Hello soon i´m going to buy me an xbox. I want 1.1 and i know how to identify it. But how do i know if i´ve got an 1.1 with a samsung drive??? Is there some way to indentify it, without opening the xbox??

And merry x-box-mas from Sweden to u all.

I'll have to move this one to the FAQ forum

POSTMARKER: WHATSTOCKDVDDRIVEDOIHAVE

MOD EDIT: Adding in updated image links, old URLs were dead. -Xeero (07.16.03)

Philips...


Thomson...


Samsung...

worst one is thompson.....best = samsung.

QUOTE

Cheerio Posted on Mar 6 2003, 02:54 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- worst one is thompson.....best = samsung.

that's really just an opinion.

I have a DVD+RW burner, so Thompson works great for me (since it is the only one that can read DVD+)

i would have to disagree that the worst is tompson...cuz when i had a tompson it read all my cheap dvd-r, but not cdrw...now i have a philips...all it reads is cdrw...and none of my dvd-r ... so yeahh...if it came down between tompson and philips..i would go with tompson

yeah, i got a thompson. It reads almost all cdrw brands, and all dvd+/- r/rw that ive tried. I even got it to read a cdr that had music on it that i copied to the hd (but it went very slow).

I just wanted to add something to this list. I have a philips drive in my Xbox and thought I was going to have to get a new DVD drive for my Xbox or purchase a new DVD-RW drive because I have a DVD+RW drive and all of the DVD+Rs I tried didnt work. The only media that I got to work with the philips drive was CD-RWs! I gave it one last chance and tried Sony DVD+Rs and it worked. I tried eight other brands and thay didnt work. I hope this can help someone that has the same drive and burner format as me and I hope it can save them some cash because I shelled out some big bucks tring to get this to work.

It all depends on the particular piece of recordable media as to what you're going to get to play well in what drive. Overall, the general concensus seems to be that the Samsungs have the best compatibility and reliability. The Thomsons, while maybe not necessarily having the worst compatibility, certainly are the least reliable of the bunch.

Having said all that, probably the most compatible and reliable (if done properly) solution (that still plays retail games) is the Samsung 616 mod, which seems to play darn near everything you throw at it. I only modded one to replace my dead Thomson cheaply, but many use it because it not only can play retail games without chip mods but is also very liberal in the kinds of recordable discs it can play well.

Just a quick note, Philips DVD+R 2x work like a charm in my xbox, I seemed to have some issues with TDK 4x's. I am currently using a samsung drive.

QUOTE

I just wanted to add something to this list. I have a philips drive in my Xbox and thought I was going to have to get a new DVD drive for my Xbox or purchase a new DVD-RW drive because I have a DVD+RW drive and all of the DVD+Rs I tried didnt work. The only media that I got to work with the philips drive was CD-RWs! I gave it one last chance and tried Sony DVD+Rs and it worked. I tried eight other brands and thay didnt work. I hope this can help someone that has the same drive and burner format as me and I hope it can save them some cash because I shelled out some big bucks tring to get this to work.

I think that you just solved my problem bro!! I have a phillips dvd and have been using dvd+R with nothing working. I am going to the store as soon as it opens, Thank You!!

I think the whole thing is a little funny..
I have got a thomson drive, and the only media I have tried that does not work is Kodak cdrw..

My friend has a samsung, and it does not read TDK CDRW,EMTEC CDRW,EMTEC DVD-R or verbatim cdrw...

The only thing that we get it to read is some cdrw's named something with silver in it's name..

I cant remember the name.

I've got a LG 4040B combo drive.

I bought a spindle of cheap dvd's (50 for 32 canadian). To this day, I havn't had a successful burn with any one of the discs. They also claim to be 4x but the max burn speed is 2x!

So I bought a couple of Ritek 4x dics. They work like a charm and burn in 12-15 min.

Slightly more expensive than the per-disc cost of the spindle, however it seems to be a reliable, high quality media.

On a side note, I have a Samsung. My friend also has a samsung, but he can read all my discs flawlessly... whats the deal? Even drives from the same manufacturer can have different reading abilities?

I have a thompson that plays Sky 2x movies but not games what is up with that? I know the game works bc it works in my friends who has philips

I've seen some philips drives that have the same tray as a thompson weird huh?
Mostly in one I get from wal mart but whatever hope this helps

Thomsons suck disc i had one wouldnt let me flash my bios install evox from slayers disc so i bought a samsung thomson suck i tried 15 media of cd-rw !

im about to an xbox, and i want to know what dvd drive would be the best for it. I have a dvd burner and buy dvd-r as i get them very cheap and never had a problem with them on dvd players. So i want to know what dvd drive is best for dvd-r discs?. As from what i have read here, im confused. I thought thompson drives were meant to be crap until i read here,and i am just wondering are they crap and people are just saying there good because thats the dvd drive they have and they wanna stick up 4 it and say nothing bad about it.

You have a Thomson...so you want a new DVD drive huh? Get a lens replacement off of ebay for like $30 (which includes shipping). Type in Thomson Lens and you can get a new one...Why buy a new drive whenever this is cheaper and better than spending $80 or so for a Samsung...Your modified thomson will read all media at 2-5 times the original speed.

soooo... the xbox dvd drives are swappable so long as they are from an xbox even if its not the brand dvd drive meant for your model of xbox? can someone clarify that for me? cause i have a thomson and all i hear are horror stories.

thanks

Isn't there also a list of what media works with each DVD drive?
I saw it once and can't seem to pinpoint it through the search (hundereds of posts regarding DVD, media, tray, samsung, etc.

whats all the fuss!

I have a Philips drive which is "Supposed to not be able to read sum media's",

mines plays the cheapest dvd - r and cheapest dvd + r discs that i could find! 49p for 1.

It works PERFECT, even cd-rw etc etc. I have used them for a while and never had 1 problem whether i burn my discs at 4 x, 6x or 8x!

I got a pioneer 107 dvd rw in ma pc so i can burn at 8x!!

Many thanks

Please post!

I have a thomson that reads DVD+RWs and CDRWs

It plays DVD movies on DVD-Rs, but doesn't like them otherwise. DVD-RWs do not work.

I haven't tried DVD+Rs.

I have a dual format burner and I prefer the + format, so I lucked out. The only downside is that I have a bunch of avi files burned on DVD-Rs that my box can't read.

drako: Yes. You can also put in a PC drive but thats a little more tricky and won't perform the same as the original drive without extra modifying, etc (and only specific drives).


seriouslysilly: They all ended up pointless in the end. Drives read different media. One Samsung could read everything and another could read no DVD+R for example.


digisatman: But what about cd-r? Does it read all the types of that that you throw at it? Not everyone has access to dvd burners or cheap media yet.

Morien

I agree though, Thomsons are highly underated. For dvd-r's IMHO they are easily the best and they even read ANY cd-rw that I have ever thrown at them... Whoever says they don't MUST be burning them wrong, now lets not try to get off topic onto slayers but I will anyhow
This is the tool I origionally used and man did it rule!

in my opinion thomsons are better than philips.. had more philips drives go bad on me more times than thomson drives

I've had 5 boxes so far, and in my point of view, the NEW Philips drives are just as good as any of the Samsungs. I'd never want to own a Thomson-Drive again, though. Same thing for the old Philips drives - they were horrible.

The new Philips drives (from the 4th Q of 2003 and on) will read anything I throw at it though - I've tried 6 different CD-RWs, they all worked. I tried 4 different CD-Rs, they all worked. DVD-Rs, DVD-RWs, DVD+Rs, DVD+RWs... they ALL work! The new Philips drives are just as good as the Samsungs, IMHO. I haven't found anything that it won't read so far.

i have 3 modded boxes in my house, 2 have samsungs and one phillips.


samsungs will play almost anything, phillips is a contankerous peice of crap!

will hardly play anything!!!


troy

Hey all-

I just bought a new Xbox and It looks like I have the Philips drive.

SHould I return it? I'm looking to mod it out and only use backups while keeping the originals safely tucked away (seriously). So I would like it to read Ritek G04 dvd-r or other medium quality media.

Lemme know if you have a sec.
Thanks
G

I have a Philips Drive in my Xbox. Sony DRU-500a Burner. I had the original Sony dvd+rw 2.4X media that came with it it worked fine untill i wore it out. Xbox would read it fine! Now i go out and buy media at local stores Memorex,Maxell, and Generic CompUsless all 1X dvd+rw not one worked out of 100 pcs. Meanwhile i am burning backups with no problems on Princo dvd-r 1x media!! then i purchased a sample pack with (2)Ritek, (2)Optidisc, and (2)Princo all dvd-rw 1 x. Tried every disc, out off (6) only (1) worked i thought ok the drive is picky no prob. I will just use this one Princo dvd-rw 1x for testing before creating the final backups on my xbox. So now i got (1) good Princo 1X drv-rw media. Well finally i wore that one out. So now i have a delima i know that it will be hard to find media that is going to work! So i go online and order a 25 pack of Princo dvd-rw 1x media. When it arrived i was ready to backup so stuff. put in the first disc made a backup of something i have previosly backed up just so i knew i was working with good ISO.
Well it Failed, I was ok with that. then i tried the second disc the third the fourth, Now i AM PISSED!! none of them work.... Read some post in this forum about which drive is better which one sucks. Then i realized that i had my old xbox that i fried " Don't ask Long story" it had a Thompsons drive in it and i know they donot read cd-r's but they do read most DVD's. I pulled it out of old Xbox put it in new one. booted it up and now i can read all the backups that failed!!!!!!

Bottom Line Thompson Drive Worked when Philips Failed!!! I wish i had a samsung to test also but i don't I will try to backup to the other media besides the Princo dvd-rw 1x in the future and might post if people request....

I'm confused, I have a ver 1.0 and I have and old philips I am worried because I dont know if I will be having any problems with it reading Dvd-r, I just ordered a toshiba dvd burner with a pack of go4 ritek 1x-4x dvd-rs, please let me know if will have problems with this drive reading my media, or if you have a similar setup let me know how it been working for you.

well i have the phillips drive, and ive found riteks are very buggy with it, the game will work for like 3 days and then it will stutter and have trouble reading giving dirty disc readings, ive switched to virbatim and TDK's and its working fine so far..
anyone with a phillips drive what DVD-Rs u guys using that work properly?

Is there any way to identify which drive you have from the serial number before you walk out of the store?

I have thomson drive i was wondering what cd burning software u used and what cds or dvds u used and did u out in a UPC code

Which dvd drive is best for dvd+r and/or dvd-r? I currently have a phillips (and can return it). Can it read those kinds of dvds? Or does the brand matter?

I have a philips dvd drive in my xbox, and it reads many of my cdrw's and i have alot of cheap brands also. It also reads my dvd+r's and dvd-r's also. Some people just depends on their luck. The only thing i wish is that it could read cdr's because i have alot of local band cd's and theirs isn't the OFFICIAL cd which companies make, so theirs is the personal cd burner kind :-/ hmm yeah

Just for people who have a phillips, heres my personal experience.

CD-RW's: Reads just about all.

DVD-R's: I use TDK's. They work, they are cheap, and you stick to what works, ya know?

CD-R's: I use imation's. For same reasons as above

I haven't bothered with DVD+R...

hmm the website I linked below have took the samsung xbox-dvd drive off the list I wonder I must have order the last but don't worry they sell a pre-moddem Samsung 616T DVD drive (16x) this can also play original xbox games you don't need a modded for that 616T.

http://secure.llamma.com/catalog/

I wonder if MS comes out with a pioneer dvd drive for xbox.
I have a 4 years old pioneer dvd drive and the laser is still working.

look like u all hate da thompson drive so i got 1 ,X aint modded just yet but soon enough n now i read bad shit bout sayin dat u cant flash da chips usin watever bios u guys got n im scared i ordered ma chip last night n any other ways 2 flash?

thanks peace

wacco, your buddy needs a new drive
every disc I try in my sammy works, and the other sammy drives I modded
the philips is BY FAR the worst!! sux major ass
had to tweak the pot on all of em

So far my samsung xbox drive has only failed to read 2 types of media both being dvd+r (memorex and sony)
I have found 6 dvd+r brands that DO work, and every dvd-r and dvd+rw I have tried work.
So far no cdr has failed to read That i have tried.
Its by far the best drive, Ive modded 16 xbox's now, with various drives, none of the (retail xbox type) drives come near the samsung.

I just traded in my regular XBOX for the special edition HALO box. I was told buy the guy at Software etc. that ALL of the HALO edition boxes have the SAMSUNG drives and the easiest way to spot it is the 2 holes in the tray. So I get home,, plug it in and open the tray. It only had the one big slot and not the 2 holes?! Judging from pictures I have seen I am pretty sure its a phillips drive. But the date code on the console is April of 2004. WTF?

anyone care to fill in a complete nOOb to XBOX internals. I am getting ready to build a second one for modding purposes so any little bits of info would help.

If you play large-filed games such as Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition, you'll notice a big difference with the drives as your file gets bigger. I have a Phillups, and when a save blockage gets past 150 my game progressivly lags more and more as I progress. At GAMEFAQs and the Official Morrowind board you hear about Thomson drive people crashing more then you hear about Samsung people; but then again, alot of Thomson people never complain at all about crashing or lagging more then the other drives...

I was just curious if anyone had the answer to what gielamonster quoted and asked? Is there a way to tell what dvd-drive a x-box has by a serial number on the packaging or anything before walking out of the store? By the different replies it seems that everyone agrees samsung is superior, and it would be somewhat annoying having to find a needle in a haystack of x-box's.

Thanks in advance.