The speed of burning DVDs and Blu-ray is VERY good. It is about the size of a bare drive and includes everything you need to put it to immediate use. It not only works well but has a very attractive case that the photos doesn't do justice to. It works seamlessly with Sony Vegas 9 Platinum on my Sony Vaio laptop. I use this for Blu-ray burning for my video business. Consoles generally use Blu-ray discs now to house games that are forever growing in size.Pros: The unit works perfectly with Vista Home Premium.
#WHO MAKES THE BEST EXTERNAL BLU RAY BURNER FULL#
Generally speaking, discs with the Blu-ray logo will be more than capable of handling a full Windows system backup, as well as a vault for personal files. The latter two are available only for BD-XL classified drives. There are older single layered discs (25GB), dual-layer (50GB), triple layer (100GB) and finally quadruple layer (128GB). Much like DVDs, Blu-ray also has more than a single layer option. This is the best option if you plan to read and write to different disc formats, though these drives are slightly more expensive. Finally, there are "combo drives" that can not only read and write to Blu-ray discs and read CD and DVDs but also have the ability to write to the older formats. It can get rather confusing with the differences between each format but note that a Blu-ray drive or player can play anything, while DVD drives cannot load up Blu-ray discs. While Blu-ray media isn't supported on DVD drives and is not backward compatible with DVD players, it is possible to load up and write to both CDs and DVDs with a Blu-ray drive. 128GB of data can be stored on a single disc, making it a versatile means of storage.
#WHO MAKES THE BEST EXTERNAL BLU RAY BURNER PC#
(Fun fact: Grand Theft Auto V is so big the physical PC version requires a total of seven DVD discs!)īlu-ray was developed and launched to tackle the issue of even more capacity being needed for higher quality video. Most games of today are also still released on DVD for PCs, which opens up an avenue of physical video game purchases. If you need to throw together a physical package containing a bunch of important files or media, DVD is the way to go unless you have more than around 10GB, whereby Blu-ray would make more sense. It's easy to check, simply watch out for "DVD+R DL" or "DVD-R DL." Not all players and drives will be able to access the dual-layered discs, so be sure to check before parting with any money. DVDs can be single- or dual-layered, with the latter supporting up to 8.5GB of data.
This also allows for vastly more content to be stored on the discs, making them ideal for smaller system backups. A DVD, on the other hand, will be able to hold just shy of 5GB (4.7GB) worth of data.Ī huge increase in available storage was driven by the need for physical media to house HD movies. With a CD, you'll get around 700MB at the most. The main difference between CDs and DVDs is the size of available storage.
DVD drives are not only able to play and write to DVD media, but also CDs. It's rather difficult to pick up a new CD drive, but to be honest DVD drives are affordable so it really isn't an issue. We know there are the different type of drives, but which is the best option for your PC? CD or DVD To keep things relatively simple for consumers, manufacturers may not list all format speeds, but this is definitely worth researching if you plan to use a Blu-ray drive for not only Blu-ray discs but also DVDs. Speeds at which drives are able to read and write data to and from a disc depend on the format, the model, and branding. When it comes to drives, you have a few options available: Blu-ray followed with even more capacity, killing off both DVD and its successor, HD-DVD. Also, not everyone has a 100MB connection to the outside world for stable streaming.ĬDs came first, slowly replaced by DVDs for storage aside from music. This media can be relied on for system backups, with the ability to store such objects off-site, not to mention music and film are still distributed on CD and DVD, respectively. As touched on already, CD, DVD, and Blu-ray make up the three types of physical disc media one can use on a PC or home entertainment system.