SAMSUNG DVD Burners - 22X B $25 shipped OR 22X C $36 -15 rebate $21 shipped

[lothar]

Ok, I'll bite. Which reviews?

Check the CDFreaks forum.
The official thread for that burners with pictures of people posting their scans.
Scary.

 

[lothar]

It's not just you. When I got my NEC like 5 years ago, I spend days upon days researching. I was burning stuff left and right. Then I quit, and still have the same stack of blanks I started with. Might do a little research with this one, but not like I did before. Who knows though, might get back into the burning mode.

There is much less research to do now than there was 5 years ago.
Five years ago, there were more than 10 different hardware chipset brands and less rebadged drives on the market. NEC, Lite-On, Pioneer, BenQ, Samsung, LG, Plextor, and many others all had their own brands.
I think now they're only about 3 main types of burners(hardware chipsets) today with everything else being a rebadged model of one or the other with a different sticker or front plate bezel underneath.

Buying the BenQ DW1620 was one of the best decision I ever made.
Not buying the DW1640 a year later was quite possibly one of the worst hardware decisions I've ever made in history.
I regret not buying DW1640 SATA version because now I'm stuck with a great drive(DW1620) and a stupid legacy connection I'm trying to get rid off.

 

[scootermaster]

I understand. I'm the same way. I used to be up on every technology 10 years ago...now I just buy Macs. =]

But while worrying about how well something writes makes no sense to me -- writing is something that can be done over and over, and with cheap storage, is often times not done at all -- worrying about how well something reads make some sense. A CD ripping project is [supposed to be] a one shot deal. You want to get it right the first time, so taking some time to research things to make sure you don't have to spend the hours re-ripping 300+ CDs makes some sense.

And I think I've heard only so-so things about the S223x series for ripping.

 

[fastcuda]

I read the cd freaks reviews and mostly they say if you burn at max speed the burns arent that good, I never use max speed for my burns, would rather have a better result than speed, from what I read these are fine at 8 or 16X speeds, just flaky at 22x

 

[jjmIII]

Wow, code still working.

These will be fine for the cheap builds I sell locally.

 

[Zap]

I wish they shipped a bit faster, because mine finally did and at this rate it will show up when I'm out of town visiting family for Thanksgiving.

 

[jrichrds]

But while worrying about how well something writes makes no sense to me -- writing is something that can be done over and over, and with cheap storage, is often times not done at all -- worrying about how well something reads make some sense. A CD ripping project is [supposed to be] a one shot deal. You want to get it right the first time, so taking some time to research things to make sure you don't have to spend the hours re-ripping 300+ CDs makes some sense.

And I think I've heard only so-so things about the S223x series for ripping.

That's assuming you're not storing anything important on disc that you can't just burn again "on demand."

For anyone else who wants the best chance for a disc to be readable in the future, write quality will matter.

But it's as much about the discs as the burner used. I've had great quality scans from Princo 4x media that I previously was warned would degrade quickly. And sure enough, after 2 years tops, I couldn't read anymore from some of those discs.

As for Samsung burners, the different letter at the end of the model # indicates a different chipset (e.g. different Mediatek chip). What seems like an insignificant change in specs between the different submodels (e.g. SH203B, SH203N) can lead to drastically different behavior in how it burns discs and which media it works well with.

 

[gba]

Buying the BenQ DW1620 was one of the best decision I ever made.
Not buying the DW1640 a year later was quite possibly one of the worst hardware decisions I've ever made in history.
I regret not buying DW1640 SATA version because now I'm stuck with a great drive(DW1620) and a stupid legacy connection I'm trying to get rid off.

Let's see what I have for 16x DVD burners...
I've got an NEC ND-3550A and a BenQ DW 1650 both flashed with the coolest firmware that was being discussed on the forums a few years ago. Both have PATA interfaces, which I have installed in an old socket A machine along with a Plextor UltraPleX PX-40TS SCSI CD-ROM, which does absolutely killer DAE. It sounds like this machine has a new lease on life.

 

[jjmIII]

still working

 

[jjmIII]

$21 after 15 rabate

 

[fatpat268]

I understand. I'm the same way. I used to be up on every technology 10 years ago...now I just buy Macs. =]

But while worrying about how well something writes makes no sense to me -- writing is something that can be done over and over, and with cheap storage, is often times not done at all -- worrying about how well something reads make some sense. A CD ripping project is [supposed to be] a one shot deal. You want to get it right the first time, so taking some time to research things to make sure you don't have to spend the hours re-ripping 300+ CDs makes some sense.

And I think I've heard only so-so things about the S223x series for ripping.

I'm not sure about the s223 series, but I have an s203 series and CD and DVD ripping sucked until I applied a patched firmware to the drive. The drive now rips both CDs and DVDs nearly twice as fast as it did when it was stock.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[ishmael2k]

$21 after 15 rabate

I see a problem with the rebate. It asks you to

4. Cut out and enclose the ORIGINAL ZipZoomfly Item Number Sticker from the product packaging.

I just got my drive (pre-rebate) and it came in a static bag only. (OEM/Bulk style)

I may just order another one, if the rebate works, and send the first one back. (if it works out $$ wise)

 

[scootermaster]

I'm not sure about the s223 series, but I have an s203 series and CD and DVD ripping sucked until I applied a patched firmware to the drive. The drive now rips both CDs and DVDs nearly twice as fast as it did when it was stock.

Just something to keep in mind.

I know there are FW patches for these drives, but speed isn't what I'm interested in. If I could be 100% sure I'd get a bitperfect rip, I wouldn't care if it happened at 4x versus 32x. I just want to make sure things are exactly like the original CD.

But so far, so good. 100 CDs in, and most are in accurate rip, and those that aren't can be ripped securely. A few rogue CDs that I'll have to see about fixing, but nothing too bad.

Dbpoweramp is pretty darn sweet. (I'll probably try EAC for the CDs that had trouble, and see if that works. Weirdly, there was one CD, Rage Against the Machine's - Ghost of Tom Joad CD single that dbpoweramp wouldn't even read, but iTunes would. Crazy)