Burn baby burn
Written: Feb 13 '05 (Updated Oct 19 '05)
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Pros: This is a good quality external DVD burner.
Cons: A bit bulky. FF button, but no rewind button.
The Bottom Line: If you want a good quality external DVD burner, this fits the bill just fine.
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| shopaholic_man's Full Review: Magic (idvdrw4deu1) DVD±RW Burner |
A friend of mine got me a great program, DVD X. It allows you to burn backup copies of your DVDs. Only one problem, I didn't have a DVD burner on any of my computers. I also hate to buy internal drives because the last time I tried to install something in my machine, I had ummm, unfortunate results. I looked in my local Circuit City, and the cheapest DVD Burner was the I/O Magic Mediastation. It's a big bulky black unit that connects via USB wires. and has sort of a neon light up mode on the top. You can even change the color of the neon light. You can choose red,blue or purple. Of course, I bought this to burn DVDs, not to look pretty, so lets take a look at what it can do.
Setup and Installation.
The Mediastation has a DVD +- /CD RW burner and a media card reader. You plug the the unit in, and you run the enclosed software. A dual USB cord is included, as is software, and power cord. The unit attaches to your computer via the two USB connections, one for the Burner, and one for the media card reader. The media card reader reads all the formats of digital camera cards (SD, flash etc.). It didn't take long for me to get the Burner up and running, my computer recognized it right away, and it took all of 15 minutes to install. A good part of this was trying to get the USB plugs into the back of my computer without hitting my head. For everyday use, I only have one USB plug on with it, because the computer its attached to already has a media card reader. However, since the unit is external and therefore portable, its handy to have, because I can download my Canon SD10 SD cards on any computer I hook this up to. (Of course, its probably simpler to just hook the Canon SD10 directly to the computer, but anyway). So, set up is pretty straightforward, and I experienced no problems.
Use.
Although this comes with its own DVD burning program, I first used it with DVD X, because it allows you to back up your commercial DVDs. (which I would note, is completely legal, it's only illegal when you start backing up DVDs that are not yours, or making a few dozen copies and selling them. I strongly recommend that you do neither.) I popped a DVD into my computer, popped a blank DVD + R into my I/O Mediastation, and ran the DVD X program. It took about 25 minutes for the program to read the DVD and another 30 minues or so to burn the DVD. I made a back up copy of "Shrek" so that my son could watch it whenever he wanted without getting fingerprints or scratches on my original. The Mediastation makes a slight hum. In subsequent burnings, I noted that using the computer for other tasks during the burning process frequently results in burning errors. (which makes a really nice frisbee out of the DVD+R) Burning uses a lot of a computers resources, so I would suggest burning when you are not using the computer for other tasks. I am running it on a 2 Ghz AMD processor HP computer with 512 Mgs of RAM. I run Windows XP. You may have better results with a faster computer. I cannot tell you if the speed of the burn is a product of the burner, my computer or the program. I would guess that it is a product of all three. Nevertheless, an hour for a back up DVD is impressive to me. By the way this is a single layer DVD burning program, not dual layer. Dual layer wasn't even out when I purchased this model.
DVD quality.
WOW, the burned DVD looks just like the original! Dolby Digital soundtrack, check!, excellent animation, check! Digital encoding of scenes, check! I compared the original DVD to the burned copy using a Pioneer ELITE 47A DVD player and watched it on a 4 x 7 foot DaLite CinemaVision Movie screen projected by an OPTOMA DLP H30 projector. Connections were made all with component cables. Sound was from a Yamaha Surround Sound Receiver and Cambridge Soundworks speakers using optical cable. I could NOT tell any difference between the burned DVD and the original DVD.
Other Stuff
Well, I already told you about the slick neon lights and the media card reader. The I/O Mediastation will also burn CD-RWs, and can be used to play all varieties of DVDs and CDs. On the front of the unit, is a small green light to let you know the unit is working. Two buttons handle play, advance/forward, stop and eject. Strangely, the unit has no rewind button on it. The unit also has a headphone jack with a volume button on the front. On the back is the AC in, the two USB connectors, the switches to pick what neon color you want to see, an audio out button, and the on/off button. The unit is fairly large: 6 1/2 inches wide, 9 1/2 inches deep and 3 inches tall.
Reliability
I have had the unit for about a year now, and I've had no problems with it. It still runs just fine, the tray still slides in and out, the neon lights still light up, and it still burns brightly.
Update: On October 18, 2005 my DVD burner Died. I did use it quite a lot, but I think this should have lasted more than a couple years. Soon I will be reviewing my new replacement DVD Burner
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 239.00
Operating System: Windows
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