Need advise please: Should I buy DVD Writer for laptop or ..

[Sam]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hi there,

I would like to burn some home movies onto dvd that I can send to family and
friends in Europe. They use PAL. I currently have a Toshiba DVD player
that only plays DVD-R's. I don't know what kind -R or +R players they are
using there. So, to be on the safe side, I would like a reliable although
not necessarily fast DVD writer. A dual layer is nice to have but I don't
know if this is really necessary.

I currently own a few computers. The most current is a Dell Inspiron 1150
laptop. It has 2.8G P4 Processor and a 60 G hard drive with 39G available.
I also have a 1.8G Celeron with 256 Ram and a 20G hard drive. Finally, I
have a solid P3 800 mhz 640 M SDRAM with a WD 120G hard drive.

I am trying to figure out the best way to go here. I have a PCI firewire
card that will work in the P3 and Celeron system because that's what I will
need to use to transfer the movies. My laptop doesnt have a firewire. I
would have to buy one.

I really don't want to shell out a lot of money here because the use of the
DVD will be rather limited. It was suggested that I get an external 5 1/2
enclosure and a bitsetting writer such as a Pioneer 108 +-R DVD player. I
didnt see bitsetting in the specs for the Pioneer. I want to ensure that my
home movies will play on most dvd's out there.

What advice is recommended?

 

[Rob]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

you may want to try alt.video.dvdr as well. the pioneer is a great unit,
for set top
compatibility i believe it's one of the better ones out there, but no unit
in existance
will work with all standalone dvd players. also the blanks you use have
some
bearing on compatibility as well. i don't see a reason for you to spend the
extra money on an external drive (usually USB, not firewire), i'd probably
just stick an internal burner into one of your desktops. either the pioneer
or my favorite, the NEC 3500A. Can't go wrong with either one.

"Sam" <none@none.com> wrote in message
news:X_gnd.265260$nl.222883@pd7tw3no...
> Hi there,
>
> I would like to burn some home movies onto dvd that I can send to family
> and friends in Europe. They use PAL. I currently have a Toshiba DVD
> player that only plays DVD-R's. I don't know what kind -R or +R players
> they are using there. So, to be on the safe side, I would like a reliable
> although not necessarily fast DVD writer. A dual layer is nice to have
> but I don't know if this is really necessary.
>
> I currently own a few computers. The most current is a Dell Inspiron 1150
> laptop. It has 2.8G P4 Processor and a 60 G hard drive with 39G
> available. I also have a 1.8G Celeron with 256 Ram and a 20G hard drive.
> Finally, I have a solid P3 800 mhz 640 M SDRAM with a WD 120G hard drive.
>
> I am trying to figure out the best way to go here. I have a PCI firewire
> card that will work in the P3 and Celeron system because that's what I
> will need to use to transfer the movies. My laptop doesnt have a
> firewire. I would have to buy one.
>
> I really don't want to shell out a lot of money here because the use of
> the DVD will be rather limited. It was suggested that I get an external 5
> 1/2 enclosure and a bitsetting writer such as a Pioneer 108 +-R DVD
> player. I didnt see bitsetting in the specs for the Pioneer. I want to
> ensure that my home movies will play on most dvd's out there.
>
> What advice is recommended?
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Sam" <none@none.com> wrote in message
news:X_gnd.265260$nl.222883@pd7tw3no...
> Hi there,
>
> I would like to burn some home movies onto dvd that I can send to family
and
> friends in Europe. They use PAL. I currently have a Toshiba DVD player
> that only plays DVD-R's. I don't know what kind -R or +R players they are
> using there. So, to be on the safe side, I would like a reliable although
> not necessarily fast DVD writer. A dual layer is nice to have but I don't
> know if this is really necessary.
>
> I currently own a few computers. The most current is a Dell Inspiron 1150
> laptop. It has 2.8G P4 Processor and a 60 G hard drive with 39G
available.
> I also have a 1.8G Celeron with 256 Ram and a 20G hard drive. Finally, I
> have a solid P3 800 mhz 640 M SDRAM with a WD 120G hard drive.
>
> I am trying to figure out the best way to go here. I have a PCI firewire
> card that will work in the P3 and Celeron system because that's what I
will
> need to use to transfer the movies. My laptop doesnt have a firewire. I
> would have to buy one.
>
> I really don't want to shell out a lot of money here because the use of
the
> DVD will be rather limited. It was suggested that I get an external 5 1/2
> enclosure and a bitsetting writer such as a Pioneer 108 +-R DVD player. I
> didnt see bitsetting in the specs for the Pioneer. I want to ensure that
my
> home movies will play on most dvd's out there.
>
> What advice is recommended?
>
>
Forget the P3. It's too slow. If you don't have much to do the Celeron will
work but takes about 50% longer to encode than the P4. This shouldn't be a
problem for what you say you want to do. I'd recommend increasing the ram to
512MB.
Hadn't heard of bitsetting but it certainly is something you would want.
Googling will find drives that supports it.
External is nice but you'd have to have USB2 on the Celeron system to be
able to use it with the laptop too. You could buy an internal drive now and
get an external case for it later if needed.
HTH