CD, eventually, but they won't be a replacement for audio
anytime soon.

There's really no particular reason to hold back on getting a DVD
drive right now if you think you might have need of one. The big
hurdle was the rival DVD media formats, and that's no longer an issue
as all new drives will handle both DVD media families.

If you don't yet need the large storage capacity of a DVD, you can't
really go wrong by going with a CD burner. The drives are very
inexpensive, CD media is dirt cheap, and compatibility is just about
universal as most computers in service will have at least a CD reader.
Also, if you're not sure if you need DVD burning capability yet, you
may have to sacrifice some CD burning speed by going with a DVD
burner. The max CD burning speeds for DVD drives are currently slower
than with CD burners. It probably won't take long for all around
speeds to come up as the drives get faster and better though...
 
I hope this is the correct ng to post this. So here goes.
I was just about to go out and buy a CD rewriter, mainly to back up all
the stuff I have aquired over the years in anticipation of my aging
Pentium 300 going bang!
However when I mentioned this in passing, I was advised that a DVD writer
would be better as it is bigger and will eventually replace the CD
anyhow.
Comments please.
Click to expand...

Well let's put this in perspective... the DVD burner is around $70 mor
expensive, additional cost spend on the assumption that a system is
too old to be reliable. Now, sometimes I just like to buy new stuff,
but it would seem to be that the first order of business might be to
replace the system.

If you're wanting to buy a whole, pre-built system it'll likely come
with one or the other optical drives, or if you're looking to build it
yourself you could just buy the hard drive now, make a 2nd partition
and backup onto that 2nd partition, leaving the first free for when
you have the rest of the next system, ready to install the OS.

On the other hand, unless you're partial to itty-bitty cases with very
few external 5.25" bays, why not BOTH, the CD and DVD burner? Very
handy for making disc-to-disc copies, and sooner or later a drive will
fail... you'll realize it when you try tu use it, so you have
immediate need for a second drive. We could assume you already have a
CDROM drive, but if as old as the rest of that P2-300 system, it's
probably pretty flaky anyway, may not read cheap, >650MB CDRs very
well (if it ever did).

If I were in your situation, I'd get the CDRW drive now, they're often
had for nearly free-after-rebate these days, just avoid the real junky
ones like Top-G/BTC/Polaroid. DVD burners keep dropping in price, as
will the media, so you save a bit of $ by waiting... money that in my
opinion should be put towards replacing the aged system.


Dave
 
|Your Pentium 300 is borderline as to being capable of running a DVD writer.
|
Thanks.
Will DVDs replace CDs or do they do different thngs?
--
Jim
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tyneside - Top right of England
To email me directly:
miss out the X from my reply address
Visit http://freespace.virgin.net/mr.jimscott
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I am sure it will be a long while for regular CD's to phase out. CDRW's are
still popular though, and can hold a lot of MP3 music...they are already
making portable CDRW MP3 players, car stereos with MP3 support, etc. I
would imagine that blank DVD discs are still pretty high in price? I
haven't looked in a while...
 
Thanks.
Will DVDs replace CDs or do they do different thngs?
Click to expand...

As a data storage medium, eventually, yes. DVDs will eventually
replace CDs for that purpose.

For video? That's already happened, VCDs were never that popular, and
even in Asia where they were, DVDs are gaining popularity.

For audio? The DVD-audio standard hasn't really caught on yet -- if
at all. The mainstream audio disc format is still CD.

The other mainstream audio format is mp3. You can burn mp3's onto
both CDs and DVDs, but many DVD-players that support mp3 playback will
only do so on CDs. Burnt onto a DVD, you will be able to play the mp3
files on your computer, but probably not on your DVD player.

For now, using a DVD for files smaller than 700 megs (the size of an
80 min CD), isn't worthwhile, economically, nor in terms of time.
Each CD costs about 20 to 50 cents Canadian (that's with the copyright
levy). A DVD-R disc (cheapest media right now) costs a minimum of $2
Canadian per disc.

If you're talking about the drives, then definitely, yes. The DVD
burners are capable of burning the CD formats as well, so eventually I
see DVD+/-RW drives replacing CDRW drives.
 
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