BayReviews

A month ago I was wondering around CompUSA and I saw this I/O Magic LightScribe DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner.

And at the time it was selling for only $49.99 after a $20 instant and a $30 mail-in rebate. So I jumped on it and got this as soon as I could. I mostly use this drive to backup my movie collection, my music, pictures, and other important data. I do this because I have lost a lot of important data in the past as a result of hard drive failure or just my negligence, and I did not have backups. Now I can label the disks quickly and easily without messy hand writing; all with this one burner.


WHATS SO HOT ABOUT IT?
It can burn single layer DVD+/-R disks at 16X plus it has the capability to burn double layer disks at 2.4X. Double layer disks are new which allow you to burn a whole movie (1:1 ratio) to it without any compression (quality loss). But they do not work on older DVD players; I know it does not work on my almost two year old Sony or my almost four year old Panasonic players.


WHATS NOT SO HOT ABOUT IT?
The only problem with double layer is the price of the media itself. Since the technology is still fairly new the price it still higher than regular DVD+/-R media. I would not mind paying about a buck for a single disk, but $9.99 was just out of the question for me. Well, that was about six months ago, but now the prices are less than about three bucks a piece at some retailers. This is still a bit on the expensive side, but now I can at least try it out.