Newbie To Dvd-which Dvd?

relyea70

Hello,
I am new to the forum and do not have any experience with dvdrw drives but have had and used a cdrw for several years.
I wand to use dvd disks primarily as storage for music and data and wanted some opinions from you guys about which drive would be best for me. I do want a dual layer dvd +/- burner because of the amount of storage provided per Dual layer dvd. I also want a burner that has excellent cd writer capabilities.
I am more concerned with reliability, durability, and quality rather than speed, although I do not want something super slow, especially when it comes to burning cd's. MY LG CD-RW / DVD ROM has been excellent I just want to be able to burn dvds as well. Also a burner that is not "media brand picky" -if there is such a drive- is very important as I will use the cheapest media available. I also want a burner with at least 16X dvd read and a good quality CD read as well.
From my research on dvd burners I would love to have a BenQ DW1640 but the few I can find are out of my price range of US$45 (as are the dw1620's), my second choice is the NEC-ND3550A.
Any advice or opinions in this area would be a great help as I do not want to end up with a piece of junk.

scoobiedoobie

Either the NEC or wait for the Benq 1650 to come down in cost (it'll probably be available for under $50 within the next couple of weeks I'm guessing). Both NEC and Benq also are sold rebadged under other brand names as well, for example one of Sony's burners is a 1640, one of Plextor's is a 1640, IO Magic is starting to sell lightscribe 1655 drives, Mad Dog's later burners are NECs. Look through the Bargain Basement Forum for current deals.

reasonsnotrules

double posting isn't going to get you answers any more quickly, and is rather annoying. you've already made this post.

there are subforums in the optical drive forum for each of the drives you've mentioned, and if you do a search, "what drive should I get" gets asked at least twice a week.

I will recommend that you not just go with "the cheapest media possible" if you want your burns to last. Especially since you said you wanted a burner partly for storage purposes. Anything you store I imagine you want stored for quite some time. a good burner may be able to create a good burn on crappy media, but crappy media isn't going to last.

I recommend you use the search function and browse the forums for the specific brand of drive you've been looking at.

also, www.videohelp.com has a search feature for dvd writers where you can enter in the features you need (dual layer support, speeds, etc) and then narrow down by price since you said it's an issue.

relyea70

My apologies for the double post I thought I replied to someone elses question rather than create a new topic to be answered- so it wasn't intentional-
Thanks for the info.

relyea70

Thank you scoob

etp

Did you buy two yet! LOL

My list

1640
1655
110
110D
A10D
4550/3550/3551/4551
1693& model 6

__________________
Samsung 32/550, Samsung 55/8000, Samsung 52/850, LG GBW-H20L ,WH08LS20, PS3, SONY 350, TOSHIBA HD, HANNS 28.5/ HK7200 receiver/DELL 530s BD&9200, HP WEB printer, Sony Vaio 270

relyea70

I bought a NEC-ND3550A for US$43.88 delivered to the door from new egg.com, hope this was a good buy and price.

scoobiedoobie

Sounds like a good deal.

etp

Did good! Enjoy man!

__________________
Samsung 32/550, Samsung 55/8000, Samsung 52/850, LG GBW-H20L ,WH08LS20, PS3, SONY 350, TOSHIBA HD, HANNS 28.5/ HK7200 receiver/DELL 530s BD&9200, HP WEB printer, Sony Vaio 270