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DVD Burners Hit Prime Time

Though the format wars continue, rewritable DVD finally has mass appeal. We test 13 drives, starting at $250.

Jon L. Jacobi

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Pioneer PIONEER DVD/CD RECORDABLE INT ATAPI (Pioneer-DVRA04)

LG Electronics GMA-4020B

Sony DRU-500A

Vivastar RS-111

Panasonic LF-D521

Ikebana DVD+RW

Cendyne DVD-R/RW External USB

Pacific Digital DVD Burner

DVD Players and Discs: Press Play and Pray?

Once you've burned your video to DVD, you'll want to play it back on your TV, but will it work? In much the same way that some CD players have problems playing CD-R discs, some DVD players refuse to play discs created in rewritable DVD drives.

We tried six write-once DVD discs (three DVD-Rs and three DVD+Rs) in a selection of 11 DVD players, all of which were released over the last couple of years. The results of our tests were promising: 10 of the units played all of the recorded video without problems. Only one (a Yamaha DVD-S520) refused to play the DVD-R discs, which were supplied by Verbatim. Note, however, that our tests covered only a small number of players, all of which were fairly new models. A recent study by Intellikey Labs says that DVD+R discs worked in 90 percent of the players in its tests, while DVD-R worked in 77 percent. For rewritable discs, Intellikey found that +RW worked in 72 percent of players, while -RW worked in 66 percent. Though results vary and the data isn't exhaustive, DVD+R discs seem to work in more players than DVD-R discs do.

Commitment Issues

Though most manufacturers seem unwilling to commit to saying that recordable DVD discs will or will not play in their products, some manufacturers have started listing their players' compatibility with DVD media: Sony lists its recently released NS-D315/B DVD player as being compatible with DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW video discs, but not with DVD+R. Interestingly, Pioneer (which makes the DVR-A04 rewritable DVD drive) doesn't mention rewritable DVD in the manuals for two of its recent DVD players, except to say specifically that DVD-RAM discs won't play.

Many manufacturers offer firmware updates for DVD players. Always check the manufacturer's Web site, since such updates may make the player more amenable to playing back rewritable DVD discs.

Richard Baguley

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