Posted by Mike S. on 06/12/07 13:17

[snip]

>>> A Cardbus USB2 host controller is the only practical way of adding i/o
>>> that could be used to burn DVD's on your old laptop. Even though real
>>> world throughput is often short of the spec, you should not hesitate for
>>> theoretical concerns. After all, it's pretty much your only choice. USB1
>>> does not have the throughput for even a 1X DVD burn.
>
>Yes, I guess I should test the actual throughput of any CardBus USB 2 so that I
>know what to set the write speed to.

The common wisdom is to burn at 1 or 2 speeds lower than the maximum
rating of the media. The USB2 host speed is really not such a big issue
here; the buffer underrun protection of the DVD burner will kick in if
data throughput is too slow at any given time.

>>> I'd think twice about using multisession on anything other then DVD-RW
>>> which is, of course, not an archival format. Multi-session DVD's are
>>> problematic on OS versions before Windows XP; and even then there is
>>> always the possibility that you may only "see" the first session at some
>>> critical moment.
>>
>> Sorry for the typo: that should be DVD+RW; not DVD-RW.
>
>That's interesting. That means it's quite different from CD. For CD,
>multisession has more to do with the file system rather than the media. That
>means I can do multisession on CD-R and CD-RW. The latter simply means I can
>erase and re-use the CD. The software affects potential for quirky behaviour in
>multisession burns more than whether the media is read/writable. But then, I am
>completely new to the DVD world, so there are lots of differences to
>learn about.

Yes, DVD is very different; this is but one way but it is one that has
real impact on practical utilization.

>> One additional thought; it MIGHT be possible to find an internal DVD burner
>> which will replace the internal CD drive in your laptop. Another mine
>> field though; especially with regard to physical compatibility (especially
>> the faceplace).
>
>I thought about that -- Dell no longer even lists my machine on their site, at
>least so far as peripheral compatibility goes. But in the end, I think I want
>an external DVD burner simply because the laptop is old. No point getting
>something specific to the laptop as I'm not sure how long it will last before it
>kicks the bucket.

Agree. The flexibility of an external burner than can be used on other, or
future machines, is a big plus. Adding hardware to an old machine just
doesn't make sense if there are alternatives.

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