There is "no" truly a "best" burner out there. Statistically, they're all the same nearly in pertain to burning. With that being said; you and I can both owned the same DVD Burner, however, you can have all kinds of burning issue and I, on the other hand, can burn any cd/dvd/games smoothly. Keep in mind that "not all burners" are capable of writing the DL media yet. In contrast, get the one you've had more experienced with and perhaps the one you dig the most.
check my sig. for suggestions, as alkohol stated, it is based MUCH on personal preference, my setup works great for me..and my media(s) of choice are highly regarded on here by many others in my fan club~ also, keep in mind, that if you are working on a budget, either your media preferences and/or your burner make and model will vary. there is no "correct" answer to this, it's based on personal experience and use the experiences of others as ONLY a guidline, what works for one, may not work for another~ good luck
Question about ArCcos that sony is using. A mac ripper(MTR) can overcome this...what about PC programs I'm using? like 321 Studio and others available both shareware and commercial? Are other recording companies using Sony's encryption?
Best or one of the best DVD Burners is Plextor PX-716A Best media is a tie between Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim 16x I also have a Sony 16x burner and its burn ratio is 90% with the above media; I have made over 100 burns with the Plextor and its burn ratio is 100%. My burning software is Nero.
mbird9999, Do you burn at 16x? If so, do you have any problems playing them on any stand-alone players. Or, in fact, have any problems at all? TIA, Rich
Stand alones play anything they just don't record at any speed. They play all my purchased and duplicated backup DVDs along with CDs
samintx, Do you burn at 16x, and they play fine on a standalone, that is what I would like to know? And I would agree, standalones should play almost anything, providing the data was properly written, and the format is compatible with the player. Thanks, Rich
Hi there, Does Plextor have RipLock on their drives ? I think NEC is locked at 2x (I have read somewhere). I have a NEC-3450A (Dell OEM) and it seems to RIP way slower than my old LG-4040B drive. I am putting my old LG-4040B in my PC and I will use DVD Decrypter to rip the same movie on both drives. Then I will compare the rip time of my LG-4040B vs NEC-3450A I have a Dell Dimention 8400 (3.2 Ghz) / 512 Mb at 533 Mhz / Sata HD
hi if i had to throw some drive names at you i would choose these but maybe not in this order? plextor lite-on pioneer i think dvd decrypter unlocks plextors now from 2x rip!
I usually burn at 8x when using 16x media; I heard you have a better product when you burn slower; but who knows. I have burned at 16x and I see no difference in quality from the 8x. I have 4 dvd players and they all play dvds burned at 16x as well as the ones burned at 8x. Not sure about the riplock. When I use 16X media, the slowest it will go down to is 4X.
mbird9999, Thanks for the info/reply. That is good to hear, and what I had thought would be the case. Rich
Sorry, forgot one question. I have been doing this for 6 months and I use to have a bunch of various problems and groups of coasters. I have NO problems now and no coasters; but I have changed software, hardware, and media to get where I'm at. All three play a part in a successful burn.
As far as the best DVD burner out there...well I can tell you that Memorex doesn't make one of them. My drive wasn't able to make use of one of the best media out there (Verbatim 16x). Just thought ya'll would like to know.
I dont think you can go wrong with a NEC,personally i havent had any issues at all.Check out the link for a bargain http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NEC-ND3520
It's all really a matter of personal preferance and familiararity as far as drives are concerned. Here's how I would rank. Benq - pros: excellant burner, handles burning mid grade media very well even better with high grade media low PI,PIF errors, bitsetting capable, will burn most 4x media at 8x and most 8x media at 12x. Cons: although they're not riplocked won't rip as fast as some others, slow when performing any scans. Plextor - I have never owned on but heard mostly good things, plextools, bitsetting capable (although I read plextor was going to discontinue this on new models) cons: I was going to buy one but a friend had to return his within a week after buying one, read about some problems on new models, little more expensive than some other brands. Lite-on - pros: descent overall burner, very fast ripper, bitsetting capable, fast when used for scans, nice lite-on tool website, kprobe, booktype utility, eeprom reset utility. Cons: picky about media. Some lite-on rebadges include Sony and late model Memorex's NEC - I have never owned one but heard mostly good things about them, can be bitsetting capable but requires being cross flashed to modified (hacked) firmware. Cons: no scan utility available. Pioneer - I have never owned one but have read they perform very well with dvd-r media. I am not a pioneer fan (because I booktype all my dvd+r media dvd-rom and pioneer is not capable of doing this). Cons: not bitsetting capable. Media preferances Verbatum DLP (media code MCC003), Taiyo Yuden (media code YUDEN000T02). These are only my preferences and opinions. Feel free to elaborate or correct if needed. Mort
haza12d, The new memorex 16x dvdrw's should be a rebadged litey. When I first started useing verbatums with my litey I had problems too. Use of the eeprom reset utility cured all its problems and now it burns the verbs better than any other media.
ALL nec's are riplocked, it always has been and will continue to be even with the newest ND-3530a out~ the only way to circumnavigate this is with a hacked (modified) firmware flashing~ but straight from the factory, ALL NECS are riplocked. i have the older NEC 3520a, while i dabble a bit w/ hacked firmware, i keep my NEC with the official firmwares just because if it works well, i figure i won't mess with it. i use a separate lite-on dvd-rom to rip my backups anyways, it's MUCH faster~ i own the new pioneer dvr-109 as well, while it is VERY stable and an affordable price, the bitsetting option is not available for it, while others MAY find a way to get around this, i have only found a way to get rid of the riplock function using a modified firmware, but, i have yet to find something for the bitsetting part~ i use a liteon on my 2nd computer as well for casual burning and my sony dru-710a is actually a rebadged liteon as well, it's been great. my media recommendations are still in my sig., i only use the best in MY opinion for all my backups. good luck on deciding what to go with.
if i flashed the firmware of my sony DW-U18A to the lite-on SOHW-832S would i be able to flash it back if something went wrong or i didnt like it?
i am not sure about that, i have no experience in cross flashing and then reverting back to an older original firmware from that of a different make and model...i suppose it could be done, but i don't know the details to go about doing so...with all this cross flashing and flashing back going on, i would think that could eventually fry your drive if something went wrong in the process~ just a thought
