- External DVD Writers
- Posted by Stephen Rabinowitz on September 21st, 2003
Have an HP Pavilion notebook, Plan on getting an external dvd writer, are
there some better then others. I have seen TDK, Sony, Backpacker by
Micro-Solutions, the micro solutions looked pretty good, TDK says it needs
minimum 5400 rpm HD while mine has a 4200. Any advice on which brands to get
& which to avoid. Thanks!
- Posted by DarkScience on September 21st, 2003
If you want the *BEST* then you want the newest Sony or Pioneer external units. I
would avoid the TDK, Teac and all the secondary off-brands. The latest Sony
external (DRU515x or whatever) is available from newegg.com for about $315 after
shipping. If you're in CA, you'll have to add tax to that, but mostly that's just
an example of going price. The nice units are not as portable as some -- they're
the full size desktop drives incorporated into an external USB2/Firewire enclosure.
But either the Sony or the Pioneer will give you the best and most reliable
performance and compatibility. I have several of each and an external Sony and
have not had a problem with any of them. Burned several hundred DVDs and only one
coaster that I can recall and that's because the power went out during a burn. ;-)
As for your HDD speed, you should be OK with a 4200rpm drive as long as you're
using good software or assemble the DVD image prior to burning. A 4200rpm drive
can give some problems if the system has to hunt down lots of files as it tries to
burn them to a DVD at 2X or faster. This also depends on which make/model of HDD
you have too. Not all HDDs are created equal and some of the newer 4200rpm units
outperform last year's 5400rpm units, eg: Fujitsu's new 80GB 4200rpm unit with 8MB
cache. If your notebook is 2 years old, I would be a little hesitant with it
having a 4200rpm HDD... However, the only way to know for sure is to give it a
try.
--
- Jeff Kilgroe
- Applied Visual Technologies | DarkScience
- www.appliedvisual.com
- Have a multiprocessor Windows system? Download xCPU, it's free!
"Stephen Rabinowitz" <steve86@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:Ofdbb.43682$NM1.37697@newsread2.news.atl.eart hlink.net...
- Posted by Stephen Rabinowitz on September 21st, 2003
My notebook is new, an HP Pavilion ZE5375US. Don't know the name of the HD
but listed as 40gb enhanced-IDE if that helps.
"DarkScience" <Jeff AT Applied Visual dot Com> wrote in message
news:drednRWKj9HPMfCiRVn-uw@speakeasy.net...
- Posted by DarkScience on September 21st, 2003
"Stephen Rabinowitz" <steve86@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:HKibb.45840$NM1.45301@newsread2.news.atl.eart hlink.net...
Will probably be OK, but can't say for sure until you give it a try. A lot will
come down to the software being used as well. I'm not sure what software is
included with the drives as I never really paid attention or if you have plans to
use a particular software package. Most included software and consumer level stuff
is very, very limiting in what can be done with it. Often to the point of being
utterly useless for anything other than spiffing up home movies. I always used
Pinnacle Impression Pro, Sonic ReelDVD and now have started using Adobe Encore.
They're not terribly expensive as far as such software goes, but they're not priced
to be typical consumer-level software either.
--
- Jeff Kilgroe
- Applied Visual Technologies | DarkScience
- www.appliedvisual.com
- Have a multiprocessor Windows system? Download xCPU, it's free!
