Is This Dvd Burner Any Good?

[Chills1994]

Hi again everyone,

Here's the link:

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=...rue&An=text

It comes with a Nero software package of goodies. All for a price of $119, and then there is a $20 mail in rebate.

Is the Nero SW that comes with it just going to be trial versions, where I have to pay more later to get the real thing?

Is there an advantage or disadvantage to having an external DVD burner?

I'd like to take my match footage and burn it to DVD, and free up some space on the 'puter's HD.

Thanks,

Chills

[George]

Should be fine on any PC running W2K or later. You want to have USB 2.0 on the machine though, or it may be unable to keep up with burning DVD. A USB 1.0 port (most any computer older than 2002 will probably be USB 1.0 only) is butt-slow in comparison to USB 2.0 and FireWire.

[dlcrouch]

I just bought an HP dvd940e - external DVD writer with lightscribe. lightscribe uses the laser to etch cover art on the other side of the DVD or CD. Sounds hokey, but it's really pretty cool. Got it a Best Buy for $ 129. also burns dual layer DVDs that will store up to 8.4 gb.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1155071080671

[George]

BTW Chills, the Nero package will be a bundled license and will not require purchasing a license after a while. It is a "Lite" version and doesn't have all features of the full retail version.

It is Dual Layer and supports 8.5GB media. At $99 after rebate and already in a housing, it's not a bad deal.

[Chills1994]

Thanks George and dlcrouch for your replies.

I am really trying to kill two birds with one stone on this: the software and the DVD burner.

BTW, I have heard that Nero version 7.0 is very buggey. Did I mention that already?

I will look into that HP burner too. Especially, if the SW bundled w/ the Memorex burner is "governored" versions of the real thing, and Nero expects me to shell out more bucks for the full blow versions.

[raz-0]

Nero 6 is pretty good, i ahven't upgraded to 7 yet.

One thing to keep in mind. If you have two optical drives. Say drive A is a CD-R drive and drive B is a DVD-R drive, and both came with bundled software restricted to use with that drive, you can run into issues if it is the same software. (i.e. both roxio) Where you can only have one version of the software installed and thus ability to record on only one drive.

I learned this the hard way with ez-CD creator way back when.. hence why have a full nero license. (although bundled is a nice way to usually get a discount for doing the upgrade rather than buy the full version).

[timamal]

Thats to much money that www.newegg.com for a better price on a better burner

[Chills1994]

dlcrouch, you talked me into it. I bought the HP DVD burner w/ Lightscribe last night at Best Buy.

So that brings me to my next question:

If I want to back up my .mpgs that are on my HD, am I better off making a data DVD versus making a regular DVD?

Can I get more stuff on a data DVD?

Thanks,

Chills

[George]

The data DVD is a better choice because it is regular data storage. To burn them in DVD format would require using an authoring program (Nero, Toast, etc...) to re-encode them and split out the audio as AIFF for the burn folder. Not worth it for just archiving them.

[Chills1994]

Wow George! That was fast!

I forgot to add that the HP DVD burner did come with the same software package as the Memorex burner I was looking at.

The Lightscribe feature kinda piqued my interest. I figure it is better than using a sharpie.

It is an "express" version of Nero. At this time, I don't know if going to the Nero 7.0 Enhanced version is worth it.

[George]

The Express version is the one that comes bundled with most burners. It has plenty-o-features and you may never need to go to 7. Try it and see, lotsa' folks never miss the extra stuff.

[dlcrouch]

dlcrouch, you talked me into it. I bought the HP DVD burner w/ Lightscribe last night at Best Buy.

So that brings me to my next question:

If I want to back up my .mpgs that are on my HD, am I better off making a data DVD versus making a regular DVD?

Can I get more stuff on a data DVD?

Thanks,

Chills

I'd back up to a RW "data" disc. That way you can reuse the disc to add more mpgs if you like. I'd suggest saving as AVI files if you're dumping video from a mini DV camera. Much larger files, but DVD quality.

BTW - the SureThing CD labeler SW is the SE version. I upgraded to the deluxe version to get more templates and the ability to import ITunes playlists when burning an audio CD. Another hint, if the Lightscribe label seems too light, you can burn them more than once to make them darker.

[Chills1994]

Thanks for the tips there, dlcrouch.

My Sony DVD Handycam and its proprietary software (Pixela's Imagemixer) takes the raw video footage from the (unfinalized) DVD via USB and puts each clip on my computer's HD as a .mpg.

I am not all up on the resolution (cost/benefits) of transfering (recoding?) a .mpg to a .avi.

I just know that going from a .mpg and using Windows Movie Maker which saves everything as a .wmv, the resolution SUCKS!

One other question: will dual layer DVD's work on DVD players?

Okay, make that two: I heard that most DVD players play the -R discs, not the + R discs. Is that right?

Or three:

I also heard that there are newer DVD players out there that will play .mpgs off a DVD (data disk??). Is that correct?

Danke!

[George]

-R media is most compatible. +R may work well, -R almost always will. Slower burn speeds proviide better compatibility. DL discs will play in all DVD players. Most any commercial DVD movie release is likely to be a DL disc nowadays.

[shred]

Thanks for the tips there, dlcrouch.

My Sony DVD Handycam and its proprietary software (Pixela's Imagemixer) takes the raw video footage from the (unfinalized) DVD via USB and puts each clip on my computer's HD as a .mpg.

I am not all up on the resolution (cost/benefits) of transfering (recoding?) a .mpg to a .avi.

I just know that going from a .mpg and using Windows Movie Maker which saves everything as a .wmv, the resolution SUCKS!

You can change the type of WMV and get some good ones (High-Quality, Large or NTSC work pretty well), but others go down to blurry-blocks mode fast.

One other question: will dual layer DVD's work on DVD players?

Okay, make that two: I heard that most DVD players play the -R discs, not the + R discs. Is that right?

I've sent out a lot of +R disks and have had very few complaints from consumer DVD players.

Or three:

I also heard that there are newer DVD players out there that will play .mpgs off a DVD (data disk??). Is that correct?

Danke!

Yeah, some will do that, but it can be tricky-- I have a DVD player that can, sort of. It's usually easier to get a basic DVD authoring program and use that to create a disk that will work almost anywhere.

[Chills1994]

alrightey then!

Thanks to you too shred for chiming in.

Wasn't it you who had the fancy ghosting video on your website? I think you said you did that using WMM.

I think Nero will let you do that too.

And shred, was that you who made up all whole bunch of match vid DVD's strictly using WMM?

At first glance, Nero and WMM look alike.

Now if I could figure out how to do the slow motion thing in Nero. Guess, I'll have to tinker around with it some more.