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Top Rewritable DVD Drives

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.

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DVD+/-RW Dual-X1 PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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MEMOREX DVD+/-RW Dual-X1

4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW, 16X/10X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6.1, DVD Builder 1.1, Drag-to-Disc 6.1 software, 2MB buffer, Internal IDE drive

Bottom Line: This dual-format model turns in fast burn times for both DVD media formats and is attractively priced.

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PX-708A: 8x/4x/12x DVD+RW, 4x/2x/12x DVD-RW, 40x/24x/40x CD-RW Burner with Roxio Software (Plextor-PX708ASW) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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Plextor PX-708A: 8x/4x/12x DVD+RW, 4x/2x/12x DVD-RW, 40x/24x/40x CD-RW Burner with Roxio Software (Plextor-PX708ASW)

4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 8X DVD+R, 4X DVD+RW, 40X/24X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6.1, Drago-to-disc 6.1 software, 2MB buffer, Internal IDE drive

Bottom Line: This drive can write at 8X--even to some brands of 4X DVD+R media. It's the quickest at reading from DVD discs.

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440N Indi DVD (TDK-AID+440) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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TDK 440N Indi DVD (TDK-AID+440)

4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW, 16X/10X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6.1, DVD Builder, Drag-to-Disc 6 software, 2MB buffer, Internal IDE drive

Bottom Line: Strong performance, excellent documentation, and solid support policies highlight this dual-format drive.

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HP DVD 300i DVD+RW Drive - internal IDE (retail) (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-Q2108A) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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HP HP DVD 300i DVD+RW Drive - internal IDE (retail) (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-Q2108A)

4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW, 16X/10X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Veritas RecordNow 4.5, ArcSoft ShowBiz DVD 1.3,Veritas DLA 3.5 software, 2MB buffer, Internal IDE drive

Bottom Line: Still one of the speediest we've seen at authoring a DVD movie, and one of the few drives to include backup software.

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DVR-A05 2MB Buffer (4x DVD-R, 2x DVD-RW, 16x CD-R, 8x CDR-RW) (Pioneer-DVRA05) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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Pioneer DVR-A05 2MB Buffer (4x DVD-R, 2x DVD-RW, 16x CD-R, 8x CDR-RW) (Pioneer-DVRA05)

4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 16X/8X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Roxio EasyCD Creator Basic 5.3, Sonic MYDVD 4, Pinnacle InstantWrite 4 software, 2MB buffer, Internal IDE drive

Bottom Line: Inexpensive single-format model's bundled packet-writing software requires you to do a time-consuming full-disc format before burning to DVD-RW.

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DVD Movie Writer dc3000 PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000

4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW, 16X/16X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Veritas RecordNow, ArcSoft ShowBiz software, 2MB buffer, External USB 2.0 drive

Bottom Line: The fastest drive we've tested for writing video to DVD; includes a built-in analog video capture card and software to burn video to DVD, but no packet-writing software.

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EXTERNAL PX-504UF 4X/2.4X/12X DVDWRITE/DVD-REWRITE/DVD-READ (Plextor-PX504UFSW) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

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Plextor EXTERNAL PX-504UF 4X/2.4X/12X DVDWRITE/DVD-REWRITE/DVD-READ (Plextor-PX504UFSW)

4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW, 16X/10X CD-R/CD-RW write speed, Roxio Easy CD Creator DVD Edition 5.3, DVD Builder, DirectCD 5.3 software, 2MB buffer, External FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 drive

Bottom Line: Sleek, silver chassis gives this external model an appealing look, while dual interfaces make it flexible.

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We test rewritable DVD drives under Windows XP Home on PCs with 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processors and 512MB of DDR SDRAM. To test each drive, we use the DVD video authoring, mastering, and packet-writing software supplied by the vendor. We use media supplied by the vendor or media supplied by Verbatim.

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