I have a Dell Dimensions p.c. working on XP which does not have a dvd rewriter with it. I want to get one which will work with my pc but do not know which one to get as there are so many out there. I want to buy one from e-bay. Please can anybody tell me which one to get and when I get it do I need any additional leads, hardware, software or anything like that with it. I want to back up copies of my dvd films which I own. My kids keep playing with them and they are getting scratched and will soon be no good so I want to copy them. I am quite new to all this and would really appreciate some help from you on what to buy and then what software I need to copy my dvds please. Thanks for reading this posting and thanks for your help.
Benq 1640! Screw ebay! Go to newegg.com for a heck of a lot cheaper price and very low shipping: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=Browse&Manufactory=1583&Subcategory=5 I just got my black oem 1640 a few weeks ago in a sale and paid $38 including shipping. They've got gray/beige/and black. The beige comes with nero oem, which is what I mainly burn my dvds with.Combine that nero and dvd shrink and you can do 90-95% of the original movies to backup. Why BenQ 1640? Quality Q-suite:Gives you the option of bitsetting on the plus format so your backups will be more compatable in stand alone players.It's called booktyping. It can also control over-burning,meaning you can't burn 8x media at 12x or 16x like some 16x writers do. Experience: I've got 2 benq 1620s with over 99% success rate,95% compatability on stand alones using the booktyping feature,and they burn anything you slap in them!
Every one likes the dvd burner they have and thinks it is the best. I have a NEC I have been using for several years with no problem. Just do a little research here. But I agree with saugmon. Stay away from ebay and go to newegg.com. Great site, with great reviews from people who bought drives and used them for a while. Can't go wrong with newegg.
I've got 6 pc dvd burners and know what each one is capable of. They all play their own backups excellent.It's when you take those backups and play them on stand alone players/game consoles/and other pc drives.That's where the quality of those burners will stand out.Some of those stand alones can be picky.They may not like a certain format off of a certain burner.This separates the strong quality burners from the weaker-low quality burners.The booktyping comes in on those stand alones that don't like either plus or dash format. I've got many friends and family with burners and know what theirs are capable of. Here's my list of quality burners: Benq: I've got 3 of them because of their reliability and stand alone compatability. Lite-on-Booktyping capability Plextor-Booktyping capability,more expensive LG-booktyping capability Sony-the rebadged lite-on models because of Booktyping capability. Pioneer NEC You can't go wrong with any of those,unless you get a bad drive which can happen on any brand name. The 3 drives I have here sitting in a box: HP 640c lightscribe-Too many errors Khypermedia +8x,not a bad burner,but less compatable than my benqs. I/O Magic 16x-built by EMPA-I/O outsources their drives.Compatability issues even booktyping their backups.
Hi there, Thank you all for your replies. Yes I want to put in an internal dvd writer. To the other person who replied yes the site you mention does look great but it is for the USA and I live in the UK and they do not ship internationally so I cannot buy from them. I am still confussed as to which dvd rewriter I should buy. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks
I agree with saugmon on the benq DW1640. Best bang for the buck. Bitset ready, not finicky about media, and very good compatability burns with set-top dvd players when used with good quality dvd+r media and booktyped dvd-rom.
I have an LG GSA6143B and it is excellent as well. Lot's of choices out there. Read some of the reviews at CD freaks. BenQ's, LG's, both have excellent reports.
