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

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

List Price: $339.43
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Does what I want it to do without error
Review: I am not sure why some folks don't like this HP DVD writer. But first let me tell you what I am using it for. I buy a CD then I burn it to my hard drive, then I sell the CD back to a used CD store. Keeps my music collection at a lower cost, and allows me to utilize the music in MP3/etc formats. After burning 500 cd's to my hard drive, I began to get concerned about back up.

I bought this, and I have backed up my 500 cd's of mp3s to DVD's. It only took 5 to do it. Five DVD's of back up.

It was very easy to use, and did the job in typical fashion.. not the fastest on earth, but it did what I wanted.

As it turns out, my external hard drive did end up failing, but my music was not lost.

So, for my needs, this device paid itself off easily, considering the costs of having to repurchase 500 cd's at $14-$20 a pop.

So, be the judge. I use it for Mp3/Data back up and it works like a champ. I have not tried to copy Dvd Movies yet, but I really don't have any need to do that. yet.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disappointed in HP
Review: 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!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: HP should stand for High Problem.
Review: I bought this DVD burner thinking it would burn CDs and DVDs. The programs it came with wouldn't burn onto a CD-R or and RW. It wouldn't even erase the DVD-RW, Or CD-RW. I know the programs it came with are junk, but even the expensive programs wouldn't burn a disc. This error message kept coming up everytime the CD is almost finished, and before it even starts. This burner only recorded two DVD discs. But it can read the DVD's and CD's. I've had problems with all the HP products I've ever used. I don't ever plan on buying another HP product again until I see they've imporved on their stuff. I returned this item to the store and now I just ordered the Sony DVD dual format burner to see what that's like. The Sony DVD+/-RW drive model DRX510UL is what I'm getting.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Exceptionally poor operational standard
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great DVD Burner
Review: I have been happy with his DVD burner since I bought it a month ago. I successfully backed-up 3 commercial DVDs and burned 2 home video using Memorex DVD+R media without a problem. I did not install the software that came with the burner though for I heard that was where most complains came from. I used Nero and it worked like a charm. Overall, I recommend this burner and I am glad that I bought it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: No Problems Burner
Review: I have been using this burner for about 3 weeks now and am very pleased with it. I use Windows 2000Pro,a Dell 700mhz laptop and a firewire card with the 300e. For software I mainly use DVD X Copy Platinum and sometimes CloneDVD after CSS file filtering. Haven't had one problem yet and the Memorex +R DVDs are accepted by me and my friends Panasonic S25 players. The S25 is listed as being able to only play -R DVDs but it plays my +R backups perfectly with very good quality. This Burner is not the fastest but it is very flexible and reliable. After seeing how mine works my friend is also going to get one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent DVD +R and +RW recorder
Review: I have used this burner for many months, and it has worked great. I was having problems with the included software, but once I switched to Nero 5.5, they all went away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent DVD +R and +RW recorder
Review: I have used this burner for many months, and it has worked great. I was having problems with the included software, but once I switched to Nero 5.5, they all went away.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I can't believe what I had to go through!
Review: I ordered the refurbished DVD drive on the internet and the price seemed reasonable. Delivery took about 6 days. When it arrived, I excitedly opened it only to find that some of the software wasn't in the package. Now I can see that this might not seem like much considering I was certain it would be no big problem correcting this issue. Now, keep in mind that unlike the new unit, the refurbished has only a 90 day warranty.
I called HP and was quickly connected to the automated customer support system. I was asked for my information and was then transfered to the automated customer support system. I tried a different approach to get to someone who could help only to find that the automated system was telling me that this item is no longer manufactured and not covered by free support. I then was connected to another customer rep who asked me for the same information I had given the previous rep. This person then connected me with another rep who asked me again for the previously given information. She then told me she would have to transfer me to another person. I was then annoyed beyond belief. Sensing my disleasure, she attempted to resolve the issue herself. I was told that the remaining software would be recieved in 6 days. A confirmation email stated that this is contingent upon verification of the information I gave. I'll let you know of the results when the time comes.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Do not buy!!!!!
Review: Please do not buy this item.

I bought one. It is broken right away (after two week; pass the store exchange time). I have called the technique service in India. I spent 2 times 3 hours with them try to figure out what was the problem. Even they figure out the machine is broken; they will not exchange my machine. They said the machine warranty is expired for 1 year warranty. The fact is that my machine is less than one year (made October 2003). I sill have the bad machine and I do not know what to with it. I have to buy another one from other manufactory.


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