DVD DL burner upgrade recommendations

[orangat]

Advances in dvd writers have been moving very quickly. What is the general consensus for the best DVD drive??

I heard that the 3500 stock firmware sucks, Liteon1633 are noisy (my other liteons seem ok?).

Other concerns are region free firmware availability. I'd like a quiter drive as well.

 

[ribbon13]

General consensus is overwhelmingly ND-3520a

 

[piromaneak]

I was recommended the Plextor PX-716SA... It's SATA (for future-proofing if you subscribe to that teaching) and it reads and writes EVERY CD and DVD format except for DVD-RAM (Which no one cares about anyway). And it's right on par speed-wise with all the others and usually bests them. And it's a Plextor. Need I say more?

 

[ribbon13]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1535820&enterthread=y

 

[piromaneak]

thats the beautiful thing about the internet... download the Plextools off the net

 

[Accord99]

Originally posted by: orangat
Advances in dvd writers have been moving very quickly. What is the general consensus for the best DVD drive??

I heard that the 3500 stock firmware sucks, Liteon1633 are noisy (my other liteons seem ok?).

Other concerns are region free firmware availability. I'd like a quiter drive as well.

BenQ 1620 if you want best overall burn quality, best manufacturer firmware support, support for +R bitsettings out of the box and burnt disc error checking capabilities.

 

[Baked]

NEC 3520A is on par w/ BenQ DM1620 in terms of burn quality w/ a quick firmware flash. NEC 3520A has a lot more firmware updates and options. The only thing it lacks is the ability to do quality scan test. But it burns all +R media as DVD-ROM, which will make the DVD compatible in virtually all players.

 

[amol]

The ND-3520A is the most popular on these forums, however, I highly recommend that you do not get a burner just because of Dual Layer technology. Dual Layer discs are about $8 for a quality disc, and with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD coming out soon, they will put DL out of business.

If you're doing backups, 2 regular DVDs are cheaper than a DL disc and if you're burning a movie, just use DVD Shrink

 

[orangat]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm getting DL drive for future proofing. I'm not too keen on Plextors because of the quality issues (supposedly fixed by newer models).

I've had 3 LiteOns DVDROM, CDRW, old DVD-r and I never had any issues +region free bios was a plus. So I'm keen on a LiteOn.

So Seriously how decent is the latest LiteOn 1673 compared to NEC3520? I read a post where someone said LiteOn's were noisy. And is the extra doosh for the Pioneer worth it?

Anandtech had an article about read/write BER and some brands (eg Sony) was crap. Any issues for NEC/LiteOn/Pioneer?

 

[piromaneak]

Quality issues with Plextor? Please elaborate... I haven't heard of any.

 

[orangat]

Originally posted by: piromaneak
Quality issues with Plextor? Please elaborate... I haven't heard of any.

Read some threads on the fairly new models of Plextor (2004) had quality issues and weren't worth the premium price.

Theres even a very recent threads on the 716a models having issues so I'm still wary.

 

[piromaneak]

Well I don't know about those but the PX-716SA got excellent reviews from many sites...

 

[SludgeFactory]

LiteOn's reputation has taken quite a hit in going from CD writing to DVD. Over the last couple years at optical disc forums you can find plenty of complaints about media incompatibility and write quality. I'd look for something else.

I've been satisfied with Pioneer 4X for a year and a half now, if I go to a 16X drive in the near future I'd probably look most seriously at NEC and Pioneer.

BTW, most everybody offers DL now, but it's not a make-or-break (or upgrade-demanding) feature IMO. I would venture to guess that >90% of this forum has never burned a DL disc with their DL drive, unless it was a blank that came with the drive. The media is still *way* too expensive, and I also suspect that they're going to be leapfrogged by the newer optical formats.

 

[nealh]

I have to disagree the BenQ 1620 seems to have better burn quality than the NEC3520..some think this is inferior to 3500...check over at cdfreaks

 

[kuljc]

Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
LiteOn's reputation has taken quite a hit in going from CD writing to DVD. Over the last couple years at optical disc forums you can find plenty of complaints about media incompatibility and write quality. I'd look for something else.

definatly, I know this first hand. I just ordered myself a plextor 716a, it got really good reviews and although a couple of people have had legit problems w/ the drive, that's common for everything.

but anyways, what i was trying to say is don't get liteon unless there's something new that I'm missing and they've totally turned around and are making usable dvd burners.


also benq and nec are both really popular at anantech, and well people havn't really been complaining about them. So if you want I think you'll be fine.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: piromaneak
thats the beautiful thing about the internet... download the Plextools off the net

Heck, you don't even have to. The 716A and 716SA come with Plextools on the included software disk.