A friend of mine started using DVDXCOPY successfully after a few wrinkles. His is a Sony DRU500AX internal EIDE. I'm interested is purchasing the Sony DRX-500ULX (USB 2.0/i-Link/Firewire) model (external) for a number of reasons. He told me that there is a lot of negative chat in the forums regarding external, but I haven't found that to be the case. Anyone think I'll have problems taking this fork in the road?
I have an external usb 2.0 sony drx500ul. I use nero instead of the record now dx that came with the unit and I've burned about 100 dvd+r/rw, dvd-r/rw, svcd and vcd's without a coaster yet. I do use quality media but you can search the forum for what works and what doesn't
I appreciate your input. I'm feeling more confident by the minute on making the external purchase. Are you using USB or Firewire? I've gotten some feedback that internals are better than externals, but without much clarification. And spec's all look the same to me. Most of the machines use will be for personal DVD slide and video stuff, but I've like to be able to archive some of the granddaughter's dvd's before she ruins them. You mentioned that you used Nero for burning (version?). Does it produce the results that DVDXCOPY claims? I realize that is a loaded question, but I'm thinking of getting the combo unit as a few of my friends have recommended it! jp,
If you asked this question 2 years ago, the answer would clearly be internal because of data transfer speed. USB 1.x just wasn't fast enough for higher speed writers. Now with more prolific firewire support and USB 2.0, that arguement doesn't hold as much wait. I still prefer internal, but I would not specifically say to stay away from externals.
Given the choice of externals, I would choose firewire because it is a more robust spec and each link is peer-to-peer which each device can use the full 400 Mb/s transfer rate. USB 2.0 technically is faster (480 Mb/s) but few devices actually operate at this rate. Additionally, if you have more than one USB device per IRQ port, you'll end up sharing the bandwidth. Downside is, if you want an external drive for flexibility of backing up your friends and family's systems too, you'll need to make sure all their computers support firewire also, or stick with USB 2.0. Nice thing about USB 2.0 is it can downgrade to USB 1.x if needed.
If you don't need the flexibility, then internal still shines just a little more. I don't have to worry about conflicting USB devices or not enough bandwidth. It transfers at the full ATA66/100/133 speed (whatever you drive/computer supports). Especially if you setup your harddrive on the master of the primary IDE slot and the DVD drive on the master of the secondary IDE slot, you'll get the best performance.
I'm using usb 2 though I've tried it with the firewire and have had no problems. I have a 1.8 Ghz Win XP computer with only 256 megs of ram and I use a maxtor 80gig usb 2 external hd for video capture and storage snd have not dropped a frame yet. I have used dvdxcopy v. 1.2 with great results but I don't use it often because I don't care about keeping the extras and like using one disk. Decrypter to rip, dvd2one to compress and nero 5.5.10.7 (works well so haven't updated) to burn. Also, the sony burns all formats, which I have done and no coasters. I don't know if I'm lucky or what but I haven't experienced any of the problems others have had and with external you install the software and plug it in and your done. You can also move it easily to other computers or a laptop
Last 2 threads have really bolstered my resolve to give the external a go! Really do appreciate the comments! I beleive your correct regarding the timing of it all. USB 1 was certainly better than an LPT port, but USB 2 have brought the speed up enough to compete with firewire. On the macintosh side firewire was betting USB hands down. Now there's the mix of those 2 out there to confuse things (if you want to see seamless check out IMovie on the mac). Not surprisingly, Adaptec has created a $99 board with 3 USB 2 ports and 2 firewire. Guess that would take care of any camera harware mismatches. I think that I will go with that just to be on the safe side. I've got 2 daughters and 2 different styles of camera. I've been still clunking around with digital .jpgs and doing vcd slide shows. I've got the hd on ide0 as the master, but have a TDK burner mastering ide1 simply cause I'm doing a lot more cd-r stuff at this point. I also have the latitude to shuttle data to my SCSI components if I can get away with that!? The beast that I just finished putting together is a 1.7 G AMD Athlon with 1 G of DDR ram and an 80 gig HD. I'm an avid user of I'm familiar with Nero and Easy CD Creator 6 and like them both giving the edge to Nero. Never have used Decrypter or dvd2one and will have to checked them out! My interests in getting a dvd program, particularily DVDXCOPY, is to save my $$$ when the granddaughter have drooled, dropped, dragged, scraped and God know what else to the cartoon dvd's that seem to be scattered around the basement at babysitting time.
Heck! You're dealing with me...I've still got a Coleco game station, an Apple IIe sitting the and a turntable sitting in the basement. And I'm still burning CD-R's on a Smart and Friendly 4x burner (SCSI). It refuses to die and I usually start up the process and find something else to do in the mean time. Thanks for 2 very informative threads. Time to bust into the piggy bank and start some burns!!!
