SAGER 3790...DVD rip issue w/ NEC 6500A - Page 2

Seems ridiculous but I've checked the specs for this drive on a few different sites (including this one... http://www.microexpress.net/proddeta...linenumber=143) and they all advertise it as a dual layer/double layer drive but then in the detail reveal that it can ONLY READ dual layer discs - not write to them!? Is this correct? Is that what you thought you were getting? To my knowledge almost all DVD drives can read dual layer discs and the reason for buying a "dual layer" burner is so you can WRITE to them too, it seems like there's some heinously false advertising going on here.

Here it is from the horses mouth (Toshiba) - the official technical specs for the SD-R6472 (http://sdd.toshiba.com/main.aspx?Pat...00659c00002401), according to the specs it CAN'T write to Dual Layer media it can only read DL media - the same as ever other DVD drive. There's some SERIOUSLY dubious advertising going on out there where this drive is being sold as a "DL" or "Double Layer" drive (note most of them call it a Double Layer drive not a Dual Layer drive - which is twisting the terminology).

Sorry for the recent confusion on the DVD-RW drive models

Sager gives the resellers as little detailed info as possible regarding actual parts numbers used on a day to day basis. If a certain part is not available, Sager will look for an acceptable alternative meeting or exceeding the general spec of the part being replaced.

The on-line configurator and the invoice you receive from your reseller should be correct. The detailed specs are subject to slightly change at Sager's discretion. This allows faster responses to changing market conditions. So, it is not necessarily a bad thing, just a reality of the computer market.

Sager does not provide detailed part numbers for hard drives, memory, or optical drives. We have listed the info as provided by Sager, but occasionaly, the specs of the product shipped may actually exceede what is listed on a dated deatield specs page. For example, our website listed a 4X DVD-RW drive, but the item actually shipped is an 8X DVD-RW DL Drive.

So, when in question, trust the configurator and your invoice. They are updated on a daily basis and very accurate, although not as detailed.

We have been contacted by a helpful customer and updated our website accordingly to avoid any confusion. Unfortunatly, we must take the path Sager has given us and not provide a part number for the individual components as we have not controll over the availibilty. Hopefully that is not too confusing.....

But the Toshiba SD-R6472 does NOT meet or exceed the general spec of an 8x DL (Dual Layer) DVD Burner because it can't burn DL discs - as the NEC 6500A CAN. The fact that it is in any way advertsied as a DL DVD burner is COMPLETELY misleading in the same way that some vendors have advertised 8x DVD burners in the past that were actually 2x or 4x burners with the ability to only PLAY at 8x.

Andre,

That's not what the specifications indicate:

http://www.toshiba-europe.com/storag...&model=SDR6472

Odd that Toshiba lists two different specifications for the same drive.

way to go with the info G-O. had me worried for a second there Andre. that is weird that the page Andre linked didn't reference DL at all?

I was the helpful customer referenced above that gave discountlaptops the heads up about the description of the burner. They already had it fixed by like 9am EST this morning. I emailed them about it 11pm EST last night. Matt Richards responded to me about it by 1:08 am EST. pretty speedy response time.

I apologise, I was incorrect - everything I'd read till now indicated that it wasn't a Dual Layer drive (thanks G-Omaha for pointing out the UK Toshiba site link), on further investigation I found the following forum where this was debated (http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic...57&whichpage=1) and at least one owner claims to have actually written to a DL disc. It appears (if you read down the forum comments) that when the drive was first released in the US it couldn't write to DL discs and in fact was only capable of burning at up to 4x, subsequently new firmware has been released which has improved the performance to allow up to 8x burning and also provided support for burning DL discs at up to 2.4x. Sorry for being so adamant and getting worked up over nothing, I was just trying to make sure people weren’t being misled.

Andre,

Actually the Toshiba drive are very marginal at attaining their rated speeds. This not just the case of DVDs but also for the CD-R/RWs. I am looking at upgrading and the Nec and Pioneer are being considered, the Toshiba is not because of my opinion regarding their performance.