DVD-ROM Drives - Which one, what do I need to know?

[Nighthawk69]

Hey all-

I am looking into getting a DVD-ROM drive and I have a few questions about them..

1. Can you recommend a good brand or model to check into? I don't want to dish out a ton of money, but I want good image quality

2. Is there anything special I need to know? I have seen things about DVD decoder cards, do I need one of these? (specs below)

Thanks all, I appreciate it!

 

[Comp10]

Most people seem to think Pioneer makes the best drives, so one of their drives would be a good choice.

With the speed of your CPU you will not need a DVD decoder card. You just need to get a software decoder such as PowerDVD or WinDVD.

 

[Nighthawk69]

OK, are those apps bundled with the drives?

 

[Comp10]

Generaly no, although they are often bundled with video cards, but you can download a free trail version of WinDVD from here or PowerDVD from here and see which works the best on your system.

 

[Nighthawk69]

Apparently my Annihilator 2 doesn't have DVD software bundled... guess I'll have to try the trial's and buy the one that works best...

Do you have a link to the Pioneer DVD-ROM drives?

Thanks!

 

[Doomguy]

Toshiba. Quieter than Pioneer and they make the best drives for clonecd. WinDVD is the best dvd player.

 

[Supergax]

I have the Pioneer 16x slot-loading, pretty slick looking. I only got it for DVD's, since I have a cd-rom and a cd-rw. The slot loading is quite noisy with some cd's; I would take it the tray-loading is quieter. Of course, if you do a lot of duping, the Pioneer isn't supported by CloneCD (wish I new it sooner)

From what I see and hear the Toshiba's and Pioneers are neck and neck as the top drives; either way you go you should have no problems.

If you want to be able to do other things while watching dvd's think about getting a hollywood+ card; it has very nice s-video output on it. I like being able to watch dvd's on my tv while using my comp with almost no overhead from it (too cheap to buy a dvd player).

 

[slatt01]

For DVD info try here

For DVD drives information try here

 

[goldboyd]

i'd recommend pioneer, i've used a bunch and i'm a big fan. i'd stay away from toshiba, i've had issues with both dvd drives and set top models reading normal cd's.

 

[shawn_16]

i liked my toshiba 5x dvdrom before i sold it because i had it for a long time w/no problems
my pioneer 6x died on me recently after a few months worth of use (bought both of them used on this forum)

 

[Nighthawk69]

Thanks all! Looks like Pioneer is the way to go!