HP 400i 8X +R writer

[BMR]

Not that I care much about HP optical products and given that this is only a +R and +RW drive, that further makes it uninteresting to me, but for those who are interested:

http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/consumer/ ... 2119a.html

BMR

[aviationwiz]

Arggh, No Dual Layer.

[Ian]

Specs can be found here:

http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/consumer/ ... _tech.html

If I remember right, the drive is based on Philips new design.

[Kennyshin]

Not that I care much about HP optical products and given that this is only a +R and +RW drive, that further makes it uninteresting to me, but for those who are interested:

http://www.hp-expo.com/uk/eng/consumer/ ... 2119a.html

BMR

HP drives are all designed and manufactured by Ricoh, Philips, NEC, and other great optical drive leaders.

HP released 2.4x DVD+RW drives in 2001 and now 8x DVD+R drives. There are quite many consumers specially interested in DVD+R/DVD+RW, especially if it's the fastest speed available backed by one of the largest PC makers in the world.

[djmorgan]

Knock HP if you like but I have a HP DVD writer 300i and not had one iota of problems with it, it's a USB 2.0 device.

I rate the lack of mention in forums like this as a plus for this drive, means nobody has problems with them, they sure have sold a lot of units of this model according to my retailer.

[BMR]

HP drives are all designed and manufactured by Ricoh, Philips, NEC, and other great optical drive leaders.

HP released 2.4x DVD+RW drives in 2001 and now 8x DVD+R drives. There are quite many consumers specially interested in DVD+R/DVD+RW, especially if it's the fastest speed available backed by one of the largest PC makers in the world.

I agree that there are many uniformed consumers who want to buy a rebadged drive that has HP's name on it, however, in my own experience in helping people with problems related to HP drives I have not been very impressed. I recall a certain HP CD writer that my brother purchased that would only burn with the proprietary software that HP bundled with the drive and not the current software of the day. He was most dissapointed, especially with the numbe of coasters he burned, and thus replaced it with a drive made by plextor ( a 12 speed writer - which many of you will remember was a big deal at the time - $400). As well, there are numerous drive makers comming out with 8 speed models at this time and a great deal of them are dual format, at the same price as the non dual formats. Thus, I am a bit negative on HP's offerings.

BMR

[aviationwiz]

Knock HP if you like but I have a HP DVD writer 300i and not had one iota of problems with it, it's a USB 2.0 device.

That makes no sense at all. the DVD 300i is an Internal drive, hence, the i. Are you thinking of the HP DVD 300e?

[Kennyshin]

Knock HP if you like but I have a HP DVD writer 300i and not had one iota of problems with it, it's a USB 2.0 device.

That makes no sense at all. the DVD 300i is an Internal drive, hence, the i. Are you thinking of the HP DVD 300e?

Maybe he used an external USB 2.0 case.

[Ian]

Well.. I don't buy HP because they're expensive. They also don't seem to release a lot of firmware updates. For most consumers though, this is fine.

[RJW]

Better buy the real thing instead of HP oem's.
It's cheaper and there's better firmware support.

[djmorgan]

No your right don't know what I was thinking... 300e is correct although it comes up as 300n as actual nomenclature.

[RJW]

Since this drives looks to be the one used for promotion of dual layer.
It could mean 2 things.
The technology +R is backwards compatible hardware wise for all drives. So it's just a question of firmware.
The drive has the technolohy but they just don't metion it at this time since the media is not there !

[Ian]

The technology +R is backwards compatible hardware wise for all drives. So it's just a question of firmware.

When I talked to Sony awhile back they said that none of the 4x or 8x drives that will ship this year will be able to write to dual layer discs. They said that there are components needed to do this that just aren't in these drives. Now.. I'm not sure if they're saying this just because this applies to their drives or what.

On the other hand, Philips or whomever did use the 400i as a demo drive. However, its possible that the guts of the drive were different. They just used a 400i case.

[Ian]

A little eye candy for you..

[Ian]

Oh yeah.. datasheet:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press ... s_400i.pdf

[Vanderlow]

Is someone saying they saw something in a 400i case burn to the new dual layer disc in a demo? or just read the disc? any drive should be able to read the new dual layer disc..... of course.

[jsl]

It comes from this Japanese report from Ceatec or to be more exact this picture with the caption "Drive for the PC of the Philips make which corresponds to 2 layer record" (Babelfish translation).

[dodecahedron]

note that that is a 400i (=internal) in a non-HP enclosure.
so there's no reason to believe that is'a a "true" 400i/e, it could be some prototype.

[Vanderlow]

Thanks for the info.