Looking for a new DVD burner... recommendations?
- Thread starter PARANOiA
- Start date
I have an external LG one and it's great. Reliable, DL, very fast and supports everything. 
I had a Liteon before and it lasted not much more than a year..
I had a Liteon before and it lasted not much more than a year..
Not that it matters, but I have three lite-on DVD burners all of which are 2-3 years old and I have a liteon CD burner that is over 6 years old and all work perfectly still.
I personally greatly want a SATA dvd burner which leaves me looking at the Plextors which cost to much and there were reliability concerns. LG but still pricey and slow. And finally samsung makes the Samsung WriteMaster SH-W163 which appears to be a great one, but it isn't on sale in the states only the EU. I actually have thought about getting someone over there to buy it and send it here, but it seems too much hassle if it breaks.
I personally greatly want a SATA dvd burner which leaves me looking at the Plextors which cost to much and there were reliability concerns. LG but still pricey and slow. And finally samsung makes the Samsung WriteMaster SH-W163 which appears to be a great one, but it isn't on sale in the states only the EU. I actually have thought about getting someone over there to buy it and send it here, but it seems too much hassle if it breaks.
Cant comment on their burners, but the one DVD-Rom I bought is VERY picky when reading, not in the same league as (original) Toshiba and not even "good" - but that might be just my luck. The bad thing is that Toshiba is using Samsung-drives starting with SD-M2012, and those just arent compareable to their old ones
Regarding burners Im quite happy with my Pioneer DVR-109, I surely would buy one again.
Personally I'd go with another NEC ND3550A. They are cheap and I've used 4 of them. There are about a zillion positive reviews of it at Newegg too. Actually over 1100 reviews averaging apparently 5 stars. LOL.
I had really, really bad luck with a Lite-On 812S 8X burner a couple years back. It burned with a very low quality and I had tons of barely readable disks. I even tried 3rd party firmwares with the POS.
Another good place to do some research/ask this question/look for posts asking this question is over at Club CD Freaks.
I had really, really bad luck with a Lite-On 812S 8X burner a couple years back. It burned with a very low quality and I had tons of barely readable disks. I even tried 3rd party firmwares with the POS.
Another good place to do some research/ask this question/look for posts asking this question is over at Club CD Freaks.
Last edited by a moderator:
I've used the Samsung SATA drive, it's very good, nice and quiet though if it's only available in the EU that may not help you LG are now doing a SATA drive at about the same price (£25 in the UK, so probably $25 in the US).
The one thing to be wary of with SATA optical drives is that not all BIOSes can boot from them. I've had one mobo which did (nForce based), another which didn't (ATI chipset based).
To be honest my view on optical drives these days is that it's not worth paying three times as much for one which you think might last longer. DVD writers are disposable these days IMO. If you can get one which is a) cheap, b) doesn't burn coasters, then don't worry if it'll crap out in 18 months, just buy another one then. I'm sure others will disagree with me
LG are now doing a SATA drive at about the same price (£25 in the UK, so probably $25 in the US).The one thing to be wary of with SATA optical drives is that not all BIOSes can boot from them. I've had one mobo which did (nForce based), another which didn't (ATI chipset based).
To be honest my view on optical drives these days is that it's not worth paying three times as much for one which you think might last longer. DVD writers are disposable these days IMO. If you can get one which is a) cheap, b) doesn't burn coasters, then don't worry if it'll crap out in 18 months, just buy another one then. I'm sure others will disagree with me
Like swaaye, I'd say just get a NEC. They're damn cheap, damn good, and despite the low price actually feel solid in their build quality. They have stuff like rubber O-ring seals around the drive tray too to cut down on the (horrendous) noise optical drives make, and the later models can read/write DVDRAM discs as well which is nice for backup purposes, assuming you can find some RAM discs!
I've used the Samsung SATA drive, it's very good, nice and quiet though if it's only available in the EU that may not help you
He did not say where he was from so he might be in EU? Anyway I am jealous
The worst ever DVD drive I ever owned was a samsung, not only was it noisy as a gas turbine (weell, almost anyway ), it was unreliable too, with lots of read errors causing it to spin down, and then UP again, and down, and UP again... Over and over. It also had buggy firmware. Often it would simply refuse to spin down after a period of inactivity and simply roared on at maximum RPM - sometimes revving back to maybe 60-80%, and then slamming the throttle back up again. I once had the thing sitting there at max speed for quite a while on purpose, and when I finally tired of the god damn NOISE and popped out the disc, it felt nearly frying-pan hot. What a worthless hunk of crap that drive was! Typical korean samsung shit.
I'll never buy anything samsung, not voluntarily anyway.
), it was unreliable too, with lots of read errors causing it to spin down, and then UP again, and down, and UP again... Over and over. It also had buggy firmware. Often it would simply refuse to spin down after a period of inactivity and simply roared on at maximum RPM - sometimes revving back to maybe 60-80%, and then slamming the throttle back up again. I once had the thing sitting there at max speed for quite a while on purpose, and when I finally tired of the god damn NOISE and popped out the disc, it felt nearly frying-pan hot. What a worthless hunk of crap that drive was! Typical korean samsung shit.I'll never buy anything samsung, not voluntarily anyway.
Currently (actually, for quite a while) BenQ produces the best DVD burners on the market - by a long shot. The odd NEC burner can sometimes come close but that's it. They consistently come out on top where it counts: media compatibility and write quality.
Plextor aren't what they used to be. Their greatest strength has always been very solid firmware for whatever OEM drives they rebranded, plus a pretty nifty software bundle with neat tools for media analysis. The latter one is still true but their firmware (and thus write quality and media compatibility) aren't the best anymore, certainly not worth the premium they're asking for their products (basically double the price of a BenQ...). The IDE version PX-760 is good but not even in the top group. Not worth the money. The SATA version is said to be worse, for some reason. It's probably still better than the abysmal Samsung though.
Right now, there is no SATA burner I would spend my money on. The two SATA burners I am aware of are either crap (Samsung) or mediocre and overpriced (Plextor)
The best DVD writer currently available is probably the BenQ DW1655 - even though the latest firmwares have reportedly some problems, just make sure to use the older "BCGB" or "BCDC" revisions. Or get a DW1640, which is still a very solid drive. LG seem to be pretty good, too.
Plextor aren't what they used to be. Their greatest strength has always been very solid firmware for whatever OEM drives they rebranded, plus a pretty nifty software bundle with neat tools for media analysis. The latter one is still true but their firmware (and thus write quality and media compatibility) aren't the best anymore, certainly not worth the premium they're asking for their products (basically double the price of a BenQ...). The IDE version PX-760 is good but not even in the top group. Not worth the money. The SATA version is said to be worse, for some reason. It's probably still better than the abysmal Samsung though.
Right now, there is no SATA burner I would spend my money on. The two SATA burners I am aware of are either crap (Samsung) or mediocre and overpriced (Plextor)
The best DVD writer currently available is probably the BenQ DW1655 - even though the latest firmwares have reportedly some problems, just make sure to use the older "BCGB" or "BCDC" revisions. Or get a DW1640, which is still a very solid drive. LG seem to be pretty good, too.
Last edited by a moderator:
Not quite the case, esp re: 1650/55. Output can be variable & given it's an 8ECC scanner PIF (& jitter) measurements are suspect. As a scanner/reader, it's also more susceptible to errors with increasing jitter. This has been corroborated by other brands, inc. Pioneer, LG, NEC, etc. The 1620/1640 were the best stock burners available in their day. The latest 1670 is mediocre. BenQ sold their DVDRW business to Liteon & now work on BR & HDDVD. The latest Liteon 6S burners can now produce better PIE, PIF, & jitter results (esp with ES FW). There is a Liteon SATA version of the 165P6S called the 165S6S.
Yep, i just bought a dvd burner from newegg for 30 bucks (samsung), pretty good drive so far. I'll more than likely replace it, when we get afordable BR/HD burners.To be honest my view on optical drives these days is that it's not worth paying three times as much for one which you think might last longer. DVD writers are disposable these days IMO. If you can get one which is a) cheap, b) doesn't burn coasters, then don't worry if it'll crap out in 18 months, just buy another one then. I'm sure others will disagree with me
epic
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Unfortunately Benq is now out of the DVD/CD writer market. They've sold everything to Liteon and drives are no longer being shipped out to Europe or US. If there are any more Benq drives, they will just be rebadged Liteons. They were one of the few drive makers that had a plextor-like ability to create their own write strategies on the fly.
Plextor used to be good and commanded quite a price premium. Unfortunately they also rebadge a lot of stuff, and since moving their manufacturing out of Japan, took a major hit on their reputation with poor quality manufacturing and problematic firmware. In view of the low cost of other drives on the market, paying 2-3 times that amount to get a Plextor that is actually a rebadged drive doesn't seem to make much sense.
That's because the Plextors were BenQ OEM. BenQ Solidburn & WOPC don't always produce the most optimal results. The latest Liteon official & ES firmware enables similar on-the-fly write strategy adjustment for known/unknown media via HT, OHT, & OS. Likewise, activating all options does not always give the best results.
Similar threads
