Countessa here is some good information to ingest..... = I use Pioneer Sata burners in the R x16 speed format and find them faultless...if your PC is relatively new then Sata is the best option, the newer models burn at x18 speed now, I also use Nero burning software.
Panasonic and the DVD Forum are primarily responsible for the original DVD-RAM and DVD-R/RW formats, while Philips and a splinter group, the DVD Alliance, have pioneered the DVD+R/RW alternative. The five DVD formats offer roughly 4.7GB of storage, but they differ in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways. DVD-R and DVD+R may be written to only once, but offer high compatibility with drives and set-top players. Most of the newer drives now also support the DVD+R DL (dual layer) format for storage capacities of up to 8.5GB. DVD+RW and DVD-RW can be written and erased approximately 1,000 times, but they are a little less compatible. Sturdy DVD-RAM can be written and erased up to 100,000 times but it's a slower media and few drives or set-top players can read it. A DVD writer should come with DVD-burning software. Nero Burning ROM is currently regarded as one of the best, but Adaptec's Easy CD Creator and NTI CD-Maker work well, too. Bundled software is often a "lite" version of a larger application, meaning that it doesn't have all the features of the full release. Still, even the lite versions include all of the tools that most users will need for burning all kinds of discs; for capturing, importing and exporting video; and even for some basic audio and video editing.
Drives that are one step behind the bleeding edge usually offer the best price-to-performance ratio. As of May 2005, the fastest DVD burners were rated 16X/8X/16X; they are capable of recording at 16X on DVD+R and DVD-R, writing at 8X on DVD+RW and DVD-RW, and reading DVDs at 16X. Burning speeds for the DVD+R DL range from 2.4X to 4X. Unless you're burning dozens of DVDs each day, the extra minutes per burn that a slower 8X burner will cost you won't kill you -- but it could save you AU$50 or more.
External burner information below
SCSI and parallel ports used to be popular connections for external drives, but more modern technologies, like USB 2.0 and FireWire, have rendered them obsolete. USB 2.0 is the more common connection type, although FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 and Sony iLink) offers greater transfer speeds. Just about every internal drive uses an EIDE (enhanced integrated drive electronics) interface.
Here is the blue-ray technology......... some blue-ray units will play standard dvd's...but will only burn in blue-ray format / which standard dvd burners / readers cannot read. AS FAR AS I UNDERSTAND IT....
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.
While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB. Recent development by Pioneer has pushed the storage capacity to 500GB on a single disc by using 20 layers.
Blu-ray is currently supported by about 200 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies. The format also has support from all Hollywood studios and countless smaller studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Many studios have also announced that they will begin releasing new feature films on Blu-ray Disc day-and-date with DVD, as well as a continuous slate of catalog titles every month. For more information about Blu-ray movies, check out our Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray reviews section which offers information about new and upcoming Blu-ray releases, as well as what movies are currently available in the Blu-ray format.
