new CDRW,DVD drive(s). What do you think?

[Josh42]

Hello everyone. I'm looking for recommendations for a new CD-RW drive and a DVD drive. I was also wondering if it is a better option to buy one drive that does both (CDRS & DVD) versus two separate drives. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[dajogejr]

I'm a fan of two optical drives.
So...if you have to, you can copy a CD...

That being said, a standard DVD drive reads both...DVD and CDs.

Most, if not all, of your DVD burners will burn standard CDs too....so, that would be my thoughts.

One standard DVD drive, one DVD burner.

DVD Burners are so much cheaper now, I finally broke down and got one.

Some may say that Dual format drives for DVDs are the way to go....but I'm more than happy with my +R/+RW drive.
This is a steal after rebates:

DVD Burner (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0166798)

[vince2100]

would the best configuration for "copying" a dvd be, 1 standard dvd drive, 1 dvd-r drive? for sure u would need another dvd drive besides the dvd-r drive right?

another question... i noticed that those ribbon cables u use to connect optical drives to the motherboard only have 2 slots for the optical drives. Do they make cables with 3 slots? Just wondering cause there are so many slots remaining on my case. Thx for the help guys :t

[Imperion1]

No real point in having a DVD drive and DVD burner in the same system. The DVD burner will do all that the DVD drive does. If you want to do a cd disc to disc copy, then just install a cdrom drive. And you can't exactly do a DVD disk to disc copy. Store bought DVDs are DVD9. The kind bought for burning are DVD5. Thats like trying to stuff 9 gigs of data onto a 4.7 gig dvd.


And, no. IDE ribbon cables only allow for 2 devices to be installed. Only ribbon cables that allow more devices are SCSI ribbon cables. And SCSI devices are not cheap. Nor are the ribbon cables.

[dajogejr]

True Enough...Batman.

Nowadays, though....DVD drives are almost as cheap as CD ROM drives...

If my DVD burner were to fail, I'd like to have the option to read both DVDs and CD-Rs while I was waiting on my burner for warranty, etc.

I use a SATA Raptor as my OS and app drive, so....as mentioned, I have 4 open IDE devices available....

My Yamie CDRW, Hitachi DVD, and Lite On DVD +R/+RW...not to mention space in the case...

[rmanet]

only problem is dvd/cdr combos usually lag having good CD copying abilities - in most of my machines I run a good cd burner, a dvd drive (usually - one also has a dvd burner) and use an audio splitter so the kids can get sound from both :t

[vince2100]

say i wanted to backup one of my dvd movies.. wouldn't i need 1 dvd drive to read the disk and 1 dvd burner to do the copy? not exact copy, but using a program like dvdshrink to get rid of some options. Is backing up a dvd pretty much the same as backing up software?

[dajogejr]

Originally posted by vince2100
say i wanted to backup one of my dvd movies.. wouldn't i need 1 dvd drive to read the disk and 1 dvd burner to do the copy? not exact copy, but using a program like dvdshrink to get rid of some options. Is backing up a dvd pretty much the same as backing up software?

NO...CD's will copy on the fly. I'm not aware of a program that will do that for DVDs.

DVDs, I'd think because of their large size, need to be backed up to the hard drive. Then, you insert the blank DVD +/- R into the drive, and burn to it.

I can tell you DVD Shrink and DVD Copy X both work this way...

You really only need one drive...

[vince2100]

oh ok, thx for clearing up my problem dajogejr :t

[hard drive r]

I am getting a Pioneer A106 DVD burner and I have found out that the best way to rip DVD's is to have a DVD rom, this saves the laser on the DVD burner and cuts the time down considerably.
I have a LG 52X CD burner and a Sony 16X DVD rom, so I will get rid of those two and get a LG combo 52X CD burner with 16X DVD rom, that way I still have a fast CD burner and a fast DVD rom.
The DVD burners have slow CD burns. I am doing this cause I have two hard drives and that leaves only two spots for the burners. Question is who gets to be master? They will be both on the same IDE.

[G]

We know that laser lenses can get dirty, becomes weaker and so forth.

For this reason I use a DVD-ROM to view (original and copied versions) and rip an original DVD to HDD, then from HDD burn to DVD-RW. In essence, DVD -/+ are being burned on a reality clean DVD-RW, and backups and imaging (when necessary) are sound.

I use the CloneDVD and AnyDVD combination and this works without any problems. I think these are two of the best complimentary programs round.

[Bullion]

the dual layer dvd burners will be out later this year. So in my opinion wait so you can get a hassle free backing up experience.

hehehe
I still dont have a CD-RW on my main comp (2100b@2300mhz... 9500pro etc)
Ive never needed one and always been on a network that had one so backing up personal data is simplyt a matter of puting it in the pipe and burning the folder;) :x

[Bizkitkid2001]

Using nero you only need one drive to copy a cd. I don't know how dvd copying works though.


You can try the program Alcohal 120%

[dajogejr]

Originally posted by Bizkitkid2001
Using nero you only need one drive to copy a cd. I don't know how dvd copying works though.


You can try the program Alcohal 120%

true...but with only one CD drive, it's still creating a temp file on the hard drive. With two...it uses the hard drive as a "buffer" but doesn't write it to a temp file....

With DVDs...Nero 5.5 and 6, it has to go to the Hard Drive.

When you open it, choose DVD movie, and from the backed up files (by using DVD Shrink, anyways) select them all, and drop them ALL into the video folder and burn away...
Somehow...Nero is smart enough to take these files, and create audio/video tracks properly.

:t