On 12/26/2010 5:51 PM, mm wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 06:58:06 -0600, philo<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> On 12/25/2010 11:45 PM, mm wrote:
>>> Are there features to look for in a PATA DVD burner?
>>>
>>> I need to buy an internal PATA, DVD-burner to make up for the
>>> CD-burner that won't open!
>>>
>>> I just bought one from Newegg for the second bay, which so far works
>>> fine, and I don't use anything much, a total of maybe 5 or 10 times a
>>> month between the both of them.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> You don't need one...you already have one
>
> My answer to John was premature, and didn't explain thihgs.
>
> When I bought the first one, I bought almost any old thing that burned
> DVDs and wasn't too expensive. They all seemed to read and write all
> the same formats and I didn't see any difference.
>
> Before I buy a second one, I wanted to make sure there was no feature
> that not all DVD burners have, that I might want that didn't come with
> the one I got.
>
> AFAICT, the only differences are speed and dual layer. Speed doesn't
> mattter and afaict, dual layer comes only with SATA, not PATa.
>
> If I had a black internal CD drive that worked, I might just put it
> in, but instead I have two that don't work, so I'd rather buy a
> dvd-burner then something less versatile.
>
> So it's both for myself and my ex-girlfriend that I wanted to know
> about features.
>
> Thanks.
>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Is there any feature I should look for that I might want. They all
>>> seem to read and write the same kinds of disks eith the exception of
>>> #1 below.
>>>
>>> I see 2 things that distinguish DVD burners:
>>>
>>> 1) Dual-Layer, although I think those are all SATA, and this old mobo
>>> expects PATA optical drives.
>>>
>>> 2) Speed, but I don't really care about speed. If it took 30 minutes
>>> it wouldn't bother me, because I don't burn disks very often and I
>>> always have other things to do.
>>>
>>>
>>> Plus one more thing, since I'm here:
>>> There is something I want at Amazon that will ship free if I go over
>>> 25 dollars, saving me maybe 5 dollars. So I thought I'd buy this
>>> burner at Amazon. Some of these DVD-drives have free shipping but
>>> others will put me over 25 dollars. Am I being tricked, suckered in,
>>> by this "free shipping over 25 dollars"? Do they just charge more
>>> than Newegg? This is the first time I've tried to combine two things
>>> just to save shipping.
>>>
>>> And just out of curiosity, what's going on with those drives that say
>>> "Usually ships within 1 to 2 months." Do they make them to order?
>>> Like this one:
>>> http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SH-S22...3339905&sr=1-4
>
A modern DVD burner will support CDs by reading and writing -R and -RW. It
will probably read but not write -Text and +G (karaoke) disks. It will
usually read and write -R, -RW, +R, +RW, -RAM, -R DL, and +R DL but it may
either not support -ROM or support only reading. Unless the drive is
something special it will not generally do anything with HD or Blueray
disks. The drive will have a RAM buffer of 1mB+ and support a robust form
of buffer underrun protection. Write modes will be at least Packet, TAO,
DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, and RAW DAO 96. Depending on
where you find the drive you may be able to find a one that is
"region-blind" i.e. will work with commercial DVDs from anywhere in the
world. The drive should have a method for upgrading the firmware.
The important thing is that everything I've listed here is pretty much
standard on every modern full-sized DVD burner drive and even the cheap
ones seem to support nearly everything. Be aware that the rated speeds may
not be anywhere near truth -- generally the maker will list write speeds
which can only be achieved with specially-chosen media. Invariably I burn
my DVDs and half of the (up to) 20X speed the makers claims for my drives
-- this goes for all four which I have in various machines and it has
eliminated essentially every burn problem. I'm not in _that_ much of a
hurry most of the time.
DVD drives are pretty much a commodity item today and finding a really bad
one is difficult -- some are just a little better than others. Look at
reviews and on-line fora and you can begin to get an idea of which drives
are more reliable than others.
BTW, just because the motherboard 'expects' a PATA optical drive, that may
not be a real limitation -- if the MB has SATA for the hard drive(s) then a
DVD burner should work on one of those ports just as well. If not, a SATA
controller card is very inexpensive although if the system is old enough
you may not want to spend even a little bit more than the bare minimum.
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