i am interested in buying a dvd burner but i am not sure wich to buy. i heard that the sony is good but i would like some of your opinions. i am also not to sure the difference between dvd-r and dvd+r

Leave new Sony DRU-500a alone. Read the opinions on the web & see how bad it is.
Go for Pioneer 105 for under £200 in UK

Seb

I was all set to buy a sony drive when they first came out. But lately ive started to think in another way about what to get.

I figure the +R -R war will prob take up to 2 years to really pan out and see who's the winner. Im thinking at least a year anyway.

Scenario 1 is...

Buy a DRU500a and take the each way bet and end up with something likely to save you some sort of money in the long run. In the meantime this burner is having problems to various extents and isnt really functioning as well as it could be or as well as the pioneer A04 and 05 are.

Scneario 2 is...

Buy an A05 which is functioning really well (and costs less) and live with the idea that it could be useless in the next 12-24 months (maybe longer). And thus face the fact you may have wasted some cash.

But.....

Here's where i have started to change my thinking. In 2 years from now if the format which has won is +R. and you have a useless A05. Then +R burners will likely be a lot faster and more feature packed and prob totally stable. And ultimately by that point they will be cheap. So if you have to spend to buy a +R burner cause your A05 is useless what you will get is a burner for probably less than half of the current price which is much better performance wise.

So in some ways thats more appealing is, buying an A05 now means performance right now. And IF (thats only an IF) you have to buy a +R you will be paying a lot less and you will be getting more features. So in gaing those features its not as bad a feeling in having to upgrade.

Also chances are the extra amount you spend to get the sony now will be the majority of what would buy you another drive if +R wins. Just put the extra money the sony was going to cost you to buy now in your draw and use it towards the new burner if you ever need to change.

Add to this the fact that with the sony you could end up burning coasters or having problems means it could turn out to be more expensive than buying a A05 in the long run even if you do change to another drive.

I don't understand how an AO4 or 5 could become obsolete. The fact is the -R format is entirely compatible with players made after 1998 and thats not going to change

These days the main significant difference between burners, in my opinion, is the range and price of media they burn.

People are having all sorts of media issues with the Sony unless they buy pricey media. And at present DVD+R is typically more expensive.

So I would say go with the Pioneer and enjoy using $1 disks .... two years from now who knows but then what the guy says above is right when you look that far ahead!

Well. Its a long way from obsolete at the moment but if +R wins over it will become obsolete. You'll find newer devices will stop supporting it and that media will become less and less available. Sure it will still work with your old DVD player but then people with beta cassettes can still play/record them in their beta players but its not hard to argue that they're well and truely obsolete thesedays.

earthbulb, I don't know the truth of the matter with respect to the obsolescence issue and I suspect you don't either, but if the -dvdr spec is built to be compatible with DVD players then that fact need never change regardless of what DVD format occurs in the future.

Consider that VCD is almost 100% compliant without even being a DVD and SVCD is about 85% compliant I would intuit from that that the -dvdr media need never be obsolete as long as DVD itself remains viable.

As I understand it, if you want maximum compatibility you should go with -DVDR, and given the above even if it should lose in the recordable market it isn't likely to become unplayable.

mark

How could anyone know what format will win over at this stage ? There are no "truths" yet because the fate is yet to be decided.

All im saying is if one format wins then you wont see any media companies supplying media for a format which has has died out, and of course you wont see any new drives in that scenario either.

If you think that simply being able to play old disks means its not obsolete than thats great but this is about where you spend your money now when choosing a burner, not what chance you have of playing some old disk if a particular format dies out.

Well, normally I say to go with the more well known name. HOWEVER, I have had the VIVASTAR DVD-R, for about 5 months now, and have had NO problems with it. It works GREAT...

Sony has recognized that their 500A is not tolerant of "slightly out of spec" media and is promising a firmware update to allow more use of these products. It would certainly be welcome

TDK has announced a DVD+-R burner due out in January. I have one of their CD-R burners and I think it's terrific. I was interested in the Sony DVD+-R burner until I read about the terrible problems it has. Maybe Sony will get it fixed, but I'm a bit more optimistic TDK will get it right as soon as their burner is released in January.

I have been burning with the Sony DRX-500UL for the past 45 days. I have had zero problems with burning anything on any disk. I have the luxury of knowing that I can burn to every format possible, something the A0-whatever cannot. Watch out the rumor mongers are about.

Well its actually not a roumor but a fact acknowledged by sony as well as by mediamanufacturers

Never the less I dont beleive this should keep anyone from getting the sony as it is sure to be fixed.

earthbulb seems to beleive that DVD+R will win - personally I dissagree - Im willing to bet almost anything on the DVD-R format. Which format wins is determined by salesnumbers - it doesnt matter which is technically the best, but rather which format is first to deliver something that works. Sofar the DVD-R has proven alot more compatible and cheap than DVD+R, this will ensure large numbers of sold units and media - and eventually also ensure the "victory" - mark my words - its just like the war between beta and vhs.

But like Tim says - it doesnt matter which format wins - the format you use today will not be obsolete in 2 years just because another format wins. Your dvd-player will not suddenly stop working, it will keep on playing the DVD-R or DVD+R that it use to play. All new players will also continuingly be able to play your disks. Maybe they will stop manufacture this format - and you will have to buy a new burner and start using new types of media - so what ? it will still continue to play the discs you allready have.

Besides one should never try to speculate and buy for the future when talking anything remotely connected with computers - buy what is working and is cheap now. Dont buy expensive because you think it will last longer - it wont - simply because its not the lifespan of the unit that will entise you to buy new stuff but simply the fact that you want new toys in 2 years tops nomatter what you buy. Because technology will continue to make you able to buy new exiting toys you wouldnt dream off at lower and lower prices. I have my house filled with all kinds of aging technology, computers, videos, stereos and so on - of which nothing is used - not because of their lifespan, everything is in perfect working order, but simply because its old and outdated and I want to play with new toys all the time

My advice for today is - get the new cheap a05 - and in 2 years time, throw it away and get what is hot then without worrying about it.
My advice in 2 years will be exactly the same - except for the unit which will be different at the time.

I have never understood people that waits and waits and waits for technology to settle before buying - you gotta wake up and understand that this a new century where technology develops faster and faster each day - it will never settle but keep on going.

>I'm willing to bet almost anything on the DVD-R >format. Which format wins is determined by >salesnumbers...

Very true. However I wonder is the present sales gap may narrow. Around my neighbourhood the Best Buy, Circuit City stores and their ilk seem to be promoting DVD+R quite a bit more positively than DVD-R. When the latter are in stock it is usually lower-profile brands like Cendyne (which are actually actually A04 drives), often with rebates on them. From a marketer's persepective, that's an interesting 'signal' that consumers are being sent...

Many (a lot) of years ago, those of us who were into video stuff watched the war of VHS versus BetaMax.

The Beta format was clearly superior quality. Both the media and hardware were more expensive than their VHS counter parts.

In the end we all know who won, right?

Beta = DVD+R
VHS = DVD-R

My own personal crystal ball says DVD-R will win out. Of course that is just my own opinion. Will anyone remember this a year from now so I can say, "I told you so?". <grin>

What you have to realise is that VHS and Beta were seperate machines. When you have a drive that will burn both im predicting people will lean towards whatever is working better, and thus that format will win.

Im not saying +R is/will be working better, in fact im not saying i think +R or -R will win, but theres a lot of people who think that just because -R is popular now its destined to win out. Its got a good start, but +R is def going to gain ground when all these new dual drives come through, its just a question of how much it will gain.

Also, i agree with anonymous, its best to buy now whats working now and worry about the other stuff if it becomes a problem later. But having said that my gut feeling is still to get the SONY ????

But does anyone have a link to an UNBIASED site that breaks down the differences between the + and - formats? I've found plenty of chest thumping articles, but nothing too objective.

I'm looking at the Sony myself. I want something external and those aren't cheap anyway, plus I like to plan for contingencies in an almost paranoid fashion...

Bill....If you are looking for something external you might be better off buying the drive and then a USB2/Firewire external box for it.They can be had for $40-$80, which is usually much cheaper than the external model of the same drive. Just my 2 cents.

Tim

I don't remember the link, but the forums at http://www.doom9.net have something on DVD burning and one of their top articles has a link to a balanced site. I am thinking of getting a burner next year and I'm probably going to hedge my bets and buy the TDK DVD+-R/W burner due in January. I have learned a few things from reading that might help you. DVD+-RW discs have poor compatibility with existing standalone DVD players. DVD+-R discs are a lot more likely to work than the RW discs. DVD-R media is cheaper. DVD-R media varies from excellent to poor. DVD+R media is currently considered inferior to DVD-R media, but it is hoped that with time it will improve.

Thanks!

I've read that about getting the internal version with a firewire box for it. It is true that (using the Sony example) the DRX500UL is LITERALLY just a DRU500A stuck in an external enclosure?

Sony has firmware 1.0f up onsite. Installed DRU500a,
loaded firmware, rebooted, never had a coaster. Hope
the firmware update takes care of the issues.