Good DVD burner deal

[Caustic Saint]

I was mucking around in Akihabara today and went into the Sofmap Mac Collection store to see what all they had. I looked around but nothing really caught my eye until I was leaving. I saw an ad for DVD burners in the elevator on my way down, so I went back up to the second floor to check out what they had.

The Logitec 16x+-R got my attention. USB 2.0 and Firewire, 16x+-R, 4X+-RW and the biggie - 4x DVD-R dual layer! Mmmmm, 8.5GB on a disc.

They wanted 24,760 for it, which I thought was reasonable, but I decided to head over to Bic Camera so I could get some points for the purchase. Almost the same price there - 24,801 - and I got 1,985 points. They also had 5 packs of Sony 4x DVD-Rs for 740, so I grabbed two of those with my points. Dual-layer media is still pricey, but it's nice to have the functionality in the burner for when it drops a bit.

The mechanism in the drive is the Pioneer DVR-108, which can be bought on its own for a fair bit less than the drive, but it was somewhat of an impulse buy and I didn't feel like coming home, looking it up on Kakaku, shopping around, etc... I've burned off two discs so far (trying to free up drive space) using Toast and it works like a charm.

Now, what else can I backup and delete...
(I may have to go use the rest of my points to get more discs tomorrow...)

[NeoNecroNomiCron]

You know you can get about the same ammount of points with sofmap.

But I am not to keen on sofmap, even with out the points I am inclined to buy else were. You can never be sure if the "deal" you are getting is not a factory refurbished.

Another good shop to check is called EX Tsunamo(spelling), They have loads of different brands of DVD drives and a lot of external.

[Caustic Saint]

I didn't know Sofmap had a card. (Though I suppose I should have, since every store here seems to have one.)

No biggie though. I had some points on my Bic card already and wanted to add to them. I may cash more in to get more DVD-Rs, or I might put them towards an Airport Express.

Decisions, decisions....

[tonikoro]

Hey Caustic,
these dual layer disk, can they be burned on a macs superdrive?
-Is it double sided, where you could merely flip over a side and burn to the other?

[Caustic Saint]

Hey Caustic,
these dual layer disk, can they be burned on a macs superdrive?
-Is it double sided, where you could merely flip over a side and burn to the other?

Superdrives are still only single layer, but I wouldn't be surprised to see DL burners showing up in Macs during the next revisions. I don't know what would happen if you put a DL disc in a SL drive, and with the DL media costing about 1,300 yen each, I'm not going to be the one to try it out.

(I haven't even bought any DL blanks yet. Bic had 5-packs of Sony 4x DVD-Rs for 740 yen, so it seemed silly to spent almost twice the money for only 40% of the capacity. I've got a fair bit of drive space I need to free up. )

The discs are two layers on the same side, just like most movie DVDs.

[Steve Bildermann]

Just for clarity. Currently 8.5Gb disks are write once only. You can't rewite them.

[Big Booger]

I paid about 24000 yen for my Plextor Dual layer 12X DVD burner. Came with several software apps, Plextools, and burns just about every format you can imagine. I am and have been pleased with Plextor since my first CDRW drive 2 years ago.

I bought a 5 pack of 8X DVD+Rs for about 800yen. Still haven't used all 5. Though I am beginning to.

[Charles]

I thought the whole point of dual-layer DVD-R is that it could be read in any DVD player as equivalent to DVD9. But I haven't seen anyone try it to confirm.

I'm so sick of my 2x DVD-R Superdrive. It had a bug in firmware so if you inserted 4x media and burned several discs in a row, it burned out the drive. So they added a firmware update so if you used 4x media, it burns 1x. If I can find 2x media, it burns at 2x, but it's impossible to find 2x media now so it's basically a 1x burner now. I saw a place that's selling Apple service parts 4x DVD-R drives for about $80, they're ROM-compatible with the older machines like my dual 1Ghz MDD, I might upgrade, or I might just put it in the second bay of my machine, if I can find a bezel to match the stupid Mirrrored Drive Doors.

BTW, anyone remember when a Superdrive was an amazing new drive that read 400k/800k single/dual-sided floppy disks, as well as the new 1.44Mb disks?

[Bongo]

My LG duel layer multi format 12X is 8,000 Yen.

[Caustic Saint]

I thought the whole point of dual-layer DVD-R is that it could be read in any DVD player as equivalent to DVD9. But I haven't seen anyone try it to confirm.

Read, yes. But Tonikoro was asking about burning a DL disc in a Superdrive, not reading one.

BTW, anyone remember when a Superdrive was an amazing new drive that read 400k/800k single/dual-sided floppy disks, as well as the new 1.44Mb disks?

Yup! I had one in my Mac SE. (Ah, my first Mac - of many!)