is the TDK 16/10/40 cdrw drive a plextor drive?

[bomb99]

i just got it, way better than the yamaha 16/10/32 i was wondering is this TDk drive a rebadged PLEXTOR?

 

[NOX]

I hear it is not.

Go here.

 

[gamoon]

Well here's the news.... I purchased a TDK drive two weeks ago that was made in China and took back to the store because it did not perform as advertised. I went to Circuit City last night and bought another TDK 16x10x40 drive that was made in Japan...and guess what they are totally two different drives the drive made in Japan looks EXACTLY like the Plextor 16x10x40 drive and performs as advertised. I a happy camper now!!!

 

[KpocAlypse]

Its either a rebadged plextor or Sanyo, either or they share many of the same parts, just manufactured by different people..Hell anything with "burnproof" in it has some sayno stuff inside, they made the tech.

 

[Nerd]

The newer versions of the TDK is the rebadged Plextor's. You can tell if its the Plextor by checking the back of the unit. It should have a little fan on the left side. Also, if the firmware is like 5.xx then it isn't the Plextor. The Plextor firmware should be 1.00. That's exactly how you would find out if it is, or isn't. Hope that helped!

 

[Shmorq]

That doesn't surprise me considering that their blank CD's are also made by several companies: Ritek, Taiyo Yuden, and their own house brand.

 

[madthumbs]

This is like saying a Volkswagon is a Porsche... c'mon people! The best you can honestly claim is that they appear to be manufactured by the same company!

 

[Ian@CDRlabs]

We had some info on this in our news last week

http://www.cdrlabs.com/news.php3#536

It seems that in February TDK went back to the Plextor design. The old drive was a rebadged Sanyo with 5.29 firmware and the new ones that are made in Japan have the 1.00 firmware.

Already some of our readers ran into some problems. The software identifies it as a TDK veloCD 161040.. but of course there are 2 versions now. Some of the MMC calls and stuff are different and some programs have crapped out in simulations.

 

[andylawcc]

its the same thing, just under different manufactuerer, (its like a Leadtek Geforce vs a Elsa Geforce)
and Plextor a tad bit faster, but TDK definitely looks better. (hard to find a case to match it though)

 

[madthumbs]

Nice comparison using the video cards as an example. Creative, and a few others had more problems and displayed worse 2d than other brands of cards yet they used the same nVidia chip. Firmware compatibilities mean nothing. All those graphic cards have driver compatibilities.

My Volkswagon looks exactly like a Porshe!

 

[dcdomain]

http://forums1.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=388729

 

[Consultant]

Just to let you know, Ian, I have the suspected Plextor/TDK also. I checked out your site and forum and it all sounds on par. My DAE is much faster than TDK advertised specs and I have all of the Plextor physical characteristics on my drive as well.