What CD/DVD Burner will give me the best results for my Gateway GT5056

[uncleB]

What CD/DVD Burner will give me the best results for my Gateway GT5056

This is a follow up to a previous post (Troubling Results with my audio & video - Oct.16th) if you want to check it out .The general response was to get a new burner if I wanted better results, a couple people suggested to not use Nero 7. What the heck, please just tell me what you think the best all around CD/DVD Burner would be for this machine, what you would use to burn CD’s – DVD’s, and what media you’ve had the most luck with in regards to not many coasters and good quality reproduction. If you have any suggestions as to any tips as far as burning goes, that will help to insure good reproduction and few coasters that would be “Cool” too.

Thanks again you guys are always a big help
Uncle Bob

[Krispy Kritter]

Any of the current models work fine for the normal user. It usually boils down to brand preference, price, and/or what is available where you shop. The Pioneer 112D and Samsung seem to be the popular drives at the moment. Before buying a drive, check you existing drive to verify if it an IDE or SATA drive (some of the newer Dell and Gateway units are using SATA).

As for burning software, the popular (and free) tool around here is IMGBurn. I use Nero 6.x for all of my burning needs and haven't had any issues. Nero 7 has had several issues, but I believe they have all been corrected with the latest patches and updates.

You should have no trouble burning any CD media. Any of the name brand media will work fine.

For DVD media, Verbatim and TY are generally the most reliable. I only use TY DVD-R media and seldom have any issues. For DVD DL, use only Verbatim DVD+R DL media. It is the only reliable media atm.

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer burner. Use good media: www.nomorecoasters.com

[budz]

As Krispy Kritter suggested either get a SATA SAMSUNG or PIONEER drive but I'd also toss in a LG H62 drive as well. Hopefully you won't get a defective PIONEER 112 or (SATA)212 drive as PIONEER has admitted there was a manufacturing problem on those models. It would depend on the manufacturing date that's on the drive.

[oldandinthe way]

Gateway shows a preference for buying Samsung or LG drives due to the minimum of support problems they create.

I recommend you follow their lead. If you like buying the media which are available in the big stores, like to take advantage of sales and are not going to become consumed in the religion of optical media, this is the way to go.

Although there are some advantages to SATA drives many of the products on the market are still immature. I'd stay with IDE if this will be your only burner.

I use LG drives and almost never have coasters Under one half of one percent. I burn at full speed. I use many brands of media. Like many others I like Verbatim media but principally because they burn beautifully at 18x in my LG GSA-H42L.

[lordsmurf]

LG doesn't always like to read/rip as fast as Pioneer drives. Same for TSST (Samsung) drives.

[oldandinthe way]

MCSE can remove the rip lock from LG drive firmware. So the rip and burn process is much shorter with LG.

And it is MEDIA_TOLERANT

[Krispy Kritter]

: )

[budz]

LG doesn't always like to read/rip as fast as Pioneer drives. Same for TSST (Samsung) drives.

That's not true of the SAMSUNG SATA S203B drive. The read speed is not locked at all compared to the PIONEER 112/212 drives that have their read speeds locked. To overcome the riplock on those PIONEER drives one will have to use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT. LS this was mentioned before in another thread. Stop giving wrong information again!

[lordsmurf]

Well, I see what I wrote, but I should have also stated that the quality of the read is sometimes a bit lower too, especially on the LG. The LG is a great burner, but this is yet one more reason I suggest a really good DVD-ROM or burner known for good reading, when you want to read/rip discs. Don't rely on the burner for everything.

Also remember that a lack of "riplock" does not necessarily mean the disc will read fast. It just means there is no artificial speed limit. The disc can still very much read slow, based on other factors.

Some LG drives cannot be hacked, especially the laptop drives.

Budz, quit being a prick. I'm not giving out wrong info.

[oldandinthe way]

The quality of the read is equal for all burners - if the disk reads. That's what ECC is for. And ECC is part of the DVD spec. A successful read on one brand of burner is identical (bit for bit) to a successful read on any other brand (to the extent required by the DVD standard).

The ability of burners to read marginal disks differs. Indeed there are some disks which might read in other burners which will not read in some LG burners. Once very couple of months I encounter a disk which will not read in one of my LG burners. Usually it will read in another of my LG burners.

Occaisionally I note a small drop in read rate in a non-riplocked burner (<10%) - probably to to error-correction. This occurs most often with pressed DVDs. It is difficult to attribute this to the burner or the disk.

This is not like many drives which will not write commonly available name-brand media at rated speed or at any speed.

All drives require available firmware to be hacked with MCSE or in any other manner. LG, to my knowledge, does not supply a retail laptop drive, and does not supply firmware images for its laptop drives. The LG oem laptop drives are being diverted into the retail channels by several vendors. Unless one obtains a firmware update from an OEM one cannot hack the firmware. If you buy an LG laptop drive you will probably not know whose firmware is in the drive. This is also true of many of the laptop drives made by NEC and others purchased online.

[KTH]

As Krispy Kritter has said for DL (Dual Layer) media I would stick with Verbatim DVD+R DL, but make sure you only purchase the made in Singapore ones. Recently Verbatim has shifted the manufacturing of their DVD media to India and I have been hearing some really bad stories about this made in India media.

[lordsmurf]

The quality of the read is equal for all burners .

You are sadly mistaken here. That's not at all true.

[OneSickPup]

For the most part I agree with oldandin the way. I own several LG and Samsung drives and agree they are very reliable. But for the record I also own several other makes of drives that are also very reliable. I think my opinions differ from his in two areas:

1. He tends to give Gateway way more credit than I. I would like to think that Gateway was concerned about giving customers the most reliable drive possible but I think it's purely the best they can get at the cheapest price. Look at what IOMagic has done over time. They now are primarily LG's and Samsung's these days for their rebadged drives. I'm not debating how good or reliable the drive is - just that price is a crucial factor in their decision process. In this case though the users are getting a quality product so the debate is moot.

2. I agree that LG model's based on the Renesas chipsets starting with the GSA 4163B through at least the H62N are as you put it "MEDIA_TOLERANT". I would hesitate to include many of the Panasonic chipset based models like the H22N for instance. These are still excellent drives but tend to be pickier about media and often not as good at reading / ripping.

[OneSickPup]

The quality of the read is equal for all burners .

You are sadly mistaken here. That's not at all true.

I'm sure he will respond - but.................. I think you are mis-interpretting what he was stating. I assume he meant a successful read equals any other drives successful read (quality-wise) if error correction capabilities are kept out of the equation.

EDIT MADE HERE:

Success = Success as long as how you arrived at success is not examined. Hope that makes sense.

[oldandinthe way]

I measure the quality of the read by whether the bits which have been written or pressed onto the media are identical to the bits which appear in the computer. And my interpretation is consistant with computer industry practice and the goals of the design of DVD.

Thanks one sickpup for pointing out that success is success.

If ECC has been invoked the major downside is increased rip time. The mathematical principles used in designing error checking and error correction on DVD media are time-tested and reduce the liklihood of error to a level which is insignificant.

I use only Renassas chip based LG drives (the newest being an H42L) but have noted a decrease in complaints about Panasonic chipset drives since the firmware in many models has been updated. I assume they use two different chipsets in their drives due to the need to meet demand.

My opinions knowledge of Gateway strategy for support is based on over 30 years of experience in the computer industry at a variety of management levels and some experience with that company. We'll see what effects the Acer acquisition has. HP shares the same attitude about minimizing support costs by minimizing product failures. And HP also ships LG and Samsung drives. Lenovo ships LG - probably because of the Hitachi/IBM connection, as well as a high priced/high quality support organization in the USA.

Dell budgets substantially more per system for product support and shows greater inconsistancy in the components they buy. It will be interesting to see whether their rampup in the retail channel changes their products and support strategy.

I have used Samsung drives in the past and been favorably impressed by them. The only media which I had problems with was media which were not in the firmware and they had to use a default write strategy for.

I have not been impressed by most other brands of DVDwriter. But I haven't tried them all. This forum and cdfreaks have provided me with enough secondhand knowledge to avoid most of them. I buy products that work as spec'ed. And that includes the ability to reliably burn at full speed, a wide variety of media.

[budz]

Budz, quit being a prick. I'm not giving out wrong info.

Yah, know you amuse me with your smartass comments when you're wrong. Shit, be a man when you're wrong instead of showing the small size of your pea brain..... :P :P :P

[OneSickPup]

Edited post quotes to simplify responses below:

(1)I use only Renassas chip based LG drives (the newest being an H42L) but have noted a decrease in complaints about Panasonic chipset drives since the firmware in many models has been updated. I assume they use two different chipsets in their drives due to the need to meet demand.

(2)My opinions knowledge of Gateway strategy for support is based on over 30 years of experience in the computer industry at a variety of management levels and some experience with that company.........

(3)I have used Samsung drives in the past and been favorably impressed by them. The only media which I had problems with was media which were not in the firmware and they had to use a default write strategy for.

1. Collecting and testing drives is a hobby of mine so I have several models of LG's based on both chipset model lines. Not sure why LG maintains both development teams but both lines have many positives. My biggest pet peeve with the Renesas models is the inability to write DVD-R at 12x. I'm sure this is no issue to those that write at rated speed but I prefer most 16x -R media burned at 12x which can't be achieved on a Renesas based drive. Firmware updates have helped many Panasonic based drives but in my opinion, they still have a more limited array of media that they do well with.

2. I understand your position and concede you may very well be closer to the truth than I am. I am basing my position on bulk quantity pricing for current optical drives. It appears that LG, Lite-on and Samsung have controlled the lowest price point in the market for many months. Given the choice of the three cheapest alternatives I think it stands to reason why LG and Samsung are very popular with OEM's currently. No slam intended to Lite-on but their current model lines haven't been as reliable for the average consumer.

3. I never cared much for the S162x models even though they held up well. The S182D and S182M models were very good except for the S182D's that were plagued with the DVD-R lead-in problems. This issue plagued many MediaTek chip-based drives as some Lite-on models suffered this issue at times. The current 203B and 203N models (SATA) are about as good as it gets in the SATA optical world. The 203B is probably the hottest drive out currently for the CDFreaks crowd anyways.