DVD recorders / rewriters

[Tefler]

We are thinking about getting a DVD player/recorder for the television, but have absolutely no idea about the technology, so don't know what to look for in a good one.  Is there a site somewhere that compares them, or does anybody here have any pointers?

Also, I want a DVD rewriter for the computer.  Our computer is a Pentium II, 10 Gb hard drive machine, about 6 years old and runs Windows 98.  Would a DVD rewriter work on such a machine?  Again, is there anything to look for in a good one - or avoid in the bad?  We only have two USB ports and they're both in use; how difficult is it to fit an internal rewriter?

[Thunderchild]

the first q i cannot realy answer as i use the pc only.

however i don't advise a DVD-RW in you pc unless u r content to run on minimum speeds. i have never tried a a DVD-RW in such a slow pc but i don't advise it. as for it going on win 98 i don't know if there will be any driver issues i advise a faster pc with win 2000 (the forerunner of XP under no circumstances use win ME it was the biggest load of ..............  that MS put on the market)

as for installing an internal one (the best solution unless u want to be mobile) there is no problem. just follow the CD connections and the supplied instructions. if you buy it is a shop i am sure they will be happy to install it for no extra charge as it takes minutes. the USB ports u hve will be USB version one and only work at 1.5 MB/s that is too slow as 1 X speed of DVD corisponds to 1.35 MB/s an recording is done at 2/4/8 and on the latest 16X

[Thunderchild]

i forgot to mention for ur curriosity USB version 2 has a speed of 60 MB/s anyhow the overal speed of ur computer does not recomend a DVD-RW as the pc in its complex must be considered not just thge cpu the transfere speeds alone ecc.

[mattie]

Re your 2nd question, I agree with thunderchild, your PC is probably a bit old and slow.

As regards a DVD player/recorder, we have just bought a Sharp model DV-RW250H from Comet which is a combined video recorder/dvd recorder.It cost �250 and can record onto video and dvd, or from video to dvd, or from dvd to video.

It was also really easy to set up.

[tomd]

On a P2 machine the usb ports won't be USB 2.0 (max speed of 480mbps), they'll much more likely than not be 1.x (transfer speeds of around 60mbps) and probably wouldn't be suitable for running a DVD writer through. Another issue would be the size of the hard drive, if you were wanting to make copies of dvds with only one dvd drive (so going dvd to computer, computer to blank dvd) you'd ideally need alot more free space to hold the data in temporarily. The other option is disk-to-disk copying, but this would need a dvd reader drive and a dvd writer. Fitting an 5.25" drive (the top ones, CD and DVD drives etc on a home pc) isn't that hard as long as you have space on your cables (IDE, long flat one that transfers data) and a spare power supply cable from your PSU.

[Ralph]

For your first question, The majority of DVD recorders will support both DVD+R(W) and DVD-R(W). For maximum compatibility with other players and computers (eventually!) I heartily recommend -R's. Also available are recorders with DVD-RAM compatibility. This'll cost extra to start with and the discs are quite expensive, but the discs last for tens of thousands of recordings (whereas the Rs and RWs won't) and you'll get nifty "pause live TV" functionality which allows you to hit a button on the remote when you need to answer the phone/door, then start watching where you left off. The DVD will record and play at the same time.

[Tefler]

Thanks for all the useful replies.  One more question, though, what do +R(W) and -R(W) mean?

[Ralph]

They're different formats created by two different groups of companies who both thought they had the best system in the world. It's kind of like beta and vhs all over again except when companies started making drives and players that would play either format, it ceased to matter all that much.

Have a read of this: http://tinyurl.com/tapi