Tech Guide: Buying a CD/DVD burner

From discs to drives, our Tech Guide has everything you need to know about burning CDs and DVDs.

Understand CD/DVD burners | Specs that matter | Select the right format | Which discs to buy | What you can do with your burner | The software you need

Understand CD/DVD burners


CD and DVD burner basics:  What's a burner? | What's the difference between a CD burner and a DVD burner?



What's a burner?
A CD burner, which connects to your computer, can both play and create CDs. DVD burners, on the other hand, are a bit more advanced and can both play and create CDs and DVDs. With a burner, discs are loaded and unloaded via a sliding tray, and they're read using a laser, just like in your CD or DVD player. The laser shines on the reflective inner layer of a disc, detecting differences that are patterned to represent data. But unlike a regular CD or DVD player, a burner's laser can also create -- or burn -- these data marks.

Still, you can't just stick an old Michael Bolton CD into a burner and write over it (much as you might want to). Burners use a few different kinds of discs, each for a slightly different task. A DVD burner can read CD-ROMs, such as a store-bought music CD, and DVD-Videos, such as your store-bought copy of Toy Story. A DVD burner can also read and write data on a CD-R disc -- the R stands for recordable -- as well as on DVD-R and DVD+R discs (don't worry, we'll explain the differences between -R and +R later). Additionally, most CD and DVD burners can also read and write data on rewritable discs, which you can rewrite over and over again (about 1,000 times); a rewritable CD is referred to as a CD-RW, and rewritable DVDs come in a few formats, including DVD+RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM.

Lite-On LTR-52327S (CD burner) Plextor PX-708A (DVD burner)
They look the same, but there are some important differences between DVD and CD burners.
Back to top
What's the difference between a CD burner and a DVD burner?
In this guide, we'll concentrate primarily on DVD burners. Why? All DVD burners can burn CDs, but CD-only burners won't burn or even play DVD media of any kind. Furthermore, DVD burners have become so affordable that there are fewer reasons to buy a CD-only burner.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >
Advertisement

Print feature brought to you by Adobe

Talkback 13 comments

    Very useful article. Thanks. ...Anonymous -- 21/06/04

    Very useful article. Thanks.

    Any chance you could do an article reviewing some budget external cd burners - I need one but I have no idea which to buy. Help! Thanks.

    Excellent explanation of the g ...Anonymous -- 30/06/04

    Excellent explanation of the gobbledy **** abbreviations used with DVD's and the various format limitations; e.g. I had no idea DVD-RAM was physically fragile.

    Great article, now I won't emb ...Anonymous -- 02/12/04

    Great article, now I won't embarrass myself by referring to DVD-R as "minus R" thanks so much!

    Clear and informative presenta ...Anonymous -- 10/12/04

    Clear and informative presentation.

    You need to update this. 16x a ...Anonymous -- 14/12/04

    You need to update this. 16x are the norm now and on the table relating to speed vs time is N/A

    In this article you have incor ...Anonymous -- 05/01/05

    In this article you have incorrectly defined 1MB as equalling 100KB, it should be 1MB = 1000KB.

    "Shorthand terms are used to describe how fast a burner performs. A CD-RW drive rated 52X/32X/52X can write a CD-R at 52X, write a CD-RW at 32X, and read a CD at 52X. The X stands for times the original transfer rate of a disc. For a CD, the original transfer rate is 150 kilobytes (KB) per second; so 52X would equal 7.8 megabytes (MB) per second, and 32X would come to 4.8MB per second (1MB equals 100KB)."

    Well written and informative.E ...Anonymous -- 10/01/05

    Well written and informative.Easy to understand for a novice. I'm looking to buy a dvd burner soon and this answered many question I had.

    THANK YOU. I CAN NOW ANSWER SO ...Anonymous -- 04/07/05

    THANK YOU.
    I CAN NOW ANSWER SOME OF MY WIFES QUESTIONS ABOUT WHY WE NEED A NEW DVD DRIVE.

    Avoid "Heartburn Pro" Unhappy user -- 07/08/05

    Just wanted to share my experience with Iomega and HotBurn pro. I bought a Iomega USB CD-RW drive and HotBurn Pro came with it.

    HotBurn pro copies music CD's OK (no violation, this is a CD a friend made and gave me permission to copy), but I couldn't make a readable data CD, even when I slowed down write and added a simulated burn step.

    I tried to update the product using the "update" button, but the download didn't work, I got a message that "your current installation is not valid".

    Worse, I had to put up with registering at iomega.com just to GET the download. I think companies should make it as easy as possible to download bug fixes, and registrations are a mistake (especially if the sofware doesn't work after all the rigamarole).

    So, I'm deinstalling Hotburn pro, and given how nosy Iomega was, will be looking for companies that just want my money, rather than my money and my email...

    website John Stephens -- 01/12/05

    One of the most difficult websites to read. Blue writing on blue background: bad design

    DVD Burners / player compatability Victor Johnson -- 31/12/05

    Very informitive, however-Can I transfer digital camara pics w/a dvd burner to dvd disk format that can be played/viewd with the common home/tv type DVD-Player. Do I need a special software and/or dvd burner? Anyone, please. Thankx

    Advice on dvd burners Desmond Auer -- 14/05/07

    The article is well thought out and presented. Just one query, what are the hardware requirements for using a dvd-burner?
    I have a Pentium 1.1 GHz processor with 256 MB RAM running Windows XP and I was told that my machine would not be able to run a dvd burner. Is this correct?
    If so, what ARE the requirements for a computer to run a dvd burner?

    iSkysoft DVD Creator for Mac sese -- 10/05/09 (in reply to #320079329)

    iSkysoft DVD Creator for Mac is the best dvd burner for mac users,This mac dvd burner can convert all formats such as MP4, M4V( without DRM protection), MPA, MPG, MPEG, MOV,3GP, 3GP2, FLV, MOV,VOB, DAT, TS, TP, TRP, M2TS, AVI, MKV to DVD on Mac OS X.
    http://youtubetodvd.blogspot.com/

Add your opinion

Back to top

Featured