DVD Burner

[Unibrow]

I'm very new to DVD burners and am thinking of asking for one for XMas, and I've got a few questions about them...
Whats the difference between a DVD-R drive, a DVD+R drive, a DVD-RW and so on drive? Do they all do the same thing? I'm basically going to use one to put personal movie files onto DVD Discs and backup actual DVD discs using DVD X Copy Whats a good recommendation for a DVD drive (internal or external, whichever one's features match up better to the price) I'd like to stay within the $250-$400 range.
Oh, and could someone tell me also what the differences are between the DVD recordable discs? There seems to be a thousand different types (DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, etc.) Man, this is so confusing!
Anyways, thanks for you help everybody

[r0guenj]

remember the beta and vhs battles of yesteryear? basically + and - are like that with only (at the moment) sony supporting both.

an internal sony dru500 will run about 350 at best buy and 440 for the external

[AMD Soldier]

Originally posted by r0guenj
remember the beta and vhs battles of yesteryear? basically + and - are like that with only (at the moment) sony supporting both.

an internal sony dru500 will run about 350 at best buy and 440 for the external

I just wanted to point out that the Sony seems to have problems burning certain brands of media discs.

But to Unibrow, do a quick search on this forum, there were at least two good threads on this topic posted about a week ago.

[r0guenj]

thats good to know......i didn't realize there was a problem with some media.....thanks for the heads up!

[Unibrow]

ok, looks like the Sony DRU500A looks like a good one; but I've heard people say there are some incomptablility issues with some brands of media. What types of media won't work on it? Is it just the lesser quality brands, or is this a major flaw on the drive we're talking about?

[AMD Soldier]

Originally posted by Unibrow
ok, looks like the Sony DRU500A looks like a good one; but I've heard people say there are some incomptablility issues with some brands of media. What types of media won't work on it? Is it just the lesser quality brands, or is this a major flaw on the drive we're talking about?

Well I wouldn't put too much trust in Sony's burners to begin with. They have had issues in the past with their CDRW's, but I don't want to get into that too much.

At least one brand I know that doesn't work is Leda. Heres a couple customer reviews... http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=list_reviews&id=24
(on the DVD-R's)

Personally, I'd stay away from the 500A...

[Unibrow]

Hmmm......that kind of turned me off about the Sony drive. Anyone else heard of these problems? What do you guys think of the Pioneer DVR-105 DVD burner?

[AMD Soldier]

Originally posted by Unibrow
Hmmm......that kind of turned me off about the Sony drive. Anyone else heard of these problems? What do you guys think of the Pioneer DVR-105 DVD burner?

This may help... http://slashdot.org/articles/02/11/0....shtml?tid=137 http://afterdawn.com/news/archive/3442.cfm

Pioneer drives are top notch, my A04 has burned about 2 dozen DVD-R's so far without any problems.