I was wondering if anyone here has a DVD burner and would like to post a short reply about their DVD burner likes/dislikes. I am going to buy one within the next two weeks and have been to a bunch of web sites that really don't tell me anything... I am still not real clear on the diff between DVD+R and DVD-R other than two different companies are aguing over format...

As soon as I figure out how to work mine (the kind that hooks up to the TV and VCR), I'll tell you.


Yup, I'm slow.

Apparently DVD players have "Macrovision protection" in them so don't hook it up to the VCR

It sends a signal to your VCR that will scramble your picture

I am buying the PC burner version for Data, not the one that records TV stuff

Apparently DVD players have "Macrovision protection" in them so don't hook it up to the VCR
It sends a signal to your VCR that will scramble your picture

Macrovision breaker boxes are common and relatively inexpensive. For people who don't have video inputs on their TV set (antenna only) and they have to daisy-chain the DVD player through the VCR in order for it to work (our old TV was like this), you have no other choice but to use a macrovision breaker box.

Also, it doesn't scramble your picture, it just makes it slowly fade from light to dark and back again. Still irritating.

I got two a while back. 2 Pioneer a04's. My work bought them for me. I've been backing up movies, ps2 games and xbox games with it.

There's newer models coming out that will have 4x recording, and a sony model that does both dvd-r/rw and dvd+r/rw.

I wanted it mainly for backing up x-box games... thanks I just ordered one

I was going to post about the new Sony model - available very soon apparently, the UK price is £299, but I have seen them advertised at £240ish over here. The model is "DRU500A"

Gareth

I picked one up in Fry's when I was in California last week (hi Zandr, etc) - seems to do exactly what it claimed to do & is working very nicely for me in an ADS external firewire case. $349 for the internal drive.

Hugo

i'm waiting for my 268$ sony dvd±rw from dell. gonna be here next monday.

Doesn't that mean you can only playback DVDs that you have recorded in a US (Region 1) DVD player?

dvd±rw

You mean they now make drives that do both? First I've heard of it. Cool.

Yep, Tom mentioned it before. Nice drive for the price, if I do say so myself.

And well rated.

When did you order yours? I am on the same program, but the Dell site still says delayed. I ordered mine on Oct. 8

As far as macrovision and region encoding goes, you have three choices.
1. Buy a region free DVD player, most of these also disable macrovision.
2. update the firmware of your dvd player to retrofit the above functionality.
3. Use DVDDecrypter to rip the DVD and write it back out without region encoding or macrovision.

Personally I did (1) and bought a JVC player which works great. I then ended up with a Sampo player and did (2) as well.
Either way I can now link up the player where I want and play non R1 DVDs quite happily.

If anyone actually has the Sony DRU500, have you tried it with CloneCD?
I want a DVD writer that can actually replace my CD writer as well, most of them are pretty crappy at copy protected CDs.
Check out www.dvdwriters.co.uk for reviews of some writers.

Or, again, use a macrovision stripper on your output signal. It's a fairly simple analog filter, and there are many schematics available on the web, the last time I looked.

I prefer to have it disabled rather than filtering it out. But I would wouldn't I, because I already can.
For me, building a filter myself is much more difficult that downloading a firmware update into my player.
Thats what I love about this stuff, there is no single answer
Its like a routefinder, there is the shortest route, the fastest, most fuel efficient and the most scenic along with stopovers and "go via".
As someone said, its the journey not the destination.

i ordered mine on the 10th i believe. it shipped on the 23rd.

So you can backup PS2 games and play them without modding your ps2?