Technology DVD-R Media

[vanelo]

Hi:

I am currently making backup's of a couple of videos I have.

When I was looking for the media, I noticed there are both DVD-R 4x and 8x.

What is the difference and which would you people recommend?

Thanks

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[stoleyerscrubz]

Look at the speed that your DVD Recorder is able to record and then try to buy the fastest rate. Also be sure that your DVD player is compatible with that particular brand especially if your DVD recorder is older than a couple of years.

unless you are trying to burn large quantities of DVD's the most important issue for recording is choosing a compatible media for copying

Hi:

I am currently making backup's of a couple of videos I have.

When I was looking for the media, I noticed there are both DVD-R 4x and 8x.

What is the difference and which would you people recommend?

Thanks

 

[vanelo]

Thanks

🙂

 

[heldicus]

Hi:

I am currently making backup's of a couple of videos I have.

When I was looking for the media, I noticed there are both DVD-R 4x and 8x.

What is the difference and which would you people recommend?

Thanks

The difference is how fast you can write the data to those discs. If you have an 8x DVD Burner, you can buy either speed of media, but 8x media will not work with a 4x burner.

You should also take note that DVD-R and DVD+R are different. It's like the old VHS and Beta wars of the 80s. Chances are that your burner (if we're talking about a computer drive) can write to either kind, but your standalone DVD player (ie. one that is attached to your television) may only be able to read one kind (if either!).

You should check the manual of your DVD player to find out if it supports recorded media, and if so, whether it's + or -.

All that being said, don't be surprised if the copies you make won't play in your standalone DVD player...even if you're sure it is compatible. The art of DVD backup has yet to be standardized, and success rates are highly variable.

Good luck...and you might want to check out videohelp.com. You can look up your specific DVD player to see if other people have had success with it.

 

[snowhite]

The difference is how fast you can write the data to those discs. If you have an 8x DVD Burner, you can buy either speed of media, but 8x media will not work with a 4x burner.

You should also take note that DVD-R and DVD+R are different. It's like the old VHS and Beta wars of the 80s. Chances are that your burner (if we're talking about a computer drive) can write to either kind, but your standalone DVD player (ie. one that is attached to your television) may only be able to read one kind (if either!).

You should check the manual of your DVD player to find out if it supports recorded media, and if so, whether it's + or -.

All that being said, don't be surprised if the copies you make won't play in your standalone DVD player...even if you're sure it is compatible. The art of DVD backup has yet to be standardized, and success rates are highly variable.

Good luck...and you might want to check out videohelp.com. You can look up your specific DVD player to see if other people have had success with it.

I was looking to buy a DVD burner, but I don't know a whole bunch about them. So, there are DVD writers that can write DVD-R, DVD+R and both? What about software to use for burning onto DVDs? Would I have to buy a special kind for each of the two as well?

For those of you who have DVD writers, where would you recommend to purchase them? I'm looking to buy a laptop for med school this fall...should I buy one that already has a DVD writer included or do you think it'd be better to buy this separately? The main reason that I want a DVD writer is b/c I have a lot of TV shows (like Scrubs and Alias 😍 ) that I want to keep, but are keeping up too much space on my computer.

Any insight you guys have would be greatly appreciated. I'm kinda putting off this computer buying business b/c I really have no clue as to what I want or should get.

 

[sunny123]

^ Buy an external one, that way you can easily switch it to another PC with ease. Buying one included with your laptop is more expensive (ex. Dell jacks up the price by about 40-50 dollars). Most dvd burners already have both media formats (+/-) enabled onto the drives so you don't have to worry about that (that was a concern a few years back, not now). The new technology that is in at the moment is that of "dual layer", which is where data is copied on both sides of the disc, which doubles the amount of data saved onto the disc.

Also, you could also buy yourself an external harddrive and store all your files off of your PCs harddrive. I bought myself a 160gb IOGEAR hardrive two years ago, and it really cleared a lot of space for me.

Now, I don't know what you expect to do with the tv shows burned onto the dvd disc, because you'd have to do something about the format they were originally recorded in. DVD players can't read certain formats, so you'd have to do the conversions yourself.... or, you'll just have to watch the files on your laptop/pc.

Hope this helped 😀

 

[snowhite]

^ Buy an external one, that way you can easily switch it to another PC with ease. Buying one included with your laptop is more expensive (ex. Dell jacks up the price by about 40-50 dollars). Most dvd burners already have both media formats (+/-) enabled onto the drives so you don't have to worry about that (that was a concern a few years back, not now). The new technology that is in at the moment is that of "dual layer", which is where data is copied on both sides of the disc, which doubles the amount of data saved onto the disc.

Can you buy an external DVD burner for $40-$50? If not, I might be ok with getting the jacked up price since I am looking to buy a laptop. You do bring up a good point though...I could switch it to my desktop PC. hmmm...

Also, you could also buy yourself an external harddrive and store all your files off of your PCs harddrive. I bought myself a 160gb IOGEAR hardrive two years ago, and it really cleared a lot of space for me.

Are the external harddrives easy to attach? One of my friends suggested getting an internal one b/c you supposedly get a bigger bang for your buck, but I know nothing of installing it and the thought of opening up my computer frightens me. How much did 160GB cost? That's an amazing amount of space.

Hope this helped 😀

Thanks. It helps more than you know! 🙂

 

[sunny123]

No 😀 , unfortunately you can't buy an external dvd drive for less than 100 bucks. But if you had someone that knew something about installing drives, then buying an internal dvd drive would be more cost effective.

The external hardrives are super easy to attach. You just plug in the USB cable into the ethernet card at the back of your PC/Laptop, and the AC adaptor into an outlet, and you can start saving your files. My 160gb hardrive cost about 200 dollars (mind you this was three years ago, so the prices have dropped now). There are many brands out there, and I took a gamble with IOGEAR (because of their rebates) and its paid off.

- check out Maxtor, IOGEAR, Western Digital - all good companies, but ultimately you have to look at the buffer memory in the unit, and what kind of style you like (some are just hideous 😛 ).

 

[Stroganoff]

No 😀 , unfortunately you can't buy an external dvd drive for less than 100 bucks. But if you had someone that knew something about installing drives, then buying an internal dvd drive would be more cost effective.

This is only advisable if snowhite's new laptop is going to be worse than her current desktop PC, which I hope not if she's spending $2000!

The external hardrives are super easy to attach. You just plug in the USB cable into the ethernet card at the back of your PC/Laptop....

USB cable into an ethernet port? Sweeeeet.

snowhite, if you're definitely set on getting a laptop, go ahead and upgrade to an internal drive when you buy your laptop, especially if it's cheaper than $100. External drives can be a pain sometimes to carry around, and you probably would find it useless to have to plug in an external DVD burner to your laptop and ignore the drive that's already in your laptop. I dunno what laptops you're considering though, but for $2000 total, you can definitely get one.

 

[sunny123]

^ major oops on my part Dallenoff 😛

Correction, USB cable into USB port 😀

 

[ItsGavinC]

I've had major problems with all external DVD burners connected via USB. It might just be me though.

 

[Sessamoid]

I've had major problems with all external DVD burners connected via USB. It might just be me though.

It's not just you. USB is not the best interface for burners as they require constant data throughput. USB is highly dependent on the host computer's CPU being free to be able to stream data. Firewire/IEEE1394 is a far better option for external optical writable drives.

 

[sunny123]

It's not just you. USB is not the best interface for burners as they require constant data throughput. USB is highly dependent on the host computer's CPU being free to be able to stream data. Firewire/IEEE1394 is a far better option for external optical writable drives.

Yep, firewire is the way to go, as it is more dedicated than USB2.0.

 

[heldicus]

It's not accurate to say that most drives are using +/- in combination...so be sure to check on this with your chosen brand. There are still plenty of drives being sold that are only one or the other...so if it doesn't say both, don't assume both.

Also, you should look for a dual layer drive...actually anything less than 16x write speed with dual layer support is a waste of money at this point. However, dual layer media is quite expensive now, but that will change with time. You can buy regular DVDs now and by the time they are as cheap as CDs, the dual layer DVDs will be as cheap as regular DVDs are now!

As an aside, Dual layer has nothing to do with the other side of the disc. It means that there are literally two layers of data. One is semi-transparent so the laser can focus on the underlying layer when it needs to.