# Dvd Burners.



## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

My CD writer packed in yesterday after two years.







I decided to replace it with a DVD burner as these are costing around Â£50, thatâ€™s what I paid for the CD writer 2 years ago.









I got another Liteon drive, the SOHW 1213s. This drive didnâ€™t get fantastic reviews when it first came out but that was down to ropey firmware. I installed the drive and updated the firmware and all seems fine even with cheap media.

One nice surprise was the bundled Nero 6 software, I used earlier versions of Nero and didnâ€™t like them but version 6 is very nice.

I like Windows XP ASR (Automated System Recovery) and the acquisition of a DVD writer will be very useful because of the higher capacity of the disks.

Anyone else got a DVD writer, what do you do with yours?


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## Garry (Feb 25, 2003)

Hi Stan,

The drive in my laptop can burn dvd's as well as cd's. Never tried to copy a dvd though, heard it's a lengthy process. Maybe I'll install the software this weekend and try it out.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Hi G,

It takes a few hours to transcode a file (WMV, AVI etc) into a DVD, about three hours I'm told. There copying programmes that duplicate DVDs (movies) in a lot less time I am also told.









This is not legal, of course.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Not got a writer, but recently replaced my VCR with a DVD recorder. Clever piece of kit. I can start watching a programme i'm recording before it's finished!


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Hi Stan, same situation on Monday for me....My CDR drives been acting up so got a NEC DVDRW for Â£75...I also got Roxio DVD Creator 7 and after a few attemps (me being dim) It works a treat, several holiday DV clips and photos jigging away to music with great effects on a DVD. The Roxio community web support is great too!! If you want i can burn you the software..









Jason


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Thanks Jason,

I'm going to stick with Nero for a while, it's got some nice geek tools that I like playing with.























If I get p*ssed off with it I'll let you know.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

Stan,

you can get an NEC dual layer writer for aroun Â£50 now, trouble is dual layer discs are still a tad expensive, but just thin 9.4GB capacity....

I got 2 single layer drives and one reader in my PC...I do a lot of video/photo archiving.

Roger


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Hi Roger,

I looked at the NEC 2510 but it costs more in the retail version (about Â£70).

I don't to copy much to DVD but I do need a good CD burner (the Liteon is 48x burn and it will write DVD+R at 12X). I couldn't see the point of buying just a CD burner, even if they are cheap (Â£20







) now.

I have about 200 blank CDs in stock and most of my mates only have CD capability at the moment.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

> I have about 200 blank CDs in stock


Stan,

when I think back to how many coasters I burned in the early days of CDR/RW when X4 was consider fast....ah! happy? days...

Roger


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Remember it well Roger.
















My first CD writer was a Mitsumi 4x write and it cost Â£120.







And that was cheap!

I think most coaster's were caused by shoddy software rather than bad hardware, that's changed thankfully.


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## Roger (May 17, 2003)

> I think most coaster's were caused by shoddy software rather than bad hardware, that's changed thankfully


Most of mine were caused by the lack of BURN or buffer under-run technology.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

Roger said:


> > I think most coaster's were caused by shoddy software rather than bad hardware, that's changed thankfully
> 
> 
> Most of mine were caused by the lack of BURN or buffer under-run technology.


 I had bother a lot not closing discs









When i get round to it, may see if my laptop likes my dvd-r/vice versa...........


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Intresting stuff lads









SOHW 1213s

Nero 6 software

The Roxio community web support

XP ASR

WMV, AVI

NEC DVDRW

dual layer discs

Liteon is 48x

DVD+R at 12X

lack of BURN or buffer under-run technology

CDR/RW

Any one want to translate
















MIKE..


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

MIKE said:


> Intresting stuff lads
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 Most computer jargon is bull****. I have a dongle to give my PC bluetooth capability. XP recognizes the device, but the software wont install. Keeps sayin error-needs to close


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Mrcrowley said:


> dongle


 What the f**k's a "dongle"









MIKE


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Mike,

SOHW 1213s: Is a Liteon DVD writer model number.

Nero 6 software: Is a popular CD and DVD authoring software.

The Roxio community web support: Roxio makes another popular CD/ DVD software.

XP ASR: A clever bit of back up software in Windows XP. One of its better features, IMO.

WMV, AVI: Types of video file formats.

NEC DVDRW: NEC is another DVDRW (DVD writing)drive manufacturer.

Dual layer disks: Twice the capacity of normal DVDs because they record on two layers, not one.

Liteon is 48x: It can burn 700Mb to CD in under 3 minutes. 48x is an indication of the writing speed.

DVD+R at 12X: Another indication of writing speed, new drives are 16x. I havenâ€™t seen any disks rated at 12 or 16x yet.

Lack of BURN or buffer under-run technology: Modern drives have a built in buffer or reservoir of memory to help make sure that data flow is not interrupted to the burner, if it is the CD/ DVD canâ€™t write and the disk will be useless. There is also software that makes use of this buffer and adds its own buffer on the hard drive during the writing process. In the old days I had to turn off all running programmes and go for a cup of tea for 20 minutes while the CD was written so that nothing slowed the PC down whilst the operation took place.

CDR/RW: CDR is CD write once only, it canâ€™t be re-used. CDRW is a CD that can be written to and erased, it can be used many times. Same principle with DVDR/RW but there are more formats of DVD than there are CD.

Roger,

My burnproof technology was the â€œbugger off and leave it aloneâ€ type, the only one available at the time. It did work well with WinOn CD, most of the time.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Mike,

A dongle is a hardware attachment (with software support) that allows a computer to do something it doesn't have built in.

On the Amiga I used XCopy Pro to rip floppy disk games, it had a dongle that connected between the external floppy drive and the computer.

Don't tell anyone.


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## 1madman1 (Apr 14, 2004)

I bought my fist DVD writer almost 2 years ago now, a TDK 2x +R/+RW. So far I've burned a total of 2 discs, neither one of which I've touched since I made them.


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## MIKE (Feb 23, 2003)

Thanks Stan, as clear as ...............










I will have to see if the wife wants to interface with my "dongle"









No chance she is looking for meteors









MIKE.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Mike,

Haven't used a dongle since the Amiga days.























Hope the missus finds a Sputnik or something.


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## Sargon (Feb 24, 2003)

Like watch collecting I've been a big DVD buyer for years. When I became unemployed I got a DVD burner and have since made hundreds. Nero came with my burner, but I haven't found a use for it as it does not allow burning copywrited material. There are several good freeware sites to get burnware and several more to get good ripping (decrypting and shrinking) software. I won't list them as they are easy to find and I don't know if they are strictly legal or not. Rest assured anything you can rent you can copy. I just wish I had money to buy one now. Lately they've been selling dual layer burners so there is no longer any need to shrink DVD's.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Iain,

Just beginning to learn about copying DVDs.









I'll need a new DVD standalone as mine is old and doesn't like copy's. They can be had for around Â£35 these days.


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## Mrcrowley (Apr 23, 2003)

got a demo for making DVD backups. On hard drive at mo. Next to try link laptop to DVD recorder


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## Sargon (Feb 24, 2003)

You're right Stan the old ones don't like copies. The last one I bought seems to play all formats DVD +R and -R and everything in between.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Iain,

Picked up a player for Â£35 today, a Ronin P215. It's so much smaller than the old one and has played even my crumby first attempts at burning movies. It even plays pictures of my watches.
















How far they've come and how cheap they are now.


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## Sargon (Feb 24, 2003)

I've seen them go for as little as $25 new. What's that like Â£3 or something?







Mark my words. China will put the rest of the worl out of business.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

$25.







That's about Â£15 at the moment. Cheapest in the UK is about $55 and that is pretty good really.

The Ronin is from China, designed and built there. I have to be fair, it's played everything I've put into it. It does have faults but nothing to do with the way it does its job.

If the Chinese make products like this for such a low price then the rest of the world had better watch out. Not the UK though, we make bugger all here now.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

> The Ronin is from China


I thought The Ronin were Japanese?
















Jason


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Don't buy a Liteon DVD burner!!!









Although Liteon CDRW drives were very good indeed, their DVD burners are poor.

This is due to rushing the drives onto the market with immature firmware. This is not just my opinion but a consensus of those who know much more about such things than I do.

The DVD write quality on these drives is far less capable than NEC drives, the test have shown this to be true.

Liteon drives still do a very good job of burning CD though.


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