Looking for a new DVD writer
As you might know, I do a lot of video (of Anya of course). My workflow is as follows: film with my Sony TRV-18E, transfer to the PC using Firewire, edit and render using Ulead Videostudio 7 and burn as VCD or CVD using my Samsung CD-RW.
I am seriously considering buying an Asus DRW-0804P DVD-R/RW drive. In fact, it’s a rebranded Pioneer DVR-A07/107. I want to do that in order to render my videos in D1 (720×576) MPEG2 files and play them as when using a normal DVD-Video.
Please advise.
About avinash
I am the Managing-Director of Knowledge Seven Ltd, provider of quality consultancy, support and training for open source software. I am also an amateur photographer and musician.
I use a Google Nexus One Android smartphone, an Apple MacBook, Mac OS X, Linux and a lot of open source software.
I am married to Christina and we have two wonderful kids, Kyan & Anya. In case you are wondering, Noulakaz means "our home" in my native language, créole.
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“seriously”??? Thanks for keeping me informed… thru the weblog
Aha! The joy of having one’s wife checking on what we are buying
In November 2002, I bought an iBook. Since then, I’ve been forbidden from making any “big” purchase. Of course, sometimes I sneak a book or two…
Actually, my intention was to write that DVD-RW are sold at about £90 in the UK. Are they cheaper in Mauritius?
Not really. It seems to me that a DVD writer costs about Rs. 5000 in Mauritius at this moment.
Gigabyte DVD Writer ~Rs.4,100
What are the features?
The Asus is 8X, both DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW and as I told you a rebranded Pioneer DVR-A07 which is considered one of the best DVD writer.
I tend to believe that cheap writers are only 4X.
Hey there
I’d just thought I’d add my 50 cents
At the moment, most of the 8x highend dvd writers are pretty much the same, with the exception that they offer small, often unused benefits in order to try and distinguish themselves from the competition,
As most of the parts are manufactured by the same people (with the exception of plextor), the main differences are implemented in the bios level.
Dvd writers in order of my personal preferance.
NEC ND2500A RRP £55 (owned by me)
Writing DVD+R: 8x
DVD-R: 8x
CD-R: 32x
Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x
DVD-RW: 4x
CD-RW: 16x
Reading DVD-ROM: 12x
CD-ROM: 40x
This DVD writer is probably the best and cheapest one for you, in reviews it was never the fastest (up to a minute slower writing @8x compared to the plextor) but has the best write quality to blank DVD’s which not only makes the media degrade much less over the years, it also means less skipping on ordinary DVD players.
Note :- This writer works best on UDMA and solely on it’s own channel, and definately not in USB/Firewire caddys.
Plextor PX-712A RRP £150
Writing DVD+R: 12x
DVD-R: 8x
CD-R: 48x
Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x
DVD-RW: 4x
CD-RW: 24x
Reading DVD-ROM: 16x
CD-ROM: 48x
Plextor PX708A RRP £100 (owned by me)
Writing DVD+R: 8x
DVD-R: 4x
CD-R: 40x
Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x
DVD-RW: 2x
CD-RW: 24x
Reading DVD-ROM: 12x
CD-ROM: 40x
HD (High density burning, burn 1.4gb on a 700min CD)
Fastest +r 8x writer, , very reliable, constant firmware updates for new media available, works great in an external caddy (usb/firewire external chassis (many don’t))
Plextor PX-712A RRP £150
Writing DVD+R: 12x
DVD-R: 8x
CD-R: 48x
Rewriting DVD+RW: 4x
DVD-RW: 4x
CD-RW: 24x
Reading DVD-ROM: 16x
CD-ROM: 48x
Newer and improved version which writes @12x (good luck finding the media for it though)
I think this is the only place where mauritians talk about optical drives, i came through it while google-ing for a cheap dvd drive.
I’ve got one that is slow with reading data on dvds, at start it spins at full speed, but after some time during data transfer, it goes silent yet the transfer is still going on but at a slower pace. And i had burnt some data on a branded lexmark dvd, it went well and i could read that data. However after some months my computer displayed that the disk was empty. I tried that disk on a dvd video player (the one we use with TVs), it read the data..
And now i want to buy a new optical drive and then am stuck at what choice do i make and how much it gonna cost!! Hell!
Hi Sharvin,
Maybe you didn’t notice but this post was written 6 years ago
Since then, a lot of things have changed and most optical drives are mostly equivalent (especially if they are sold by reputable vendors.)