DVD Burner Questions.

Just bought a laptop from Circuit City w/ a DVD burner and i've got some questions. Whats the use of it? Do you stick in a dvd that you've rented and it copies it to the memory and watch it on the laptop? I've got a tv at home that i'd rather watch dvds on. I can see having it on the laptop and while you're on the plane or at the airport during a long layover you can watch a movie then but thats what the $89 portable dvd player is for not the $1200 laptop. So if something gets bumped you're only out $89.

 

It's not only for watching DVD's. Data files are getting bigger & bigger.

The latest download Microsoft is offering is Vista Beta. It is an IOS over 3gig in size.

If you only want to watch DVD's & have no need of the laptop when travelling stick with a protable DVD player.

 

The burner can be used for playing DVD's, as well as making or copying DVD's.

They are also handy for backing up etc.

You buy blank DVD's which you can record to.

DVD-R or DVD+R can't erase data that's been written. DVD-R/W or DVD+R/W are rewriteable, meaning they can be erased and used multiple times.

 

How many times can you record over and over w/dvd-r/w w/o noticing quality in picture. Oh, and whats the diff between dvd-r/w and dvd
+r/w?
I assume i would stick in a dvd movie, copy then insert a blank and it would write it, right?

 

It's not that simple, but basically yes.

You can either copy disc to disc (if you have two drives), which is called copying on the fly, or you can create an image of the DVD, can then burn that image.


As far as how many times (there is no degradation in quality), the number of times varies depending on different factors, and nobody really knows for sure.

I've seen anything up to 1 000 times quoted.

Rewriteable DVD's aren't as compatible as DVDR's though, because the coating is not as reflective, and some drives can have problems reading them.


If you want to learn more, I suggest you use Google. There are plenty of dedicated sites with heaps of info.