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DVD Drives

This is where you can ask questions and get and give help about hardware related issues. This Forum will be moderated by Taw with help from some other experts. So feel free to ask any questions you may have about computers.

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J Dawg

Post Mon Nov 20, 2006 10:11 pm

DVD Drives

Hello fellow TLR-ers. I'm back for yet more hardware help.

A month or so I got a copy of Darkstar One for my birthday. Now that I've finally got time to install and play it, I've realized that this game is published on DVD instead of CD, and my barely-up-to snuff desktop is woefully equipped without a DVD drive.

I'm not too much of a hardware genious, so the question now is, which DVD drive is right for me? I've been checking out newegg.com and it looks like I can get a drive for less than $20 US, but I need to of course ensure that it is compatible and will function etc, etc.

I've got an ASUS P4B motherboard... let me know if any more information is needed... what determines compatability for optical drives anyway? (or will most anything work?)

Esquilax

Post Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:27 pm

Any standard IDE DVD Drive (DVD-ROM) or DVD Burner (DVD-RW) should be fine. I'd recommend a DVD-RW though, as they are only slightly more expensive and will allow you to burn both CDs and DVDs. Those capabilities may come in handy one day... In terms of brands, Pioneer make good DVD players/driver as a rule, and they are reasonably priced.

Predator

Post Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:46 am

I agree, for a couple bucks more you can get a DVD burner drive. I myself own a LG multi drive it will read and write any format of DVD, and it works great. That's a thing to keep in mind when buying a DVD burner. If you plan on burning movies in the future you have to find out what format works best on your player (ie +RW/+R or -RW/-R) Most newer players will read both. Hope this helps in any way.

Esquilax

Post Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:57 pm

Aye, and I wouldn't worry about DVD-RAM; nobody uses 'em .

Tawakalna

Post Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:05 pm

Philips, Pioneer, and Sony are all very good drives. HP are too, but you pay more for that Lightscribe mallarkey. As long as you make sure that it's 16x +/-RW you'll be fine. btw you'll prob only ever need a handful of RW discs, mostly i just use +R for copying DIVX films to.

Actually I do have a DVD-RAM drive, with some discs too, but I've never ever used it apart from one experiment. We did use DVD-RAM at work for a long time for archiving audio recordings, because DVD-RAM is not only fast but the most error-free DVD recording medium.

Esquilax

Post Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:54 am

I'm not 100% sure about Sony drives. They tend to be overpriced and don't seem to have any particular benefits over the models to justify the cost.

Tawakalna

Post Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:56 am

anything Sony brand is usually overpriced - you pay for the name. However you can save yourself dosh buying oem models, not retail. All you miss out on is fancy packaging, a cd full of shoite you don't need, and a manufacturer's warranty that's worth diddly-squat. I almost never buy retail anything, and if I do, I don't pay retail. Retail prices are for schmucks.

"no income tax, no VAT, no money-back, no guarantee!"

Esquilax

Post Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:27 pm

Indeed, and if that is the case why not just save yourself the trouble and pay less for a Pioneer?

J Dawg

Post Wed Nov 29, 2006 7:24 pm

Newegg shall be the purveyor of this drive, when I choose to purchase it. On the other hand, I may just put it off until I get my new computer (not sure when) instead of pouring more cash into my parents' moderately outdated rig... I think I'd like to buy before Vista hits. XP for me, please.

Tawakalna

Post Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:58 pm

and a very sensible decision too. i think I'll probably bypass Vista altogether, although i imagine I'll have to tackle it at work before too long I'm truly dreading the day I finally have to abandon XP, it'll be worse than when we moved from DOS 6.22 to W'95.

Esquilax

Post Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:29 pm

Interesting. Not long ago, Taw had a go at me when I mentioned "acquiring" a copy of Vista, and now he is looking towards getting it. How the mighty have fallen...

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