Alright I am leaning towards breaking down and buying one, but from reading posts Im a little unclear on somethings.
What is a decent DVD burner that will burn DVDs that can be played in a standalone player, and if anyone knows will a PS2 play burned dvds, so i can play them in my truck?

I was looking at the HP 200e or the Sony DRX-500UL, are these any good. Thanks

I've had the Sony for about 2months. Can't comment on playback on set top units or PS2 but I'm impressed with thte DVD+R/RW format, formatting is quick and I havn't had any new coasters from this drive yet.

It is the only single drive unit for both DVD formats so should be the most compatable with DVD players. I think it is a bargin for £250UKP that I paid and it now writes at 4x on DVD-R+R with a firmware update.

I say, dive in and get one before they go out of stock again, although prices are dropping fast.

Cheers

Cris.

PS - The Sony looks really cool if you have an Ali case or a Shuttle cube like me.

dodgecowboy,

I have a Panasonic LF-D321 that I'm quite pleased with.
I've made copies of DVDs w/ DVD Xcopy. Those disks will play on PS2 (Play Station 2).

Jamville...

I just purchased a DVD-/+R(W) drive the other day, and I am very interested in DVD X Copy...

Is it as effective as it advertises in making backups? ...even against dual layer discs?

If you wouldn't mind saying a few words about your experience with the software, it would be greatly appreciated! (Or email them to me at spambait@cox.net)...

* I bought the Sony DRU-500AX and burned my first VHS --> DVD last night. Not bad!!!

-Germ / MkIIa

DVD XCopy is moderately neat, but pretty limited. It is for the begining user, does what it claims to do quite nicely, and gives you NO options to do anything else. It will split a dual layer DVD into two single discs and let you burn those, but you have no choice in where and how it splits it. You can do basically the same thing with other free programs, and with a lot more flexability, but also a lot more work. It also prevents you from making a copy of copy, which, if you are using it for legal purposes, is probably no big deal. If you are not computer literate it is cool, but personally I used it a couple of times and now use more advanced methods to make copies of DVDs.

P.s. I have a Sony Dru-500a as well, and it is a perfectly nice burner. Perhaps overkill since I hear +R is dying, but still a nice burner.

I also have the Sony DRU500a burner. Awesome burner but I had to paint it black.

The dvd's I have burned all play fine on my PS2. You should have no problems. I even use cheap media at times.

As far as the dvd ripping and compressing.

I use DVD Decrypter to rip to iso format

then if bigger than 4.7

I use dvd2one 1.02 to compress down to 4.7gb. I really don't see any quality lost either.

greggerm,

As ninti mentions DVD Xcopy sucks when making copies of dual layer disks. As an example. Its copy of 'a bug's life' still came up w/ the standard menus but the letter boxed version was nowhere to be found.

I'm going to try dvd2one &/or DivX for furture backups.

Thanks for the info guys, I think I am going to save a little more money and go with the Sony because it can use all the formats , one more question, sorry if its dumb, but I see DVD-R media for pioneer & compatibles, and then just general. does this really make a difference?

Any links to show that? I'm a fan of +R/W, so I'd like to know what indicates this. I wouldn't be suprised though. -R/W is cheaper, and most people won't know the difference, and most new DVD players will play both formats.

Just for reference on the DRU500A for the guy that just bought it, supposedly +R/W is faster