DVD Burner

[gringott]

I need some advice. I am torn between the Pioneer DVR-A03 and the Panasonic LF D311. The Panasonic can be had for 365 bare or 399 retail package. The Pioneer from 425 and up retail package.

(Computergeeks Panasonic retail 389, Pioneer retail 449)

My problem; I don't want to save 30 or 40 bux and buy the wrong drive.
This happened to me when the CDRs first came out, saved a few bux and got a dodgy drive.

Which should I buy? I will mostly be making dvds from home movies, but of course easy ripping would be a plus.

Your thoughts , please...
Thanks

gringo^mF

[spigidygak]

IMHO wait a lil' longer. But if you must, both drives should be decent. But I'd get a pioneer just 'cause they make the drives a leeetle better. Also I hope you realize it won't really be possible to copy dvd movies. Since dvd-r and all of the incarnations don't have access to the innermost area where the region coding and what not is placed. And consumer level drives i.e. drives that don't cost $15k+ are not able to write in this area. Also the media has that part blocked. Maybe I'm wrong but I believe this is the case. Go figure, they thought up of a way to prevent piracy ahead of time this time around. . .

[TommyBoomfiger]

Im with spigs, wait a little while longer, at least until the dvd format wars have settled down some. as far as burning dvds to play on commercial dvd players, spigs is partially right. think mac, they have a dvd burner which can burn up to a 1 hour video which plays on dvd players. i can think of 4 dvd formats: dvd-r, dvd-rw, dvd-ram, dvd+rw (please correct me if im mistaken). i dont remember which one, but one does do ok for dvd videos. 2 of them are good for computer files, and one is just goofy (im just kidding, i dont really know what the last ones good for). if you dont want to wait you MAY have two options: 1) get the one which works with video, or 2) get one which works with files and make some high quality mpegs and burn them in vcd format. i dont know if this will work cuz i just made this up as i was typing it, but find out before you get one. you will also need a vcd capable player.

[spigidygak]

First off how am I partially right? I believe everything I said was right. Consumer level DVD burners will not be able to copy DVD movies. I did not mention however you can make your own home movies on DVD to play on a standard DVD player. And actually you got your stuff a lil' messed up. Here is the whole downlow on DVD burning. You are right on the four types of dvd burners, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW (formats came out in that order). DVD-RAM is owned by Toshiba, Hitachi and Matsu****a *gah stupid filter, its matsusheeta for you that don't know, but . . . gah. . . *. This type is only good for data on the comp. Its basically already phased out. DVD-R and DVD-RW are owned by Pioneer. These both play on dvd players. The DVD-R drive is what you find in the G4 Macs, but those are starting to lose a lil' support from Pioneer. The DVD-RW uses a 4.7 GB/side disc. And finally is the DVD+RW from DVD+RW Alliance *Sony & Philips*. This format also is supported by most dvd players too. It also is 4.7GB/side disc. In all of this mess it looks like the DVD+RW is gonna pull out as the standard IMHO. One great thing about the DVD+RW's are that the drives use CAV for writing which is much better than the CLV on DVD-R/RW's. Also a lil' more on the copy writing crap on not being able to copy dvd movies. In the inner-most part of the disc is where copyright, region encoding and encryption is stored. But with the consumer level drives and media, the firmware will lock you out of that area. Only way to get around that is by springing for an authoring drive which is like $10k+. But, actually its not the only way. . . hackers can try to disable the firmware and then the user could buy the media that allows the locked out area to be written. But that won't solve the problem alone. Since DVD's are dual layered, most movies are printed with half of the movie on the upper layer and the other half on the lower layer. No DVD recording drive exists of this capability as of yet. So you would only be able to get half a movie if you were even able to hack the firmware on a drive. I hope this clears a lil' more on the hole crappy headache of dvd burning.

[TommyBoomfiger]

wow that is a headache. when i said you were partially right, i read that you cant make dvd movies instead of copy. youre absolutely right, you cant copy dvd movies with a consumer dvd burner.