DVD R Compatability, For those with the recorders! (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

Hi all,
I'm in the process of upgrading my computer for DVD Recording. Tonight, we plan on getting a new 60GB HD compared to the current 10GB one. And a new All in Wonder Radeon 64MB AGP card to replace the 8MB Pro version. But, a question.
I'm torn between wich type of DVD Recorder to get. I found a great cheap one in an add a while back, a Panasonic DVD R/Ram Drive for $300's. The DVDRW ones are $500's and a bit out of my current price range.
So, the big question. Since DVD R is playable in most DVD Drives, will it play in my Creative Labs PCDVD12X Drive, or my Sony DVD Player? Exact Model # for the latter is available if needed. Hopefully someone who has a DVD R Drive can help me out here . Because if I can't play it in any of my current machines, no need to get one yet.
Also, is there any difference in picture quality compared to a TV Based DVD Recorder?
Thanks!

 

[Grant B]

This might help you
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercuryne...ss/3135146.htm
Windows lover asks burning DVD question
By Jim Coates
Chicago Tribune
Q You recently said to wait six months or so to get into the DVD-burning game in the Windows world. I'm not that patient -- if I were to get into the game today, what would be the recommended hardware and software to use?
I'm primarily interested in turning all my old VHS tapes into DVDs, so I am interested in the ability to create standard DVDs with scenes, subtitles, music, etc.
Marty Wolf
Hoffman Estates, Ill.
A Let me say once again, Mr. W., that as things stand, anybody who absolutely needs to get into burning home DVDs should move over to Macintosh and get one of Apple's G4s or iMacs with SuperDrive DVD burners and Apple's iDVD2 software.
Apple's system is so much better for DVDs than anything in the PC world that it's better for a Windows devotee to accept the challenges of learning the Macintosh operating system than to pop for an expensive PC setup with burners.
That said, I've had good luck lately burning DVDs with top-of-the-line machines from both Gateway and Hewlett-Packard. However, the process was slower than with Macs, and the authoring software lacked the powers of Apple's iDVD2. Furthermore, with Windows, one encounters compatibility issues.
The Gateway systems use the DVD-R/RAM format, while the HP systems use the somewhat more limited DVD + RW format. This means that you need to buy different types of blank discs for the two machines.
Although both machines produce DVDs filled with movies that can be played on most home DVD players, they cannot read each others' DVDs to acquire data.
I lean toward the DVD R/RAM format and the Gateway 700XL, a machine that costs more than $3,000. Gateway bundles the latest MGI VideoWave DVD authoring software that lets users put together professional-looking movie discs with all the menus and other bells and whistles one might want. If you can't wait and cost is no object, that's your ticket.
I can tell you this on the upside: This Gateway is an absolutely glorious Pentium 4 machine, with a 120 gigabyte hard drive and virtually every Windows feature you possibly can want

 

[Ken Chan]

Check out the compatibility list at vcdhelp.com. Be sure to read the actual reports on the right; the results may vary.
The best quality produced by a set-top DVD recorder cannot beat the best software (or dedicated hardware) encoders, because the set-top recorders don't do true multi-pass VBR (variable bit-rate) encoding. But then, most low-end software encoders don't either, so it's a toss-up to compare a given set-top box with a given software encoder.
I would also dispute this bit from the article:

the latest MGI VideoWave DVD authoring software that lets users put together professional-looking movie discs with all the menus and other bells and whistles one might want.

On Windows, to get all the bells and whistles, the low end is DVD Fusion for around $4000. This is more than the cost of that Gateway system. (On a Mac, almost all of them can be had for around $1000)
//Ken