Pioneer/Aopen/Toshiba: Which DVD Drive?

[MrBond]

Up until tonight, I was all set to get the 106 model pioneer slot load drive, but the threads posted in here led me to believe they were a little on the loud side (something I thought the 106 fixed). I saw newegg stopped carrying them, so I was about to order a Toshiba. Then I saw the posts saying they only would rip at 2x or so. Is that when copying directly to the CDR drive (I have a 2x anyway, but will upgrade sometime), or when ripping a DVD to MPEG4? I've got quite a collection of DVD's here at home, and watching them here isn't a problem. At school though, I don't want to drag along my DVD collection, so I'd like to rip my favorites to MPEG4.

And to further complicate matters, Newegg has Aopen drives, which are made by pioneer, refirbished for the same price as the Toshiba (but cheaper shipping). Are these just as loud as the Pioneers? I'm assuming they would be, being a rebadged unit and all.

So what do you guys suggest? I'll be watching movies with this drive, listening to the occasional CD, ripping the occasional CD to mp3, and ripping DVD's to mpeg4.

 

[SCUBA]

A Toshiba
if u hate noise like i do

 

[Duvie]

You are right the aopen is a rebadged pioneer but they are not refurbished....

The aopen review at www.storagereview.com said the pioneer was a little loud in seek mode but said it was really no louder then same speed cd-roms...so I think the concern should be minimal. The 16x pioneer however is the fastest dvd data ripper and actually come close to the claim of 48x cd reading (does 44x).. The new model also increased its poor dae audio ripping of the earlier 105 model (this is good for cd-rw transfer on the fly of audio cds) to a very high speed which cd-rws are nowhere close to.

As for the toshiba dvd rip problem...this if true and not fixed with a firmware upgrade is a big deal...I rip dvd's with my 8x that hits max speeds of 7.7 and starts around 3.9x for about an average in the 5's and does a 146min (7.6gb castaway disc in about 9-10 minutes with seaches for keys every vob file...the 2x max should be more than double that...the 16x was runnning about double me for average so it gets it done in about 4-5minutes versus your near 25minutes...

Go with aopen it is a good price and I think the noise will be no real concern...the performance is slightly better then the toshiba anyways...

 

[Shmorq]

Also, I hear that the Toshiba's DAE isn't that great. I would go for the Pioneer or Aopen.

 

[Insane3D]

Yeah, the Pioneer seems to have the best performance of the 16X DVD's...especially with the 106S/116S models. They also utilize the ATA66 standard which is not a big deal, but a nice feature none the less.

 

[MrBond]

Well, here's another hitch

I just checked the refirb drives on Newegg, and they're the 105 model. Although this is going on its own seperate IDE channel, so it may not make that much of a difference. I'm gonna order this Aopen, and all should be well. Thanks guys!