Customer Reviews

Memorex 32023288 DVD Double-Layer Recorder 16x16 Dual Format External Drive

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I have only had this drive for a couple days, but I can say that I am pleased with it overall. I am using it with a laptop on a comapct desk, so the fact that it stands vertically (w/included stand) helps with space consevation. The Dual-Layer DVDs that it can create are wonderfull for storing lots of home videos, pictures, and in most cases 2 full movies. The included Nero software is very user friendly, so you'll be making relatively professional looking DVD home movies (complete with custom menus and options) in no time.

I only have 2 things to complain about on this package (one on the unit and one on the software), and they are just nit-picky little things.

1. UNIT - While the unit itself is fairly attractive (silver & black case w/blue LEDs), it is rather flimsy. This is not really an issue as long as you are careful moving it while it is running. Without thinking, I grabbed the body by the sides while in its vertical position. This caused the top of the case to bow in and hit the drive spindle, resulting in an awful grinding noise. While this incident had no affect on the unit or its current process this time, I could see how it may in future careless occurances. Not a big deal. Just don't be clumsy like me.

2. SOFTWARE - Again, not a big problem, just an annoyance. I am running this program on what the box calls the preferred sytem specs for best performance. While creating a 2 hour (4.07 GB) DVD movie with basic menus only takes a few minutes, the processing time before it writes takes a long time. After you hit the "Burn" button, the total process progress line says that the time remaining on the project is a little over 4 hours. The actual time it takes to write on the disc is a little more than an hour (this is a pretty fast drive). The other 3 hours seems to be taken up by conversion, encoding, processing, etc. My guess is that this would take a lot less time on a faster system. Read the "System Requirements" for the software on the box. I suggest having at least the "Reccomended" specs to have a pleasent experience. If you only have the minimum system requirements, I would be prepared to settle in for the long haul for each project.

Also, I bought this in store at Staples for a hundred and thirty-nine bucks. Much cheaper than anywhere else I saw it.

On its own, this is a reasonably-priced external DVD burner with a quality name brand. I didn't find the case flimsy, and the stand makes the drive very unobtrusive. The buttons are logically placed, and the blue light was bright enough to see across the room. The drive was visible to my laptop as soon as I attached it. The DVD I made last night burned fairly quickly (and quietly), and bingo, I soon had my very first home-movie-on-DVD, complete with chapter titles and cueing and so forth. I didn't try transferring with USB--a Firewire card was only $25, a cheap way to ensure better image quality--but Memorex thoughtfully includes cables for both.

The included software, Nero 6, makes this drive an even better deal. This burn/edit package has a lot of features for an OEM version, more than I'll need for a long time, and should you want to step up to Nero 7, nero.com offers a good discount. The only negative with the software was having to go into the Windows registry to get the serial number to qualify for the version updates--the manual walks you through this, and since I once had a job that required registry edits, this wasn't difficult, but I question how wise it is for Nero to make an average user dig into the Windows registry!

You can get much better deals on internal burners, but if you need an external burner, particularly if you don't already have a software package for editing and burning DVDs, it would be hard to find a better deal than this drive.

Aside: after staring at my Seagate hard drive and the Memorex burner side by side all last night, I was thinking I'd like to see some enterprising company bundle a large hard drive right on a DVD burner. But with that spare USB cable, it's easy enough to get the two together for a movie-making session..!

I am very pleased with the performance of this machine. I bought it to add dual layer dvd's and 16x burning to my aging Powermac G5 from Apple. It has worked perfectly for me and makes DVD's in about 3 minutes. A very nice touch. As a side note, I am a world traveler and I am planning on moving to London at the start of next year. I was afraid that it would not be able to go with me. But I contacted Memorex and it already is wired to work in the U.S. and Europe. That was a nice surprise. Buy this product, you will not be disappointed.

This Memorex Double Layer DVD Burner is an amzing buy and makes burning all types of things extremely easy. As many people have pointed out, this drive is very slow if you use USB 1.1. If you have USB 1.1 the drive will still work, but very slowly. USB 2.0 is not much better if you ask me. My IE Firewire ports were taken up by scanners and printers so I ended up buying a Firewire Card (this is quite simple to install, you have to be retarded not to be able to figure this out). Firewire is the way Memorex intended this burner to be operated on. Before, USB took anywhere from 8-12 minutes to burn a CD and upwards of 40 minutes to burn slightly less than 10 minutes of DVD Video. After using the Firewire Card a CD takes less than 2(!) and never has buffer underrun errors (no more wasted discs). Where this drive really shines is with DVD. I took an illegaly copied copy of "Doom" (the movie, 112 minutes), recoded the video files into MPEG-4 (using the supplied Nero 6 software) and then burned the entire movie in 6.5 minutes!!!!! That's 4.4 GB of video (ultra high quality) in less than ten minutes!!! Amazing. The NeroRecode is great for making the MPEG-4 video files which can then be watched on the Video iPODS. Brilliant. Now for Nero. Yes, Nero 7 Ultra Edition is out, but the supplied Nero 6 burning suite is included with this burner, and does a very good job. It is very easy to use, and is customizable and does every type of project imaginable (Data, Audio, Data+Audio, Video, Video CD, Picture, plus ones I don't remember and will never use!) and recognizes every disc type. The included editing software is very in depth and you can do a whole crapload of video, text and audio effects with video files from your miniDV or DVD Camcorder. Also included is Nero Photoshow Elite, which really isn't "Elite," but it does a decent job of storing, organizing and editing photos. You can even remove red-eye and other such things. If you havbe the correct specifications and use Firewire, you will realize that Memorex has gone way over-the-top with this wonderful external DVD burner. Definitely worth the money and will prevent your computer from becoming obsolete.
The Bottom Line: Don't Use USB and don't use the world's first computer or yes, this probably won't work out for you.

I might have deducted a star for the software included in the package (will not work with Vista and requires a PAID upgrade to a new version), but frankly I'd been made aware of that problem BEFORE making the purchase.

The burner has thus far worked flawlessly with every disc I've thrown at it, including many that wouldn't work in any other burner I have. The drivers installed upon plugin and since then it's worked like a champ. Sweet.

I haven't experienced any significant noise from the unit or any other flaws.

So for the burner its 5 stars - maybe the software will work with my old Windows ME box when I get around to trying it out... :)

I have been using this for about two days now. I guess it is my stupidity, but I found Nero unnecessarily complex. I was not able to record a data disk (double layer) after numerous attempts. The language and the terminology is too Nero-esque. In the end I removed Nero from my computer and am using the Sonic software, which is far superior, faster, simpler, and user-friendlier. My advice is to buy Memorex but never bother with the installation of Nero. Good luck.

The "Superdrive" on my two-year-old desk-top iMac with 17" flat-panel simply died on me a month ago, in effect putting my audio-video life on hold. No time to pack and ship out the cumbersome machine for repair, so for less than the price of one of those little Apple power adapters with the folding prongs, I ordered this Memorex drive. It's a bit larger and heavier than I'd anticipated, but it's certainly sturdy and well-equipped: a two-part long-reaching power supply and cord, a USB as well as a Firewire cable depending on your preference (Apple doesn't even include one with a new computer), and a stand for vertical, space-saving use of the drive. I simply plugged it in, connected the Firewire cable, inserted a DVD, and that was all there was to it. For the first time in weeks, I saw a disc on my computer's desk top.

Next test: I inserted a blank CD into the Memorex, selected 70 minutes worth of tunes from my iTunes library, clicked on "burn CD." This produced the following question: "Your preferred recording drive is not available. Would you like to use the external Memorex drive?" I clicked "yes," waited no more than 3-4 minutes, and a spanking new CD was born. I had planned to use the Memorex as a temporary device, until time and energy would allow me to have the iMac Superdrive repaired. Obviously, a bad idea. Stick with the Memorex for another year, by which time the iMac will be out of date and worthless.

A lot of software comes with the drive, but with iTunes, Roxio Toast, Sound Studio, and other clutter already installed on my machine, I doubt it'll see any use. Still, if it's as efficient and user-friendly as the drive, it could be a huge bonus for some owners.

[I'm surprised about the negatives concerning the above. This relatively inexpensive device was frankly a life-saver. I still haven't read the manual or installed a thing, and it continues to burn files in my iTunes folder and function with my iMac like it was made for that purpose. I haven't tried burning a DVD or an MP3 disc, so I can't make any claims about those functions as yet.]

Ok, the recorder arrived super fast and it's been WORKING perfectly ever since. I've read a lot of reviews, and here's some hints that might help those who never got it work:

If you have Windows XP and Vista, sinmply connect the recorder via your USB/WiFi port, your PC will install it automatically, no other actions needed.

If you like the recording software already installed on your PC - don't bother even open any CDs coming with the recorder - it works perfectly with ANY software (I checked it myself).

If someone's bothered that after installation the recorder appears like CD-ROM - don't. It still works as it's supposed to.

Basically that's it. I can't think of other problems:)

This product is excellent. I wanted a replacement as the DVD burner on my Dell PC doesn't want to work anymore. I have tried 4 brands of dvd discs, + and - formats, and they have all come out very well from this machine.
I am very pleased with this purchase!!

Arrived VERY timely, easy to work with. Nero software is pretty intuitive, but pre-installs more software than is necessary, I think. Drive runs well & quickly, fits nicely on the desk. Runs a little loud/ vibrates hard when writing disks. Still, decent buy and works well for my purposes.