SOLVED: Need SATA Optical Drive - Which one?

[Herkulese]

I am upgrading to a motherboard with no IDE ports. Both of my HD's are SATA, but my DVD burner is IDE, so I need a new one, rather than mess with an IDE to SATA converter/adapter.

1) Should I buy a good BlueRay burner while they are still availabl?
2) Do I really need BlueRay?
3) Should I just get a low cost CD DVD burner?
4) Does a dedicated CD DVD burner work better than a BlueRay CD DVD burner?

Decisions............ Decisions..........
___________________________________________

Here are some of the choices at NewEgg (only 2 BlueRay drives available):

BLUE RAY, CD, DVD
. . . LG - WH16NS40 - OEM - $69
. . . Pioneer - BDR-209DBK - $65

CD DVD
. . . ASUS - DRW-24B1ST - $20
. . . LG - GH24NSB0 – OEM - $20
. . . Samsung - SH-224DB/BEBE - $20
. . . Samsung - SH-224DB/RSBS - $25

 

[C1]

Go to CDRLABs ( http://www.cdrlabs.com/ ) and see what's up (review section). Also go to Video Help ( http://www.videohelp.com/ ).

Ya, consider BR. I see Fry's has a nice Asus 24X DvDRW drive advertised in todays paper - $21 (what a deal).

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The answer really depends on how much you use your optical drive?

If you're planing on watching blurays on your PC it makes sense to get a bluray drive. If you don't, the cheapest DVD drive is likely good enough.

 

[Herkulese]

The answer really depends on how much you use your optical drive?

If you're planing on watching blurays on your PC it makes sense to get a bluray drive. If you don't, the cheapest DVD drive is likely good enough.

The latter is more likely, as I have a dedicated blueray player in my den with my HT system.

I would still like some guidance regarding BlueRay burners, however.
I have heard good things about LG and Pioneer.

 

[silicon]

I have always had good luck with LG but there are many brands that work well in sata mode. Check the model you buy is not riplocked though. I bought an LG and did not check this and now well..ripping speeds are reduced.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I would still like some guidance regarding BlueRay burners, however.
I have heard good things about LG and Pioneer.

Both are good brands, which one to pick really depends on pricing. While you're at it, might as well get a BDXL writer. They're not that much more expensive. I have a Pioneer BDR-208EBK (notice that E, the D's don't support BDXL. Same goes for the 209's), and I'm very happy with it. Burns are excellent, both blurays and DVD's.

Check the model you buy is not riplocked though. I bought an LG and did not check this and now well..ripping speeds are reduced.

Yup, but it's really only relevant for ripping.

 

[Herkulese]

Both are good brands, which one to pick really depends on pricing. While you're at it, might as well get a BDXL writer. They're not that much more expensive. I have a Pioneer BDR-208EBK (notice that E, the D's don't support BDXL. Same goes for the 209's), and I'm very happy with it. Burns are excellent, both blurays and DVD's.

Can you explain BDXL?

200 is way over what I wanted to spend for the CPU upgrade. I ended up getting a Phenom II X4 965BE CPU and motherboard for $140, so I would like to keep the burner around the 60ish area. Heck, I may just buy a cheep DVD RW and call it a day

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Can you explain BDXL?

BDXL is just higher capacity bluray (100GB and 128GB discs). A word of warning though, BDXL discs are hard to find, and can be bloody expensive (in Europe, not sure about NA). Hopefully they'll come down in price eventually.

Its not a need-to-have feature, but the ability to read/write BDXL might come in handy. The only reason I sprung for it was that a regular bluray writer and the BDXL one cost the same. YMMV of course.

 

[Kerry56]

I'd recommend a Pioneer Blu-ray burner if you intend to burn Blu-ray discs. If you just want one for playing movies or ripping, get whatever is on sale. Lite-on seems to have abandoned the market for Blu-ray drives, so it basically comes down to LG or Pioneer, or the companies that rebadge drives, like Asus.

Over at MyCE, the Pioneers have been favored for years now, especially since the burning quality of the LG drives has dropped off a bit since the 10x series.

Blank media is also something to think about. The best available Blu-ray discs are probably made by Panasonic, but are hard to find in the US. Verbatim burns well, but longevity is unknown, and they don't test as well in the one torture test I've seen. I use FTI/Falcon discs, sold under the SmartBlu brand, and they have been excellent so far. Don't use anything made by Ritek...which provides discs for Memorex and Ridata brands.

 

[Herkulese]

BDXL is just higher capacity bluray (100GB and 128GB discs). A word of warning though, BDXL discs are hard to find, and can be bloody expensive (in Europe, not sure about NA). Hopefully they'll come down in price eventually.

Its not a need-to-have feature, but the ability to read/write BDXL might come in handy. The only reason I sprung for it was that a regular bluray writer and the BDXL one cost the same. YMMV of course.

Here is an LG at Newegg for $67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136250

Here is a Pioneer at Tiger Direct for $89
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...FewDOgodwWQA9A

I'd recommend a Pioneer Blu-ray burner if you intend to burn Blu-ray discs. If you just want one for playing movies or ripping, get whatever is on sale. Lite-on seems to have abandoned the market for Blu-ray drives, so it basically comes down to LG or Pioneer, or the companies that rebadge drives, like Asus.

Over at MyCE, the Pioneers have been favored for years now, especially since the burning quality of the LG drives has dropped off a bit since the 10x series.

Blank media is also something to think about. The best available Blu-ray discs are probably made by Panasonic, but are hard to find in the US. Verbatim burns well, but longevity is unknown, and they don't test as well in the one torture test I've seen. I use FTI/Falcon discs, sold under the SmartBlu brand, and they have been excellent so far. Don't use anything made by Ritek...which provides discs for Memorex and Ridata brands.

Thanks for the information, it is very helpful. Sometimes I need only a tidbit of info to set of on a world of research.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Blank media is also something to think about. The best available Blu-ray discs are probably made by Panasonic, but are hard to find in the US. Verbatim burns well, but longevity is unknown, and they don't test as well in the one torture test I've seen. I use FTI/Falcon discs, sold under the SmartBlu brand, and they have been excellent so far. Don't use anything made by Ritek...which provides discs for Memorex and Ridata brands.

You also want to avoid anything that has "LTH" on it. LTH blurays are dye-based like DVD's, the longevity is questionable. Some older drives/players also can't handle them.

 

[code65536]

I like Blu-Ray burners because I use optical media mostly for backup/archives, and BD-R discs are cheaper per-GB than DVDs (not to mention much more space-efficient, too).

Because I burn for backup, I like LiteOn drives because they support media quality scanning (I always scan my burns afterwards to verify the quality of the burn). Unfortunately, it seems Newegg is no longer carrying LiteOn's Blu-Ray burners (WTF?), but you can get this ASUS burner (which is a rebranded LiteOn and supports the same features) instead from Newegg for $47 after rebate and coupon code (coupon code expires in about 3 hours, so hurry!).

Also, if you care about data integrity, I highly recommend burning at lower speeds. I always burn DVDs at 6x and BDs at 4x because those are the highest speeds that are supported by a pure-CLV (constant linear velocity) burn strategy. It takes more time, but the burns are more stable and of higher quality and should, in theory, last longer.

 

[mfenn]

So the question is, what do you want to do with the optical drive? That'll make the decision process extremely simple.

Do you want to:
- Burn DVDs?
- Burn Blu-Rays?
- Watch Blu-Ray movies?
- Rip audio CDs?

 

[Herkulese]

So the question is, what do you want to do with the optical drive? That'll make the decision process extremely simple.

Do you want to:
- Burn DVDs?
- Burn Blu-Rays?
- Watch Blu-Ray movies?
- Rip audio CDs?

Perfect point: The problem is that I don't know if I want to burnBlueRays or not.

I do, however, not want to spend a lot of money. I had sort of decided to just get a good, inexpensive DVD burner, and had found an LG at TigerDirect for $19.99.

I was out and about, today, and stopped in at Best Buy, to find that they just happened to have an LG for $39.99. I was going to pass, and said to the guy that I had been shopping around, when he told me that they price match any of the major stores, and/or internet sights. I told him that I had found an LG at TagarDirect for 19.99, so he checked on line, and voila, it was the same model, at which point, he happily sold it to me for 20 bucks.

Done and Done.

I may want to burn BlueRays one day, but for 20 bucks I just had to go the simple route for now.

Thanks to all of you for your help, comments, and a good common sense approach to all of this. I was almost going to spend $40 on an IDE to SATA converter, and you all helped me to see that the smarter move is just to upgrade the drives.

 

[MongGrel]

Personally I wouldn't touch a LiteOn optical drive with a 10 foot pole these days, I've thrown too many away and it has gotten irritating.

I just do Samsung or Asus ones myself personally, I've still been too lazy top rip the dead LiteIn out of my wifes and put the Asus one I bought awhile back into it.

Just my experience, I had 4 cheap dead LiteOns I threw in the trash awhile back.

The weren't Blu-Rays granted, but still...

 

[mfenn]

Perfect point: The problem is that I don't know if I want to burnBlueRays or not.

I do, however, not want to spend a lot of money. I had sort of decided to just get a good, inexpensive DVD burner, and had found an LG at TigerDirect for $19.99.

I was out and about, today, and stopped in at Best Buy, to find that they just happened to have an LG for $39.99. I was going to pass, and said to the guy that I had been shopping around, when he told me that they price match any of the major stores, and/or internet sights. I told him that I had found an LG at TagarDirect for 19.99, so he checked on line, and voila, it was the same model, at which point, he happily sold it to me for 20 bucks.

Done and Done.

I may want to burn BlueRays one day, but for 20 bucks I just had to go the simple route for now.

Thanks to all of you for your help, comments, and a good common sense approach to all of this. I was almost going to spend $40 on an IDE to SATA converter, and you all helped me to see that the smarter move is just to upgrade the drives.

Nice price match! Glad it worked out for you.

 

[Herkulese]

Nice price match! Glad it worked out for you.

Thanks