Does anyone know of any good DVD burner hardware out there compatible with Windows XP?

[Kerry Brown]

Top posting just to annoy Bob.

Bob

You are basing your opinions on a user based forum. I read through many
posts in all areas of the site you posted. What I read doesn't support your
assertions. Many people were recommending drives other than your two
favourites. You come on this newsgroup and immediately start offending
valuable contributors who have helped many people. In addition you rudely
shout out your personal political views espousing the boycott of Sony. The
Sony issue has been covered elsewhere. You call people newbies while you
yourself look like a newbie. Before replying to a post that is crossposted
to way too many newsgroups it is polite to at least check out the groups you
are posting in or limit your reply to groups you are familiar with. I'm
guessing you won't even be able to tell which group I read your post in.

Newbie indeed.

Kerry

 

[Bob]

Before stating rules or making personal attacks, may we please see
your Web Policeman's badge.

Don't top post - it is the sign of a newbie.



--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[Bob]

I normally do not top-post but I'm making an exception in this case to
respond to your rather snide and unfounded comments directed at R. McCarty.

Let it be noted that Mr. McCarty's contributions to this and similar
newsgroups (unlike yours I might add) are authoritative and always given in
a spirit of generosity as he always attempts to help a poster solve his or
her problem.

Now let me respond to your specific comments re the subject at hand...

You must be his sock puppet.

Well, you were "told" wrong.

Tell that to CDFreaks.

Plextor's products, i.e., their optical drives,

are generally considered fine products, among the best optical drives on the
consumer market today.

That was true for many years but not today. Market pressures have
forced Plextor to rebrand OEM drives, so the story goes.

I've no problem with the NEC optical drives. By & large I've found them to
be reliable units. I've no significant experience with the BenQ products.

BenQ was not liked when it hit the market but the 1640 has the
CDFreaks all excited. I have no experience with it either. I do have a
lot of experience with the NEC 3540 with stock F/W and LD1.W5 hack F/W
(which I use to remove Riplock).

For $39 you can't go wrong with the 3540. For $109 you are talking
your chances with the Plextor these days.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[BR549]

Top posting is the way to go, don't have to scroll down through all the
rubbish to find the comment.

 

[Don Schmidt]

Top posting is a sign of business correspondence filing. Reverse
chronological order. This facilitates quick, easy reading of the last input
of the discussion.

 

[George]

Looks like we have someone that is trying to imitate the one and only
kurttrail??? True a$$

 

[Bob]

Top posting is a sign of business correspondence filing. Reverse
chronological order. This facilitates quick, easy reading of the last input
of the discussion.

I agree with your comment about it being appropiate for business
correspondence. There is no problem with that because the two parties
know the details of the various posts.

But in the case of an open forum, the posts are far from
business-like. The posts are a hodgepodge of seemingly random comments
so the top post is not connected to any one of them.

The proper way to respond so that the greatest number of readers can
understand the relevance of the reply is to snip irrelevant content
out of the post keeping at most 2 generations. Then place your reply
below the content you are replying to. That allows any reader to pick
up on the meaning of your reply at a glance.

--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[-DG-]

Anna writes...
Well, you were "told" wrong. Plextor's products, i.e., their optical drives,
are generally considered fine products, among the best optical drives on the
consumer market today. Granted, a case can be made that they may be slightly
overpriced

I'm not trying to take sides here, as I just 'overheard' this fragment
of the conversation. However, Plextor's quality has most definitely
NOT been up to what they once were. Their latest drives are much less
reliable than much of the competition. That's from my experience and
from research.

I know there are still adherents to Plextor. I suppose that includes
many at sites like 'CDFreaks.com' who claim they're on their 5th or
6th in-warranty replacement. So I guess that's a good comment on
Plextor's service/RMA department if nothing else. <g> Incidentally,
Plextor's newer cheaper drive appears to be a rebadged BenQ. It
is supposedly more reliable than their own drives.

BTW, CDFreaks, despite the odd name, has tons of info on CD and DVD
burners including charts of how various media work with a given
burner. Many of the posters own lots of DVD burners (not unusual to
see 5+ different burners listed in a sig). Overall consensus seems to
favor NEC 3520 and 3540 and BenQ 1640. And Taiyo-Yuden media, in case
anyone was wondering.

See above.

Anna writes:
I've no problem with the NEC optical drives. By & large I've found them to
be reliable units. I've no significant experience with the BenQ products.

I don't know much about the Sony Rootkit. I do know enough about
rootkits in general to know I never want one close to my machine. If
the Sony rumor is true, I have to wonder why any sane company would
use such a method. I hope that doesn't catch on.

 

[Anna]

You must be his sock puppet.

Anna writes:
Well, you were "told" wrong.

Plextor's products, i.e., their optical drives,

Tell that to CDFreaks.

That was true for many years but not today. Market pressures have
forced Plextor to rebrand OEM drives, so the story goes.

BenQ was not liked when it hit the market but the 1640 has the
CDFreaks all excited. I have no experience with it either. I do have a
lot of experience with the NEC 3540 with stock F/W and LD1.W5 hack F/W
(which I use to remove Riplock).

For $39 you can't go wrong with the 3540. For $109 you are talking
your chances with the Plextor these days.

Bob:
Out of curiosity I checked with my former employer earlier today re their
experience selling/installing Plextor optical drives. While our sales
manager didn't have at hand the precise number of drives sold/installed over
the past two years (the period I was inquiring about), she estimated they
sold/installed about 200 Plextor drives over that time. Of that number she
said she couldn't recall more than two (TWO!) drives that proved defective
and had to be returned - one DOA, the other failing within a few months. I
also checked with one of my former colleagues - an experienced computer
technician with many years of service - and he informed me that Plextor
optical drives are well-constructed and usually perform as well or better
than virtually any consumer optical drive on today's market.
Anna

 

[GraB]

Roxio 7.5 and Nero Ultra 6.6 both do a good job! And I am not a America
(not)On-Line user!!!!!!

Roxio would have to have improved hugely to be mentioned in the same
sentence as Nero. I wouldn't touch it with a forty-foot pole.

 

[Spin]

I prefer top posters personally because I do't like scrolling down the
response to see the answer.

 

[Gene K]

Both Sony and Plextor make good DVD hardware. Look in Wal-Mart Electronics,
Best Buy, Circuit City, to buy one.
Gene

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Or even worse, when the poster didn't add a comment...

Gino

 

[billh]

Me Too! Bottom posting rules are in the same league as the old law
requiring a person with a lantern to walk in front of a motor car.
I think bottom posting may have had a place in slow moving weighty
discussions but for quick and fast discussions like most NGs it is nothing
but a pain.
billh

 

[bxf]

Roxio would have to have improved hugely to be mentioned in the same
sentence as Nero. I wouldn't touch it with a forty-foot pole.

And when is the last time you DID touch it? I am aware that Roxio
developed a bad reputation with some previous products, but products
improve sometimes. I find 7.5 easy to use and I think I can say it has
been virtually flawless. Unless you have personally experienced or seen
some bad performance, you shouldn't blindly repeat negative "common
knowledge".

 

[Bob]

Both Sony and Plextor make good DVD hardware. Look in Wal-Mart Electronics,
Best Buy, Circuit City, to buy one.
Gene

Please do not top post to Usenet. It is the sign of a newbie.

Sony does not make their DVD burners. Lite-On makes some of them. Sony
won't support rebranded OEM drives.

Plextor is rumored as using OEM drives from other makers too.

Rather than waste time looking at retail sites, spend some time at
CDFreaks.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/

You will discover that the "experts" who live and sleep this DVD stuff
endorse the NEC 3540 and the BenQ 1640. They also endorse Taiyo Yuden
media. DVD +R is preferred for the 3540. Burn at 8x if the media is 8x
or at 12x if the media is 16x.

In order to get the most out of those forums, you must understand the
difference between a consensus and a collection of anecdotes.

Just about anythiny you dont buy on ebay.

--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[Bob]

BTW, CDFreaks, despite the odd name, has tons of info on CD and DVD
burners including charts of how various media work with a given
burner. Many of the posters own lots of DVD burners (not unusual to
see 5+ different burners listed in a sig).

There are several forums but CDFreaks stands out.

The reason is because CDFreaks is large enough to allow you to gather
a consensus. All the other forums only provide you a collection of
anecdotes.

Overall consensus seems to
favor NEC 3520 and 3540 and BenQ 1640. And Taiyo-Yuden media, in case
anyone was wondering.

Is there an echo in here??? I said the exact same thing earlier.

Thanks for confirming it.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[Bob]

Well, you were "told" wrong.

You are going to take on CDFreaks?

ROTFLMBFFAO

Out of curiosity I checked with my former employer earlier today re their
experience selling/installing Plextor optical drives. While our sales
manager didn't have at hand the precise number of drives sold/installed over
the past two years (the period I was inquiring about), she estimated they
sold/installed about 200 Plextor drives over that time. Of that number she
said she couldn't recall more than two (TWO!) drives that proved defective
and had to be returned - one DOA, the other failing within a few months. I
also checked with one of my former colleagues - an experienced computer
technician with many years of service - and he informed me that Plextor
optical drives are well-constructed and usually perform as well or better
than virtually any consumer optical drive on today's market.

As mentioned, Plextor has enjoyed an excellent reputation in times
past. They have lost that reputation only recently when they started
rebranding OEM drives from other makers.

You are not going to get up to the minute market intelligence from
retailers. They are the last to know.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[Bob]

You sure act like one.

Roxio would have to have improved hugely to be mentioned in the same
sentence as Nero. I wouldn't touch it with a forty-foot pole.

EZ Creator was OK when Adaptec had it. But Roxio screwed it over a
good one and now it is a genuine pos.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!

 

[Bob]

Me Too!

Spoken like a true AOL subscriber.

Top posting is not proper for Usenet forums.


--

BOYCOTT SONY!

SONY IS TRYING TO TAKE OVER YOUR COMPUTER!

HOMELAND SECURITY TOLD SONY TO CEASE AND DESIST!

YOU DO THE SAME - BOYCOTT SONY!