HP DVD Movie Writer dc4000

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This was my second attempt trying to convert my Sony Mini DV TRV-22 home movies to DVD. I initially bought a generic DVD-+RW recorded and used the USB out of the Sony to make a DVD. The quality was really bad. I did some research and it turns out that the data/signal coming out of the USB port is compressed and only suitable for VCD. The Sony does have a DV port, but my PC didn't have a DV (firewire?) input. Rather than waste more time buying additional hardware, I read a review for the dc3000 and went shopping.

For movies to be played back on a home system, HP recommends DVD+R discs. I burned my movies on DVD-R discs and they played fine on my really old DVD player (Onkyo DV-C601) with a single laser pickup and my newer JVC multi-player. From what I read online, 95% of all home DVD players should be able to play DVD-R?

Here are the pros and cons of the HP dc4000:

PRO: Easy to use and has good quality analog/digital converters (RCA style and S-Video input). Use S-Video if you have it.
PRO: Nice bundled software. I've only used Arcsoft's ShowBiz 2 for editing and burning, but I really like the product. Much better than the Sonic bundle offered with most other DVD burners.
PRO: Quite.
PRO: Works with both USB 1.1 and 2.0.

CON: The external case is painted silver and parts of it are missing some paint.
CON: Unit is heavy.
CON: Made in Malaysia.

Sony DRU-700A

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I've had this drive for about 4 days and already it made 6 coasters and 1 good disk (I am hoping). I made a mistake of backing up 4.5 GB of data to a DVD and then deleting the data from the hard drive. A couple of hours later I realized that I still needed some of the information on my computer. When I tried to copy from the DVD, the DVD drive reported that the disk was defective. You can imagine how I felt! I was glad that I hadn't archived some of my most valuable image work yet.

I'd like to note that I was using an up-to-date firmware and an updated version of Nero recording software, which is one of the best on the market and still got "coasters" (no errors from Nero, but the drive refused to read the information afterwards). I also tried backing a couple of my movie DVDs with DVD X Copy Platinum, and again two coasters and one disk that worked yesterday, but produced garbled output today (go figure) -- DVD X Rescue reported logical errors in the DVD.

I had gone through much software uninstall/update/try again, before I read on the net that lots of other people were having similar problems with the drive. No solution is available as of yet. Apparently, Sony's tech support is subpar as well.

Sony CRX320AE/U 52X/32X/52X

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I just love this cd burner/dvd rom!!!!
I bought it for my kid so she could play a dvd-rom game but I had always wanted to try burning my own music cds.
Well I am soooo pleased. Sony has made this so EASY. It was easy to install and plenty of instructions and with diagrams for the mechanically uninclined. I was intimidated but I got it in, and it worked right away.
Sony gives you some free music downloads so I went there right away to try it out. You have to download their software which took me a long time because I have a dial up connection, but it was worth it. You pick your song and download, which takes 15 minutes at dialup speed. Then you transfer it right to the cd. Bam! I got in a hurry and used a cd-r (which is not erasable) and only put two songs on the cd. After I took it out and played the songs it wouldn't let me put any more on the cd. So I need to wait until I have all my songs downloaded before I burn them to cd. I still have some things to learn.
Sony gives you software so that you can make jacket covers for the cd and to make a track listing. Nothing fancy but I liked it.
You can watch dvd's on your computer and you can drag and drop information on your hard drive to a cd so that your info is backed up. I love that too, having a way to back up my photos and other info.
You can also create video CDs.

(...)I'm very happy with my Sony products!

TEAC DV-516EA02 16x

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Just like the other review said, black face and OEM packaging( no cables, no software and no manual).I Do not recommend this item unless black OEM is what your looking for.

Antec EA500 ATX

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Just as the other reviewer has mentioned, the first unit had high pitched noise issue. I waited about four days to make sure that it is permanent issue, and had it exchanged for the same unit.
Second unit, to my relief is quiet and without a drama to report on. It is relatively quiet, about as quiet as the OEM unit that died on me after 14 months of service. I took quick wattage reading from my APC, and it drains about as much as my OEM unit, which was rated at 350W.
Something to watch out for: Antec recently phased out EA-500 and replaced it with EA-500D, which is made by Delta, and not Seasonic as EA-500 (this unit). Delta is known for making OEM products, but their reputation is still pretty much unknown.