Fast DVD Burner Help

[Nick10]

I'm looking to purchase a fast DVD burner. I do not want one that takes 3 hours to write. Should I be looking for one with 8x speed? I really would like to keep my costs around $150, can someone recommend one for me? I may be able to find the same DVD burner at my local Compusa or Best Buy, they always have great deals. I definitely need a RW DVD burner just so I can delete over old movies, pictures, files, etc. Also, I have a P3 1.2 GHz 256mb ram computer. Will this handle DVD burning alright? Also, what is the length compacity on DVDs? I know it is 70 or 80 min on CDs. If I put a few different movies or a lot of different television episodes, is there a way I can make a menu come up when I play the DVD and I can select the episode or movie I would like to view? Right now I have a CDRW drive. Should I replace my existing drive or add this DVDRW drive to my comp?

Thanks a ton!

[bailey]

I would suggest that you go look see the differant ones also look at newegg.com to see what the newer driversare and there are newer drives comming out soon that will do 2-layer dvd's, you might want to look at them too.

as far as your cpu doing it, it will but it will be slow, you will not pick up much speed without speeding up the cpu also,

[Kov-Ice]

I think I saw a Lite-On 4x dual format DVD burner at Best Buy this week for $80 after rebates. Pretty good deal on a nice drive. A DVD disc can hold 4.7GB of info, while a CD-R can hold about 700MB, so there's a huge increase there. You can put a 1 or 2 hours of video on a DVD, depending on the quality of video you use. Yes, you can put menus in depending on the software you use to edit the video. I think most all have that option. I kept my CD-RW drive as well, as it burns CDs much faster than the DVD drive.

[glc]

The only 8X DVD burner is the Plextor 708, it's almost $200.

[not important]

BenQ also makes an 8X DVD+RW. It's $168.50 at Newegg.

[RJ]

I do not want one that takes 3 hours to write. Should I be looking for one with 8x speed?

I definitely need a RW DVD burner just so I can delete over...

Well, the slowest burner (1x) needs 1 hour to burn a DVD. But these burners are outdated. 2x burners need half an hour to burn a DVD. 4x burners (currently the most common ones) to the job in 15 minutes, and 8x in about 8 to 10 minutes (doesn't really half the time).
But 8x is only available for R, not RW. DVD+RW is currently at 4x, you won't get a faster burner for RW. So 8x is currently only for R, and if RW is more important to you I'd just get a 4x burner.

RJ

[glc]

Okay - if BenQ has one now the others shouldn't be far behind. Plextor was the first, they have always been a top end drive manufacturer.

[Nick10]

Thanks a lot guys. Definitely going with a 4x RW DVD burner. Should I stick with Sony, Plextor, or Lite-on? One of those? Also, I was talking to the guy at best buy, and he said that when burning a DVD it can get up to 400-500 degrees Fahrenheit. Is this true? Are there any risks with leaving the DVD burn unattended?

[el_novato]

This probably won't help you since you're wanting something now and not too expensive. Just wanted to share this with everyone.

Dual layer burners are set to come out next year. not sure what the starting price wiould be.

Also, Philips is working on a 16X burner that will fill a 4.7GB disc in 6 minutes.

[dmk112]

Well I just purchased the NEC ND-2500 for under $150 and it works great!