choosing a DVD burner

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jo-Anne Naples
  • Start date Start date
Thank you again, Doug! I would never have thought to check whether the DVD
media were -R or +R. I'll look for the +R tomorrow, so I can see if my old
drive will work. If it's really bad, I'll buy a new drive.

Jo-Anne
 
The NEC ND1100A is a DVD and CD burner. It will only write to plus (+) DVD
media. Have a TDK with similar specifications, and adequate for the most
part for what I do.

I am not familiar with Roxio/Adaptec burning software. I know that in Nero
5 and 7, if you want to burn to DVD, you have to select that option before
getting the proper DVD burning menus for that. AT THAT POINT, if now
recognizable burning media is onboard the unit, you must select that as the
target, if not already selected. Then, proceed with your DVD burning. Its
been awhile, but, as I recall, the original version of Nero 5 was very
limited regarding burning DVD movies. Over many months, I downloaded and
installed many upgrades for it from the Nero website. And, as a result, was
quite capable for burning DVD movies. Am associating that with ECDC 5, as
may be similar in usage.
 
Thank you, Dave! I'm going to buy some DVD+Rs today (assuming the local
OfficeMax has them) and check out how they work in my burner. ECDC5 does
show DVD data burning in the menu as soon as you click on "make a data CD,"
so I'm hopeful. I'm still looking at new burners, though--and with them new
software.

Jo-Anne
 
Be careful, however. I had more success in terms of compatibility using
DVD-Rs, and not DVD+Rs (i.e., for being able to play the DVDs on some older
players).

(DVD-R's were around before DVD+Rs, and that's probably the reason)
 
Gurney said:
WHAT DVD unit you buy has NOTHING to do with the OS and the topic is
out of place HERE.

Ask elsewhere
Click to expand...

I'm back from my holidays and what do I find? That our resident ****wit has
changed his posting name. Regularly changing the posting name is the true
hallmark of a ****wit, though there are people who are far better at it than
you.
 
Jo-Anne Naples said:
I've decided, with help from people here, that I can install a DVD burner
in my 5-year-old Dell desktop computer (with Windows XP SP3 and an IDE
internal hard drive) rather than having it done at a local shop.

Newegg sells the "Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model
DVR-115DBK - OEM." Is this drive likely to be a good fit with my computer?
(I don't need a slim drive, right?)

Also, does "OEM" mean it's missing something that a non-OEM drive would
have? One of the reviews said the drive doesn't come with software--but
the same was said of at least one other burner that was listed as
"Retail." (As I mentioned in another post, I have the old Easy CD Creator
5, which can burn data onto DVDs.)
Click to expand...

Pretty well any DVD burner should work OK as they all now generally operate
to a common communication standard.

Some OEM drives are supplied with burning software (the intention being that
the PC manufacturer installs the software and passes the disk on - but with
the current fetish for restore disks this is less prevalent than it was).

Easy CD Creator 5 is rather a dated product by modern standards and you
would do well to update it. The current version of that is Easy Media
Creator 10 (unless a version 11 was released while I was on holiday). There
are those that will recomment the Nero product, but both have their
disadvantages (and some of the Nero disadvantages are pretty limiting).
Since you are familiar with Easy CD Creator 5, the obvious route would be to
go with the latest line of that product. However, so much has changed over
the 5 incarnations, some research would be in order. It is worth
remembering that there is now some very well specified freeware around.
 
M.I.5¾ said:
Pretty well any DVD burner should work OK as they all now generally
operate
to a common communication standard.

Some OEM drives are supplied with burning software (the intention being
that
the PC manufacturer installs the software and passes the disk on - but
with
the current fetish for restore disks this is less prevalent than it was).

Easy CD Creator 5 is rather a dated product by modern standards and you
would do well to update it.
Click to expand...

Perhaps. But I sure don't like what an albatross it has become,
especially if you are only interested in the basic DVD stuff, and not all
the Fluff (and I do mean fluff), that was added since then! EZ CD Creator
5 sure works great over here. (And I also have an older version of Nero
(version 6) for other stuff)
 
Jo-Anne Naples said:
I've decided, with help from people here, that I can install a DVD burner
in my 5-year-old Dell desktop computer (with Windows XP SP3 and an IDE
internal hard drive) rather than having it done at a local shop.

Newegg sells the "Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model
DVR-115DBK - OEM." Is this drive likely to be a good fit with my computer?
(I don't need a slim drive, right?)

Also, does "OEM" mean it's missing something that a non-OEM drive would
have? One of the reviews said the drive doesn't come with software--but
the same was said of at least one other burner that was listed as
"Retail." (As I mentioned in another post, I have the old Easy CD Creator
5, which can burn data onto DVDs.)
Click to expand...

I should also have pointed out that Easy CD Creator is not officially
compatible with Windows XP, but in practice it is only the Packet
incremental part that is not compatible.
 
I'm back from my holidays and what do I find? That our resident ****wit has
changed his posting name. Regularly changing the posting name is the true
hallmark of a ****wit, though there are people who are far better at it than
you.
Click to expand...
You bore me.
 
Thank you, M.I.5¾! It turns out that my old, supposedly CD-only, burner also
burns DVDs. Today, for the first time, I used it with a DVD, and Easy CD
Creator 5 worked fine. I do still plan to replace the read-only drive soon,
but it's good to know for now that my ancient program works OK. When I buy a
new drive, if it doesn't come with software, I'll check out the free stuff
first.

Jo-Anne
 
EZ CD Creator 5 (with the update) works great here on WinXP. But you may
also want to consider some other programs, too, like Nero (for example), for
DVD work, which can offer more (but I wouldn't recommend installing the InCD
part)

FWIW - I never installed any of the packet-writing stuff (Direct CD, or
InCD, etc), however, as I consider it potentially too problematic. So I
always burn CDs or DVDs in the DAO mode (Disk At Once) mode, and then close
it. IOW, once it's burned, it's done, and that is rarely, if ever,
problematic.
 
I found CDs/DVDs written with INCD to be a problem when trying to read or
write to them on another PC with INCD. Turns out, after trial and error,
that apparently, unless both PCs have the identical version of INCD, there
may be problems.

Earlier versions of INCD, had problems with CDs holding their INCD written
data. Lotta frisbees.
 
Interesting to hear this - thanks. The fact that it can be this fussy
just makes it not worth it to me to even bother with it. (Besides which,
the discs are now cheap enough to be able to use a new one when you want to
update what's on the CD or DVD, anyways).

And I've also heard some horror stories about folks trying to install both
DirectCD and InCD (or any two packet-writing versions), and the consequent,
often serious, system problems that result (due to conflicts between the
different packet writing stuff).
 
Lil' Dave said:
I found CDs/DVDs written with INCD to be a problem when trying to read or
write to them on another PC with INCD. Turns out, after trial and error,
that apparently, unless both PCs have the identical version of INCD, there
may be problems.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately there have been many versions of the UDFRW format in which
they are written. It is unwise to use the format for any archival
purposes.
Earlier versions of INCD, had problems with CDs holding their INCD written
data. Lotta frisbees.
Click to expand...

This is a known limitation. DVD-RWs suffer from the same problem, but
DVD+RWs are quite reliable.
 
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