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First time buying DVD writer, choices?

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First time buying DVD writer, choices?

Postby mrk1283 on Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:24 am

Hi, This will be my first dvd writer purchase so I am asking for assistance if possible!

I've always had LG/Pioneer and Liteon and never had a problem with any of them so something by these makers will best suit me brand wise :)

I am going to be using the drive to write different dvd media for movies/music and data backup as well as general dvd burning/reading and playing therefore I am after a robust drive that will last yet is not a wallet dent maker (cough Plextor cough)


Any ideas? - I've been looking at the Pioneer 4x DVD DUAL R/RW IDE BURNER - OEM going for £103 inc vat, I heard good things about this drive?

cheers again!
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Postby RJW on Wed Oct 22, 2003 11:50 am

From these 3 compannies the Pioneer A06 is the best burner.
(Most compatible with media and best writing quality of these 3)

The LG GSA4040 drive is great when it comes to the 3 formats option and EFM encoding.
The lows on this drive are the media compatability with -r at 4x. 2x is supported for most media however. Writing quality is prety good with the newest firmware that is. Another weak point is the poor reading performance of low quality written dvd's with this drive.

The Lite On 401/411S aren't as good as the LG GSA4040 and the Pioneer A06. However there also most times quite a lot cheaper.
The only really good point of the Lite On's is that it can use K-probe to check disc quality.

About the Plextor 708 drive it is expensive but it still is the best drive today however the Pioneer is close when it comes to writing quality.
(With quality media the plex seems to perform better with media from smaller manufacturers the Pioneer A06 seems to be better. The Plextor has the advantage of 8x with still decent quality so that's why it is so far the best drive I have seen.)
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Postby mrk1283 on Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:06 pm

the pioneer seems like the winner for me, cheers for the info!
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Postby rdgrimes on Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:55 pm

Most compatible with media and best writing quality

Just curious as to how this was measured. :wink:
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Postby integspec on Wed Oct 22, 2003 5:59 pm

Liteon has usually proven to be the best bang for buck with unbeatable quality. It's true that the some are having issues with first wave of drives released by them. I bought a 411 day before yesterday. Still didn't much time to test but all the Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 4x's I burned came out without major errors. I'm sure Liteon is working on a firmware update as we post.

If any body could comment here are some KP measures:
PI Max: 196, Total=135551, Average=6.680
PO Max: 184, Total=14121, Average=0.696

(Note that these are only Divx, ISO burns in DVD ISO mode in Nero 6.0.0.19 and I have not burned Movies and tested them with DVD Players).

Cheers.
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty. - Richard Lovelace
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Postby integspec on Wed Oct 22, 2003 6:05 pm

Regardless of the different opinions all of us have, the test, rpc and firmware software available for Liteon is definitely a plus. Not to mention all of them being available for free.

And let take this opportunity to thank all the good people behind those software which shows the pure brilliance of them. :-)
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty. - Richard Lovelace
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Postby rdgrimes on Wed Oct 22, 2003 6:24 pm

If any body could comment here are some KP measures:
PI Max: 196, Total=135551, Average=6.680
PO Max: 184, Total=14121, Average=0.696

Need to know the reading drive (assume 411), the read speed and ECC sum setting. Suggest you scan at burn speed with ECC sum-8.
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Postby aviationwiz on Wed Oct 22, 2003 6:52 pm

integspec wrote:Liteon has usually proven to be the best bang for buck with unbeatable quality. It's true that the some are having issues with first wave of drives released by them. I bought a 411 day before yesterday. Still didn't much time to test but all the Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 4x's I burned came out without major errors. I'm sure Liteon is working on a firmware update as we post.

If any body could comment here are some KP measures:
PI Max: 196, Total=135551, Average=6.680
PO Max: 184, Total=14121, Average=0.696

(Note that these are only Divx, ISO burns in DVD ISO mode in Nero 6.0.0.19 and I have not burned Movies and tested them with DVD Players).

Cheers.


Assuming the ECC sum was 8, those results are below average-average. Those are on-par with the results I got from my Ricoh MP5125 burning at 2.4x on 2.4x media, DVD-Plus of course. The results with my PX-708A are about 2-3 PI average, and .5-.7 PO average. That is with TY 4x DVD-R.

Hopefully Lite-On will patch that up with a firmware update, which I'm quite sure they will do.
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Postby integspec on Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:27 am

The Reading drive was same as the writing drive: LDW-411S with default (DR4FS02) firmware. I have the screen cap of KP result screen. Also for the test no settings were changed and all kept default. Will post more details when I get back home.

Thanks for the comment guys.
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty. - Richard Lovelace
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Postby RJW on Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:20 am

rdgrimes wrote:
Most compatible with media and best writing quality

Just curious as to how this was measured. :wink:


Here in Europe we actually got some pc magazines which do there work.
So if they test recorders, some do test writing quality and if some test dvd recordables they do test it on different recorders. DVD's are checked on performance of dvd-rom drives and meassured with a cats analyzer
Takeing a look through these results show that Pioneer 106D and the Plextor 708 at 4x are ahead of the competition.
Infact plextor 708 at 8x burns betters as the Lite On 401S at 4x as it seems.
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Thu Oct 23, 2003 9:59 am

RJW wrote:Infact plextor 708 at 8x burns betters as the Lite On 401S at 4x as it seems.


that isn't hard to believe! :cry:
Punch Cards -> Paper Tape -> Tape Drive -> 8" Floppy Diskette -> 5 1/4" Floppy Diskette -> 3 1/2" "Flippy" Diskette -> CD-R -> DVD±R -> BD-R

The Progression of Computer Media
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Postby videobruce on Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:22 pm

I think this thread should be combined with the one labeled:
"What Should I buy? Pioneer 106D/ Liteon 411S"

How about adding the Optorite DD 0203 to the list of possibilities ($115 at Newegg)?
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Postby dodecahedron on Thu Oct 23, 2003 1:58 pm

dolphinius_rex wrote:
RJW wrote:Infact plextor 708 at 8x burns betters as the Lite On 401S at 4x as it seems.


that isn't hard to believe! :cry:

why? are the 411S burns so bad?
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Mordor, where the Shadows lie
-- JRRT
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Postby integspec on Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:09 am

It has been a few days since dodecahedron posted the ubiquitous question. If many are in the opinion of 411 writes are bad, how come no one has posted yet?

(KP results on my burns are yet to be clarified, but my usual CDCheck comparisons between the source and 411 burned dvds/cds are yet to go bad).

Cheers.
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above
Enjoy such liberty. - Richard Lovelace
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Postby videobruce on Wed Oct 29, 2003 8:57 am

It has been stated elsewhere that the LiteON burners/drives run hot.

Try here:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewforum ... 708e136622
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Postby CDRecorder on Fri Oct 31, 2003 3:24 pm

integspec wrote:It has been a few days since dodecahedron posted the ubiquitous question. If many are in the opinion of 411 writes are bad, how come no one has posted yet?


That is a good question. On the other hand, as was also posted earlier, most of the new threads in the Lite-On forum at CDFreaks are about the 411S.

videobruce wrote:It has been stated elsewhere that the LiteON burners/drives run hot.


I haven't used Lite-On DVD drives, but all of my Lite-On CD-RW drives have been the coolest-running drives i've ever used!
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