HP 20x External Super Multi DVD (Lightscribe) HP1040E
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Amazon Sales Rank: #18746 in Consumer Electronics Brand: Hewlett-Packard Model: Dvd1040e 20X Multiformat DVD Writer Dimensions: 9.80" h x 12.20" w x 6.00" l, 1.98 pounds
Good Writer, Lousy Nero Software Bundle Thought I would follow the instructions included with the writer. Installation went fine, the pc recognized the player. The install of the Nero software was a mess. It conflicted with the already existing burner software on my pc. The Nero software has limitations, the player as-is will burn to DVD-R. With the Nero software you lose that functionality, due to some sort of licensing conflict. What's the point of owning a writer, if the third party software doesn't allow you to write? I uninstalled the Nero bundle, but evidently it had made a change to my pc that would still not let the DVD writer to write. Had to perform a system restore, and now the writer writes to DVD-R. Yay! Thats what I wanted. Unfortunately the added feature of the software was going to be Lightscribe. But Nero bundled it into their all-in-one (all Seven-in-one!) executable, and doesn't allow for installing JUST the Lightscribe software. It's not that important a feature. If I want it so bad, I'll just buy a copy online, or just use a magic marker. Also, the Nero software wants you to associate all media files so that they run on it's software. Thats all your video files MOV, AVI, MPEG..., all your audio files mp3, wmv, wav..., all your image files BMP, JPG...(you have to deselect, to stop it from doing that) The HP writer seems to work fine, HP (IMO) made an error in selecting the Nero bundle to include with the writer. Great external drive Purchased this external drive 2 weeks ago because my internal drive was taking longer and longer to operate. As soon as I connected it to a USB port, Windows XP recognized it and assigned it as drive "G". It's worked flawlessly so far, both as a reader and a writer. Very much faster than my original internal drive which was only 8X. Finally got around to using the Lightscribe function, and I've got to say, it's pretty cool. The price is very reasonable, it's easy to install and operate, and I'm thinking of getting a second one to replace my other internal drive. Occasional problems reading movies. PS--June 2008 and I am still using this HP DVD-RW. I would give it 3 stars now. And so far, no other reviewer reports a reading problem. Maybe the problem was with my system. Also, I later installed an internal Sony DVD-RW and that now has no reading problems but intermittent writing problems. I've decided the best situation is to have 2 DVD drives from 2 different manufacturers. Where one doesn't work, the other generally does. So I would look mainly for a good price on a good brand, which would include this one. My original review follows, edited for brevity. ................................ This HP dvd1040 works fine for all reading of data and all writing of movies or data, but not for watching movies. I like to use my computer to watch Netflix rentals. Several times, a DVD has not played in this HP DVD writer, but has played in both my Acer laptop and my stand alone Panasonic DVD player. PS--In case you don't know, the 'lightscribe' label writer only works on discs with 'lightscribe' capability, which currently, seem to cost significantly extra. So long as this is the case, I just as soon pay less for standard discs, and to write my titles with an acid-free Bic Mark-It Retractable.
