DVD Burners & Softwear?

[U2Lynne]

I would think there would be no problem with that. Firewire is definitely the way to go!

[gsmyth79]

Thanks Lynne, you're always on the ball!

[AAR.oner]

what lynne said...i've had to daisy-chain before, and never had aproblem when running thru the firewire [i'd burn at a reasonable speed, just as a safety precaution]...

you can always pick up a firewire multi-hub later on to expand [they're gettin cheap]...

[outpostnorth]

yes...just to reiterate...firewire loves to daisy chain

[Evenreven]

Hey, this is nice info! I didn't know that was possible.

Btw, that burner is great. Never had any problems. And it makes it possible for me to read dvd+r's - a big plus.

[gsmyth79]

Originally Posted by Evenreven

Hey, this is nice info! I didn't know that was possible.

Btw, that burner is great. Never had any problems. And it makes it possible for me to read dvd+r's - a big plus.

It's the best hundred bucks I've spent in a long time! I got a refurbished one and it's like new!

[Evenreven]

WHAT?! Hundred dollars? I bought one for my workplace for the Norwegian Kroner equivalent of 300 dollars.

It's more than a year ago now, though.

[gsmyth79]

I just got it from the lacie website. Refurbished firewire d2s are USD99.

I was looking on newegg.com for one, but I can't tell which ones are dual layer and which ones are single layer, anyone got anyhelp?

[AAR.oner]

plextor px-716...by far the best

thanks, and I heard I might need to get firmware, and flash it? I have no idea what that means...and also, how would I install it on my laptop?

[TheMamba]

Originally Posted by LastHonestFool03

I was looking on newegg.com for one, but I can't tell which ones are dual layer and which ones are single layer, anyone got anyhelp?

If it's dual-layer, it will most definitely tell you.

[guygee]

I've been a loyal Plextor fan for many years, and I bought the Plextor PX-716A, but when I tried to flash the bios something went wrong, and now I get the dreaded "double flashing amber light". I went through the whole troubleshooting procedure on the Plextor website, but to no avail. I have to RMA it. In the meantime, I needed a DVD drive, and I went with the Sony DRU-800A (which is really just a rebranded LiteOn 1693S). Both of these drives have Dual Layer capability, whcih I do not plan to use since I want downward compatability. I should add that the Plextor is rated 8x DVD+R write, but it only seemed reliable up to 6x (this could have been the media, though) while the Sony easily writes 16x, even with system load like ABC running.

Plextor may produce a higher quality product with respect to jitter and other technical specs, but there is also the issue of system interoperability. I notice that Plextor does not appear in the list of manufacturers when you try to add hardware to Windows XP. The last Plextor drive I bought, a year or two ago, was the PX-708UF external, and I can't get Windows to recognize it anymore. I don't know, maybe it is fried, but it really wasn't used all that much.

Then there was the tiff over Plextor lawyers shutting down the free source PxScan and PxView projects, just so they could try and make money on their PlexTools Professional Software ( you can read all about this incident here:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?s...139203&tid=185 )
Hardware vendors suddenly trying to generate revenues from software products is usually a bad sign (e.g. SGI). I have to wonder if Plextor is slipping a bit. Any informed comments welcome.

[AAR.oner]

all you have to do to update firmware is to go to the website [for instance, plextors main site if you buy a plextor], find the Firmware downloads page, and d/l the appropriate fw for yer drive model.

[guygee]

Originally Posted by LastHonestFool03

thanks, and I heard I might need to get firmware, and flash it? I have no idea what that means...and also, how would I install it on my laptop?

For your laptop you should get an external DVD with USB 2 or Firewire (IEEE1394) interface. If your laptop doens't support these, you can get a PCMCIA Card to support either. USB 1.x is too slow. The Firewire is slightly faster than USB 2 (I've done the measurements). Most external drives support both.

As for flashing the firmware upgrade, be very careful! (See my post above). Read the manufacturers instructions carefully, and also read the troubleshooting guides before you flash. Usually, you have to disable DMA before you can successfully flash your firmware. This goes like: Contol Panel->System->Hardware->Device Manager->IDE ATI/ATAPI Controllers->open->right click Properties-> (Uncheck "let BIOS select" if needed), then choose PIO mode for both primary and secondary channels. Reboot, flash, then reverse the procedure to turn DMA back on.

The Plextor website didn't mention tunrnng off DMA until after the fact (If you have a problem...then turn off DMA), while the Sony website told me upfront. This is probably the cause of the failure I had with my Plextor drive.

Once you disable your DMA, the procedure is very simple, you just download the firmware upgrade application from the manufacturers support webstire and run it. If you follow the instructions carefully, it should not be difficult.