DVD/RW best Drives.. any DVD experts here?

[Nv40]

found this review by the PCworld.com

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,116581,00.asp

according to them ,those are the Top tens best DVD drives burners..
i will like to know your opinions about this .. im looking to buy a really decent DVD/RW burner.. while many tech sites often drop list about which ones are the "best" hardware in this or this.. from my experience many times ,many reviewers only test the hardware on the surface ,but never stress it ,heavily and under every important situation..

i worked on a ..COmputer STore ,where they sells tons of diferent brands with computers equipment of every kind ,and you will be surprised by the Huge amount of hardware we received back ,because it failed to work at times ,and by "coincidence" it many times from the same company. (nothing to do with video cards by the way) :) and many times hardware labeled as "Best" in very respected online websites that "reviews" PC hardware.

things very important to me are..

1) Hardware Quality.. Doesnt matter how good a DVD burner is ,if it get broken easily ,and have flaws internally with weaker parts ,and fails to work problems with some of internal ardware.. quality is extremely important..

2)accuracy and quality with the recording..and compatibility ,if they are compatible with the most popular software outhere for Copy protection.. very important too.. i will like to have copies of all my pc games.. and use the copies instead of the originals which with time get scratches ,and fails to load if they are severly damaged. currently i need to buy QUake3 CD again.. :( because the CD doesnt work. so many use in Lanparties ,and many others looks that will suffer the same destiny.

3) that works flawlessly with any CD/DVD media from any brand.
i know of CD recorders that doesnt like some kind of brands. and people usually need to buy Cd's from the same brand.

4) Features..and Speed and modes that it support. any detailed information here are welcome..

5)the silence at in which it works.. you wont believe how Louder are some DVD burners.. unbelievable.. bough one.. recently and changed it (i/o magic) because of the horrible sound alone.. the same day i changed the DVD another Guy also changed it because of that. :D

6)and finally how quickly it works... there are some DVD's that you feel like you will be waiting a a year to load or recognize the DVD you have inserted there.


i know that Plextors are very popular ,(and very expensive) so will like to know more about other brands if there are others as efective and cheapier if possible. so any info is welcome ,but also if you know of really good sites to be informed about DVD burners ,everything a serious users need to know.. drop me a link..

[lightman]

The "review" is seriously flawed. It misses a lot of good burners out there, e.g., the LG Electronics GSA-4120B or the NEC ones or the Philips ones (yeah, I know, only +r/rw, and so ?), all of them supports dual-layer, btw...

As for point 3 of your list, forget about it. Seriously. You won't find *any* burner that works flawlessly with every cd/dvd brand/type.

[saturnotaku]

If you want a lot of good information about CD/DVD burners, I would highly advise you to visit CD Freaks (http://www.cdfreaks.com) and its forums (http://club.cdfreaks.com). I've spent hours going through that site and forums looking for information about hardware and software. I've been trying to find a worthy replacement for my old Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-RW and thanks to that site, I've finally settled on the LG 4120B. I had a Sony that burned coasters with different media, a Plextor that was just too expensive and now a Lite-On whose drive tray buzzes and rattles in my case. We'll see how this one goes.

[lightman]

Oh, btw, I forgot to give you a useful link :

VideoHelp.com (or dvdrhelp.com) (http://www.videohelp.com/)

take a look.

[Nv40]

If you want a lot of good information about CD/DVD burners, I would highly advise you to visit CD Freaks (http://www.cdfreaks.com) and its forums (http://club.cdfreaks.com). I've spent hours going through that site and forums looking for information about hardware and software. I've been trying to find a worthy replacement for my old Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-RW and thanks to that site, I've finally settled on the LG 4120B. I had a Sony that burned coasters with different media, a Plextor that was just too expensive and now a Lite-On whose drive tray buzzes and rattles in my case. We'll see how this one goes.


thanks for the links..

here is a review i found about the LG
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=2086

anands found some issues wit dual layer media.. did you know if that ahve been fixed yet?

a side note..
im now testing the Pioneer 8x8 single layer. DRV-A07XLA

http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/product_detail.jsp?product_id=7868&taxonomy_id=43-92

any cons of this burner?
I have the oportunity to pick a Sony DVD 8x or a 8x TDK
or any other from here..

http://www.compusa.com/products/products.asp?N=200765&CusaNe=200454

as i said for me is very important quality recording ,durability of the hardware (bullet proof :) ) , and compatibility ..(if i record something there ,will work on any other DVD brand) and last but not least noise.

the Pioneers so far are stealth.. hehe so thats a good start.. :)
any feedback apreciatted..

[lightman]

here is a review i found about the LG
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=2086

anands found some issues wit dual layer media.. did you know if that ahve been fixed yet?

Hrm... dunno about that particular issue, but the LG looks really good. A friend of mine bought it a couple of weeks ago, so far, it's been great.

I wouldn't worry too much about that issue, though. Just consider the fact that dual layer media are really difficult to find and still way too much expensives. By the day they'll become more affordable, LG will probably have a firmware update to solve the problems ready. ;)


Edit: take a look at this review (http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20040707/index.html) form Tom's Hardware. They tested both the LG and two other burners from BenQ and Lite-On. They had no failures with DVD9 (DL) burning, so I guess it's been either an incompatibility with the media used by Anand, or a problem with the particular drive he used for the review.


as i said for me is very important quality recording ,durability of the hardware (bullet proof :) ) , and compatibility ..(if i record something there ,will work on any other DVD brand) and last but not least noise.

Take a look at the link I gave you in my previous post, you'll find quite a number of data regarding everything you need :)

[Dazz]

The NEC 2510A is kickass man, dual layer DVD's 9.2GB of data on a disc man!!!!!!!

[Slyder]

LiteOn 832s is a dual layer burner, and is just the daddy at the moment. ;)

[jAkUp]

I have always had good luck with Liteon drives/Burners... They last a long time, rarley have coasters, and arent very expensive... On my next drive I really wanna get an SATA Plextor... be gone with IDE!!!!

[MUYA]

I have a LG GSA-4082B. This DVD writer does all formats/standard as well and writes DVD + or - at 8X. However u can get 12X or 16X dor DVD _ or + these days. The main thing however is availabilty of media that can be burned at 8X for cheap! ....and there are very lil that can...

[majortom]

i highly suggest the nec 2500a, because of all the sweet sweet hacked firmware. its 8x burning, and only about 70$ on newegg.com. one of hte hacks allow this single layer burner to burn dual layer. although i am not telling anyone to :retard: . but try any dvd/cd burner forums online. cdfreaks is pretty helpful. :spam2: