Are there features to look for in a PATA DVD burner

[mm]

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.

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-S2...4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1293339905&sr=1-4

 

[philo]

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

 

[John McGaw]

You don't need one...you already have one

snip...

I'd have to agree wholeheartedly with that. If you already have something
which you hardly ever use there is no reason to buy a spare that you will
use even less. OP should wait until (s)he buys/builds the next system and
then get a blueray (or whatever is the platinum standard at the time)
burner. Which will hardly ever be used, no doubt.

 

[mm]

snip...

I'd have to agree wholeheartedly with that. If you already have something
which you hardly ever use there is no reason to buy a spare that you will
use even less. OP should wait until (s)he buys/builds the next system and
then get a blueray (or whatever is the platinum standard at the time)
burner. Which will hardly ever be used, no doubt.

Okay, but now that her tv reception is worse since digital, and her
VCR timer/tuner won't work, my friend who bought a simple Dell several
years ago with only a CD reader would like to be able to play DVDs and
record them on occasion. Her computer also expects PATA optical
drives.

Is there any feature I should look for for her?

 

[mm]

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.

 

[mm]

If she has one of those "small form factor" Dells, and there are a lot
of them, you may have to get a laptop drive.

Thanks. Good point.

No, it's regular size. My new answer to Philo exlains things better.

"Recording" a DVD is not just a matter of hardware. A basic DVD-ROM
will be able to read the disc, but you may need to decrypt the disc with
software, and you'll need a burner if you want to put it back to disc.

The only DVD's i've recorded are data, KB3AIK_EN.iso, (A-something
Installation Kit, meant for Vista or higher but which someone online
said had debugging? features useful for XP) and a copy of an HP
Drivers DVD a friend provided when I was fixing up her HP netbook. I
made a copy in case she or someone else needed help again but had lost
the DVD.

My first friend's not going to record DVDs, just play them and maybe
record CDs. She needed anti-virus boot CDs when she had a virus, and
they had to be burned elsewhere and brought to her house. A real
pain, esp. if I was already at her house when I realized I needed one.
For that and other reasons, it's as likely I'll be burning them there
as that she will.

Thanks.

 

[John McGaw]

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.

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.

 

[mm]

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.

I don't want you think I'm not reading this. It's just taking me a
while. Thanks a lot.