I headed out to MicroCenter before to get that switch I mentioned… I found one, was ready to buy it, and on my way to the register I decided to check out what their prices on DVD-R/RW drives were.. I had looked at the prices a bit after getting the DV cam, thinking it might be a way to spend some christmas money… But the cheapest decent drive I could find was ~300 bucks… So I couldn’t afford it with my christmas money..
I didn’t expect MicroCenter to have a fantastic price on DVD-R/RW drives! They had the Cendyne DVR-105 drive for $230 plus a $30 mail in rebate! This company makes Pioneer’s (very well reviewed) DVD-R/RW drives, and this particular model is apparently the same (internally, anyway) as Pioneer’s DVR-A05 drive. I decided to go for it, as the sale ended this weekend, and I picked up a few blank discs (of each format).
I currently have the drive installed in the PC, but I think ultimately it will end up in the Mac (once I find some tools that will work with it, or Apple releases a version of iDVD that works with non-superdrives) since that is where I plan on doing most of my video editing. The drive came with some basic DVD-Mastering software which I played around with a bit… I burned some of the Stellafane footage Chuck shot back in 2000 to a DVD-RW, but couldn’t get it to play in any of the DVD players in the house (Mine, Adam’s, or the PS2). My player doesn’t even read CD-Rs, so I didn’t expect it to work (the poor old beastie). I played it on the computer though, in PowerDVD, and it worked, but the video quality was kinda crappy… So I think I will hold off on the actual DVD Video fun until I get some better tools. In the meantime, though, it will be great for backing up data.. For once I won’t have to play so many games when backing up my workstations..
I was also thinking of backing up all of my mp3’s (~60g) to DVD media of some kind.. I bought a spindle of 10 generic DVD-R discs for $25.. In a few months I’m sure that price will come down, so backing up all that music might be feasible. Granted, I have most of the mp3’s in original CD form, but reencoding all of them would be a total bitch…
Anyway, right now I have an annoying headache, but I pounded back a fistful of ibuprofen before (ok, fistful is an exaggeration, stop panicing) and am going to settle in and watch a Henry Rollins DVD… Did I mention that Chuck and I are going to see him do spoken word live here in Boston in February? Should be a blast!
Word is that Matt, Frances,