Pioneeer DVR-A03 DVD BURNER! Internal IDE DVD-Rewritable Drive $419 shipped

[robbin]

The Panasonic DVD-R is a combo DVD-RAM/DVD-R drive. There was a deal on it for less than 400 about a week ago, which could be lessened with use of a coupon. The big advantage to the Pioneer drive is it still burns CD-r format. I'm not sure whether or not the Panasonic does this, BUT if so it's a tad cheaper than the Pioneer.

The Que! drives someone mentioned earlier are the Pioneer drives rebadged. They're the same thing, so look out for the prices on them too.

 

[Om]

<< Is the pioneer a03 really da king? >>



No. I think the point you are missing from all these posts is there isnt' a 'king' yet. There is no standard agreed on yet so how could there be a best burner! If you get the Pioneer you won't be able to make reliable data backups (no data checking capabilities) and the disk won't be readable in all DVD players,and it's ony a 2X burner,..if you get a +RW burner you can make reliable data backups but again your compatablity isn't good for stand-alone DVD players. And I think +RW drives are only at 1X right now that I've seen.

Only 'king' right now is a +RW burner for data backups. If that's what you need this for then go ahead and get a Que burner, inexpensive and wil back up your system data. Or, In a few months three manufacturers are coming out with burners that can burn all formats so you aren't stuck with a one fuction burner, and I believe they are faster than 2X. So hurry up and wait or you'll be looking for a sucker to buy your DVD burner off you in a few months so you can get one that burns all formats faster. (again unless you just want this to back up your system, then go ahead and get a +RW now, you'll just have a slow burner but it will do the job faster than a tape backup can)

 

[aks93]

Om - thanks for the heads up - where can I find info on the upcoming all format dvd burners, any fixed eta's yet?

 

[BeBumbleBe]

what a bunch of poor information unworthy of Anand's forums !
here's the lowdown:
DVD-R - Pioneer Drives - 2x for DVD-R and 1x for DVD-RW. Que had an external firewire drive that says 2x on the box but that's unlikely
DVD+RW - Ricoh drive (and OEM'd version like HP, Phillips) - 2.4x for DVD+RW, BUT no guaranteed upgrade path to DVD+R when it's available next year linky
Comptability is slightly better for DVD-R but if your DVD player is less than 2 years old, you're probably fine (check linky though), even the cheap ass Apex and Raite players read both.
Media prices are the sticking point. For DVD-R it can be as low as $3, for DVD-RW $7, for +RW it's supposedly around $15, the only place that seems to sell them is HP for $16 !

 

[hconnorjr]

thanks bebumblebe for the nice summary. still, if i were a betting man, i'd bet that dvd-rw will win the battle. sounds like they only need to tweak it to do proper error checking and it will have the same utility as cd-rw for data backup. of course that's just one man's guess . . .
the nice thing is that one thing is certain, with all this competition: prices will fall fast and far.

 

[jeepers94]

Om,you are mistaking! The +RW drives do 2.4x(dvd).They are the fastest out there right now.And before anyone else jumps on the 2.4x copy rate,this is equal to about a 16x cdrw!Dvds
use a differant compression. As for the Que drives,they have several sold under their label.They sell the Panasonic 311 dvd ram drive.This is the one you saw for about $300 after rebate.
I would not buy this drive to make dvds for standalone players! They also sell the Pioneer AO3 -RW drive under their label.
As for the +RW drives,they are sold by Sony,HP,Ricoh and a few lesser known brands! I have a Pioneer AO3,and an HP 100i.Both +RW and -RW discs play on my Pioneer DV-444 stand alone
player!Before you buy check to see which format(s) your player supports.vcdhelp.com has a dvd player comparison chart!

 

[jeepers94]

Just a follow-up on the $15-$16 price of DVD+RW discs.I paid $8.95 each for mine.In that they are RW,that isn't too bad!

 

[BeBumbleBe]

jeepers - did you read my post just above ?!
As for the speed, you got mixed up:
1x CD=150kBps or 1,200kbps
1x DVD=1,385kBps or 11,080kbps
Therefore 2.4x DVD=22.2 CD not 16x !
Hope that helps

 

[Relayer]

I was seriously ready to click the "buy" button, but I think I am going to hold out for a couple months for the DVD+RW drives that do DVD+R.

 

[jeepers94]

BeBumble,I was talking "real world" times,not just taking the numbers and multiplying them! Like I said,I have the drives.These are of course approximations.You are right going strictly by
the numbers advertised.I was wrong in my comparisons though.The 16x is compared to the Pioneers 2x.The HP is actually closer closer to 20x. I may NOT have stated it right,but compare the drives yourself and you will see!

 

[BeBumbleBe]

jeepers - where did you find the DVD+RW for $8.95 ?! That's a hot deal !
I had the HP for a while and it did have an actual write speed of 2.4x !

 

[DaviDaVinci]

How's this????
http://buyeee.com/panlfburcomd.html

 

[aks93]

DaviDaVinci: looks like another hot deal right there! Deserves to be put in the forum on its own

 

[BeBumbleBe]

Are you kidding ?! This thing only does 1x DVD-R, and doesn't do DVD-RW or CD-R/RW...it's really not that great. I'd rather be paying $50 extra for the Pioneer !

 

[Zclyh3]

I'd rather wait til technology gets better and the burners to become cheaper. Also until it gets faster.