OK i'm a bit of a newbie here so i didn't know where to post this but i think this will do. I've seen gigablock DVD + R DL media selling on ebay for as little as .45 cents a piece. They DO make a point of listing a compatibility chart and they prefer LG models. These drives sell for as little as $25 but I would prefer an external drive. Can anyone tell me if any of these model #'s : GSA-H20L, GH20NS15, GSA-H62N, GSA-H55N, GSA-H42L, GSA-H42N, GSA-H22N, GH22NP20, would have the exact model in an external?
Thank You VERY much i've had no luck with google any help would be appreciated
p.s. at these prices it's worth it just to try, right?
Why don't you just buy an external enclosure and put the drive in it?
Manufacturers of external optical drives typically don't disclose the model number of the drive that they use because they will use several different makes and models of drives.
BTW, just because the media is listed as compatible with a given burner is no guarantee that the media is any good.
In addition to dailun's reply, i have quite a few standard dvd burners (and a dvd-rom drive) in external enclosures, i much prefer putting my own drives in enclosures.
As to the discs, sounds like a false economy to me, i can't even find 'MID code' information on any Gigablock discs (even the name makes them appear to be crap) so it's extremely difficult to say what drives these discs will work on anyway.
A burner's 'firmware' is what dictates what discs it can recognise and use, the firmware would have to contain MID code information for the discs.
Here's an example, in this screenshot ~
...someone's interrogating the firmware of a dvd burner; you can see various 'MID' codes (the second column from the left). The blue highlighted line shows a MID code of Ritek S04 E01 and it's corresponding burn speeds. As i say i can't yet find any MID code info anywhere for any type of Gigablock discs, i'd personally run a mile and buy some well known discs..
I'm pretty excited that i got got these disks to work on a new LG Electronics GE20LU11 20X USB Slim Lightscribe bought it on amazon for $50!!! THEY WILL also play in my new bd370 got on ebay for $140!!! Just have to burn at 2.4x but after a little consideration about how things would break down for price as soon as i burn 200 disks i'm dollar for dollar with verbatim. Anything after that and i'm watching avchd's for $.45. Not bad i think. Now i know I'll hear about how my disks probably won't work 130 years from now and that verbatims will or that they'll somehow burn out the eyes on my burner and player. Just have one thought for that--- so the hell what. If these products give me a year i still beat verbatim at $1 a disk. Thank you guys for the suggestions very much appreciated.
Well it's your money and your movies, but it doesn't have to be 130 years before subpar discs let you down. Far from it; i don't know if Gigablock are subpar but here's what i will say about my experiences with what turned out to be fake discs ~ http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/193298 - just have a careful read thru the first post in that link.
and i needed the bd370 anyway so i beat the price sooner when i think about it. and i've played these movies repeatedly (as many as 8 times one of the disks burnt (the first time over a month and a half ago) is still playing beautifully. like i said, or maybe i didn't, most of these are one watch anyway and i'll never play it again. So for me this scenario couldn't work any better. I do have verbatims still and if i need them they're there.
Fair enough.
I haven't ever needed to use a DL disc and have no reason to as i use the awesome DVD Rebuilder (with HC encoder) to encode any movies to fit on single layer media. But each to their own.
