Hi all Got a new laptop (HP510) and the built in dual layer dvd-rw is pants! Movies burnt on it using datawrite Titanium discs will not play on my dvd player,,,though I have used 100's of these discs on my desktop dvd-rw with no problems. I can hear the voices now shouting "use better media!!!",,,that's not the point at all, there is nothing wrong with Titaniums,,and yes my laptop drive firmware is up to date. So, I'm looking for a usb 2.0 dvd burner...not to worried about it being dual layer. i would appreciate any advice on models to go for which are reliable and work with a good range of media (especialy the discs I have which are titaniums,,,and red mach 4's) ps, max spend £50 thanks in advnace! : )
What works good on one drive,may not work so well with another. Same will go when you get your new external drive. The format of the media is the usual case. Some drives favor plus-the booktypers,others prefer dash-non booktypers. The stand alone players decide which format of media they'll play,and even certain MID coded media. Benq drives work great with a whole lot of variety of blank media,from cmags,ty,ritek,ricoh,mitsubishi,even MBI,UME,Prodisc.Very hard to find these Benq drives since Lite-on bought them out.They'll burn just about everything,but on stand alone player compatability,their booktyped backups have a higher stand alone player compatability rate,as apposed to the dash format. Ebay's about the only place to buy them,unless you have some odd computer parts stores that may have some leftover benqs.. Plextor's also another sweet drive,high compatability like the benqs after booktyping the plus format to dvd-rom. Liteon/LG/and sony would also be some good brand names. You can get a ready to go external drive-and they usually cost a lot of money.Some of them are very picky,lots of problems-lower stand alone player compatability rate. Or,If I went external, I'd get an internal NEC or a Lite-on,and place it into an external enclosure-hooking it up via USB. You may also do that with your other drive that successfully burns your titaniums. Creaky is the man to talk about those external enclosures with NEC internal drives and he's over there in the UK so he may be able to point you to the lowest prices. chrisfunk: What's the brand name and model # of your internal Dvd-Rw drive? What format of media are you using?
Hi, Thanks for the advice, my desktop drive was a Sony (LiteOn) and it was great. I might grab another one (sold the pc so it's gone) and wack it in a caddy. I've done it with a 320gb hard drive so might try to find a matching caddy so I can stack em! The laptop drive causing the headache is a: TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L632D, the laptop is an HP510 with Pentium M 2.13ghz cpu,,,512mb for the moment,,wil be a gig of ram soon. The discs I have tried are Datawrite Red mach 4,,and Titaniums. Both will not play on the standalone when burning with Nero. The titaniums do manage to play however hit and miss, when burning with dvd decrypter. I have also tried some Tesco (our biggest supermarket chain) own brand discs which worked a charm,,,though you can never know if the next batch would be the same dye as they will use whatever is cheapest at the time! I went and bought some,,,wait for it,,, MEMOREX 16x discs (hisssssss go the crowd) But I ran the test and they come up as RITEKF1,,,which I have only read good things about. They work fine,,,,burnt at 8x with no errors at all and they play in both of my dvd players. These came with a warning sticker about firmware, saying your drive needs to be bang up to date to burn on them,,even at lower speeds so the fact that they work indicates my drive is up to date. What I haven't tried at all in the laptop is any dvd+r discs. My dvd player and xbox both read them finw but other dvd players in my family and my brothers xbox which must have a different drive to mine will not read + discs at all, so i have always used - instead. I have ordered some Verbatims with TY dye which actualy cost the same as the Memorex did from my local supermarket so if they work i will be sticking with them. thanks Chris
I've used 10 different burners so far. All 4 of my benqs will burn anything,play on 95% of all dvd drives after booktkyped. My plextor is performing just like those Q's. Non Benq drives I have used: Khypermedia +8x: plus format only- about a 50% compatability rate. HP 640c lightscribe: Too many crc errors on backups,and a 50% stand alone player compatability rate. Heck of a writer and lightscriber,but no more burning dvds with that drive. Burn coasters with hitachi maxell and verbatim. I/O Magic 16x- Empa drive. IO magic outsource their drives,so you never know which drive you get till you hook it up.I could have gotten a BTC,Liteon,or Benq. Same goes for Memorex,sony,dell pcs,HP pcs. NEC 1100A: Plus format only,and a pretty decent drive,but no booktyping capability. A 75% compatability rate. Cyberhome TV recorder: Plus format only and picky on media.Stand alone compatability issues with +RW media and +R media. Because of stand alone player compatability,that's why I'll only stick with the booktypers. Benq's are scarce as are the #1 drive of all time- the Plextor PX 716A/SA,which also makes an external drive. I see a lot of TSST drives out there. These are made by a merged Toshiba/Samsumg corp.Media on these drives are hit and miss. Memorex media: They are getting some decent manufacturers with their +16x. Ritek and Ricoh in a couple batches I tried. Looks like you are playing you backups on a lot of drives.Your old litey had booktyping capability. Booktyping is a huge asset,so check out the booktyping brands I listed above.It turns the plus format(R/RW/R DL) to Dvd-rom,the most universal of all dvd formats. R's can be tough to read on some drives. RW and R DL is even tougher.It fools stand alone players into thinking they are playing the original discs-dvd-roms-instead of backup discs.
