DVD writer recommendations

[swiftynz]

I'm currently in the market for DVD writer since prices have finally come down to reasonable levels, but it seems that the market is quite a confusing one, much more so than it was back in the day when CD Writers were new.

I figured that going for brands which had previously produced good CDRW drives would be a good idea, but now I'm not so sure.

My father has purchased a Liteon 411S, and has had few problems, just teething troubles really. It recieved good reviews and from what i've seen is a good burner.

I've also heard good things about the Pioneer AO6 which a few people here seem to have, and this look to be the safe option, although a little too expensive for me. The 1O6 appears to be the same, but OEM version.

Sony have had both good and bad reviews, but Sony tend to be a little overpriced anyway.

Another drive i'm interested in is the BTC DRW1004IM. Reviews for it seem to be non-existant, but I did stumble accross a couple of forums dedicated to it, which had a BTC rep posting there. They also seem to be releasing frequent firmware updates which tends to indicate a good level of support.
However all the support in the world means nothing if the hardware isn't up to scratch, and i'm reluctant to buy without having read some reviews or reliable personal experiences first.

So basically I was wondering what peoples experiences are with the various DVD+/-RW drives available, so please post here with what brand/model you have and what you think of it. :)
Any to avoid?

Cheers.

Here are some of the roundups/reviews i've read:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/127/1
http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20031027/
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/dvd-roundup.html
http://www.cnet.com/Storage/4521-6605_7-5021413-3.html?tag=tp

[Dartani0n]

The BTC model has just dropped in price (in a couple of days should find retailers selling it for as low as about $230 + GST) and the people I know who own one have had no complaints that Im aware of.

I have owned 3 different speed BTC CD writers and have never had to have one replaced under warranty, they were the first CD writers I found that came standard with a 2 yr warranty, and they were the first CD writer I tried that works with 99 min 870 MB CD-R's without problems. So if their CD-RW drives are any indication of their DVD writers then Id quite happily (and am considering) buy one.

Sorry I cant give personal experience from using their DVD writers (yet) though.

[Dan_NZ]

Buy a Sony

Specs
here (http://www.storagebysony.com/cd-rw/product.asp?id=207)

Spensive but a good drive. We have one at woek and it gets a hiding:D

What about Aopen...their drives are generally good quality and resoanbly cheap

Dan

[sparkles]

i have the sony dru510a, and so far it has been reasonably good... the only thing i would say is that it didn't seem to like some cheap nasty blank dvd's that i got from crazy a couple of weeks ago. another mate with the same drive had exactly the same issues too, so it looks as though there is an issue there. crazy was (as far as i'm aware) able to burn the discs fine on his pioneer one.

the reason why i got the sony one was because it was cheap, but otherwise i'd probably go for the pioneer one. i would personally avoid the btc one, i've had dodgy experiences in the past with their cd writers and dvd players... most of the time they'd be fine, but then sometimes all hell would break lose with them and they'd refuse to pick up discs.

[swiftynz]

Aopen used to be good back in the days when 20x CDR speed was fast. Since then they've gone downhill and now I wouldn't touch the brand. Would certainly take a BTC over an Aopen any day.

The Sony is simply out of my price range unfortuntely, I'm looking to spend less than $300 (hopefully quite a bit less). And anyway, I plan to use cheap media. :p

The pioneer A06/106 looks to be top runner currently, might just have to wait a while till I can afford it though.

[Iblis]

The MSI writer I bought from starlyte is going beautifully... especially after returning the POS NEC that I had prior (I should've known not to get an NEC drive after my first two). Smooth as a baby's ass, and it writes double-data CD's(1400MB's for you slow ones), but is VERY picky about the media that it will do so with. All-in-all, good impression from me. Cheap as hell, 8MB buffer, and writes both formats flawlessly. ;)

[Dartani0n]

1400 Mb Double data CD's? Never heard of them.. sounds good tho.. for DVD-writers only or do they work in some CD-RW drives?

[NTBlowz]

Currently I am waiting for DVD+RW writer with dual layer DVD+R/RW (ie 8.5GB).. so you can back up most of your DVDs without ripping them :cool:

Btw I thought only Sony have double density CD writer.. looks like MSI is da winner on this one

[Iblis]

Originally posted by Dartani0n
1400 Mb Double data CD's? Never heard of them.. sounds good tho.. for DVD-writers only or do they work in some CD-RW drives?
Only work in the writer they were made in for now, but Sanyo claims it is an easy firmware update for any cd-rom to read them.
Originally posted by NTBlowz
Currently I am waiting for DVD+RW writer with dual layer DVD+R/RW (ie 8.5GB).. so you can back up most of your DVDs without ripping them :cool:

Btw I thought only Sony have double density CD writer.. looks like MSI is da winner on this one
I, too, await the dual-layer drives. They have been announced, but no working models as of yet....I can only hope that by the time they do arrive, DVD writers will be cheap and plentiful, and I can have 2 :D
Sony, Yamaha, Sanyo, and Plextor all have writers that do extended data writes, they do so by calibrating the laser to write smaller, "dvd-like" pits on a CD-R's track. The MSI drive i have is essentially a rebadged Sanyo.
http://www.digital-sanyo.com/BURN-Proof/HD-BURN/

[SerN]

I have the BTC DRW1004IM and i'm really happy with it. I mostly use it for burning all my home video off my DV camera to DVD but also use it for backing up data.
The biggest thing with DVD writters is the compatability with media. There is a lot of cheap dodgy media out there and the BTC seems to be able to burn most cheap dodgy brands without trouble.

You can't really go wrong with BTC, it's cheap and very reliable and most importantly is compatible with nearly all brands of media. :)

[d2ba]

The Pioneer is looking a little dated now and only comes with a 12
month warrentry.

I like the LiteOn 411S now only $207 from XPC Computers,
Its got a 2 year -full replacement warrentry.
I really like the company as a whole-their build quality is the best
and most invovative in the business
Its still a pig with some media but should be fixed with a firmware
update

My gut feeling on DVD Writers is that the drives will wear out badly compared to CDRW and be weary of 12month warrentries

The new MSI with 8M buffer looks great-their is a review in latest Atomic

[swiftynz]

My dad's liteon 411S is quite a nice burner. He asked me which one he should get beforehand and after doing some quick research I suggested the 411S because of liteon's good name, the 2 yr warranty, the price, and it had recieved pretty good reviews in general.

As I said before he has had some minor troubles with it, but whenever i've used it myself i've had no problems at all, even with those cheap TDK DVD-R's from styles. Only problem is that they wont read in my sony dvd-rom, but I can hardly blame the writer for that. :(

I've decided to hold off for a while and get one when prices come down a little further and the technology matures a bit.

Footnote: didn't realise I had posted this in multimedia, it was actually supposed to go in open topic, my apologies. :(

[glyde]

got me the pioneer 106d black oem writer last week, so far ive found it quite well built, very quiet and ive burned almost 20 dvds in a few different brands and + and - r so far no coasters and quite compatible.

review here
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=Pioneer+DVR%2DA06+DVD %B1RW+recorder&Series=0

[AfterBirth]

Thanks guys that was well kewl.
Looks like ill try for the pioneer one as it will do mostly what i want.

[MoNk]

I also have the Pioneer 106d black oem.

I couldn't beleive how quiet it was. I havn't burnt any DVDs yet, but it burns CDRs very well :rolleyes:

Where about do people buy their DVDR/RWs?

[Dartani0n]

Something I found out today, that some of you may not be aware of, is that the..

Lite-On 411S
Gigabyte W040A
BTC 1004IM

..are almost identical drives, they use the SAME controller chips, and score almost identical scores on all benchmarks (except the Gigabyte has 1 weird habit, takes about 5 mins longer than others when writing one of the DVD RW formats, either + or - cant remember).

I havent been able to find any reviews on the BTC writer, but the Gigabyte model has good reviews and the Lite-On writer has EXCELLENT reviews ( http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/127/1 )

Given these 3 writers retail between $230 and $250 incl gst, it makes them some of the cheapest in the country.

Im not sure of the warranty on the Lite-On, maybe only 1 year, but the BTC is definitely 2 YEARS which is a big plus.

[Agent666]

Originally posted by swiftynz
Footnote: didn't realise I had posted this in multimedia, it was actually supposed to go in open topic, my apologies. :(

even if you had posted it there the mods would have moved it.......

[d2ba]

These days the LiteOn 411S/811S is slighty better than the Pioneer due to all the firmware, bit setting and third party apps

http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=44

[WhiteDragon]

The BTC/Gigabyte writers are supposed to have horrible media compatibility compared to the Liteon.

[Oblivian]

By the looks (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDname=1004im&cdrs=&cdrws=&dvdrs=&dvdrws=&dvdprs=&dvdprws=&dvdrams=&buffer=Any&list=0&Search=Search) only if you use cheapies.

/notes the BTC is 32xCD/6xDVD read compared to Gigabyte 12xDVD

That site has its uses other than the naughty suggestions. It reviews media down to the code on the inside of the media itself for exact matching.

[Dartani0n]

According to some NZ retailer websites, the Lite-On drives also have 2 year warranty.

I think out of the 3, this is the drive to go for if you want something under $250..

..with the BTC in 2nd place.. I also found out that the Gigabyte writer is MADE by BTC as an OEM drive and then badged Gigabyte.. but with a 1 year warranty.

The Pioneer drive would have to have some very good reviews (and similar price) to swing my vote over the Lite-On.

[swiftynz]

Originally posted by Agent666
even if you had posted it there the mods would have moved it....... Well the general hardware forum was still just the driver forum when this thread was posted, and even when that post was made. But anyway back on topic...

The lite-on's have a 2 year warranty also, and if I was to buy one now, it would undoubtably be a 411S.

[Dartani0n]

Originally posted by Oblivian

/notes the BTC is 32xCD/6xDVD read compared to Gigabyte 12xDVD


All 3 writers have the exact same read speeds, but some websites showing specs for the Gigabyte writer only show the *maximum* DVD read spead (which is for single layer DVD-Rom only). They read slower for the writable media:

Read
DVD-ROM
12x ( 16200KB/sec ) maximum by CAV
( single layer )

DVD-ROM
8x ( 10800KB/sec ) maximum by CAV
( dual layer )

DVD+/-R/RW
6x(8100KB/sec) maximum by CAV

[Dartani0n]

Who imports the LiteOn dvd writers into NZ ?


I find it hard to believe that hundreds of small NZ online computer retailers all import them individually.

I have checked with the importers that I deal with, and I know who brings in the BTC and Gigabyte models, but not the LiteOn.