External DVD/cd Writer Black

External DVD/cd Writer Black
The DVR-X152 External USB 2.0 DVD/CD Writer makes installation to your computer an easy process. Simply plug the included USB cord into your computer, plug in the power supply, and you are ready to start writing DVDs or CDs. This DVD/CD writer includes the LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling functionality and software from Nero. These products allow computer users to create personal videos, make digital photo slideshows, burn music CDs and back up data files onto DVD-R, DVD-RW, +R and +RW discs with ease. LightScribe allows you to create custom labels that can be burned directly on to LightScribe enabled media. This DVD/CD writer also works with dual layer discs, increasing the capacity of a disc from 4.7 to 8.5 gigabytes for even more storage space. The DVR-X152 will write up to 20x on DVD-R (single layer) and up to 8x on DVD-R/+R (DL).

Customer Review: Device works well; software had installation issues...

Pioneer DVR-X152
This device reads or writes virtually any DVD or CD format; see Customer Images for the variations and speeds.

Pros:
- It comes with everything needed to install and use; i.e., all necessary cables and a Nero 8 software CD. The latter provides options for copying discs, audio "ripping", audio burning, data burning (e.g., from your hard drive), and disc labeling with LightScribe laser etching technology.
- To "install" this device on my Windows XP PC, it was connected via the included USB cable, plugged into the wall receptacle with the included transformer and cables, and powered up. XP recognized it, and it worked immediately. The Nero software wasn't required to write or read CDs or DVDs, since my PC had Sonic Digital Media software for those functions.
I've only created a dozen or so of CDs and DVDs and those worked fine, so I can't comment on high volume use.
-The LightScribe feature on the Pioneer DVR-X152 will laser etch a label of your design on a CD or DVD. You'll need LightScribe enabled CD or DVD media for this to work, which is much more expensive than regular discs.

Cons:
- The Nero 8 software wouldn't fully install on my Dell XPS Windows XP system. The "custom" install option, for example, terminates with an error message that the installation was interrupted and is shutting down, even though nothing interrupted it. Tried it several times and it always failed, which was very frustrating. However, it seems that the only thing that didn't finish was the creation of desktop and start menu shortcuts, which I did manually. The only unique function Nero offers, in my case, was creating and burning LightScribe labels. You'd think that such installation problems would have been fixed in Nero version 2, much less Nero 8.

Other:
- The LightScribe labeling function has two settings; default and dark. On default, it takes 17 minutes to etch a label onto a disc. On the dark setting, it takes 32 minutes per disc, but it's a better label; see Customer Images.
- I did a timed test, backing up data via the Pioneer drive and an internal NEC DVD drive (16x, model ND-3530A). The data consisted of 2,800 digital images consuming over 4 GB, nearly filling a DVD. Software used was Nero 8 or Sonic Digital Media LE, a competitor. Here's how long it took to write (burn) that data:

... Nero took 9 minutes 19 seconds on the NEC ND-3530A internal drive

... Nero took 7 minutes 29 seconds on the Pioneer drive

... Sonic took 6 minutes 9 seconds on the Pioneer drive

This (non-scientific) test shows that Sonic software writes faster than Nero, and that the Pioneer drive using a USB 2 interface writes faster than an internal 16x DVD drive (in a Dell XPS PC).

- Clicking the ? from Nero 8's window sends you to their web site, where they try to convince you to upgrade to Nero 9, the latest [extra cost] version. In fact, the bottom 10% of Nero 8's display is an ad for Nero 9. I'd expect such an annoyance from freeware, not from something you bought.

Summary:
The Nero 8 software deserves maybe two stars, but the device itself does everything I wanted it to, which averages out to a 4 star rating.

Customer Review: Useless for recording DVDs

Got this to replace my external Sony drive that died under warranty. (The replacement drive from Sony was of low quality.)
Every DVD this unit records skips/glitches on players that I know are compatible with recordable DVDs. Changing record speeds doesn't help.
CDs recorded with this drive do basically the same thing, unless you drop the burn speed down to 8x. Then it works OK.
I returned this drive for a refund.
It is good at reading discs and CD ripping, though.