Yay, my DVD burner drive arrived today. Except that I don’t have any videos properly DVD formatted for burning yet. Or any discs to burn them to. Or any software to burn them with, since it’s an OEM drive… I think I was expecting to do my burning in Linux, like I did with all my CD burning, but then I wiped the system and didn’t reinstall Linux…
Oh well, it’ll get sorted out in time, and I needed a new CD drive anyway. My old HP 9900ci was getting flaky — it couldn’t even reinstall Battlefield 1942 without randomly failing partway through, so I had to mount the discs on the Linux server, copy the files over, and install them all straight from the hard drive.
I wound up getting a dual-layer-burning drive anyway, even though I wasn’t specifically holding out for one. The dual-layer media’s still expensive right now but should hopefully drop, this drive got great reviews, and it was still dirt cheap at just over $100 CDN, so what the hell.
And I don’t even have enough space for my existing DVD collection… :-P
I wish I had your problems. :-)
Hey, just out of curiousity, where did you order your DVD burner from for $100? Everywhere I’ve seen has been more expensive. I’m thinking about getting one as well, and still have to do a bunch of research about dual layer..
Right in the very first link above. :-) They also have the usual beige model.
Unfortunately the dual-layer media is still very hard to find, and expensive. Like, $34 for three discs. $US.
Oh, oops, I didn’t even see that first link. :P How much did you pay for shipping and how long did it take from when you ordered it to get to your place?
Also, did your drive come with the latest firmware installed 1.14? Or did you have to upgrade it.
I think shipping was around $14 or so via Canada Post, and it took about four days.
Firmware was 1.10, but upgrading to 1.14 was easy enough. It’s also the OEM version though so it also doesn’t come with any software, cables, etc. at all. The full retail version is around $200…
Well, I took the plunge and just ordered the same DVD writer.. :) I also ordered some DVDs that were on sale.. they aren’t the greatest quality, and have had some complaints, but i read they work with our brand of DVD burner and they were on sale, 25 for $9.99..
I’ve been researching a bit, and I guess the higher quality DVDS are Ritek.. but they’re a little more expensive.. $60 for 50 DVDs.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=11233&vpn=R-DVD-R4X50&manufacture=Ritek