BEST DRIVE

[mikepraba]

Hi guys,
I have been a believer of this forum. last time I asked for the advise on Best DVD DL burner it was recomended by you guys to go with NEC 2510. I burned 100s of dvds with it. good burner and happy. Except some movies i copied freezes in the dvd player (tried on SONy,Toshiba and Hittachi) I used Herrie's firmware all along. Now I am in the market for another burner I am looking at few models such as sony dru-720, lite on 1633S,NEC 3520 and Pioneer DVR-109. Please give me some feedback which writer has the value and also able to set the booktype set for +R? price range of OEMs are almost same. Please give me your suggestions. i am sure this will help other buyers too
Keep up the great work
Mike

[dolphinius_rex]

I'm a big fan of the BenQ DW1620. It'll burn anything you throw at it as long as you use B7P9 and not the latest firmware, also, don't use Prodisc (but you shouldn't use Prodisc anyways!)

[mikepraba]

Writing quality is very important to me. I forgot to mention NEC 3530 (coming soon) should I wait for that one? would it be worth to wait?

[dolphinius_rex]

What kind of media are you using?

[mikepraba]

I only use name brands such as Fuji, Verbatim,and Maxell. as I said in my first post. I was happy with the NEC 2510. But some movies I burned with Clonedvd and NEC 2510 tend to freece few times through the movie. I am hoping the new drive would solve that. I really dont care what brand is the drive, i want best picture quality

[DVD_ADDICT]

I have the BENQ 1620 drive which burns great!!!!
It burns flawlessly with MAXELL, VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN media. The PRODISC DVD-R media didn't work well in my BENQ 1620. BENQ has BITSETTING out of the box and there is a firmware that will make the drive read at faster speeds. Get a BENQ 1620!!!! Just my 2 cents!

[Rpbertxyz]

The BENQ 1620 will rip at speeds on an average of 10-13X with the speed patch. One of the best burners out there for the money. You will not be sorry.

[mikepraba]

THanks Guys, sounds like this is the best drive for the money. Has anyone of you copied any dvds using this drive? (Using utilities like dvd decryptor, clonedvd, instant dvd etc...? How is the quality? Below is the review from CDRLABS on this BENQ, any comments?
BenQ DW1620
16x16 DVD±RW
Features:
Installation:
Performance: 10
8
8
Overall: 9

Highs:
Writes to DVD+R media at 16x
Writes to DVD-R media at 16x
Writes to DVD-RW and DVD+RW media at 4x
Writes to DVD+R9 DL media at 2.4x
Automatically sets booktype for all DVD+R/RW/R9 media to DVD-ROM
Features 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
Reads DVD-ROM's at 16x
Good DAE speeds
Low seek times
Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
Includes software from BenQ, Sonic and InterVideo
Uses WOPC and BLER OPC to dynamically increase writing quality and prevent coasters
Affordably priced
Lows:
Questionable writing quality with some common DVD±R media
Has a 2048KB buffer
Reads DVD±R/RWs at 8x only
Overburns to only 97:00
Doesn't support the Mt. Rainier format
Was unable to burn any DVD-R media at 16x with current firmware

[DVD_ADDICT]

Yes I use DVD DECRYPTER, DVD SHRINK & DVD REBUILDER to back up my DVD movies. I burn them with my BENQ 1620. It blows other brands of dvd burners out of the water!

[Scour]

Hello!

After I had read many threads here and on other sites I still don´t know what´s the best writer for ME.

I have a LG GSA 4082, which is a very good writer with top-writing-quality. But the firmware-support from LG is not very good and some 8x-media like Ritek G05 and Optodisc OR8 are only supported @ 4x.

I use mostly DVD-R, top-brands like Mitsubishi, Verbatim, Ricoh and Sony/Daxon for important things. I also use cheaper media like Infosmart, SKC, Gigastorage and Optodisc.

I need therefore a writer that can low quality media well and not to slow (NEC´s 3520 burns my GSC01 only at 2x).

I collect some experiences from friends and forum´s:

The good ones:

1. LG GSA 4163

+Real fast with the right media
+DVD-RAM-support
+Good CD-R-writing-qualit+good reader for DVD and CD
-some quality issue´s with midrange and low quality media
-no overspeeding for the most media
-bad FW-support

2. Plextor PX 716

+Fantastic FW-support
+very good DVD-writing-quality and fast speeds with DVD+R DL-media
+very good CD-burning
+On-site collect and return
+Plextools
-very expensive
-picky with some media


3. Pioneer DVR 108

+Good quality with most media
+reads DVD-RAM
+good reader for DVD
+good FW-support
-bad reader/writer for CD
-one of the slowest DVD-writer


4. Benq DW 16xx/Philips

+very good FW-support
+best writer for DVD+R
+overspeeding with many DVD+R
+Scan abilities
-picky with CD-media
-DVD-R-media isn´t supported like DVD+R

5. NEC ND 3500

+Good quality with most media
+fast reader for DVD-/+R
+overspeeding with some media
-poor DVD error-correction
-bad CD-writing-quality
-bad FW-support
-underspeeding with some media



Some writers that I don´t want to buy:

1. Toshiba SD-R 5372

+FW-update for 12x to 16x DVD-R and faste RW-speeds
-worst DVD-writing-quality ever tested in c´t-magazin

2. Samsung TS-H 552
+good CD-writer
- 2nd worst DVD-writing-quality ever tested in c´t-magazin

3. BTC DRW 1016
Don´t have found a review, but I read at cdrinfo some experiences from a moderator and he wrote that that writer have a really bad writing-quality, he killed many DL-media with that writer and maybe he will not bring a review.

4. Liteon 1653S

+good CD-writer
+KProbe
+good FW-support
-writing-quality with DVD-media
-slow
-underspeeding with some media like optodisc

Any recommends for me, what writer could be real good for DVD-R, even for lower quality media?

Thanks

[mikepraba]

There you go !!! I almost made up my mind for BENQ 1620 and You made me to think UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. I did little more research after I posted this thread and Ofcourse BEQ scored 9 0ut of 10. THats impressive. But I am still confused. Hope there will be more feedback before I buy the drive. I only use Brand name media. I want the best drive

[Jim]

I've been reading threads on cdfreaks regarding inconsistent quality control on the BenQ. Might want to check them out.

Apparently Pioneer has fixed the DVD-R DAO issues with the A09/109. The quality scans at cdfreaks look great. There is also a bitsetting firmware for both SL and DL DVD+R available for it now similar to the Piodata firmware for the old DVR-108.

Jim

[mikepraba]

Does anyone know the bitsetting f/w for pioneer is original F/W by pioneer or someone else modified it? Hope Jim or somebody can clarify this. By reading the pioneer review from CDRLABS, bitsetting (Booktype) was the only down fall in pioneer, if they have fixed it, then i would go for it

[Bhairav]

Does anyone know the bitsetting f/w for pioneer is original F/W by pioneer or someone else modified it? Hope Jim or somebody can clarify this. By reading the pioneer review from CDRLABS, bitsetting (Booktype) was the only down fall in pioneer, if they have fixed it, then i would go for it

There is a firmware from Buffalo (a major Pioneer OEM customer) available, which offers bitsetting for +R and +R DL discs. This FW will void your warranty, so the risk is all yours.

[hoxlund]

id like to know how there is slow writing on pioneer 108 when theres a hacked firmware to write everything at up to 16x on all media

my TY is rated at 12x with non-hacked firmware, its only supposed to be 8x

[Jim]

Pioneer wrote the firmware that is on the Buffalo OEM drive. Identical hardware between the Pioneer and Buffalo OEM drives. Pioneer refuses to officially support single layer DVD+R bitsetting on their name brand drives.

I guess in theory you may run into warranty issues if you send it back for repair with the Buffalo firmware/kernal on it without flashing back to the Pioneer firmware/kernal. I"ve never heard of this happening though. I would grab the Pioneer over the BenQ due to BenQ's QC issues (hardware) being reported on cdfreaks.

Jim

[RJW]

Hello!

Any recommends for me, what writer could be real good for DVD-R, even for lower quality media?

Thanks

Well benq's latest firmware attempt did improve burning quality for low quality DVD-R much however it also means much higher times. That's why a lot of folks are still argueing on it.
So if you don't care about the actuall time then it might work.

Only bad point about benq is that because of there popularity more bad drives are spotted. According to the latest info I got the procentual number of bad drives report still is in the normal range. However Benq/Philips (and there oem's like Nu-tech,HP) did sell much more drives that's why you see more posts about.

[dodecahedron]

Well benq's latest firmware attempt did improve burning quality for low quality DVD-R much however it also means much higher times.

do you mean B7U9 ?

[mikepraba]

So Now i am confused more than ever, What should I buy? Benq 1620 or pioneer dvr-109?

[DVD_ADDICT]

So Now i am confused more than ever, What should I buy? Benq 1620 or pioneer dvr-109?

Get the BENQ 1620 you won't be disappointed. The Pioneer 109 has issues with NERO BURN if that is what you use to burn dvds. I have 2 BENQ 1620's with firmware B7P9 no problems with both drives.

[dolphinius_rex]

Hello!

Any recommends for me, what writer could be real good for DVD-R, even for lower quality media?

Thanks

Well benq's latest firmware attempt did improve burning quality for low quality DVD-R much however it also means much higher times. That's why a lot of folks are still argueing on it.
So if you don't care about the actuall time then it might work.

Only bad point about benq is that because of there popularity more bad drives are spotted. According to the latest info I got the procentual number of bad drives report still is in the normal range. However Benq/Philips (and there oem's like Nu-tech,HP) did sell much more drives that's why you see more posts about.

Nope, I disagree. I've been working with B7P9, B7S9 and B7U9 comparing the same discs over and over, and so far I've found equal or worse writing quality from B7U9 in most cases, with reduced writing times in every case. Still, I haven't tried THAT many media types yet, but I'm very unimpressed so far

But once I'm done my LG review, I'll be sending a full report back to BenQ, and hopefully we'll see some fixes (it's worked in the past )

[Scour]

But once I'm done my LG review, I'll be sending a full report back to BenQ, and hopefully we'll see some fixes (it's worked in the past )

Which LG? The 4165?

[Ian]

Which LG? The 4165?

4163.. the 4165 won't be out until next month.

[Jim]

So Now i am confused more than ever, What should I buy? Benq 1620 or pioneer dvr-109?

Get the BENQ 1620 you won't be disappointed. The Pioneer 109 has issues with NERO BURN if that is what you use to burn dvds. I have 2 BENQ 1620's with firmware B7P9 no problems with both drives. :)

What issues are you referring to? Pioneer did have problems writing to DVD-R using DAO with almost all applications except an old version of Record Now Max 4.5 with a hacked .dll. That all appears to be a thing of the past since the 1.40 firmware release.

[Scour]

Which LG? The 4165?

4163.. the 4165 won't be out until next month.

Hope, you´re test it with many different media