Cheap Hewlett Packard DVD300e 4x2.4x8 External FireWire/USB 2.0 DVD+RW Drive (Electronics) (Windows) Price

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Customer Reviews of Hewlett Packard DVD300e 4x2.4x8 External FireWire/USB 2.0 DVD+RW Drive

Very hard to work with and frustrating
I am not an expert with CD/DVD writers, but even I notice that there is something wrong with this drive. It is not just the software, I think the hardware has got some design problems. My Windows2000 is very slow in recognizing that the drive is being connected and in many cases it hangs or gets into long still sessions before getting into normal operations. Nero does not recognize my drive, so I have to use the provided software with it and it is not the greatest. The drive has even difficulty recognizing raw CDs I put in its tray. In many cases it rejects them, though they are perfectly fine. In general I think you should look somewhere else for a good CD/DVD writer.

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Disappointed in HP
I bought the 300i (internal) a year ago and have been very frustrated with it. If all you want to do is copying CDs/DVDs, that is fine. But if you want to have more control over it, good luck! The biggest complaint I have is the accompanying software. It treats the users like they don't know anything by hiding all the options. <
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>Here are the problems I have: <
>1) If you have used Nero before, the hp woftware is going to really disappoint you. I spent "a lot" of hours getting this to work with my Win2000 Pro. <
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>2) Watch out: The default is set to burn only one session rather than multi-sessions. And you have to change the settings in "option". Although this is the default setting for some other brands too, but at least with the other brands, you get to see the settings before it starts burning. <
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>3) It is not compatible with other commercial DVD software. It conflicts with MS windows media player's Roxio burn-ware. And Nero doesn't work with it either, I heard. Again, google to find out. <
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>Side note: although not designed for it, it does not work well with Linux SuSE at all. <
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>It is very proprietory and it sucks. I am getting ready to invest in another DVD burner that actually works the way I want it to. Because of this DVD writer, I have been shunning away from buying another HP product... I have a HP inkjet that works pretty well and produces good quality printings, but the software that comes with it takes up more than 100Mb of my harddisk space... No lie!

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A good bargain!!
Bought this as I was low on cash, and I haven't been disappointed since!! Worked like a charm out of the box with the provided USB cable!! But its not without its pros and cons:

CONS: Big and bulky. For those with limited space, you might want to rethink a smaller external model or an internal model. DVD write speed might not seem such a big deal, but waiting half an hour to burn a full DVD at 4X speed is slow... I think 8X drives are already out on the market. Another drawback is that the burning software included is Record Now (not the Max version), which is not really useful. You would have to get a copy of Nero 6 to make full use of this burner.

PROS: Works with almost all media I throw at it!! Plus, the DVD+R discs I have burnt so far work with both a Sony and Shinco DVD Player, my Dell DVD-ROM, and my beloved XBOX (phillips drive). Also, the design of the drive looks kinda cool... several friends have had that "OOOOO" look when they first spot it.

I don't know about the quality of the technical support and warranty, as I have never had a problem with it!!! All I know is that there's a standard warranty for 1 year, but really... for a $200- product it is not really worth the time running around to get it repaired if it breaks down.

All in all... I would recommend it to anyone who is just starting out with DVD burning. There are better drives on the market, but this will suit the beginner and even experts just fine.