What dvd burner do you have?

What Dvd burner(s) do you own?


  • Total voters
    172
Don't be shy!Interested to see what everybody else is buying.It should help new people with a purchase.Feel free to comment on your current burner,strengths/weaknesses.
 
Thanks! :)

I have a Plextor 708A,and Benq 800A.

Plextor pros..

Nice quiet drive.Good with cdr copy protections(audio&video).Good dvd-r copies.Ability to write dvd+r at faster speeds (8X on selected 4X discs).Very reliable drive.

Plextor cons...

No dvd+r bitsetting.Very slow access (disc recognition times).

Benq pros...

Ability to hack firmware (mine is 800 @ 822A).DL firmware support to be released in September.Dvd+r bitsetting.Good quality write strategy to dvd+r using bitsetting,and most medias.Fast access times.

Benq cons...

Dvd-r written quality could be better.Slow cdr write speeds(24X).Poor cdr for backing up protected game discs.
 
That ole fart, media hater Sony DRU-500a... but with the right media it's a real champ, AND an extremely good ripper of both CD's and DVD's, I will replace it only when DVD-9 toasters get mature.
 
I have the Optorite DD0401 (FW 150E) great drive. Only use ritek media and burn with burnatonce (.99b) and they play on everything. :D I've been meaning to try ProdiscS03 but at the moment I have a stock pile of ritek. Never burn cds with it thats what the liteon (LTR-523227S) for and as far as ripping goes thats what the other liteon is for (XJ-HD166S).
 
Just gone for a Liteon 1213S - not so sure I shouldn't have saved a couple of quid and gone for the better-hacked 812S instead - mind you, if the rumours are true, maybe a P-CAV mode, 16x and DL hack are around the corner ... 16x zone-CLV mode isn't really worth having, as it's a very samll zone at the end, about where many drives actully end up having to step DOWN due to increased error rate.

Liteon seen to be pushing back against the hackers, with the firmware now being encryted, and one firmware hacker being forced to remove auto-decrypt code.
This could be a mistake by Liteon, as one of the main reasons for regarding their drives is that they ARE hackable - they NEED it, as many people are getting far better results using write strategy swaps than with the supposedly "correct" strategy for the media.

Liteon DVD-RW drives: BAD drives, that can be made good - they also tend to bounce up and down with firmware, this version good, that version bad - later firmware is USUALLY better, but some media may take a real downturn in write quality.

If you need ONE drive to do DVD and CD-R, the Liteons have good CD-R write speeds, and can overburn - two things many other DVDR drives can be rather slack on - paired with a Liteon CD-R, I'd be more inclined to go for a Pioneer - a better DVD writer out of the box, with SOME firmware hack attention for riplock, RPC and speed.
 
Had a Pioneer A05, gave that to my son, now have the 107D. Both can burn to any media, firmware hackable and no need for bitsetting as I just use Ritek -R's and yet to find a dvd player that cant play them.
 
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