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Rating: 
Summary: Good and Bad
Review: I just got this drive two days ago. The price was too good to pass up. I have a fair amount of experience with CD Recorders but this is my first DVD Recorder. Installation is standard for any CD/DVD drive. That went well. Unfortunately I ran into problems after that.The installation guide tells you to install the drive, install Roxio Easy CD 5 (included), and then throw on Cyberlink PowerDVD XP 4 (included) for viewing DVDs. The first two steps went well, but when I tried to install PowerDVD it prompted for a serial number. There was no serial number on the CD, in the guidebook, or on the CD envelope. A quick trip to seedier parts of the Internet provided one. I threw in a couple of DVDs and they played beautifully. One problem solved. Next I tried to burn a data DVD using Easy CD. The program burned CDs on this drive, but did not recognize that my new drive was capable of burning DVDs. I thought that I had a problem with a driver because the driver associated with the drive was a generic ATAPI driver. I went to Buslink's web site to look for drivers. Forget it. Their website looks like a 4 year old threw it together. They have no information on this drive other than where to buy it. I scoured the web for reviews or support sites for this drive to no avail. After looking through a Google Groups search I managed to find out that there are no special drivers for this drive. I also found out that Roxio Easy CD is crap. Long story short: I uninstalled Easy CD and installed Nero 6 and I was able to burn a data DVD. I haven't burnt anything else yet (1 data DVD+RW and a couple of CDRs). I will try some video later and see if DVD+Rs work well. The garbage software included and the lack of any type of support on the Buslink web site were a pain, but I gave the drive 4 stars simply because of the low price plus rebate.
Rating:
Summary: Good and Bad
Review: I just got this drive two days ago. The price was too good to pass up. I have a fair amount of experience with CD Recorders but this is my first DVD Recorder. Installation is standard for any CD/DVD drive. That went well. Unfortunately I ran into problems after that. The installation guide tells you to install the drive, install Roxio Easy CD 5 (included), and then throw on Cyberlink PowerDVD XP 4 (included) for viewing DVDs. The first two steps went well, but when I tried to install PowerDVD it prompted for a serial number. There was no serial number on the CD, in the guidebook, or on the CD envelope. A quick trip to seedier parts of the Internet provided one. I threw in a couple of DVDs and they played beautifully. One problem solved. Next I tried to burn a data DVD using Easy CD. The program burned CDs on this drive, but did not recognize that my new drive was capable of burning DVDs. I thought that I had a problem with a driver because the driver associated with the drive was a generic ATAPI driver. I went to Buslink's web site to look for drivers. Forget it. Their website looks like a 4 year old threw it together. They have no information on this drive other than where to buy it. I scoured the web for reviews or support sites for this drive to no avail. After looking through a Google Groups search I managed to find out that there are no special drivers for this drive. I also found out that Roxio Easy CD is crap. Long story short: I uninstalled Easy CD and installed Nero 6 and I was able to burn a data DVD. I haven't burnt anything else yet (1 data DVD+RW and a couple of CDRs). I will try some video later and see if DVD+Rs work well. The garbage software included and the lack of any type of support on the Buslink web site were a pain, but I gave the drive 4 stars simply because of the low price plus rebate.
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