Customer Reviews

Hewlett Packard DVD200e 2.4x2.4x8 External USB 2.0/FireWire DVD+RW Drive

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my first experience with a writable DVD device, so I don't have much to compare it to. However, I thought with a name like HP it would be a quality device. It is finally working for me, but I had two major frustrations with it.
1. It didn't work when I plugged it in to my Firewire. I wasted 4 (expensive) DVD+R disks before calling HP's service number. They told me I had to upgrade the firmware for it to work (!), and I had to upgrade it using a USB connection instead of the Firewire. After I did that, it began to work using my Firewire.
2. The software that comes with it - HP DLA - that allows the device to be written to by dragging & dropping, or that allows a DVD+R disk to be appended to after an initial write, is incompatible with the software that came with Easy CD Writer Platinum 5.0. I thought that by uninstalling the Direct CD package (the Roxio equivalent of the HP DLA), I could at least keep the other Easy CD Writer software installed so that I could use the other packages, such as Soundstream, to easily create music CDs. However, this does not work. I had to completely uninstall Easy CD Writer. The HP software that comes bundled with the DVD writer does not include all the functionality that Easy CD Writer has.

Now that I've gotten it to work, I'm glad I have it. But, it was a frustrating experience initially.

I've been waiting for an external DVD burner for +R/+RW DVDs since HP introduced their internal 100i model last year, so I rushed to get one as soon as I heard it was out. I have had the new 200e unit about a week and have had great success burning both types of media from HP and Memorex. Not one coaster (yet) and it is amazingly fast using the Firewire connection. The +R format is compatible with my Sony 550D DVD player, and both play in my Dell Inspiron DVD-ROM drive.

Though I am pretty technical, I think this unit would be easy for anyone to use. You can be up and running and burning DVDs within an hour or so. The learning curve of my first CD burner several years ago was much steeper.

The Software bundle which includes Sonic's MyDVD is fine to get most people started, but I prefer DVDit (already owned it) and just bought Ulead DVD Factory which is awesome. It is exciting to take your DV video and burn it on a DVD and then watch it on a big screen with menus just like commercial DVDs. I create disk images of my project on my 7200 RPM Firewire hard drive and then burn them with Nero 5.9 as recommended on vcdhelp.com. (An excellent resource)

The only problem I have had is so-so compatibility with my Adaptec Hot Connect Firewire PC Card. I spent a long time on the phone with HP Tech Support to troubleshoot the drive and find out that I need to connect the drive to the notebook's built-in Firewire port, but that is an easy work-around. HP support was patient and very helpful. No long wait on the phone either.

I highly recommend this drive. It is too cool!

Here are some notes on my experience with the hp dvd-200 and the software that comes with it. I use the hp dvd200e, the external version of the drive, and Windows ME on a 1ghz Pentium 3 with 128mb RAM.

Istallation was simple, just follow the directions. You can attach the external version of the drive to your computer using either fireWire (1394) or USB. I use FireWire because it has better transfer rates than USB, but having both allows you to hook the drive up to just about any computer. Other external dvd drives I considered give you either one or the other.

The drive ships with hp RecordNow burning software, a scaled down version of Stomp's RecordNow Max. When I initially used the hp version of RecordNow, I encountered numerous errors burning files onto DVD+R's, a very frustrating experience given the cost of blank DVDs. I experienced only a 30-50% success rate. Then I did two things that seem to have solved the problem. First, I downloaded and installed the firmware upgrade, as mentioned below. Second, I switched to Ritek brand blank dvds. For some reason Ritek dvds work very well with the 200e, even better than the hp blank dvds. Now I have a 100% success rate without any problems whatsoever.

One very good thing about the HP RecordNow software is you can use it to transfer large files onto dvds. You cannot transfer files larger than 2 gigabytes onto a dvd using Nero Burning Rom or Adaptec EZ CD Creator (blank dvds can hold up to 4.3 gigabytes of data).

You should know that blank DVDs are expensive, with DVD+RWs costing more than DVD+Rs. My advice is to search online for multipacks of 10, 25, or even 50 blank dvds, depending on your needs. Buying them one or three at a time is a huge waste of money.

The hp DLA software that ships with the drive works great. DLA is what you use to save files directly onto a DVD+RW as if saving files directly to a hard drive. It operates invisibly, allowing you to either drag and drop files onto the DVD+RW or use Windows Explorer's "Send To" menu option to send files to the DVD+RW.

The software that ships with the drive for watching DVDs on the computer (PowerDVD) works great.

I use Nero Burning Rom to burn audio CDs and have had a 100% success rate with the 200e. The drive supports overburning so you can burn 85 minutes of music onto an 80 minute CD-R (maybe more, but I stop at 85 minutes). The hp dvd200 burns CD-Rs better and faster than my Sony CD-RW drive. I've abandoned my CD-RW and use the HP dvd200 exclusively now. Although I use the HP RecordNow software for burning data disks, I have not used it to burn audio disks. I assume it works well, but I've always used Nero and didn't want to change.

I use Adobe Premiere and Pinnicle Studio for video editing. I never even bothered to try the video editing software that ships with the hp drive.

It is very important that you upgrade the firmware on the hp dvd200, which is simply a software download from the hp website. Nothing difficult, but follow the directions -- if you use firewire (1394) to connect the drive to your computer, you temporarily have to connect with USB to run the upgrade, then reconnect to firewire aftewards. Not a problem.

I had none of the problems with installation or compatability that others here have reported. Just follow the directions on setting up the drive and the software, all of which are very simple. HP has good technical support if you have any problems (at least my experience has been good).

Before getting the HP drive, I tried the Que dvd burner. I found the HP drive to be superior.

I hope this helps.

I've previously had several H-P CD recorders and found with them that they were progressively getting better with time - both in terms of construction and in terms of free software upgrades. So I was glad to see that H-P had a reasonably priced DVD recorder available and figured that they had most of the bugs worked out in their experience with the CD recorders. Sadly, the new DVD200e seems to be in the same spot that my first H-P CD recorder was, which is buggy. Initially I couldn't read the disks that I wrote in the same drive. But their free flash ROM upgrade on the H-P web site seems to have fixed that. But now I can't do a full system backup (which would be 12Gb) and finish filling even the first disk without an error - and this is even after I unloaded every in-memory service that it was safe to unload and on a blindingly fast machine. I'm pretty sure that H-P will fix their problems and provide further free software upgrades to resolve these difficulties (their tech support has always been good) - but in the meantime, the drive remains buggy.

I had some trouble installing the software. The HP software wanted "Windows Installer", that was not installed on my machine. It would have gone to the internet to get it; however, my computer was not connected. It should have been on the CD if it needs it! The help and manual are marginal. I could not find the command to erase a disk! On to the Hardware: I was pleasantly supprised to see it had a FireWire and a USB 2 connection. My notebook has the FireWire connection, and it works great. I burned a DVD+RW in about 30 minutes (4.5 GB). It was also a pleasant suprise to find that my DVD-ROM drive would read the DVD+RW disk. I tried a DVD-ROM to DVD+RW disk copy, and that ran well. I copied a bunch of files to a Disk formated for Windows explorer, it took longer, but was still resonable. It will take me a while to try the video editing software; however. I am very pleased with this product.

I previously reported some problems encountered in capturing, editing and burning a dvd from my digital video camera. I rated the unit a 2 star at the time, but noted at the end of the review that I was still hopeful. Well, many thanks to HP's email support for helping me work out the various bugs. It took a few reinstallations of the software program, but it seems to working just fine now. My home movie looks and sound good (lots of live music on the dvd), and I am actually quite pleased with the results.

Hp has come out with a DVD300e version. This is an out dated version (DVD200e). Its ok if you don't mind having an out dated version. Hope this helps

I actually don't need to compose an original review. Please see digerti's 5-25 review of the 200i writer. I had EXACTLY the same experience with the 200e. Wish I had read his/her review before spending a week and 1/2 and hours upon hours of unsuccessful trial and error. After capturing my video from my digital camcorder and creating a movie, I burned a DVD+R disc and watched it on my DVD player. Picture quality was actually worse than a VHS tape recorded in superlong play. I have emailed HP support regarding this and am awaiting their response.I then produced the video using the MGI VideoWave program that came with my still digital camera (which takes very short video clips), but since the program does not export out to the dvd burner, I had to go through the MYDVD software that was supplied by HP to actually burn the video (resulting in double the time for production...in all more than 6 hrs). This resulted in much improved video quality (not bad at all, actually), but video and sound is now a few seconds out of syn. I am hoping the software digerati mentions will be the fix I need. Luckily, creating an audio CD is a snap; but this unit is much too pricey to end up being just a CD burner. As it now stands it has been somewhat of a disappointment, but I am hopeful.....

Speaking as a newbie to dvd recording, this is a fine piece of hardware but you need to throw out the software that comes with this. With the software you'll not be able to 'back up' your purchased dvd's. The external drive is easy to plug in to your pc (assuming you've installed or have a USB 2.0 or Firewire card: required). To overcome the software problem dvdrhelp.com is an excellent help center, which has helped me understand what I need to get going. My suspicion is that most dvd recordable drives don't ship with software that immediately allows you to copy dvd's, so don't let this put you off an excellent recorder.

I bought this external DVD Writer from HP, and for me it did record a DVD movie. But I can't record on CD-R/RW. I've wasted a few R's and it won't even record on RW's. I even tried to erase the CD-RW using the program that is the ONLY one that works with this DVD Writer, and it comes up with this message and doesn't erase. I was almost successful in creating a recorded CD, but the error message comes up at the end and that CD-R is gone. I'm returning it and am going to try that Sony one. I haven't had much luck with HP products. Someone I even know that has an HP computer had to replace the hard drive because it came with so many errors installed that were unfixable. That's the last HP product I'm ever using until I can find something dependable. Right now, I have an expensive DVD-ROM Drive by HP hooked to my computer's USB 2 port. The software was okay...when it finally recorded using my cheaper CD-RW drive that came with my computer using the HP Memories Disc program. This drive hasn't burned one CD yet. The only good thing about it is the color almost matches my Dell Dimension 4550 computer.