Bought a new DVD writer..

[Ian]

It's been many years since I went out and bought a new optical drive of any sort.. but today I bought an Optiarc AD-5290S-PLUS.

https://www.optiarcinc.com/AD-5290S-PS.html

Why, you ask? I need a (somewhat) modern drive for some media tests and it was either this or the Lite-On DH-16AFSH-Premm. Both drives are equal when it comes to media testing but the Optiarc can write at 24x so I went with it.

[Ian]

And now I bought an LG GH24NSC0

[stix]

So, I suppose you will want to review these drives and let us know what you think of them?

[Ian]

So, I suppose you will want to review these drives and let us know what you think of them?

No, not really.

So far though.. the Optiarc isn't great. Not sure if its my drive or what, but the writing quality isn't what you'd expect from a duplicator drive with high end components. The LG is okay if you use good media. Best one is the Lite-On iHAS124 (F version) that I picked up last week.

[Dartman]

Last burner I bought was a LG 16NS40 when I realized they might be going away with the unofficial BD ripping capabilities once they updated the firmware. They sent me one with the early firmware like I requested and with the right software it does work, plus it has made working BD 25 gig disks for me. I haven't tried any DL ones yet. I'd love to get a drive that can test BD quality but I hardly burn anything anymore and I still have 3 of my favorite DVD burners in my two boxes plus the two BD burners.
Did you need a new DVD burner or just trying to get that updated quality test drive. I still have my 1655 and some other earlier ones stashed around here but getting hard to find a board that supports IDE without a adapter card.

[Ian]

Did you need a new DVD burner or just trying to get that updated quality test drive. I still have my 1655 and some other earlier ones stashed around here but getting hard to find a board that supports IDE without a adapter card.

Yeah, I still have most of my old test drives. I just wanted something a little more recent since my newest one was an iHAS424 and the firmware hadn't been updated in ages. I also wanted some new drives to burn the discs since there's been a lot of changes in ownership and manufacturing. A disc might have a Japanese MID now but its made in Taiwan or China.

[Dartman]

Well that certainly is true about the updates and changes in media availability and quality. It's certainly not like when the burners got cheap and we all tride to find the best quality burner that could do it faster as well. I haven't even checked to see if my newest burner has any updates but if it does it will break the 4k disk ripping. I should transfer the 1655 to my 980 box because it still has one ide port on board. What bd burner does quality testing these days anyway. Pretty sure that LG doesn't I don't think I've burned a dvd except for data like windows install disks in years. Might be able to actually burn 4k disks with the LG too.
Well hopefully that new drive works out. At least it had to be pretty cheap.

[Ian]

Instead of buying another Optiarc AD-5290S to see if that one was flakey, I ordered a Plextor PX-891SAF today. They're basically the same. Both made by Vinpower.

[Ian]

I'm really liking the Plextor PX-891SAF so far. The results are A LOT better than the Optiarc AD-5290S

Ritek Water Quality 1.PNG (292.56 KiB) Viewed 14517 times

[Dartman]

Oh, that reminds me of when we were all chasing the best burn quality burner we could find when prices for fast ones got cheap. I still have the 8x NEC? that got the first free DL firmware update. It produced burns of that quality level and I kept it all these years. I also went out and got one of the emergency dual layer disk kits at best buy and burned a dual layer movie with it that still plays last time I tried it. I think I need one that can properly test blue ray burns. I still have a few of the BenQ 1600 series burners that burned pretty well and could do pretty accurate quality checks. Loved the disk burn learning feature that actually worked.