Any DVD-R advice?

[RDK]

Not strictly for audio, but hardware related...

The wife and I may be getting a new computer soon, and I was thinking of getting a DVD-R drive to record, among other things, home videos on (and maybe copying some VHS shows to DVD). But I know nothing about DVD recorders.

So for those (many of you) who are smarter than me about such things, any advice on reliable brands and/or features I should look for? I assume that DVD recorders can record CD-Rs as well - or is it better to have a separate CD recorder for music and stuff?

Thanks!

Ray

[Claviusb]

You may want to hedge your bets, Ray. Sony offers a combo burner which burns DVD-R and DVD+R (either that or confirm that your DVD player can handle DVD-Rs, because not all standalones do). My Brother In Law just bought one last week and from what I've seen, it works really well.

On the other hand, I've heard this unit is not so hot for burning CDs, because it doesn't offer some specific form of packet writing that apparently everyone else uses.

Maybe there is a DVD-R or DVD+R burner that handles CD writing better...

[-=Rudy=-]

I'll lurk here for this one. Later this year, I'm going to get into DVD. There are a lot of laserdiscs, VHS tapes, Hi8 camcorder tapes and 8mm home movies I want to put on DVD. I figure with Adobe Premiere and Vegas Video (with DVD Architect), I can do some good work. Maybe by then, DVD Architect will support DVD-A, so I don't have to buy a separate (and expensive) program to do it with.

[Holy Zoo]

I have a Panasonic (Matsushita) DVD-R/RW CD-R/RW in my powerbook (Apple calls it a Superdrive (http://www.apple.com/powerbook/superdrive.html)), and it works like a champ. Rumour has it that it also can handle DVD-RAM, but that the firmware has it turned off. Dunno about DVD+R

jeff