A couple of dumb questions re: DVD burners

[Bob]

Hi Y'all:

I am planning to purchase a DVD burner with intentions of creating some slide shows with P2exe. I was looking at a NEC 3500 A OEM with software. The software is listed as Roxio Easy Media Creator. The whole package is about $65.00. Any opinions about this burner and software?? also..

Can I use this burner to back up the programs on my hard drive? I hope to get a Lap top sometime in the future and would like to be able to move programs such as P2exe, Qimage and others to a DVD and then be able to load them on new machine.

Thanks in advance for any opinions or suggestions.

Bob..

[Conflow]

Choice of DVD Burner

Hi Bob,

I would like to refer you to the subject thread...DVD vs CD Storage..just above your Posting. You will pick up some tips within that discussion......

At the current stage of 'Burner Technology' it would not be advisable to 'Store/Backup' your System Programs on DVD because retrieving them takes for ever and other extenuating factors come into play....

I don't have time to go into all here.

When choosing a 'DVD-Burner' make sure it has it's own 'Cache Memory' built into it - many don't - and that omission can cause untold 'spurious problems' with your PC.Memory Management System and your Burner Software. At least 2 to 4 megabytes of in-built 'Cache Memory' should suffice - Rule of Thumb, the more the better !

NEC 3500 Burner

Released in August 2004. Price 42 Pounds Sterling. A lot is claimed for this Burner and it has 2mB of 'In-built Cache Memory'. Its claimed that it write DVD at 16X Speed and Dual Layer DVD at 4X. It can write to CD's at 24X and Read them at 48X but no details are given about the stability of the Drive Mechanism ?. That concerns me because to write to a DVD at 16X requires extreme 'speed stability' usually only found in 'Burners' costing +100 Sterling.

A proven competitor to this Burner would be the 'AOpen Model DRW 4410' which has a lotgoing for it - including 'Just Link' Technology and a special 'Anti-Vibration Drive' all for 70 Pounds. Might be worth reading the Reviews ??

Brian.Conflow.