Do you have what it takes to make a movie? Maybe not, but for AU$1499 (incl GST), you can get your hands on one of the big ingredients.
Hewlett-Packard's new DVD+RW drive, the DVD-Writer DVD100i, can be used to burn or reburn videos to DVD+RW media, which can then be played in many (but not all) current DVD movie players.
But that's not all you get from the HP DVD100i. DVD+RW discs, unlike DVD-R media, are rewritable, so you can erase, reformat, and reuse the media for movies or data. And, according to HP, the DVD100i writes at 2.4X (around 3.2MB per second), which is slightly faster than DVD-R/RW drives such as LaCie's DVD/CD Rewritable drive. The HP DVD100i also doubles as a 12X/10X/32X CD-R/RW drive, so you can burn CD-R or CD-RW media.
The DVD-Writer DVD100i's box includes all the necessary components for a trouble-free installation. HP provides all the cables and screws, a brief instruction booklet, a software CD, one blank DVD+RW disc for your first burn, and a multilingual instruction foldout to take you through the installation steps.
What more could you need? Plenty. Before you go running out to get one of these drives, you'll want to make sure you have a system that can support it. And if you want to make movies, you'll also need a way to get the video into your PC to be encoded and burned to DVD+RW. HP suggests an 800MHz Pentium III system with at least 128MB of RAM; this may involve a separate purchase of video-capture and compression hardware, such as a powerful graphics card or a dedicated video converter.
If you have your system in order, and you've been itching to be part of the bleeding edge that tests all new technology, then don't think--just go buy this thing. If, on the other hand, you are the contemplative type who likes to examine all of your options, let us do the testing, and read our full review of the HP DVD-Writer DVD100i, which will be coming up soon.
HP DVD-Writer DVD 100i drive
Company: HP
Price: AU$1499 (incl GST)
Distributor: Major retailers
Phone: 132 347
14%
7%
