Which Dvd Burner Should I Buy Options

[jodar]

After a suggestion on another thread I have (thanks jesterrace777) I was thinking about upgrading my DVD burner. My question is which one do YOU use?

NOTE: IF you haven't had lots of success or are wondering about your own drive, please either don't post, or inform me of such...don't want to buy a drive and then find out that even though it was being used, it sucked.

I don't want to spend more than 100 dollars, so if that is just not enough (although the mentioned NEC 3520A is less than that) to get a good one, then you can post that. Any and all advice is welcomed.

[deacon187]

i love my plextor px716a, they been around for a long time, pioneer is good too but the newest pioneer a lot of people are some problems with counsel back ups if you can get a hold of a pioneer 105 i say go for that but it a -R only drive the plextor is multi format and burns +r dl too and i havent had any trouble with it at all

[jesterrace777]

The NEC 3520A is definitely hard to beat for the price. $60 shipped or less from http://www.newegg.com. In addition it has a number of cool firmware upgrade options for it to allow you to burn slower media at faster speeds. Anyways, I too would push for the Pioneer 109 but given the mixed results, I can't really recommend it to anyone until they either release a good firmware update or the software companies release updates to make the software compatible with the new drive.

[drewstylz]

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=118027

my personal recommendation is the benq dw-1620a. the 3520 and gsa-4163b are also great drives. the big up for the benq is its error scanning capability and official media overspeeding support (as in no need for hacked firmware like the nec). all the drives are available at newegg. can't really go wrong with any of them

[celinedrules]

I use a TDK DVDRW0404N. Works perfect. Never has a problem burning backups for the Xbox.

[jesterrace777]

I use a TDK DVDRW0404N. Works perfect. Never has a problem burning backups for the Xbox.

The TDK drives are usually overpriced NEC burners though.

[jodar]

Think I'm gonna go with the NEC...how would one go about finding the firmware that I need as opposed to the original firmware.

[jesterrace777]

Check out rpc1.org. If the firmware exists then they either have it or point you to where you can find it.

[jodar]

also, just so I know...what does the firmware hack do, exactly? I don't care if I can't burn at 16X, so if it is just a speed thing, then I won't worry about it right now?

[chittnp]

I just bought the sony DRX-710ul (an external burner for my laptop) and so far it works great...it was on the pricey side though, but its a multi format dual layer burner...and external.

[dns8099]

Think I'm gonna go with the NEC...how would one go about finding the firmware that I need as opposed to the original firmware.

You've made a wise decision jodar. My NEC 3520A is on the way also. Newegg has a sweet deal going on right now: Get the drive for $58 - $3 (with coupon code: newanand1 ) = $55. PLUS, you can get an additional $5 more off if you add a RITEK RIDATA 8X DVD+R 4.7G 100 Pack Cakebox (among others) which also has a $12 rebate going on!! retty snazzy huh? Link: http://www.slickdeals.net/?pno=5793&lno=1&afsrc=1

[mb3k]

I recently bought the LG GSA-4163B-BK. Great buy, quiet drive, tri function, burns well!
http://www.memoryexpress.com/ProductDetail...yProductID=5263

A detailed review of it:
http://www.extrememhz.com/gsa4163b-p1.shtml

[jesterrace777]

also, just so I know...what does the firmware hack do, exactly?  I don't care if I can't burn at 16X, so if it is just a speed thing, then I won't worry about it right now?

Usually it allows the drive to rip faster (although I recommend having a seperate DVD-ROM drive to do the ripping), and it will usually allow you to burn media faster than it's rated speed. Although if I remember correctly the NEC will already do the latter right out of the box for certain media. You don't need the hacked firmware with the NEC , it should function just fine without it. It's just there as an option (which is nice to have).

[tutyet]

i dont think the firmware upgrade is helpfull, i mean its cool buring faster then you were ment to and maybe having a region free burner, which is i think better then burning faster becuase when i burn xbox game i always go 4x as you get better results! (proven)

i do think its good though becuase i really needed when i was flashing the kernal from my asus to pioneer 108 haha!

[drewstylz]

i dont think the firmware upgrade is helpfull, i mean its cool buring faster then you were ment to and maybe having a region free burner, which is i think better then burning faster becuase when i burn xbox game i always go 4x as you get better results! (proven)

i do think its good though becuase i really needed when i was flashing the kernal from my asus to pioneer 108 haha!

It's a huge misconception that you need to burn slow in order to get good results (Yes this is generally the case but my 12x burns are just as good as my 4x burns and work just fine on my xbox). Many of the hacked firmwares also have strategy swaps that allow media to burn with BETTER results at the same speed and possibly at a faster speed. The most important thing to do is to make sure you have good quality burns. That's why many people like lite-ons, the benq 1620, and other drives that allow you to scan for errors.

That being said, unless you're doing lots of burning, you don't really need to worry about hacked firmware. Most NEC drives do infact burn most media with great quality using official firmware.

This post has been edited by drewstylz: Mar 1 2005, 06:35 PM