quality dvd burner

[heyttown]

My cd burner crapped out on me, and Ive been tossing around the idea of getting a dvd burner for the computer..
Dell pentium 4 2.66ghz
windows xp
640mb of ram

Just wondering what u have had luck with and what to stay away from.
And whats a good deal?

 

[mscher]

Re: quality dvd burner

None of them seem that sturdy, IMO. Lots of decent one's for under $30. Lightscribe is pretty cool, for custom disc graphics.


How about this one, assuming you have and IDE interface?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136147

 

[i386]

Re: quality dvd burner

I was a big fan of Plextor for years (SCSI & IDE), then moved on to Lite-On (IDE). They were cheap but worked pretty well. My latest is an HP with lightscribe. I gotta say, it's a neat feature, but I don't use it that often.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: quality dvd burner

I have the litescribe too and I have found it a S L O W feature to use when making a label.

My sharpie is faster

 

[mthieme]

Re: quality dvd burner

I too was a big fan of Plextor for a long time...for high end.
At one time (CD), there were only two big manufacturers, Philips was one....can't remember the other.
Now the field has widened, Sony, Misubishi, Mitsumi, etc. While they have always been around, they weren't nearly as commonplace.
My best suggestion is - warranty, warranty, warranty.

 

[j_martin]

Re: quality dvd burner

Lite-On, whatever is their latest. They seem to keep up with the technology and are priced reasonable. If you get one in a box you'll get the latest Nero software with it, which is probably worth more than the burner.

What crapped out on your burner? Door opening problems are common, and can be fixed with a little cleaning, and a very small spot of tune-up grease in the door lock groove, and a drop of NAPA belt dressing on a toothpick applied to the rubber band belt. All can be done from the front door.

Writing problems are usually fixed with a brush disk cleaner thingie, but they are done with a fairly high output laser diode, and they do lose their punch with time. Unless you're doing production work, they are usually obsolete by the time they wear out anyway.

hope it helps
John

 

[wuttja]

Re: quality dvd burner

Just as an example, New Egg has a Lite-On for $20 with free shipping. Pretty reasonable and easy enough to replace. To me it's all about the media. I ran into some major problems with Memorex dual layer DVD's but found the Sony's to work perfect in my drive. Your experience may vary!

 

[JustJason]

Re: quality dvd burner

Another +1 for plextor..... i own 2 and they've worked flawlessly for years.