Hi Jimmy,

Dell just started shipping a factory installed dual format drive in their 4700, 8400 & XPS series this month, the Philips 8631, but so far my friend it is not looking good and I would not recommend it yet
And George, Ditto with Jimmy on the Plextor.

Best Regards





God, grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway,
the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the
difference.

---

CD/RW Link

Message Edited by Predator on 11-13-2004 09:00 AM

The HP DVD writer will be compatible with the DIM XPS system, but an even better choice would be the Plextor 712A. It is a very reliable good burner that also can be bought for $99 dollars on www.newegg.com  with a $30 rebate. I think Dell also had it on sale that could be bought through the parts dept. It will burn + or - R and I have not found a brand of media that does not work with it.  You can order the new computer with one rom and add the DVD burner your self. Dell does not sell + and - R burners with their new units, I don't think. Not sure about the bay situation with the XPS but if they offer two roms it would not be a problem to add your own choice of DVD burner. Just make sure you set the jumper on the new rom the same as the one that comes with the unit, which is cable select or CS on the back of the rom. It is very simple to do.

Thanks a bunch JimmyMac43 and Predator, I'll look up the Plextor, most likely purchase it too!

George147

Thanks JimmyMac43 & Predator,

I just had one other question, I did purchase the Plextor from Newegg.com as was recommended and it was a great deal, the write speeds are amazing.  The only concern I had was that I don't believe the writer is dual layer capable.  Is that a major issue?  I know that dual layer would hold much more, but I know it's more expensive and takes longer.  What do you advise?

Also the driver was called a DVD+/-RW, but it stated that it wrote all formats of DVD and CD on the site.  Is this correct.  Are all DVD+/-RW able to write all formats i.e. +R, -R, +RW, -RW?  I'm a little worried I purchased the wrong item.  It was the Plextor PX-712SA, since I have two SATA hard drives.  All the reviews I've read raved about it.  I just want to make sure I'm correct in what I read and understand and about the dual layer capability issue being more important or not.

Thank you, George147

Hello George147

It is my opinion that at this time the duel layer feature might be nice to have, but with the cost of the media and with the problems involved with DVD writing, I would rather have a unit that does a good job with what I will be using it for. In other words I do not know of many situations where I would pay the difference for the media to have twice the storage capacity, and not sure how reliable it is at this point. Duel layer burning is pretty new and I just don't know if all the bugs are worked out yet.

My response to your second question is no, not all burners write all formats. It is nice to be able to write + or - R media because not all stand alone DVD player will recognize both formats. A lot of the older players will play one or the other. It comes in handy if you would like to make a home video DVD for a friend that has a stand alone DVD player that will only recognize one format or the other.  If you have SATA capability, I understand that is a good way to go and there are some advantages.

Jimmymac43

 

 

Message Edited by chriskeef2004 on 11-14-2004 04:36 PM

Hello Chriskeef

Yes, it is very easy to add your own DVD burner and my experience with the Dell original equipment burners has not been good. I was one of those people that bought a Dell 8250 with the defective Nec 1000A. They replaced it twice and with the second one I called the Dell parts and since the replacement Nec had been charged to my account until they received to old one I could return the defective second one for credit and purchase a Plextor and only pay the difference.

I really don't know anything about the Memorex burner that you refer to, but adding your own choice of burner is not difficult and you can get a lot of good advice and instruction on this forum.

 

Jimmymac

I am very pleased with the Plextor 712A. This thread began with my recommendation to buy it at a very good price at www.newegg.com for $99 and a $30 rebate from Plextor. It is not a duel layer burner so limited to 4.5 gig of data. Not ready to jump on the band wagon for duel layer burning until it proves reliable and media more reasonable priced. I have not found a need for 9 gigs of storage and love the reliability of what I have.

The Nec burner you are looking at is probably a good burner. They manufacture roms for several name brand companies that put their name on the rom. The early burners that Dell put in the Dim8250 were made by Nec for Dell, the Nec1100A. The one they sold under their name seemed to work fine, but a lot of people had problems with the Dell rom. It was a very traumatic experience for me. I was trying to learn how to work with DVD media and software useing video and failing. Producing a lot of coasters and not sure if it was me or the burner. It was not until I came to this forum that I found a lot of people were having the same problems and Dell support was trying to indicate that my problems were unique. They would only replace with original equipment and after replacing twice with the same DVD rom and the same result I found a way to trade the third one  in to Dell parts for a different brand. That was my first Plextor, the 504A. I was pleased with it and even happier with the Plextor 712A. So that is my two cents and sorry about the rambling.

Jimmymac43

Hey JimmyMac43,

You really sound like you know what you're talking about.  I did pick up the Plextor for SATA system.  It isn't double layer capable, but if you do have a double layer capable burner does that mean you have to 'use' the double layer capability.  Can you choose to 'ignore' it and simply write single layer for the less Gigs or are you forced to wrestle with the double layer software?  I guess what I'm asking is, does the problem come from simply having double layer capability or arise only when you attempt to use it? 

I'm asking because I ordered the Plextor, but I explained about what double layer was capable of to my wife, so I changed my order to include the double layer CD/DVD burner combo, but I don't want that to interfere with my writing since I'll be using it 95% of the time anyway.  I know the Plextor reviews are fabulous and I'm impressed with it.  But if I can stay with the Dell writer as long it doesn't give me problems because of double layer capabilities.  I think I just don't understand enough where the problem lies... as if you can't tell.  Any further info that could help me out I'd appreciate it?  Like you I think its just to new and the media is to expensive anyway.

Thanks, George147

There's really no reason to wait. Most of the major burners, with the exception of Plextor, support both DL and SL burning. If you don't want to use DL media right now, don't. Concentrate on using and learning SL media. But why not buy a dual media burner now, rather than buy a second one in a few months? Buying one now give you the option of trying DL media once the prices come down without having to invest in more new hardware. In the meantime, use SL media.

NEC, Pioneer, TDK, Memorex, LiteOn all support both formats.

Dave