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LaCie d2 16x DVD writer-good time to buy?

MacFan25863

MacFan25863

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hey all,

I was thinking of buying a LaCie External 16x DVD writer for my powerbook and desktop. I already have Toast 6 Titanium, so I was going to get the cheeper one which included CaptyDVD. My question is what are the chances that they will release a 18, 20, or 24x Dual Layer drive, and have in in the LaCie writers, in the near future? It still looks like a pretty new drive, but I don't want to have a new one come out in the next month or so. Any ideas?


Sean
 
I would buy it. 16x is pretty recent in drives. Even if it does get bumped, to say 18x, when your cruising that fast an extra 2x will not make much difference.
 
I bought one a few weeks ago, and I'll say this: even if they come out with a faster one soon (haven't heard of any plans), you'll still love the 16x. It's fast, relatively quiet, and rock-solid.

Edit: and think of all the time you'll save by burning at 16x now instead of 0x or 4x or whatever you've got, waiting for that tiny speed bump to happen!
 
Duff-Man says...as always, if you are always waiting for the next thing, the next speed bump...you will never buy anything. I agree with the others here, the 16x is still relatively new and still "state of the art" - if you need the drive, now is as good a time as ever. The only thing to watch for is that sometimes a lot of these companies offer special prices around the time of MWSF...but in many cases the prices are only for those attending the show too...so if you can hang on until next week sometime just to see if they have any deals available that could potentially save a few $$ (although it is priced pretty well anyway...).....oh yeah!
 
Ok, cool. Looks like I'll be buying one tonight or tomorrow, then. A quick look at Amazon says they have them 10 bucks cheeper with free shipping and a free gift cert. to be emailed at a later date, so I'll be buying it from there.


One more question, though. Should I buy the Firewire only one that includes Capty DVD or the USB 2.0/Firewire one that includes Easy DVD Creator and Toast Lite? I've never heard of CaptyDVD...is it any good, or not as good as iDVD with the external drive patch?
 
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MacFan25863 said:
One more question, though. Should I buy the Firewire only one that includes Capty DVD or the USB 2.0/Firewire one that includes Easy DVD Creator and Toast Lite? I've never heard of CaptyDVD...is it any good, or not as good as iDVD with the external drive patch?
Click to expand...
Duff-Man says...since you already have Toast 6, the added bonus of East DVD and Toast Lite is a moot point...and since you have a Mac with Firewire the need for the USB interface is moot also...the only possible reason I can se for considering that extra expense if you were to want to resell to a PC user later (even as such, this tech stuff loses value so quickly it probably doesn't matter there either) or if you happened to also have a PC around you wanted to use the device with. So, if you are intending to keep the unit for a while and are only using it with your Mac, then get the Firewire only model and save yourself those few $$. I've not used the CaptyDVD program but I suppose it is worth trying out since it is included free....oh yeah!
 
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The dual layer 20x DVD burners should be released in ~feb 2005 and the 24x in ~april 2005. Since the push for HD-DVD burners will be released in ~2H 2005 and HD-DVD burners in notebook in ~4Q 2005 at 1x speed.


It would seem that the push for HD-DVD has just kicked started the DVD dual layer burner speeds to market since 24x is the final stage before HD-DVD is in full demand.

dual layer discs are hard to produce and HD-DVD discs single layer are much much easier with more GB per $ so it makes more sense to ditch dual layer and stay with whatever burner you have as of current. 🙂

HD-DVD is NOT backward compatible, so why invest in yesteryear technology. 🙂
 
m a y a said:
The dual layer 20x DVD burners should be released in ~feb 2005 and the 24x in ~april 2005. Since the push for HD-DVD burners will be released in ~2H 2005 and HD-DVD burners in notebook in ~4Q 2005 at 1x speed.


It would seem that the push for HD-DVD has just kicked started the DVD dual layer burner speeds to market since 24x is the final stage before HD-DVD is in full demand.

dual layer discs are hard to produce and HD-DVD discs single layer are much much easier with more GB per $ so it makes more sense to ditch dual layer and stay with whatever burner you have as of current. 🙂

HD-DVD is NOT backward compatible, so why invest in yesteryear technology. 🙂
Click to expand...


Well, I don't even have a burner now, just a Combo drive. I think I'll go ahead and get the USB 2/Firewire drive, since its 10 bucks cheeper.

Thanks for all your help everyone!
 
So maya, whats the use of these HD-DVD burners? will DVD movies which we all buy be put on these? But as you said they aren't backwards compatible so will current day DVD player sbe able to play HD? Or will DVD movies just continue to be put on normal dual layer DVDs? You also said there is high demand for HD-DVD, but from who?

THanks
 
gangst said:
So maya, whats the use of these HD-DVD burners? will DVD movies which we all buy be put on these? But as you said they aren't backwards compatible so will current day DVD player sbe able to play HD? Or will DVD movies just continue to be put on normal dual layer DVDs? You also said there is high demand for HD-DVD, but from who?

THanks
Click to expand...

From what I know of, there are two competiting new DVD technologies, Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Neither of them are compatible with current day players, as they use a different disk type and laser. Blu-ray is just emerging in Japan, with the only device that can read them being $5,000. It is not expected in the US until early 2006. HD-DVD is set to deploy in Japan this summer, and the US Fall 2006. The studios are split in half among which format to use, I believe it will turn out to be a Beta/VHS style war.


As with HDTV, these High Def DVDs probably won't be mass marketed for atleast 10 years or so.
 
Your burner can only burn as fast as the blank media you use. Have you looked at the price for those dual-layer and fast 16X blank DVD disks? They are so hard to find and so darn expensive. Almost most people I know of who bought 8x or 16x DVD burners, only use 2x 4x DVD meadias most of the time.
 
papersushi said:
Your burner can only burn as fast as the blank media you use. Have you looked at the price for those dual-layer and fast 16X blank DVD disks? They are so hard to find and so darn expensive. Almost most people I know of who bought 8x or 16x DVD burners, only use 2x 4x DVD meadias most of the time.
Click to expand...

Producing dual layer optical media is much much harder than a dual layer burner. 🙂

Manufacturing issues that is why dual layer optical media is expensive.
 
gangst said:
So maya, whats the use of these HD-DVD burners? will DVD movies which we all buy be put on these? But as you said they aren't backwards compatible so will current day DVD player sbe able to play HD? Or will DVD movies just continue to be put on normal dual layer DVDs? You also said there is high demand for HD-DVD, but from who?

THanks
Click to expand...

Something tells me you have not seen movies in HD. 🙂

current burners on the market use a ref laser for CD and DVD. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use blue lasers thus its not backwards compatible. Unless they choose to put a laser switcher inside the standalone player to read both SD-DVD and HD-DVD. 🙂

Something also tells me you have not visited Asia/Japan where Blu-Ray has already been on the market since November 2004. 🙂
 
MacFan25863 said:
As with HDTV, these High Def DVDs probably won't be mass marketed for atleast 10 years or so.
Click to expand...

People were wrong about DVD's and you seem to have learnt nothing from history. 🙂

This is not a whole new step as VHS --> SD-DVD--> HD-DVD.

Once people see the clarity and hi-def along with the 6.1 and 7.1 audio output options you will not say that it will take 10 years. 🙂
 
Given the price of the LaCie 16x DL DVD burner I'd settle for an 8x for now. The d2 can be had for about $139 and the Porsche is $119.

http://www.lacie.com/products/clearance/products/?id=10008

Future DVD players will have both red and blue lasers, so backward and forward compatibility will likely not be a problem (unless manufacturers decide not to pay the MPEG licensing fees and pass on the savings to consumers, which is unlikely because most people will expect their DVDs to work in their shiny new HD-DVD / BluRay players).

p.s. maya, you're the smiliest poster. 🙂
 
idvd

Will idvd work with this. My girlfriend has a powerbook, the newest one, 12inch, with a cdburner only. I've been playing with her idvd for a long time now, and would love to finally burn one!
 
davidwes said:
Will idvd work with this. My girlfriend has a powerbook, the newest one, 12inch, with a cdburner only. I've been playing with her idvd for a long time now, and would love to finally burn one!
Click to expand...

iDVD 4 will work with this if you apply the easter egg. Once the easter egg is applied you have the option of burning to a disk image, external DVD burner or DLT.

iDVD 5 may or may not directly work. So far all that's known is you can burn to a disk image, which can then in turn be burned to DVD using Disk Utility or Toast.

This is a great website for iDVD:
http://www.kentidwell.com/idvd4/

Here's the how-to for the easter egg:

http://homepage.mac.com/geerlingguy/mac_support/mac_help/pages/15-burn_idvd_other.html
 
maya said:
The dual layer 20x DVD burners should be released in ~feb 2005 and the 24x in ~april 2005. Since the push for HD-DVD burners will be released in ~2H 2005 and HD-DVD burners in notebook in ~4Q 2005 at 1x speed.


DUMB QUESTION -- What is the theoretical maximum speed we can burn DVD's at? DVD's contain an awful lot of ones-and-zeros, and any interface has to push 'em through really really fast. Can Firewire handle much above 16x? If not, then what's the point?

By the way, I have a Lacie 12x External Firewire DVD burner and I really like it. I buy 8x blanks whenever I can, but even they are hard to find. I can get around 1,100 AAC songs from iTunes on each backup disc.
Click to expand...
 
eRondeau said:
DUMB QUESTION -- What is the theoretical maximum speed we can burn DVD's at? DVD's contain an awful lot of ones-and-zeros, and any interface has to push 'em through really really fast. Can Firewire handle much above 16x? If not, then what's the point?

By the way, I have a Lacie 12x External Firewire DVD burner and I really like it. I buy 8x blanks whenever I can, but even they are hard to find. I can get around 1,100 AAC songs from iTunes on each backup disc.
Click to expand...

Not a dumb question at all, DVD single layer speed can write up to 24x single layer. This is not RW or dual layer speed.

FireWire 400 has enough bandwidth to handle this. FireWire 400 also has enough bandwidth for a 1TB external HD, however FireWire 800 is recommended for better data transfer speed. 🙂

Expect Blu-Ray and HD-DVD external burners to use FireWire 800 for data transfer speed. Though FireWire 400 will also do the job just fine. It all depends on if the manufacturer wants to included both FireWire 400 and 800 on the case and if enough computer hardware will support FireWire 800. 🙂

Dual layer discs are hard to manufacturer, that is why the push towards Blu-Ray and HD-DVD since you can store more data on a single layer. Using a different laser (blue).
 
maya said:
People were wrong about DVD's and you seem to have learnt nothing from history. 🙂

This is not a whole new step as VHS --> SD-DVD--> HD-DVD.

Once people see the clarity and hi-def along with the 6.1 and 7.1 audio output options you will not say that it will take 10 years. 🙂
Click to expand...

Hey, I'm only 15. Not much history to be seen 😀


But I doubt that many people are willing to replace their entire DVD collections just a few years after they started buying DVDs, buy new HDTVs, new DVD players, and new audio systems, basically replacing their entire setup, just to get better quality from a format which is already giving you execellent quality.

People still use OTA for their TV, even though Cable has a superior quality...
 
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