Hey.
I'm thinking it's time I purchased a DVD writer.
This is the one I'm looking at, and it supports double layer DVD+R9 recording.
http://www.dangeo.com/proddetail.php?sku=50164

Can any of you give me your educated opinion on this burner, or another burner I should be looking at?
My goal is to buy one now that I'll be happy with, and not have to replace with a newer one a couple years down the road.

Thanks.

Rouge...at these prices its hard not to be tempted to replace up and coming technology year to year! Personally, when it comes to burning DVD's, I would prefer Plextor, but when it comes to CD burning, I prefer Lite-On. Currently I own

3 LiteOn CD burners
2 Sony CD burners
1 Yamaha CD Burner
1 Liteon DVD player
1 Toshiba DVD Player
1 Creative DVD Player
1 Plextor DVD burner (PX-708A)

Also keep in mind some Manufacturers are making serial ATA optical drives now too!

Here are some links to other nice Layer DVD players :

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-129-156&depa=1

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=173414 (not double layer)

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=170622 (not double layer)

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=170618

Yeah is anyone currently supporting SATA on the motherboard with enough ports yet?? I know Intel has a m-board with 4 SATA and Onboard RAID cause thats what is in the Dell XPS, which is essentialy a Workstation, the original Gen 1 XPS(not the XPS L/R/T/L_rr/etc) actualy was a dual cpu board and you could see where they just left off the zif socket.

And of course SATA 2 will be coming out which will be the upgrade to go to, especialy with speeds topping that and going beyond Ultra SCSI, etc. backed by PCI-E would be very sweet.

No more.......well not as much bottlenecking I should say. Oh yeah how about some Pu-Ram drives.

Personaly I would wait for a SATA Dual Layer Optical drives to come out, that is if you have the ports or plan to upgrade. Also media should be cheaper than too, I have not seen much dual layer media floating around out there yet.

Thanks for the replies.
Yeah, I don't expect it to be future-proof... just decent enough to last me a while without me regretting the fact I didn't buy a different model.

[edit]
Thanks for the links, Wiz. I've done a bunch of reading and research yesterday/today around the net, and I think I'm ready to purchase. With all the reading as I've done, I still value the comments of you guys/gals as much as any website review. Thanks again.

It's nice that these things are cheap... makes buying one easier.

Btw Firewiz, that last link you gave is the exact same burner that I linked to in my initial post.
(Except the site I linked to is Canadian, as am I).

Here's another you might want to look in to...

LG-GSA-4120B


http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=174213


http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=234
http://www.lge.com/catalog/prodmodeldetail...G1000658&page=#

Thanks for the help.
My LiteOn SOHW 832S arrived today. Works great!
http://www.liteonit.com/ODD/english/e_product/e_sohw832s.asp

SWEET!

Shit! thats pretty cheap for a nice DVD burner like that. I just dont like the price of the DVD media!! Anyho, you got yourself a nice burner.

media will be easily affordable after xmas after all the videophiles have treated themselves to pressies...

Awai.

I recommend taking a look at the drive reviews on http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters before you purchase.

Hey wow, the forums do still exist...



Anyways, relative to the topic, i got the LG-GSA-4120B like a few days ago and it is as smooooth as can be...

ATOMIC saw it on like monday, it does EVERYTHING except like Mt Rainier...

From memory, other than the burn speeds, standard DVD doesn't have far to go, the next format is Double Layer Dual Side i belive, which isn't a huge problem, since you burn one side, then flip!

i just got the nec nd-3500, nice and cheap at 60 bucks
now i just need to find some dl media, at a decent price

Ok, guys, I've decided to finally break down and buy a burner. After all of my research, I now remember why it took so long for me to decide to buy - it's so f***ing confusing as to what's the best drive! I have narrowed it down to the following with the best price next to each:

Sony DRU710A - $89
NEC ND3500A - $63
Plextor PX-712A $77 or 716A $136
Pioneer DVR-A08/108 - $77

So, here are the issues I am still having:
1. Is there REALLY a difference between these units or are they all a good bet.
2. Is the Plextor 16x worth the extra money or settle for the 12x at this time if I decide to go with Plextor.
3. What the difference between OEM and retail? Should I just go with the least expensive?

I eargerly await the responses of the gurus!

Thanks Guys,
Parli

Well, I got a little impatient and jumped on an incredible deal I found today. PC Connection has a Kanguru 16x Internal DVD+ -RW Double Layer Drive for $29.95 after rebates (http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=5479567). Also, you get a FREE 50-pack of Fuji DVD-R 8x Media after mail in rebate as well (http://www.pcconnection.com/Rebate/RebateDetail.aspx?SKU=5479567).

Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Who the hell is Kanguru?!" Well, it is actually the NEC-3500A! I heard this on another forum but for the life of me couldn't find anything on the internet to confirm/deny. So, I called both Sales and Tech Support over at Kanguru and they confirmed it is the NEC 3500A OEM version.

They were running a similar special yesterday on the NEC for $10 more but it disappeared today. So you better hurry if you are interested in this one.

I'll let you know how the drive is in a couple of weeks.

I have the Sony, and has worked very good for me as an internal drive. Not a single coaster. However, the external case I bought for it has given me mixed results, in my laptop the burning process freezes after a while, but in my desktop works great, but awfully slow since it only has usb 1.1. On a friend's laptop it burns ok, but doesn't recognize usb 2.0, which sucks.

Congrats on your new burner. For $30 its a no brainer.

You cant beet price for a DVD burner!

So whats the best drive out there that supports the most? Any good/bad comments with what you guys have now.

I have a lite-on 16x, and I bought my bro-inlaw a hp 630i dual layer for xmas. Both drives have been good although he hasn't used dual layer media yet.

The only caveat I have is the vakoss media from best buy - its shit.

So far ive found a couple of drives:

http://www.plextor.com/english/products/716SA.htm
http://www.lge.com/catalog/prodmodeldetail...0&model=NOTHING

The Plextor is the fastest but it doesnt support DVD-RAM while the LG is slower and it does support DVD-RAM, but I dont think DVD-RAM is all that important at the moment....unless you live in Japan. Also the Plextor is a Serial drive.

Am I missing anything?

well, OEM & Retail's difference is with the stuff they pack in.. the drive is the same but retail would have maybe more programs and some extra stuff (like empty disks to burn). depends on the manufacturer how huge the difference really is I think, thought.