Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner

Subject: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: katlaughing
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 04:16 PM

Would some of you who know more about such things, please take a look at what is available at Dell in the way of external DVD/CD player-burners on THIS PAGE and let me know which one you would recommend, scrolling down past the first two, please?

I think I want to get the one with Lightscribe as it would be handy to be able to burn labels, BUT my Rog says, as far as he is concerned, CDs are obsolete and so, it won't matter if that is available or not. All I know is, I still buy them and still listen to them, and it seems there are still a lot of other folk who do, too. I know mp3s etc. are also being bought up like crazy and that's fine, so please lets not get into a debate about that.:-)

My main reason for wanting this is to use in the back office with my laptop, but I will also use it for loading CDs into my external HD for preservation purposes. I probably won't need to, nor want to, make labels too often and I have noticed mixed reviews of Lightscribe from years past, so what say you? Get the one with LS or not?

Both my laptop and PC are Dells.

Thanks for any opinions, etc.

kat

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 05:56 PM

Lightscribe has its limitations, such as the time it needs to use your drive to do the label and needing special disks (cost and availability), but at least it's all in one physical package - except it's only monochrome.

I've come to prefer the disks (even if not the cheapest) with the white print/write on surface, but that's just personal,

If you don't just want to scribble something on by hand, then a printer that will print them is needed - and then you have all the games about inks/toners & getting them, and the cost & life of the toners nowadays.

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 07:19 PM

Follow R's adivce.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 09:38 PM

About mp3s - you can dump a whole lot of them onto a CD, and reload your mp3 player with new selections whenever you want - you can only put so much on an mp3 player at a time especially those 1-2 Gb ones.

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: open mike
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 10:36 PM

i have an HP i think is 1174 or something...
(external cd/dvd driver/player/burner) but
i haven't been able to get lite scribe to work.

the printable hub c.d.s can be labelled if your
printer has capability of dong this, with fotos,
text, and even scanned pix of the c.d. label if
you are copying discs..Epson and HP may be the
only printers that can do this...

there are also stand alone devices just for
printing...but this in not practical unless
you are doing bulk quantities...

i did not check the link, but here is one
thing you may want to find out about...is
there a USB and/or "fire wire" connection
for data exchange between units? fire wire
works best with video applications. USB is
more universal. (some have "optical" cable
inputs...i do not know about these)

some come with their own soft ware (mine had a
program called Nero) but some are not
compatible with the programs you already have
on your 'put3er....(real audio, Windows Media
Player, Record Now, etc.)

good luck and let us know what you find out
and how it goes.

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 11:31 PM

USB 2 is the currently most common connection speed - USB 3 is much faster and is now out - you can get plug in cards for PCs to upgrade - I expect new printers and external drives etc will start to appear sooner or later in USB3 format. USB3 is approaching Firewire speeds.

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: IvanB
Date: 03 Oct 10 - 11:39 PM

kat, no matter what gargoyle says, you needn't necessarily take Rog's advice on this one. Lightscribe has nothing to do with CD's or DVD's, you can get LS media for both, albeit at a premium in price. I've had three LS DVD burners and the biggest hangups I have with LS labeling is that it's monochrome and the labels take so darn long to burn. I hated waiting 20 minutes for the label to burn on a CD on which it took me 5 or 6 minutes to burn the data.

OTOH, if you have LS and decide later you want to get a printer capable of printing on printable media, the LS won't have any effect on the burning process, i.e., your CD/DVD burner won't burn the data on discs any slower because it has LS.

I notice three I-O Magic burners on the page you linked. I don't have any experience with that brand, but they seem to have favorable ratings from the few who rated them. Since they're all the same price and one has LS and the others don't if I were to buy one of them I'd probably choose the LS capable one.

If you should ever decide to get a printer with CD/DVD labeling capability, you'll find that the difference in price between regular media and printable is far smaller than that between regular and LS media.

Subject: RE: Tech: external DVD-CD player-burner
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Oct 10 - 03:56 PM

Thanks, folks, esp., I really appreciate your input. I'll keep you posted, too. I think I am leaning towards the one with LS, just as Ivan has pointed out...might as well, same price and all.

Thanks, again,

kat