I'm building a new computer and planning to use a Lite-ON SOHW-1653S dvdr.
At the same time I'll be buying a Lite-ON 5045 for under my TV. I just
wondered which format each prefered. I know that they both do + & -, but as
I understand it, every recorder that can do both formats has a preference
towards one. Also, where is the best/cheapest place for the 5045? I've found
svp to be the best so far at £350, anyhere else that I should consider?

Thanks,

Dave

"Dave Day" <d.n.day@lineone.net> wrote in message
news:41e6867d$0$42537$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
preference. Research the Lite-on stand alone before you buy it as certainly
some models only do mono TV reception.

"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said "Camper"
<greentoow@yahoo.com.au>, "I always pay it extra."

The machine itself may be able to use a wide variety of disc types,
but there seems to be a compatibility problem with other drvies.

I've just bought a LiteOn LVW-5045 on the strength of a load of
reviews saying that it was the bees' knees, and only one negative
saying that it was noisy (well, it's as noisy as a computer with a DVD
drive in it!).

It played back almost everything I threw at it, including a commercial
Region 1 DVD [1] and raw VOBs on white label CDs :-)

It didn't want to know about Bulkpaq general purpose DVD-Rs at all,
but accepted eBuyer white label DVD-Rs. Record and playback on the
machine - no problem.

They played back on my desktop computer's NEC ND-2510A and Samsung
SM-348B, but with jerky motion and occasional freezes and jumps. The
GCC-4080N in my Sony PCG-FX502 [2][3] wouldn't recognise them :-(

So I tried the LiteOn DVD+RW supplied with the machine. Total joy! It
played back perfectly well in all drives, including the Sony!

Maybe there's the clue, I thought - perhaps +R is preferred, so I
bought a tub of Philips DVD+Rs.
Partial success - the NEC and Samsung drives are quite happy with
them, but the Sony just sulks.

So I tried a Philips DVD+RW, and the Sony *will* accept that :-/.

My conclusion is that if you want to make recordings on the LiteOn
LVW-5045 which are compatible for playback on other machines, DVD+RW
is most likely to work.
I haven't tried DVD-RW

If anyone knows a DVD+R or DVD-R disk which can be used to read a
LiteOn recording on a Sony drive, I'd be most grateful to know what it
is.

[1] The first review I read gave instructions on how to make the
LVW-5045 region-free. My particular example doesn't seem to need
modifying :-)

[2] I'd already read about Sony DVD players not being able to read
DVDs made by this model, and that the latest firmware upgrade had
solved it for the poseter. I've installed the upgrade, but it's made
no difference :-(

[3] The Sony drive is very iffy about DVDs recorded on my Pioneer A104
drive - It'll play some without a murmur, some it'll play a bit and
then give up, and some it just rejects.

--
Humbug

"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humbug
<humbug@tofee.net>, "I always pay it extra."

Sorry I missed that bit first time round ... I bought mine from
ebuyer.com and it was just under £350 including VAT, plus about £6
delivery. That was the best price I could find anywhere - and since I
bought mine the price has gone down to £344.95 including VAT :-(

I have now; PC Line DVD-RWs work prerfectly well playing back in all
of my drives, including the Sony. Although they're only 1x speed, they
took no longer to copy from the HDD than any of the other disks I've
tried.

The only disks I have found *not* to work in the LVW-5045 are Bulkpaq
general purpose DVD-Rs

HTH

--
Humbug

Dave Day wrote:
RICOHJPNR01, but recent batches of this media seem spotty).

On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 14:33:14 -0000, "Dave Day" <d.n.day@lineone.net>
wrote:

I've used a Lite-On SOHW-1653S dvd writer with Ritek DVD+RW and DVD-RW
without problems. I only use RW discs now because it's a pain having
to use a new R only disc everytime they are full or corrupted. With
RW just do an erase and reuse it.
The problem with RW is that compatibility isn't good between drives,
so if your burners can do both + and - recording you have a much
better chance of making a compatible disc. Even if the burner,
recorder and disk are manufactured by the same company there is no
guarantee of compatibility.
It could be argued that + is for data and - is for video because
that's what the original formats specified. But there doesn't seem to
be any reason not to use either for data or video.

-RW is claimed to be the least compatible:

http://www.dvdrw.com/information/cetips5.htm

but this info is from the DVD+RW Alliance.

I've avoided buying a standalone DVD Recorder for the time being
because of reports that they die after only 1 to 2 years of daily use.

- formats seem to be more popular out in the field, but that doesn't
mean that the Liteon - compatibility will be better.

I think compatibility is more to do with the age and brand of the
disk. For example, Mitsubishi/Verbatim are generally acknowledged to
be good quality.



Sig:
Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need. -Voltaire,
philosopher (1694-1778)

In article <qkv0v0trrt5strruq1drr6oaq7ti997unb@4ax.com>,
Rotes Sapiens <rs@redplanet.mars.org.cy> wrote:
90% of the time I use +RW on my standalone DVR. This way I can
title and split titles on the DVR for things I want to keep,
and then just the ISO facility of DVDDecrupter to copy to +R
for the things I want to keep permanently.

It brings the cost down as the +RWs are more expensive [best I've
gotten was a salw with rebate that brought them to about 85 cents]
while the +R seem to be on sale at electronics places every few
weeks with the good brands averageing about 40 cents each.

I was at Costco yesteray and they are closing out their
TDK 4x +R and -R at $9.95 for 25. I don't know if this means
discontinuing, or just getting rid of the 4X. One store last
week was advertising the 4X in 50s at $19.95 and they were
all TDK 8X - so maybe the Costco is going to the newer speed - or
with things being so commodity like they may just be dropping them.


--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com