Choosing a CD/DVD Burner Basics

Discussion in 'Storage Devices' started by pelvis_3, Sep 21, 2005.

  1. pelvis_3

    pelvis_3 HWF Member For Life

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    What's a burner?
    A CD burner, which connects to your computer, can both play and create CDs. DVD burners, on the other hand, are a bit more advanced and can both play and create CDs and DVDs. The laser shines on the reflective inner layer of a disc, detecting differences that are patterned to represent data. But unlike a regular CD or DVD player, a burner's laser can also create - or burn - these data marks.

    Still, you can't just stick an any old CD into a burner and write over it (as much as you might want to).

    Burners use a few different kinds of discs, each for a slightly different task. A DVD burner can read CD-ROMs, such as a store-bought music CD, and DVD-Videos, such as your store-bought copy of Lord Of The Rings. A DVD burner can also read and write data on a CD-R disc as well as on DVD-R and DVD+R discs.
    Additionally, most CD and DVD burners can also read and write data on rewritable discs, which you can rewrite over and over again (about 1,000 times); a rewritable CD is referred to as a CD-RW, and rewritable
    DVDs come in a few formats, including DVD+RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM.

    What's the difference between a CD burner and a DVD burner?
    In this thread, i'll concentrate primarily on DVD burners. Why? All DVD burners can burn CDs, but CD-only burners won't burn or even play DVD media of any kind. In addition, DVD burners have become so affordable that there are fewer reasons to buy a CD-only burner.

    X ratings
    Shorthand terms are used to describe how fast a burner performs. A CD-RW drive rated 52X/32X/52X can write a CD-R at 52X, write a CD-RW at 32X, and read a CD at 52X. The X stands for times the original transfer rate of a disc. For a CD, the original transfer rate is 150 kilobytes (KB) per second; so 52X would equal 7.8 megabytes (MB) per second, and 32X would come to 4.8MB per second (1MB equals 100KB). Note that those are only the maximum ratings, however -- you'll need a 52X-rated CD to utilise the drive's speed potential; depending on the task, the disc, and the drive, the transfer rate still may not reach 52X. Another thing to know about the max rating: at 16X and above, CD-RW drives write in speed zones. Basically, they start off slow and increase their speed until they're writing at full velocity.

    DVD drives are rated the same way. A DVD burner rated 12X/4X/16X can write DVDs at 12X, rewrite at 4X, and read at 16X. However, DVD drives are increasingly referred to by their plus and dash recording speeds only.
    DVDs' original 1X transfer rate is 1.385MB per second -- much faster than CDs' -- and an 8X DVD drive can transfer data at a whopping 11.08MB per second. Like CD-RW drives, DVD writing at 8X and above occurs in speed zones. Take note that DVD-RAM's 1X transfer rate is about 700KB per second, making it much slower to burn than other DVD media.

    The table below translates CD and DVD speeds into their APPROXIMATE burning times. (Notice that performance gains diminish despite higher ratings, due to the speed zones.)
    http://www.321imagehosting.com/files/speed table.jpg

    It's widely thought that CD burners, at 52X, have already reached their maximum speed, but DVD burners are expected to continue to climb to possibly even 24X. 16X seems to be as fast as the media can spin without breaking up.

    You'll have to consider a number of factors when you choose a burner. Of course, cash is king, and the amount you're willing to spend will largely decide which drive you'll end up with. The price of DVD burners continues to drop, and these do-it-all devices offer the best bang for buck. Still, if you're not ready to spend the extra money and you're primarily interested in burning CDs, you can pick up a CD-RW drive on the cheap. Or you can spend just a few dollars more for a combo drive -- a CD-RW that can read, but not write, DVDs.

    Internal or External?
    You'll have to decide whether to connect your burner to your computer internally or externally. Internal drives cost considerably less, but you'll have to open up your computer to install one -- a daunting task if you've never done it before. Installing an external drive is much simpler and requires simply connecting a few cords to your PC. External burners are much more portable and easier to share in a household or a small office.
    In any event, if portability isn't a concern and you have an adventurous soul, i recommend buying an internal burner over an external burner -- the savings is worth the extra half hour it will take you.

    Which external connection should I use?
    SCSI and parallel ports used to be popular connections for external drives, but more modern technologies, USB 2.0 and FireWire, also known as IEEE 1394, have made them obsolete. USB 2.0 is the more common connection type, although FireWire offers greater transfer speeds.

    How fast is fast enough?
    We all crave the latest and greatest technology (most of us anyway), but drives that are one step behind the bleeding edge usually offer the best price-to-performance ratio. As of May 2004, the fastest DVD burners were rated 8X/4X/12X. These DVD burners are also pretty handy with CDs, recording on CD-R at 24X, writing CD-RW at 24X, and reading CDs at 40X. Still, the fastest CD-only drives, rated 52X/32X/52X, hold only a slight edge.

    Unless you're burning dozens of DVDs each day, the extra 15 minutes per burn that a slower 4X burner will cost you won't kill you but it could save you a few dollars. Even a 2X drive (if you can find one) will do the job for many users.

    Should I wait for a blue-laser drive?
    Also coming down the ladder are blue-laser (also known as Blu-ray) drives and discs that can pack 27GB of data onto a single-sided disc, but don't hold your breath. Expected to cost thousands of dollars when they're released in 2006 or so, blue-laser drives will be capable of recording, rewriting, and playing huge, high-definition television files.

    Minutes vs. megabytes:
    The number of minutes you see listed on CD media labels, generally 74 or 80, tells you how many minutes of music the disc will hold. The number of megabytes listed, typically 650 or 700, lets you know how much data it can hold. CD technology was originally created to hold 74 minutes of music or 650MB of data, but nearly all manufacturers have bumped up capacity to 700MB (or 80 minutes), and these are usually the type of discs you'll find in stores.

    CD audio has a single fixed bit rate that results in a nice, predictable capacity; video and audio on DVD can come in a number of resolutions and variable bit rates, so there's no way to state the exact number of minutes of A/V data a DVD will hold. That said, a 4.7GB DVD generally holds about 4 hours of DVD-quality video and about 16 hours of VHS quality video!

    So all in all if you wan't a good reliable burner buy one that will record the formats you need it to and the speed you need it to!
    Make sure you can buy the best you can afford and stick to the well known manufacturers! :)
     

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