DVD-R for under $800

[Pace]

http://www.visiblelight.com/mall/products/pioneer/PEDVRA03.asp

<blockquote><hr><b>Pioneer DVR-A03 <font color="#ff0000">$789.00</font></b>
The DVR-A03 is the much anticipated DVD Recorder for the rest of us. The DVR-A03 can record General Use DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, CD-R and CD-RW all in a single, easy to install drive!<hr></blockquote>
I want one , last I saw was at Scan for the same in pounds, paying in (less valuable ) dollars is much sweeter

P.

[SteveC]

God that's tempting!
However, I need the rest of my PC first (just ordered - from Scan - an Epox 8K7A+ & 2x256Mb Micron PC2100 DDR's) maybe I'll wait till it's under $500...

[Paulr]

PC Pro magazine next month have a review of this unit.
They price it at £620 for here in the UK.

I wont buy one of these until they are about 6 months old, but then I shall.
I know that the Yamaha in my PC is the last CD-RW drive I shall be buying.

Have you guys also seen the double density CD-RW drives?
They can write upto 1.3GB on to a CD.
Technology is too little too late unfortunately as the DVD-RW drives are now very affordable for the home professional.

[Pace]

Oh man!

Yea, so far it's only Sony I've seen make one, but other than that I've heard nothing. Same here about another CDRW drive though, I was looking to get one...but with DVDs at that price, it wont be long before I move up to them

P.

[Ali]

Ive had a DVD-RAM for about 1.5 years or so now. Cost $1200, which was VERY cheap at the time.

Its almost pointless now.

A blank disk costs about $100 here, and you can buy a DVD movie for $30, so its no good for making 'backups' of movies.

It can store 2.6Gb per side of a disk, but only writes at about 500K per second, then does a verify, so adds about a third overhead to speed. Isnt so bad for big files like .GHO, but lots of small files are VERY slow.

The RAM is very good for major backups, but for everyday storage I use a CD-RW instead. The main advantage of the DVD is you dont have to do a erase before writing to it again. It acts just like a slow ZIP drive.

I think If I had the money to spend again, I would have gone for a flat panel or something.

Just if anybody is interested

Ali

[Wombat]

> It acts just like a slow ZIP drive.

Gah! Ouch! That hurts.


But seriously, why buy a DVD-R? Other than the massive amount of storage. You can't copy your DVD movies, and last time I checked there wasn't a DVD-R standard that was compilant with DVD drives.

[Paulr]

I'll post a few snippets from the review on the Pioneer unit when I go grab the magazine from my car later.
Basically the Pioneer does conform to a particular standard.

8.4GB of storage space on a single DVD-RW disk that costs next to nothing.
Well, comparing that to 700MB we get with a CD-RW I think there's the advantage straight away.

[Ali]

You can copy DVDs and play them on machines. But its not worth the cost.

Also, Paulr, check the prices of a DVD-RW. Im using DVD-RAM, and they cost a lot, I dont see why DVD-RW would be that much cheaper.

To put into perspective, 2X 2 sided DVD_RAMs cost NZ$200 ish, and gives you 11.2GB of storage.

a 20GB seagate 5500rpm hard drive costs NZ$180, and a caddy for easy removal from your PC costs about NZ$35.

So $200 for 11.2Gb or $215 for 20Gb, thats MUCH faster.

If you just want storage, DVD isnt what you want.

Ali

[SteveC]

I know it's not double sided, but a 5.2Gb DVD-RAM disk here costs £18.80, that seems a hell of a lot cheaper than what you're quoting! (How many NZ$ to the £?)

[Ali]

I just saw on Toms that a DVD-RW disk is now US$19.95, thats a bit cheaper (about NZ$50).

18.8 pound (I dont seem to have a pound key?) is about NZ$62 round figures.

Looks like we just get ripped off down here.

If anybody wants to buy it, make me an offer

Ali

[Paulr]

D'oh, managed to forget the magazine today, but if I remember correctly the Pioneer conforms to the official 'DVD partnership standards' something the units from Sony & Hewlett Packard wont.
DVD-R & DVD-RW disks are a lot cheaper than DVD-RAM disks, well they certainly are here in the UK.

[Pace]

I have a mate in Stirling Uni who has an older DVD-R, media used to be £50, but I've heard its dropped to around £10. However, besides the cost being more per MB than CDR, it would be a lot easier to carry around a single DVD than a dozen CDs for instance. My driver collection sits at over 700MB, never mind my Windows updates, programs/utils etc. One DVD could just about store everything I'd ever need

P.

Edit: btw, I think DVD-R is a standard - it's the rewritable ones having all the bother (DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW...)

[Paulr]

I've actually found a place in the UK offering the unit for £630inc VAT - how tempting!!! :-)
Actually, if a SCSI version was available I might have been really tempted to get my hands on one of these.
My ZIP, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW etc sub-system has been totally SCSI on my system for quite a while now and I hate the thought of enabling an IDE channel just for a DVD-RW unit.
I think I'm gonna stick to my original idea, give it 6 months, prices should have dropped more, hopefully somebody will have a SCSI DVD-RW unit available and then I'm gonna look to purchase, £15 for 8.4GB of storage on a disk that any PC with a DVD-ROM drive in can read - yes please!