[conspire] question about DVD writer

[David E. Fox]

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 08:22:56 -0800
Darlene Wallach <freepalestin at dslextreme.com> wrote:

> was at Central Computers I looked at the DVD roms. I saw combo
> CD/DVD readers/writers and just DVD readers/writers. Is there
> an advantage to a DVD only over a CD/DVD combo?

These days, I'm not so sure there's an advantage. At the time
I got my first combo dvd/cdrw drive (a Toshiba SD-1312) it
seemed a very good bang for the buck, as I needed CDRW but
having DVD-R was certainly a welcome benefit. This was about
three years ago.

Since then, drives have plummmeted, and I don't see a benefit
for a combo drive, given that:

* DVD r/w drives can read and write CD media as well
* are very cheap these days

A while ago (was it last summer, or probably the summer before) I
got a good deal on a dual layer NEC ide dvd writer. It's a good
drive - the only real flaws (since corrected with a bios flash upgrade)
was that it couldn't burn at 16x and had trouble recognizing some
brands of disks. 

> My Sony CD has worked well. Is Sony a good brand for DVD?
> Has anyone heard anything about LiteOn?

If it works well, keep it. I have both the Toshiba (/dev/hdc) and the
NEC (/dev/hdd) here. 

I'm sure many in the Mandrake/Mandriva camp have heard about Liteon.
There was a serious flaw two or so years ago with Mandrake and LiteOns
that rendered the latter unusable.

I imagine that's been fixed, but as always, caveat emptor.


> What about IDE vs SCSI for DVD rom?

A non-issue, as far as I'm concerned, as it's removable media. 


> Since my bios does not allow me to boot from SCSI CD only from
> IDE CD, I should make sure I have an IDE available.

Sure. 

> Is there an advantage to internal DVD rw over external?

Cheaper?

> I noted the following at Central Computers:
> Sony CRX-320E CDRW/DVD combo - $35.95
> Sony DDV1621 16x DVD-ROM - $26.95

Over at Surplus, I believe I paid $50 for the dual layer drive.

NEC ND-3520 AW.

> Darlene


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