i was considering buying a dvd writer but wanted to know how the technology will progress in the future.
at the moment we can buy 4x writers and some 8x ones.
will the write technology only go up to 16x because that seems to be the norm for maximum read like 52x for cdrom.

thanx

I know that some companies (Philips, among others) are working on dual-layer DVD+RW and DVD-RW drives, that will give you the ability to write up to 8.5 Gb of data on a single side, while actually the limit is 4.7 Gb per side...

I don't know of any ETA about those dual-layer writes...

I'm pretty sure it will go up to 16X and more
after you decide to buy and get used to your dvd-rw
after a week a new one will be up so
if you're going to use it buy one right now
I've pioneer A04 I want to upgrade it!!

but the blank media is also very expensive especially 8X dvd-r's

Thats the only thing putting me off at the moment is the price of the discs, they are very expensive. I know you can store one hell of alot of data but it is way out of my league at the moment.

See what Santa Brings me lol

I think 16x write speed will be the max, as all DVD-ROM drives have been frozen on 16x read speed for 2 years at least

so with 16x reading and burning, how long would it take to copy a full dvd?

a full 700mb cd takes about one and a half minutes at max speed.

Don't mix CD with DVD.

An 56x CD data flow speed is around 8.6 megabits/second while a DVD at 1x has a data flow speed of roughly 26 megabits/second...

The number of x is the same, whether it is reading or writing...

i know that, i just wanted to compare how long it would take to burn a dvd with burning a cd. both with their respective technologies peaked

I just bought a LiteOn 4x DVD burner ($149 at BestBuy) and can report the following:

2.6 gigabytes of data onto 4x DVD-R media took 9:02.
1.6 gigabytes of data onto 1x DVD-R CompUSA media takes 17:35.

My personal thoughts are if your willing to shell out the dough for the faster speeds, you will notice a improvment in speed increase....but im not sure if its really worth it....
4x burners and media are taking a serious drop right now.
In the US, Pc Club sells Lite-On, MSI and NEC dual format 4x DVD writers for around 110-150 and some include DvD x Copy!
Not to mention they are selling ritek media 25 packs for 19.99!
Thats 79 cents a disk!

For people interested in copying movies and making unattended DvD these are great buys, as long as your willing to invest about 10-20 mins per dvd.
For those of you impatient, bleeding edge of tecnology folks 8x dvd writers start about 250 and the media is a pretty penney!


|Drew|

I use a TEAC DV-W50E DVD-R 4X daily with DVDXCOPY Platinum 321 (uses NERO Burning Engine). 4.35 Gig at 13 minutes on the average.

Be sure to spend good money on good software when making backups of your DVD Movies. I have used almost all the major brand names to include the FREE stuff at www.afterdawn.com and DVD XCOPY XPRESS makes a big difference regardless of the burner. Some of my friends are screaming high praises about InterVideo WinDVD Platinum + Recorder as an alternative if not better application. Just get this stuff before law suits stop them from furthur development.

You can get a DVD Burner for $20.00 with a purchase of DVD XCOPY Platinum at www.321studios.com. I do not know how good the burner is but for $20.00 what the heck. A good burner is useless without good software and good software is useless without a good burner. At least that is what I have learned. Learned it the hard way, lol.

Burn speed depends more on the type of data and the media. Tonight (as I post this message) I am burning a 7.80 G DVD to a 4.7 (4.35 G after compression)DVD-R and the time will take about 35 minutes. This is because DVDXCOPY EXPRESS has compressed the DVD Movie and has dumbed down the write speed. Great feature. Otherwise, the backup would fail. The title I am backing-up was previously only possible with DVD XCOPY, but the new DVD XCOPY EXPRESS 321 accomplished the task with success.

I believe that was a Lite On burner MSNwar...

DVD Shrink may just be one of the greatest programs ever..