DVD drive recommendation needed

[jerryr]

Hi,

I'm looking to purchase an external drive for an HTPC. I need USB interface. Primary uses will be playing commercial DVDs and burning recording video. Write speed not high priority, quality and reliability is.

Thanks,
Jerry

[Ian]

What connection type? USB, FireWire or eSATA?

[jerryr]

USB.

[Ian]

This thread might help:

recommended-dvd-writers-t25151.html

[jerryr]

Thanks for the reply. That thread talks about the DVR-X162 and the DVR-X152 (which doesn't seem to be available much). The 162 comes with qflix, which I don't need - how much of a premium am I paying for that feature?

What distinguishes a $100 drive like the 162 from a $60 one like the Pioneer DVR-XD08? Or the XD09?

-Jerry

[Ian]

I think you're paying a bit more for Qflix. Not a lot though. Sadly, the DVR-X162 is the only half-height external drive currently available from Pioneer. The DVR-XD08 and XD09 are slim drives. These are good for laptops and such, but lack the speed and reliability of a half-height external drive.

[Howard Kaikow]

Thanks for the reply. That thread talks about the DVR-X162 and the DVR-X152 (which doesn't seem to be available much). The 162 comes with qflix, which I don't need - how much of a premium am I paying for that feature?

What distinguishes a $100 drive like the 162 from a $60 one like the Pioneer DVR-XD08? Or the XD09?

-Jerry

The 162 is 20x.
The others are 8x.

[jerryr]

Ok, thanks guys. I'm almost convinced on the 162, except I just noticed it needs external power rather than USB power. Pros and cons of USB-supplied power?

-Jerry

[Ian]

You're not going to find a 20x drive that can run off of USB.

Keep in mind that a lot of the new portable DVD writers require not one, but two USB connections to guarantee enough power. If I remember right, the XD08 and XD09 are like this.

[jerryr]

But since speed is not one of my main concerns, are there any other reasons to prefer non-USB power?

What would be your #2 and #3 picks after the X162? Not constrained to Pioneer, that is.

[Howard Kaikow]

You're not going to find a 20x drive that can run off of USB.

The 162 is USB 2,

[Ian]

The 162 is USB 2,

You're right but I was thinking more about power than speed.

I don't know why, but there really aren't a lot of external drives out there right now. Samsung has a few but as Howard found out, they're hard to find in the US. Otherwise, Plextor and Lite-On have a few but they're all based on Lite-On designs. I haven't had too much luck with Lite-On's external DVD writers. For whatever reason, they never write at the maximum speed. LG also has the GE20LU10 and GE20LU11 but I haven't heard too much about them.

[Howard Kaikow]

The 162 is USB 2,

You're right but I was thinking more about power than speed.

I don't know why, but there really aren't a lot of external drives out there right now. Samsung has a few but as Howard found out, they're hard to find in the US. Otherwise, Plextor and Lite-On have a few but they're all based on Lite-On designs. I haven't had too much luck with Lite-On's external DVD writers. For whatever reason, they never write at the maximum speed. LG also has the GE20LU10 and GE20LU11 but I haven't heard too much about them.

Actually, they are not hard to find. There are obstacles to overcome.

1. The poorly trained telephone folkes.

a. When I called Samsung, the person I spoke to knew only about 8x models.
b. When I called Pioneer, the person I spoke to could not even point me to a list of current models.

2. The web sets are not organized properly.

It seems that when you search for products at, say, Pioneer and SAmsung's web sites, you get list of current 8x models.

To see the 20x+ models, you have to go to their "business" or "professional" web pages. Most users are not going to go there.

Web pages need to be organized by product, not business group.

It's obvious that the companies vopied the web sructure from each other, like lemmings going over a cliff.

You could find a list of all models at the support pages, but that does not tell you which models are in current production.

Then you need to find the drives at your favorite onlive vendor, sometimes that's not easy, as the sites push the 8x model.