Hi all. Was wondering which DVDR drive is best to buy if I want to backup PS2 DVDR disks?
Are there compatability issues?
What about write speeds?
Which media is best?
Many thanks...

For ps2 games, The best media seems to be either Apple dvdr, of Verbatim dvdrs, anythink less and theres a chance "" of fmv and possible loading problems

I got mine Pioneer DVR-AO3 and its a charm. I only burn @ 1x but I have heard of people burning @ 2x with apple media or other quality media. And I only use apple media for PS2 games. The only thing is of you are going to burn a game 4 gigs or larger you need to have Windows 200 or XP, with NTFS formated hard drive.

most popular dvdr drive is pobably pioneer a03 and its most popular for a reason too!!!

can the pioneer do dvd movies? just to back up my collection of corse...

yeah the pioneer can do movies, i have the pioneer A03 dvd-r/rw and it work 100% ll the time for ps2 games :D the best software to use with the pioneer a03 for copying ps2 games is primo prassi dvd recording software....works a treat

Take a look at Pioneer's site for the new drive A04 (better speeds, ...)

What about the Panasonic drives?
Does anyone know what they are like for DVDR and compatability with PS2?
Whose using them?

Panasonic. Mitsumi, Matshita (all are the same stuff)

They SUCK. PERIOD!

Don't waste your money on those DVD or CDr burners - they are the ABSOLUTE WORST!

They all work, there isn't anything new to add. Don't get the HP one though, it only does dvdrw

If your patient wait around 6 months and they'll be half the price, They'll probably write faster too. I got one from simbirley and only had it a month, Far too slow and at a price. So my advise is hang on till a faster drive comes out or they reduce the price. Because they are just overpriced cd writers and the manufacturers are taking us all for mugs like they did when cd writers were first introduced.

I have a Pioneer A03 and use Apple Media only. It's good because if you're a Mac Junkie, the A03 is compatible with the Mac. HP is not, don't know about Sony.

Here's what you have to look for:

DVD-R compatibility. It has to be DVD(hyphen)R. The symbols are very important. Example, if I had a HP DVD+RW and I burned a +RW disc and then I tried to use that same +RW disc on my Pioneer which does /RW, it would NOT write. The only agreed standard out right now is DVD-R, so any drive will do it for you. HP, Pioneer or Sony. The glitch I refer to above only affects rewriteable media. All the big 3 drives will do DVD-R so you can backup your games and movies.

Pioneer stands for the DVR-R/RW standard, Philips (and HP and others) for DVD+R/RW and Panasonic for DVD-RAM. PS2 DVD's are DVD-R format, which means that Pioneer is probably the best buy. Meanwhile, Panasonic is selling a new drive which records DVD-R and DVD-RAM disks (but not DVD-RW). I agree with geobon about the prices drop in few months. Take a look at Memorex's site, they have a good doc on DVD disk formats.

Cheers.