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DVD Burners: The New Optical Choice

Rewritable DVD drives are fast replacing CD-RW models as the optical drives of choice. They offer a fast, cheap, and convenient way to store large amounts of data, and they let you burn your own movies or recorded TV programs to DVD to be watched on a standard DVD player.

Richard Baguley

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Top Rewritable DVD Drives (chart):

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Photograph: Marc Simon
All of the drives that we recommend here can record to 4X write-once media, taking around 4 to 6 minutes to write the two 10-minute videos we use in our tests to disc. But the Plextor PX-708A is the first drive to support 8X DVD+R burning, and Plextor claims that the drive can even write to certain brands of 4X disc at 8X speed. Most drives are limited to writing at the maximum rated speed of the media; we tested the 708A writing at 4X speed. (Plextor lists on its Web site the brands of 4X media it has tested writing at 8X.) In general, the times that we see in our tests for DVD-RW burning are typically longer than those for DVD+RW. This is because DVD-RW drives usually have to format the entire disc before they can start writing data, while DVD+RW drives must only partially format discs first.

In addition to a drive's speed, its rewritable format is another key issue to consider. The two main formats--DVD+RW and DVD-RW--are not compatible: If you buy a drive that supports only the DVD+RW format, you can't write to DVD-RW discs, and vice versa.

Multiformat drives

Drives like the Memorex Dual Format DVD Recorder and the Plextor PX-708A can write to both DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs, while others--such as the Iomega Super DVD Writer or the LG GSA-4040B--support DVD-RAM as well. The advantage of multiformat drives is that you can use whichever format of disc is most convenient or has the best price.

Single-format drives

Several drive makers are sticking to one write format, either because they've thrown their corporate weight behind one standard or because they're trying to appeal to bargain shoppers. The Hewlett-Packard DVD Writer Dvd300i supports only the DVD+RW format, but at $190 it is cheaper than the dual-format models.

Media Matters

Whichever type of drive you pick, make sure to get the right format of media. You'll also need to choose the correct speed. Although all of the drives we review here support burning at 4X to write-once discs, 4X media is not yet widely available, with many places still selling 2X media. A 2X disc will work fine in a 4X drive, but will be burned at only 2X speed. Many retailers don't mention the speed of the media: Always check the manufacturer's specs before you buy.

The slower 2X discs are cheaper than the 4X ones, especially if you buy them in bulk. At the other speed extreme, 8X DVD-R media should become available soon, but the discs are likely to be expensive at first, and they will require a drive that supports the 8X write speed. The only one available at present is the Plextor PX-708A, though the other major manufacturers plan to release their versions of 8X drives in the near future.

Finally, 4X DVD+RW rewritable discs are now becoming available, but these discs are supported by only a limited number of drives (such as the PX-708A). Again, to obtain the fastest write speeds possible from your DVD drive, buy the fastest rated media that it supports.

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