TiVo Community Forums Archives - Deal alert: 8x Dual-Format DVD-RW Only $69.98 AR!

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Deal alert: 8x Dual-Format DVD-RW Only $69.98 AR!
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Posted by: Francesco

Staples has the Iomagic 8x DVD±RW drive for only $69.98 after a $30 coupon and $30 mail in rebate. This is a hot deal for a decent burner!

Posted by: Maui

Thanks for the heads up on this one! I was just thinking about an hour ago that I needed to upgrade my cd writer on my pc. What better way to upgrade it than with a DVD writer!

Posted by: spartanstew

If I bought this, what type of DVD would someone recommend I buy to burn onto?

Stew

Posted by: logic88

What type of mech does IOMagic use? Newegg has been selling NEC 2500's for $80 (with free shipping, no rebates) for awhile now. And the NEC 2500 can be upgraded via 2510 firmware to burn on dual layer DVD+R9's.

Posted by: spartanstew

there's also these two deals:

BestBuy has the Lite On LDW-811S 8x DVD±RW/CD-RW Drive for $95 - $30 rebate = $65. The firmware can be updated to rip DVDs at 8x.

If you don't like rebates, Newegg has the NEC 2500A 8x DVD±RW drive for $81 shipped.

I wonder what's better: the NEC, the Lite-On, or the I/O Magic??????

Stew

Posted by: montag

The NEC has the best reputation of all the burners listed. The one for sale at newegg is rumored to be able to be upgraded to dual layer with a firmware update. The firmware update is not available yet, but supposedly in the near future you can change this drive from a single layer burner to a dual layer burner.

Posted by: montag

quote:
Originally posted by spartanstew
If I bought this, what type of DVD would someone recommend I buy to burn onto?

Blank ones.

Posted by: ord

quote:
Originally posted by montag
Blank ones.

Ha Ha!

I think I'll hold out for one of the dual layer burners. I'm happy so far with my 4x burner.

Posted by: steuert

"If I bought this, what type of DVD would someone recommend I buy to burn onto?"

I have had good luck with several brands sold by MeritLine: BeAll, Samsung, Ritek, and their generic house brand - all available for less than $1, even in small quantities. Also, no problems with Memorex. The only brand I've had much trouble with is Princo, sometimes sold under aliases (such as "CD Technologies" at Amazon), or as the super-cheap bulk disks occasionally advertised by CC or BB with names you've never heard of.

Posted by: Francesco

All three are decent burners at good prices. FWIW, I've never, ever had a problem with a Staples rebate (that wasn't my own fault, like missing cutoff dates), so if you're patient it can be worth an extra $12. Of course, the other day I picked up a HSF locally knowing I could get it online with ground shipping for about $12 less, and it turned out I won't get around to building the PC before next week anyway!

With all that said, I would hold off on dual-layer for a while. I have no problem with either using two DVDs for a movie, or shrinking to fit on one. And most of what I burn fits on one anyway, at substantial savings compared to the new burners and non-existent media.

Posted by: transpizzle

i think i'm going to pick this up.
what are some good progs to let me make my own menus and stuff?

approximately what percentages of dvds can fit on one that i can burn? is it easy to trash all of the extras and just get the movie and still have the same quality?

i downloaded a bunch of software from 321 studios back when they put everything on an FTP site for free because the courts said they only could sell it for a few more days, so in order for more people to get it, they put it up for free download. glad i did that, now i can make a use for it.

Posted by: ord

The best software for putting movies on a dvd and dumping the extras is without a doubt dvdshrink.

Google for it. Free software. works great, and supports burning directly to nero.

Posted by: Bryanmc

quote:
Originally posted by spartanstew
If I bought this, what type of DVD would someone recommend I buy to burn onto?

We go through about 100 disks a month and the most reliable I've found is the 4x Ritek DVD-R.

I buy from Rima 'cause I hate Meritline.

We get the inkjet printable at about $.78 a disk.

Posted by: logic88

quote:
Originally posted by montag
The NEC has the best reputation of all the burners listed. The one for sale at newegg is rumored to be able to be upgraded to dual layer with a firmware update. The firmware update is not available yet, but supposedly in the near future you can change this drive from a single layer burner to a dual layer burner.

I've been pretty happy with my NEC 2500 so far.

There is no official firmware upgrade for dual layer yet but here's a beta version:

http://tdb.rpc1.org/#ND2510A

Here's the discussion thread on the firmware upgrade:

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php...77d6107a2092798

Posted by: transpizzle

heres another drive for 49.99 AR.
http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Brow...pe=1&Sku=516162

Posted by: Maui

quote:
Originally posted by transpizzle
heres another drive for 49.99 AR.
http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Brow...pe=1&Sku=516162

Not bad but one of the reasons I decided to get the original one that was posted about was the speed. 40x cd write speed as opposed to this ones 16x speed max cd write speed.

Posted by: transpizzle

i'm going with the more expensive one too, but i thought i'd post this one because it's a good deal too.

Posted by: MikeekiM

quote:
Originally posted by Bryanmc
We go through about 100 disks a month and the most reliable I've found is the 4x Ritek DVD-R.

100 disks a month!!! That's a lot of home movies :D

BTW, anyone know much about this drive?

Posted by: transpizzle

i bought it 2nite. im going to install tomorrow and will post when i check it out.

Posted by: transpizzle

i installed it.
anyways, i'm having trouble getting what i want onto the dvd. i tried backing up Memento with the supplied DVD+RW and I couldn't get it to work.

I downloaded dvdshrink. how much compression can i use and not see a real difference in quality? after i shrink it, it gives me some .VOB files, but I want to burn this, so how do I get the files needed to burn the DVD?

i also downloaded dvd decrypter, but i'm not sure how that works. i set it up in ISO mode to try and get an image, but it was too big it said. what do i need to do about that?

Also, if I buy an xbox/ps2, get a modchip, can I back up games onto a dvd and play it on the xbox/ps2? at $50 a game, i'd feel much better keeping them stored and using backups.

thanks!

Posted by: Bryanmc

quote:
Originally posted by MikeekiM
100 disks a month!!! That's a lot of home movies :D

I pirate a lot of porn.

Posted by: montag

quote:
Originally posted by Bryanmc
I pirate a lot of porn.

Ooo, pirate porn. You're kinky!

Posted by: dslunceford

Do all of the NEC's come with OEM Nero?

Saw this for $78 + $8 shipping: http://www.diymicro.com/product.asp?pf_id=57-170-004 and didn't see Nero mentioned at other's when Froogling

Posted by: FLbadgirl

While we're on the subject of DVD drives... can the SOAK reccomend a external DVD drive for my laptop? I currently have a VERY slow Phillips 4x External Drive that is about 6-7 years old and would like to update to possibly 12x.

Any suggestions?

Posted by: logic88

quote:
Originally posted by FLbadgirl
While we're on the subject of DVD drives... can the SOAK reccomend a external DVD drive for my laptop? I currently have a VERY slow Phillips 4x External Drive that is about 6-7 years old and would like to update to possibly 12x.

Any suggestions?

You can build your own easily. Get an enclosure from Dealsonic like this Plumax for $39 and then buy a DVD-ROM from Newegg like this Lite-On for $30 or this Samsung for $28. Slap the drive into the enclosure and you're good to go. The Plumax is Hi-Speed USB and FireWire so it should be compatible with a wide range of machines. It's not as nice as the slimline external ones that I've seen for laptops but it's quite a bit cheaper.

Posted by: logic88

quote:
Originally posted by transpizzle

I downloaded dvdshrink. how much compression can i use and not see a real difference in quality? after i shrink it, it gives me some .VOB files, but I want to burn this, so how do I get the files needed to burn the DVD?

i also downloaded dvd decrypter, but i'm not sure how that works. i set it up in ISO mode to try and get an image, but it was too big it said. what do i need to do about that?

It really depends on the DVD but I usually find compression lower than 75% to be pretty noticeable.

Set DVD Shrink to produce an ISO instead of a VIDEO_TS folder. Then use DVD Decrypter to burn the ISO. Otherwise you will need some type of burning program like Nero to make a DVD from the VIDEO_TS folder.

As for you DVD Decrypter error, are you sure you had enough free space on your HD to rip the image? A dual layer DVD can be as big as 8.5GiB.

Posted by: transpizzle

how do i set dvdshrink to produce iso images? i got it to work on dvd decrypter, but not on dvdshrink.

Posted by: logic88

quote:
Originally posted by transpizzle
how do i set dvdshrink to produce iso images? i got it to work on dvd decrypter, but not on dvdshrink.

I don't have Shrink on the work machine but IIRC, when you hit compress, a dialog box comes up asking you what type of output you want. The options should be VIDEO_TS folder, ISO image, and direct burn to DVD (via Nero).

Posted by: suzyq

quote:
Originally posted by dslunceford
Do all of the NEC's come with OEM Nero?

Saw this for $78 + $8 shipping: http://www.diymicro.com/product.asp?pf_id=57-170-004 and didn't see Nero mentioned at other's when Froogling

Anybody know the answer to this? I'd love to get OEM Nero Suite.

Posted by: bsnelson

quote:
Originally posted by montag
Ooo, pirate porn. You're kinky!

"Oooh, baby, I'm gonna.... ARRRRRGH!" :)

Brad

Posted by: dslunceford

quote:
Originally posted by bsnelson
"Oooh, baby, I'm gonna.... ARRRRRGH!" :)

Brad

"Well blow me down....."

[really just a bump for the Nero question ;))

Posted by: logic88

quote:
Originally posted by suzyq
Anybody know the answer to this? I'd love to get OEM Nero Suite.

Newegg didn't include Nero when I got my NEC 2500 so if you need it, that seems like a good deal if it's Nero 6.

Posted by: logic88

Apparently the NEC 2510A double layer drive is now shipping. Pretty cheap for the mech but still no idea what pricing on the DVD+R9 media will be.

From techbargains.com:

Livewarehouse has the new NEC ND-2510A 9-in-1 Double Layer DVD±RW Dual Driver (Beige) for $97.99, $9.50 USPS Priority shipping.