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Shopping for a DVD burner...

K

Korporativ

Member
Well, procrastinating getting a DVD burner is no more, my CD burner just died on me last sunday forcing me to make the upgrade. However, I'm just not sure what to get. Are the DVDRW drives worth the extra money?

I'm seeing:
NEC 8x DVD +/- for $132 + tax
CDWDVD-05 Liteon 48 x 24 x 48 / 16X DVD Combo Black $47.00
CDWDVD-08 Microstar 52 x 24 x 52 / 16X DVD Combo Beige OEM $47.00
CDWDVD-09 Microstar 52 x 24 x 52 / 16X DVD Combo Black OEM $47.00
DVDRW-24 Teac DV-W58G + & - 8X DVD RW Beige $104.00
DVDRW-22 MSI DRA-8 + & - 8X DVD RW Beige $89.00
DVDRW-23 MSI DRA-8 + & - 8X DVD RW Black $89.00
DVDRW-26 Liteon 8X DVD RW Beige Retail $99.00
DVDRW-19 Plextor DVR PX-708A + & - DVD RW Beige $159.00
DVDRW-20 Plextor DVR PX-708A + & - DVD RW Black $159.00

Or if there are any other reccomended drives, let me know. I'd like to keep the price as low as possible. Thanks!
 
so the only reason is that your cd burner is dead si the reason why you are getting a dvdburner?
makes perfect sense to me!
 
These 3 drives:

CDWDVD-05 Liteon 48 x 24 x 48 / 16X DVD Combo Black $47.00
CDWDVD-08 Microstar 52 x 24 x 52 / 16X DVD Combo Beige OEM $47.00
CDWDVD-09 Microstar 52 x 24 x 52 / 16X DVD Combo Black OEM $47.00

...are not DVD burners. They are combo CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives (can read DVDs, but can't burn them).

As far as recommendations, you'll be fine as long as you stay with a good brand name. Personally, I love Lite-on drives and haven't had a single problem with my Lite-on 8x dual burner. Especially, since some of the Lite-on DVD burners support bitsetting. BS lets you set the format of the media to various formats during the burn, regardless of the original media format.

For example, I use +R media, but +R media is not compatible with all of the drives and players out there. So I use bitsetting to set the format to DVD-ROM, which provides full compatibility for playback.
 
Both great suggestions... and the fact that there is a combo deal for a $3.99 cd rack that takes $9 off the price makes them even better. However, I'm just wondering if the NEC or the Lite-on listed support the bit setting? I hear a lot of people talking about how great that is for compatability of burns with DVD players etc.
 
Well, I have been doing research on the NEC-2500A and the Lite-On 812s. Both seem to be good drives and have their own advantages. It seems the NEC is better in terms of write quality and media compatibility (more 4x media work at 8x). The Lite-On supports bit setting and can get through safedisc protection (the NEC does not have this ability). It looks like both can be modded with firmware to dual layer drives (the NEC for sure) but this raises questions about the life of the laser and there is firmware that also enables bit setting on the NEC.

The NEC is cheaper, at least at newegg, so that is what I am leaning toward. It seems to have a slower cd/dvd read rate which is not much of a problem for me as my lite-on 48x-cdrw will be my main read and cd-burn drive.

I am just not sure which one to get. I guess I will probably go for the NEC at this point as it seems to be the best and cheap ($74.99 at newegg). Anyway, hope my research helps.

-Spike

*Edit I must mention that the firmware upgrades that allow the NEC to do dual layer and bit setting are NOT supported and void your warrenty, so no garuntees on them. Same with the dual layer Lite-On firmware, they are basically hacks
 
I ended up going with the lite-on primarily because of the reccomendation of friends who have had lite-on drives for a really long time. I've heard that the lite-on does or will have a hack for dual-layer writing as well, but am unsure about the reliability. Ultimately, though... I am looking for something that I can use to back up my DVDs since my girlfriend always seems to borrow the disks and lose em so I'm left with a lot of empty cases. The bit-setting was appealing to me with regard to this. Not to mention having rescently lost my regular CD burner, the faster read/write for the CD-r and CD-rw was a bonus in my mind as well. We'll have to compare notes if you did go with the NEC, spike. Thanks for all the input guys!

- Corporate.SPY
 
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