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

Other products by Hewlett-Packard

Product Details

Product Manual [2.14mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.7 x 2.1 inches ; 3.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00008N6VK
• Item model number: Q2109A#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,391 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 20, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
The HP DVD writer dvd300e is a product of the new "plus" era of DVD technology in which compatibility obstacles are a thing of the past and data archiving is virtually error-free. Connect the HP dvd300e to your PC and start preserving videos, photos, and data.

• Connect in seconds to your IEEE 1394-or USB 2.0-compatible PC
• Record up to 700 MB of music, photos, or data on one CD-RW or CD-R disc. Record hundreds of MP3 files on one DVD+RW or DVD+R disc
• Create DVDs and CDs faster than ever: record DVDs at up to 4x and CDs at up to 16x**; make DVDs in five easy steps from editing to authoring
• Read and write DVDs at up to 4x/2.4x/8x, CDs at up to 16x/10x/40x
• Edit, produce, and back up DVDs and CDs with the included software
• Transfer analog or digital video from a camcorder or VCR to DVD (required IEEE 1394 interface or analog video-capture device available separately)
• Share your original videos and music with others using DVD+RW or DVD+R discs compatible with most DVD video players and DVD-ROM drives tested*
• Preserve material longer: 50–100 years instead of the 7–10 years provided by VHS tapes
• Store up to 133 minutes of high-quality video and up to three hours of VHS-quality video on each high-capacity (4.7 GB) DVD+RW media disc

*Does not permit copying of commercially available movies or other copyright-protected materials. Intended only for creation and storage of original material or other lawful uses Text:

** According to Intelikey Labs, 2002

*** nu MBer of video, photos, music, and data files depends on resolution and/or file sizes

Basic warranty
One-year limited hardware warranty

Product Description
HP's DVD writer dvd300e stores up to 4.7 Gbytes of data, video, photos, and music on DVD+RW or DVD+R disks. DVD+R disks offer maximum compatibility with DVD-ROM drives and DVD players. HP's DVD writer dvd300e is designed for personal video camcorder users who want to edit and preserve their video memories on DVD and customers who prefer an external drive for ease of installation, mobile computer use or the need to share the drive. This versatile drive reads and writes DVDs and CDs and includes buffer under-run protection. Using the PC's existing video capture capabilities, transfer precious video memories from a camcorder or VCR to long-lasting DVD disks. Quickly store, backup and transport large data files on DVD or CD. Create original DVDs using DVD+RW rewritable and DVD+R write-once disks and view them using most DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. Record up to three hours of video, or store thousands of original photos, hundreds of MP3 music files and data files - up to 4.7 GB - on one DVD+RW or DVD+R disk.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed in HP, October 2, 2004

By	L. Keng (Jacksonville, Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Side note: although not designed for it, it does not work well with Linux SuSE at all.

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!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Exceptionally poor operational standard, November 6, 2003

By	John Harpur (Trim, Meath, IRELAND) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had a HP DVD200e. Dreadful. HP replaced it with a HP DVD300e. No improvement. We burned coasters on both, before getting a playable DVD. Even then that DVD would only play on the computer that transcoded it. We couldn't get it to play in 3 different laptops. It played in a Sony consumer DVD player, but the audio had a high noise content. I will never buy a DVD product from HP again. I now own an external SONY DRX510UL which is more reliable. However, I have an internal LG GSA-4040B DVD RW which is the best of the lot. If you can't fit the latter into your system, get a USB or Firewire caddy and have it as an external drive.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bogus reviews, November 8, 2003

By A Customer

Didn't Amazon notice that ALL the 5 star reviews on this product are from the same person? It gives the product a higher total review then it deserves.