I am speccing out my new Shuttle PC, and having selected the barebone, processor, memory and hard drive, I find myself needing to choose a DVD/CD drive.

I have realised I know nothing about the current best buys.

Can you get one drive that will play and burn DVDs, and in which of the _many_ formats? Can you get a drive that will also do CD-R & CD-RW? Are they BURN-proof in both DVD and CD mode? Or should I just get a DVD player drive as I already have a CD-R/CD-RW drive in another machine.

Also I have seen that some DVD drives can be made region free, others can't.

Basically, I'm completely confused , and could do with a recommendation. The minimum I need is a region free read-only DVD drive, but DVD burning, CD-reading, CD-burning in R & RW modes are all nice to haves.

Thanks for any help!



Alex

 

there is a sony 1 that does all formats i dont now the model number m8 but its about £250

 

Yes, I have a shuttle system with a combined DVD reader / CD-ReWriter.

Its from Plextor, model PlexCombo 20/10/40-12A

-DV

Edited to say, I've just noticed you need the DVD to write too - these drives are commonly available too.

[Edited by DazV - 5/19/2003 5:47:16 PM]

 

Sony DRU-500A plus its later derivatives do DVD+R(W), DVD-R(W), CD-R(W). Couldn't tell you if either parts are BURNPROOF, still waiting for mine to be delivered (should be in next batch, currently 19th on list).

Cheers

Ian

 

DazV,

Sorry, are you saying there is a plextor that will read and write CDs & DVDs?

£250 isn't worth it for me, really. I've seen basic DVD-readers for about £25, and I already have a CD burner on another PC on the network.

I guess I'd pay £50-£100 for a combo, but any more and I'll just go for a region free player and make do.

DazV - Is your player region free?


Alex

 

Ian - Is that Region Free?

 

Big, yes you can get a combo drive that reads writes both DVD and CDs.

More info here

I didn't bother with a DVD writer - I was happy with a my combined DVD reader / CD ReWriter (see link above)

-DV

 

Making drives Region free is easy enough - I haven't come across one which couldn't be made region free in windows.

There's a bit of software you can download that does it - anyone remember the name of it ? (it escapes me at the moment)

 

DazV,

But it will _read_ DVDs from all regions?

The experience I've had with drives is that you can only switch regions on them a few times and then they won't allow you to anymore. Is this one of those, in which case you need to hack the firmware or run some clever software? Or does it just play any region?

Ta,



Alex

 

Overlapping posts ;-)

Yes, I've seen the software for windows, but you need to buy it. It is my understanding that if you buy the right drive, you don't need that software?


Alex

 

Go here to find region free firmware. Look up an prospect drive and see if its do-able.

I have a Shuttle with a Pioneer A05. These are around the £200 mark. Its does dvd-r/rw cdr/rw. But doesn't do dvd+r. But that doesn't bother me as my home dvd player reads dvd-r's fine

H

 

Alex,

I don't believe there is a firmware patch for the Sony DVD burners to do region free yet. If you got this drive you would need to use a software widget like DVDRegionFree or DVDGenie etc. Some are free some are not.

Cheers

Ian