What's in the box? - External dvd1040e drive with DVD+-R/+-RW with DVD+-R up to 20x, double layer recording, DVD-RAM, and LightScribe direct disc labeling, Software CD including electronic user's guide, Quick-Start placemat, Getting Help guide, USB 2.0 cable, Power supply
Record to all major formats (+-R/+-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-R/RW), plus use LightScribe, on a single drive
Record double-layer DVDs at up to 8x, recordable DVDs at up to 20x, rewritable DVDs at up to 8x, and DVD-RAMs at up to 12x
Transfer hours of video onto DVD with your PC, then show on your TV
Get excellent playback compatibility on DVD drives and players, thanks to HP's testing standards
Average Customer Review: ( 33 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 39 found the following review helpful:
Good Writer, Lousy Nero Software Bundle Mar 28, 2008
By D Co Thought I would follow the instructions included with the writer. Installation went fine, the pc recognized the player. The install of the Nero software was a mess. It conflicted with the already existing burner software on my pc.
The Nero software has limitations, the player as-is will burn to DVD-R. With the Nero software you lose that functionality, due to some sort of licensing conflict.
What's the point of owning a writer, if the third party software doesn't allow you to write? I uninstalled the Nero bundle, but evidently it had made a change to my pc that would still not let the DVD writer to write.
Had to perform a system restore, and now the writer writes to DVD-R. Yay! Thats what I wanted.
Unfortunately the added feature of the software was going to be Lightscribe. But Nero bundled it into their all-in-one (all Seven-in-one!) executable, and doesn't allow for installing JUST the Lightscribe software.
It's not that important a feature. If I want it so bad, I'll just buy a copy online, or just use a magic marker.
Also, the Nero software wants you to associate all media files so that they run on it's software. Thats all your video files MOV, AVI, MPEG..., all your audio files mp3, wmv, wav..., all your image files BMP, JPG...(you have to deselect, to stop it from doing that)
The HP writer seems to work fine, HP (IMO) made an error in selecting the Nero bundle to include with the writer.
27 of 31 found the following review helpful:
Occasional problems reading movies. Dec 15, 2007
By Krystof PS--June 2008 upgraded from 2 stars to 4 stars. And so far, no other reviewer reports a reading problem. Maybe the problem was with my system. Also, I later installed an internal Sony DVD-RW and that now has no reading problems but intermittent writing problems. I've decided the best situation is to have 2 DVD drives from 2 different manufacturers. Where one doesn't work, the other generally does. So I would look mainly for a good price on a good brand, which would include this one. My original review follows, edited for brevity.
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This HP dvd1040 works fine for all reading of data and all writing of movies or data, but not for watching movies.
I like to use my computer to watch Netflix rentals. Several times, a DVD has not played in this HP DVD writer, but has played in both my Acer laptop and my stand alone Panasonic DVD player.
PS--In case you don't know, the 'lightscribe' label writer only works on discs with 'lightscribe' capability, which currently, seem to cost significantly extra. So long as this is the case, I just as soon pay less for standard discs, and to write my titles with an acid-free Bic Mark-It Retractable.
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Great external drive Jan 30, 2008
By Dominick Cannata Purchased this external drive 2 weeks ago because my internal drive was taking longer and longer to operate. As soon as I connected it to a USB port, Windows XP recognized it and assigned it as drive "G". It's worked flawlessly so far, both as a reader and a writer. Very much faster than my original internal drive which was only 8X. Finally got around to using the Lightscribe function, and I've got to say, it's pretty cool. The price is very reasonable, it's easy to install and operate, and I'm thinking of getting a second one to replace my other internal drive.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Works with PC and Mac -- No Problems Jun 19, 2008
By Weyman Swagger This HP burner has been simple and uncomplicated to use. It was made for PCs but works fine with both my Macs and PCs with no complications.
I haven't tried the software, just used the burner programs that I already had in my computers.
My needs are uncomplicated, just data backup, and this burner reads and writes without a hitch. My Macs and PCs read the data without a problem.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Great Burner, Crappy Software Apr 18, 2008
By Mandi This burner is very easy to use, just plug it in and go. I had to get a USB card because I didn't have USB 2.0. The burner will work without, but it will take two hours to burn a dvd. After the USB upgrade it took only minutes to burn a dvd. The only thing I would recommend is to not use the burning software that is included (Nero). It lagged my computer and would abort the burning process at times. I tried the online free 21 day trial of CloneDVD 2 and then decided to purchase it because it works so well. Overall this is an excellent burner, good price, and the lightscribe feature is nice.
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based on 33 reviews
Great external drive Jan 30, 2008
By Dominick Cannata
