Multimedia: It's VHS vs. Beta all over again: Get a dual-platform burner

It's VHS vs. Beta all over again: Get a dual-platform burner

The DVD-R/RW vs. DVD+R/RW is, I believe, exactly the same thing as the VHS/Beta debate. Like Beta, DVD+R/RW is the technically better choice, but like VHS, DVD-R/RW has generally been the more popular platform. Each consortium has desired a corner on the market for its own reasons, of course.

My advice to everyone is to get a dual-platform burner. The prices on these things are dropping like a rock and there's no reason to limit yourself to the dash or the plus when having both is so affordable. I bought a dual-platform 8X Pioneer DVR-107 burner about six months ago for $109 after rebate (love it!) and now a 16X burner from Samsung can be had for about $60.00. It's enough to make me ill! Dual-layer burners are entering the market at sub-$200 prices, also, I noticed, so I may wind up snapping up one of those by next summer.

Just be sure you have a fast machine (1.5 Ghz+) if you plan on doing video rendering for DVD, either platform.