Hello all 1st post and new to the forums and CD burning, I have so many questions to ask and searches to do in the forums. I hope you all don't mind me asking a few things here.

I just got a I/O magic IDVD16DD yesterday at Circuit City. If anyone is looking for a VERY good deal on this drive, get it NOW at Circuit City (that is if you don't want to go online and buy it). They are selling it for $99.00 PLUS a $30.00 rebate. $69.00 can't beat that at a retail store, the price is not advertised, you have go to the store.

Ok here we go... I have just updated all of Nero and flashed the drive to I/Os 1620a-G7M9. Yes I have read about going with the BenQs 1620 "T" or earlier, but I think it would be best for me to wait and start to burn and so on before changing to BenQs just in case I have to return the drive for what ever reason. I also have a very old Hitachi GD-2000 that I have slaved to the I/O just to have another drive to use to read with and so on (no reason for the ware and tear on the I/O). I have checked the GD-2000 on Nero Info tool to see what type of disk I can play on it and I see it wont play the following, DVD-ROM, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL. The Firmware on the drive is "0055" who knows if that can be changed or not, any of you? Now for the I/O I see it wont play just DVD-RAM.

Now with all said, this is what I am looking to... Burn computer files (not games) for back up, to burn pictures to be shown on a computer or TV DVD player, and burn home video to CD to be played on computer and TV DVD player. Can you PLEASE help me understand what type of CD to use to do the above? Is it possible to use just one type of CD to do all of this? When it comes to the TV DVD player I am looking to use a CD that can be played on "NEW" and "OLD" DVD players? I just DON'T understand all the different types (CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and so on) that are out there. AND what ever CDs you all tell me to use (as in CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW. DVD+R, DVD+RW and so on) what manufacture should I use, I hoping you can tell me I can get the CD at Circuit City, that is the closest store near me.

WOW thanks for reading and helping!

I have always had very good luck with TDK or Verbatim CD-Rs. The're the 700MB/80min capacity ones rated for 48x-52x speed respectively.

For DVD+R discs, I recommend Verbatim 16x speed ones (media code MCC 004), or Verbatim DVD+R 8x-12x speed media code (MCC 003). If you go with the Verbatim 16x speed DVD+R discs (media code MCC 004), burn them at 12x speed and NOT 16x speed if you want better quality scans/results. For DVD-R (use these only if you need to because your home DVD player will only accept them) try Fujifilm 8x speed discs - but make sure they say made in Japan and NOT made in Taiwan. Best Buy usually carries these Fujifilm discs and the ones made in Japan are supposed to be Tayo Yudens and of higher quality than the ones made in Taiwan or elsewhere.

I would stick with DVD+R discs because of their bitsetting ability and would only use DVD-R if your home DVD player (or your friend's home DVD player, etc.) will not playback DVD+R discs. I hope this helps you out.

Thanks for the help...

Just so I understand...

Are you saying when I want to save computer files and such I should go with CD-Rs and the manufactures you recommend. EDIT>>> Can I save computer files on a DVD+R with out any problems?

And when I save photos and movies that I want to play in a HOME DVD player, I should use the DVD+R and the manufactures you recommend? And what if I want to play the movies / Photos in a computer and or a HOME DVD player?

See what I am looking for more or less is this... My daughters Grandparent that live 1200 miles away) have a computer with "I think" JUST a CD player and they have a older HOME DVD player. I am just trying to make this easy for them so they can play the photos in both their HOME DVD player and save and look at them in their computer. I am hoping I can do this with the updated (new files all from December) Nero software that I have.

What about RWs? Should I just stay away from them altogether?

Please be patient with me, lol it wont take me long to get the hang of this.

EDIT AGAIN... In a nut shell can I use nothing but DVD+R to save everything I have talked about above?

I thank socrates007 for the post, but it would seem there would be others here to give me some more options to go with.

CD: buy the Fuji 50pack made in Japan. Manufacturer Taiyo Yuden. I don't know if CC has it but for sure Bestbuy carries them.

DVD+R: buy any Verbatim 8x or 16x, and/or TDK/Fuji Made in Japan 8x. Verbatims will be MCC003 (8x) or MCC004 (16x). Fuji/TDK made in Japan 8x is Yuden000-T02. They are the best.

Data backups: yes you can burn them to the DVD+Rs.

Movie backups: Use DVDShrink and DVDDecrypter, they are great and free softwares.

Movie authoring: I use Pinnacle Studio 9 and Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 (version 3 is the latest tho).

Photos slideshow: I use Ulead DVD MovieFactory to do this, works very well. Usually I add the photos at the end of the movie I made, as additional chapters. For example for my son's bday I shot with my miniDV and also took pics with my digital camera. I author the movies and add photo slideshows in Ulead, and burn them to DVD+Rs, send some copies to my families thousand miles away.

Thank you for the reply zevia... I down loaded the "FREE" programs that you said above. I am going to assume the others are not free, anyhow going to look around the net to see what I can learn about them. Also thanks for the CD info too.

I hate being a noob on all this stuff, but I guess you always have to start at the beginning.

For the fujis and TDK, will it say somewhere on the package that they are made in Japan? And if they are made elsewhere should I steer clear?

Yes
Yes. The made in Japan is Taiyo Yuden. Made in Taiwan can be Ricoh or Prodisc.

Yes, you can use DVD+R to store all of the above mentioned media/file types. Data, audio, video etc. will be able to be stored onto DVD+R discs using Nero. But, if your daughter's grandparent only has a CD-ROM drive on their computer, then they can't read DVD discs (of any type DVD+R, DVD-R etc.) in their computer's CD-ROM drive. They will need a DVD-ROM reader or a DVD burner for reading any type of DVD disc.

Also, regarding their home DVD player, all such home DVD players support either DVD-R discs exclusively, DVD+R exclusively, or some support both types. You'll need to find out which types of discs work with their home player. The best way to find out is by testing each type of disc. DVD+R discs have the option of being bitset to DVD-ROM which increases the chance that they will be played back on home/stand-alone DVD players.

The BenQ DW1620 can burn both DVD-R and DVD+R discs. It can also bitset DVD+R discs to DVD-ROM with a software utility from BenQ's website that's free to download. I would stay away from most DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs for making permanent archives of valuable family photos, etc. They usually (not always) don't record as well as non-rewritable discs and they are limited to 4x speed burning (too long for my patience most of the time). I hope this helps you out.