Plextor?/ TDK ??

by **bluephi1914** on Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:41 am

i was wondering if Plextor and the TDK drive are about the same in quality... i see that the Plextor Premium didnt really get good reviews... or at least it didnt do as well as expected... one problem i saw was that it disnt accept alot of media.

i need something that will let me back up my retail programs and back up my retail games and PSX games...

i am trying to decide between a TDK Velo CD 52-24-48 or the Plextor Premium 52-32-52...

thanks in advance

by **BurninMan921** on Sat Dec 06, 2003 3:06 pm

The TDK drive is just a rebadged Lite On. As for the Plextor, it is a great drive. A little costly, yes, but great. It is picky about the media it will burn to at 52x; however, that really is a good thing: you get great write quality with just about any disc-at the sacrifice of speed in some cases.

I don't have a Lite-On/TDK 52x24x52 drive, but I do have the 52x32x52x one. It does it's best with TY and Ritek discs. Can't speak of any first-hand experince with the Plextor Premium, but I have owned several Plextors and have loved every one of them. I say go for the Plex; remember, it can burn 1GB to a CD-R!

But before dropping $100 on a CD-RW drive, consider: DVD+/-R/RW drives a cheap now too. I just ordered an Optorite 8x DVD burner for $140. It can burn CD's at 40x, plus it has a feature called HD-BURN which can burn 1.4GB of data to a normal CD-R (that's the main reason I got it). NEC's 1300A burners are around $100, but can only burn CD's at 16x. The older 4x Optorite is about $120 (I think), and can burn CD's at 24x. It still has support for HD-BURN, too.

EDIT: Newegg has the 4x Optorite DVD burner for $107.

by **bluephi1914** on Sat Dec 06, 2003 7:02 pm

ok, thats makes since.. i can get a DVD recorder for about 40 more dollars... ad those will burn the same formats as the Plextor and TDK cdrw's???

i heard that they havent quite perfected backing up Retail DVD's... or is that a myth?

thanks for all the info so far!!!!

by **vsekh** on Sat Dec 06, 2003 8:45 pm

Retail DVDs are usually copy protected and require more than 1 DVD. A lot of people create compressed backups using dvdshrink to their hard drive, then copy this to a DVD using Nero or other burner software.

The other option is to get dvdxcopy express software, which does the compressed backup to your hard drive, then directly to your DVD without requiring burner software.

by **integspec** on Sun Dec 07, 2003 8:32 am

Either Optorite DVD or Liteon 811 / 411 when you would like to have best of both worlds. They way the things are going, chances are you will soon find yourself asking for more capacity instead of speed. Personally I think after about 40X ~ 48X the CDR speed just becomes inconsiderable. If necessary put some more money together and invest in a DVD Writer.

DVD Shrink is good and free (probably the best out there). Test it whether it suits your needs, if not you can always buy DVDXcopy.

HTH.

by **BurninMan921** on Sun Dec 07, 2003 10:49 am

Get DVD Shrink! It's free, easy to use, and pretty quick. It's a great little program!

www.dvdshrink.org

by **bluephi1914** on Sun Dec 07, 2003 11:10 pm

ok.. i am looking into getting a OptoRite DD0401 or Lite On LDW-811S.... Is it still good to have a regular cdrw drive..

I burn alot of Audio cd's and i would rather wear the cheaper drive out, instead of the more expensive DVD burner...

by the way... what is "Mt. Rainier" ??

by **BurninMan921** on Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:27 pm

Ok, Mt Rainier is a CD-RW-only technology that formats the RW in the background.

If you want a good, cheap CD-only burner, grab a Lite-On 52x32x52 drive-just stick to the QS0B firmware!!!

But the DVD burners can to 40x CD-R, and should be plenty reliable. Personal prefrence, really. Plus do you have enought IDE connections for a HDD and two CD drives; 3 if you have a DVD-ROM? That's something else to consider...

by **Ian** on Mon Dec 08, 2003 9:29 pm

BurninMan921 wrote:Ok, Mt Rainier is a CD-RW-only technology that formats the RW in the background.

Psst.. DVD+MRW too!

by **integspec** on Tue Dec 09, 2003 1:07 am

BurninMan921 wrote:If you want a good, cheap CD-only burner, grab a Lite-On 52x32x52 drive-just stick to the QS0B firmware!!!

Not to contradict, but my Liteon 411 is much better than my 52327S.

Also you will have no problems with CD writing functions in DVD Writers except that some of them are relatively slower than CD Writers.

Cheers.

by **BurninMan921** on Tue Dec 09, 2003 7:55 am

I know the 411 is a great CD burner; but don't the Lite-On DVD burners have a rep as being great CD burners and not-so-good DVD burners?

Didn't know that about the DVD+MRW...any drives support that?

by **dodecahedron** on Tue Dec 09, 2003 9:24 am

BurninMan921 wrote:Didn't know that about the DVD+MRW...any drives support that?

it is in the DVD+R/W stnadard, but very few drives support it currently.
the Plextor 708 supports it out-of-the-box (possibly the only one so far?)

by **bluephi1914** on Tue Dec 09, 2003 5:28 pm

my concern was that if i didnt have a CDRW and a DVDR

then i would wear out the more expensive DVDR because i burn alot of cd's... rather than just using the cheaper cdrw...

or does it really matter these days ?

by **BurninMan921** on Tue Dec 09, 2003 6:07 pm

It probably doesn't matter too much anymore. But if you want to be on the safe side, CD burners are only $30-$40...

Plextor?/ TDK ??

Plextor?/ TDK ??

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