If you want an external one, it's cheaper to buy an internal drive and an external USB2/FireWire enclosure and put it together yourself. (It's easy. Two cables that can only be connected one way, close the top, and you're done.)
If you want an internal one, you need to know if you have an open IDE channel inside the computer. Most of the time it's not a problem, unless you already have more than two hard drives. If you're just taking out an existing CD-ROM drive, you're all set. The two drives are identical cable-wise.
How handy are you with a screwdriver?
As far as brands go, there are only 3 to consider. You definitely want a dual-format burner. Don't get one that's DVD+R only or DVD-R only. You want a +/- type drive. Regardless of the different brands, there are really only 3 drives. One is made by LiteOn, and is the drive Sony repackages and sells, one is made by NEC, and is the one TDK repackages, and the third is made/sold by Pioneer.
The good news is that you really can't go wrong with any of them. I have the NEC drive, I think John has the Sony/LiteOn drive. The LiteOn drives are a little more expensive because they have an 8MB buffer instead of a 2MB buffer, but it makes little difference performance-wise.
The 8x speed drives (which I recommend) go for about $90-$120. The 4x drives are older, but go for about $10 less.
OE: Glad to hear you're happy with it. DVD-Shrink and DVD-Decrypter are excellent programs, and I use both of them frequently. I manage to hit a sale at CompUSA and get their generic DVD-R blanks for about $0.50 each. They're listed as only 1x discs, but the drive recognizes them as 2x and writes accordingly. Never had a problem with any of them.
Usually a DVD writing software will tell you the drive's capabilities, or you can go to Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manger and look at the drive properties directly.
I use this tool to profile a computer when the user/owner is not sure of what they have or what the model numbers of the equiptment they own. Plus so much more!
quote:The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.
so I installed the Belarc Advisor stuff... one of the things it said was:
512 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'SODIMM1' is Empty
Slot 'SODIMM2' has 512 MB
so... that means I can go get another 512 stick of DDRAM and put it in the other slot? will that improve the performance of my computer markedly? (it seems to run pretty fast now, has the Centrino chip, runs a lot faster than my P4 on the the HP desktop that has 1024 of the other kind of RAM)
You can if you want to, but it won't make much difference on a Centrino. If you had one of the Athlon chips, it would make a big difference, as it has two memory pipelines.
Garth: 1) Yes, but if the 512MB you already have is installed as 2 sticks of 256MB each, then you're already taking advantage of the twin memory access. If it's only 1 stick, adding a second will not only double your RAM but increase your memory speed, too.
2) No, but HyperThreading is somewhat of a misnomer. Unless you run a lot of Adobe Premiere video editing, you won't even notice you don't have it. The P4s with HT are still only single CPUs, no matter what they might fool the OS into believing.
How P4 compatible/capable is the Athlon 2600XP anyway? I heard from one guy that a 2.1 ghz 2600XP is comparable to a 2.6 ghz Pentium 4; or is that a lot of hyperbole?
Garth: Due to how certain bits of the Athlon CPUs work better than the same bits of the P4, the "2600" is fairly accurate. Even though it's running at a lower clock rate, certain calculations are more efficient in the Athlon, so they complete faster.
If the software is written to take advantage of the new P4s' HyperThreading (like Adobe Premiere) then a P4 will beat an Athlon. In general, 95% of all software isn't P4-HT optimized, so the Athlon remains the better bang for the buck.
A point to remember with using a DVD burner as an external drive with USB2 or Firewire- I did this originally with a Sony (liteon). Some of my DVD burning software did not recognize it as a DVD burner only CD. (I suspect I nnneded driver but could not find the right ones.)
I never had any problems with my external writer. Usually a software update will correct the problem if a program is too old to recognize it. Nero was bad about that.
Best Buy has the new Sony Dual-Layer (8.5GB) writers on sale this week for $199. Don't know if it's worth it to jump on this quite yet...
I've also heard that some NEC DVD burners can be converted to write dual layer DVDs without anything more than a firmware upgrade. I don't know how true that is, but if you own one, it might be worth checking out.
Movies are already dual layer, so I'd say yes. The only potential gotcha, which shouldn't be a problem, would be if somehow your DVD player was incompatible with some new format that they would propose. That's not likely though, as it sort of defeats the purpose of a DVD burner in the first place.
Garth: Not necessarily. Currently, dual layer DVDs use a variant of the "+R" format. Some older DVD players have trouble with the +R format. My older Toshiba model would read DVD-R just fine, but would not read DVD+R, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW. My new Toshiba reads all four. My Xbox reads all four. My Playstation2 only reads +R and -R, but not +RW or -RW.
For the most part, if your DVD player was made in the last 2 years, you're good for the common formats. If it's older, -R has the highest compatibility. That's the beauty of dual-format burners--you find the media that your player will read, then burn your stuff to that format.
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Zixar
If you want an external one, it's cheaper to buy an internal drive and an external USB2/FireWire enclosure and put it together yourself. (It's easy. Two cables that can only be connected one way, close the top, and you're done.)
If you want an internal one, you need to know if you have an open IDE channel inside the computer. Most of the time it's not a problem, unless you already have more than two hard drives. If you're just taking out an existing CD-ROM drive, you're all set. The two drives are identical cable-wise.
How handy are you with a screwdriver?
As far as brands go, there are only 3 to consider. You definitely want a dual-format burner. Don't get one that's DVD+R only or DVD-R only. You want a +/- type drive. Regardless of the different brands, there are really only 3 drives. One is made by LiteOn, and is the drive Sony repackages and sells, one is made by NEC, and is the one TDK repackages, and the third is made/sold by Pioneer.
The good news is that you really can't go wrong with any of them. I have the NEC drive, I think John has the Sony/LiteOn drive. The LiteOn drives are a little more expensive because they have an 8MB buffer instead of a 2MB buffer, but it makes little difference performance-wise.
The 8x speed drives (which I recommend) go for about $90-$120. The 4x drives are older, but go for about $10 less.
Here's a link to the LiteOn
and here's one to the NEC
Mwave.com has fast service and excellent prices. I buy all my stuff from them.
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OnionEater
Zix
Thanks,I appreciate the help.
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OnionEater
Zix
I bought the NIC, works great. I also downloaded dvd-decrypter and dvd-shrink to use with it. Both are very good programs.
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Zixar
OE: Glad to hear you're happy with it. DVD-Shrink and DVD-Decrypter are excellent programs, and I use both of them frequently. I manage to hit a sale at CompUSA and get their generic DVD-R blanks for about $0.50 each. They're listed as only 1x discs, but the drive recognizes them as 2x and writes accordingly. Never had a problem with any of them.
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Tom Strange
I got a dumb question... how do I tell what kind of DVD/CD deal is in my computer? (laptop or desktop)
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Zixar
Usually a DVD writing software will tell you the drive's capabilities, or you can go to Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manger and look at the drive properties directly.
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Steve!
Tomstrange, that's not a dumb question at all.
But the method that Zixar told you will only tell you basic information about the drive - it will tell you what brand it is, but not much else.
If you want to know the speed of the drive, or other information, you would probably need to go to the manufacturer's website and look up that model.
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An Apple a Day
I use this tool to profile a computer when the user/owner is not sure of what they have or what the model numbers of the equiptment they own. Plus so much more!
Belarc Advisor
Next step once you have the model/serial numbers is to search out the information on the Web.
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Tom Strange
thanks folks!
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Tom Strange
so I installed the Belarc Advisor stuff... one of the things it said was:
512 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'SODIMM1' is Empty
Slot 'SODIMM2' has 512 MB
so... that means I can go get another 512 stick of DDRAM and put it in the other slot? will that improve the performance of my computer markedly? (it seems to run pretty fast now, has the Centrino chip, runs a lot faster than my P4 on the the HP desktop that has 1024 of the other kind of RAM)
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Zixar
You can if you want to, but it won't make much difference on a Centrino. If you had one of the Athlon chips, it would make a big difference, as it has two memory pipelines.
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GarthP2000
Zix,
I have an Athlon 2600XP based system w/ 512Meg. I take it what you said applies to my system as well? Also, does the 2600XP support hyperthreading?
Thanks!
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Zixar
Garth: 1) Yes, but if the 512MB you already have is installed as 2 sticks of 256MB each, then you're already taking advantage of the twin memory access. If it's only 1 stick, adding a second will not only double your RAM but increase your memory speed, too.
2) No, but HyperThreading is somewhat of a misnomer. Unless you run a lot of Adobe Premiere video editing, you won't even notice you don't have it. The P4s with HT are still only single CPUs, no matter what they might fool the OS into believing.
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GarthP2000
Zix,
How P4 compatible/capable is the Athlon 2600XP anyway? I heard from one guy that a 2.1 ghz 2600XP is comparable to a 2.6 ghz Pentium 4; or is that a lot of hyperbole?
Thanks for the info!
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Tom Strange
yeah! "they" told me my 1.6 Centrino was comparable to a 2.4 or 2.6 P4... was that "salesmanship"?
Although it is a lot faster and smoother than the desktop P4... but I don't know what speed that is...
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Zixar
Garth: Due to how certain bits of the Athlon CPUs work better than the same bits of the P4, the "2600" is fairly accurate. Even though it's running at a lower clock rate, certain calculations are more efficient in the Athlon, so they complete faster.
If the software is written to take advantage of the new P4s' HyperThreading (like Adobe Premiere) then a P4 will beat an Athlon. In general, 95% of all software isn't P4-HT optimized, so the Athlon remains the better bang for the buck.
(IMHO)
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ckeer
A point to remember with using a DVD burner as an external drive with USB2 or Firewire- I did this originally with a Sony (liteon). Some of my DVD burning software did not recognize it as a DVD burner only CD. (I suspect I nnneded driver but could not find the right ones.)
When I mounted the DVD internally it worked fine.
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Zixar
I never had any problems with my external writer. Usually a software update will correct the problem if a program is too old to recognize it. Nero was bad about that.
Best Buy has the new Sony Dual-Layer (8.5GB) writers on sale this week for $199. Don't know if it's worth it to jump on this quite yet...
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Mister P-Mosh
I've also heard that some NEC DVD burners can be converted to write dual layer DVDs without anything more than a firmware upgrade. I don't know how true that is, but if you own one, it might be worth checking out.
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GarthP2000
Can a duel layer DVD be read by any DVD player?
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Steve!
One of the challenges that they worked real hard to overcome was making those disks so that they would be compatible with existing DVD players.
Yeah, you should be able to play them in any DVD player.
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Mister P-Mosh
Movies are already dual layer, so I'd say yes. The only potential gotcha, which shouldn't be a problem, would be if somehow your DVD player was incompatible with some new format that they would propose. That's not likely though, as it sort of defeats the purpose of a DVD burner in the first place.
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Zixar
Garth: Not necessarily. Currently, dual layer DVDs use a variant of the "+R" format. Some older DVD players have trouble with the +R format. My older Toshiba model would read DVD-R just fine, but would not read DVD+R, DVD-RW, or DVD+RW. My new Toshiba reads all four. My Xbox reads all four. My Playstation2 only reads +R and -R, but not +RW or -RW.
For the most part, if your DVD player was made in the last 2 years, you're good for the common formats. If it's older, -R has the highest compatibility. That's the beauty of dual-format burners--you find the media that your player will read, then burn your stuff to that format.
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