The Best DVD-ROM Drives

[aviationwiz]

All right, we have had many threads over who makes the best CD Burners. I think ONE thread about who makes the best dvd-rom drives is in order.

Now this is only for DVD READERS, not Burners.

I think that, without a doubght, Lite-On makes the best DVD-ROM drives. They have excellent performance compared to other drives.

The only thing that I don't like with Lite-On DVD-ROM drives, is that they are not so well built, I hear a lot of people complaining about how they have had to exchange thier Lite-On DVD-ROM drives because thiers broke. That happened to me as well.

The Lite-On DVD-ROM drives have Performance and Speed, just about what all you need in a reader is.

[CignaXI]

Another complain I have is that they are a little noisy(not when using them to watch DVD's), but is not a real big problem when you get such a good performence and for the price. I have a 163D rebagged Cendyne, got it for free from OfficeMax.

[aviationwiz]

Yeah, I forgot to mention the noise. Thanks for adding that.

[Han]

Nah, the best DVD-ROM drive maker is TOSHIBA. Special patched "no speed limit" RPC1 firmware is a must, of course.

[Raz0rX]

Han, I am on your side

[Popal]

FYI, I bought the Plextor PX-116A this week end and made several benchmarks I published on CDFreaks' forums :
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?threadid=72286

[dja2k]

hey I have read in here mixed review on the Liteon LTD-165H (XJHD165H)/LTD-166S (XJHD166S which basically is LTD-166S. Is this drive as fast as some people say and does it read all formats well? I don't care about the noise, but I do want to rip a lot of dvd movies. By the way Lite-on doesn't show this drives available on their website. Anyways let me know if this drive is good? I saw another drive on sale, a samsung SD-816B with POWERDVD software for about $10 less than the lite-on LTD-166S. Does the samsung or other drives even compare to the lite-on in performance? Thanks

[aviationwiz]

My LTD-163D has been performing poorly lately

I've only been getting 4x on ripping dvd's when it usually goes cav up to 16x.

[CignaXI]

Maybe it'is due to the ball-bearings, I'm assuming that with time they start porducing a little vibration when they spin decreasing the lens reading speed. But that's my theory and as it usually happens they are wrong.

[faithfoo]

Which Is the quietest DVD drive for HTPC

can read mpg files ( burn as data CDRW discs )

best quality when used with ATI Radeon

I believe most would be able to read DVD RAM discs ( those used by Hitachi DVD RAM cameras)

[hoxlund]

i must hear more about this no speed limit rpc1 firmware, cause all im going to be doing with my near future dvd-rom purchase is ripping dvd movies

one thing i also like about the toshiba dvd drives is the lack of volume control and headphone jack on the bezel, along with my sony dru-510a dvd writer

ill have no volume or headphone jacks left, , and thats a good thing

[Han]

Well, it all depends on how good the movie is recorded, whether it's a single layer or a dual layer DVD, how badly it's scratched, how well it's balanced, etc. In perfect conditions Toshiba is now a pretty fast ripper!

[hoxlund]

well ill be ripping almost all the time with commercial dvds

and probably princo 4x dvd-r

[MikeTR]

All right, we have had many threads over who makes the best CD Burners. I think ONE thread about who makes the best dvd-rom drives is in order.

Good idea. It's been ages since I've seen a proper DVD-ROM review anywhere. The latest one on CDRLabs is the good old Lite-On -163 (emphasis on OLD). I'm doubting between the Lite-On -166S and the Plextor -116 at the moment. Would be nice to see a thorough comparison between these to drives.

[Raz0rX]

Man, the Toshiba M1712 drive is so impressive! It read my DVD-RW (Optodisc 2x) starting @ 6.57x and it went all the way up to about 14x! I think this drive is by far the fastest drive when reading DVD-RW media.