Are some DVD burners better than others at reading/ripping scratched DVDs?

[davlor]

I'm on the market for a new DVD drive. The one I have (an old IDE HP branded one, I believe) is extremely finicky with ripping and playing back DVDs, even ones that play back without much trouble on standalone DVD players. I really want to get a new drive capable of copying the DVDs that my current drive can't copy. Are some brands better than others at reading data from scratched discs? This is something that doesn't seem to get mentioned in DVD drive reviews.

[lordsmurf]

Yes, absolutely. I've been telling people this for years.

BTC drives were the best.
The Pioneer 111 is one of the better readers.
Most drives are not very good, to be completely honest.

[budz]

Yes, absolutely. I've been telling people this for years.

BTC drives were the best.
The Pioneer 111 is one of the better readers.
Most drives are not very good, to be completely honest.

:P PIONEER drives are not the best readers for scratch discs. IMHO the latest SAMSUNG dvd burners are good readers for scratch discs and LITEON dvd drives as well.

[davlor]

Hmm okay, so I guess the Samsung SH-S203B is probably a good choice right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153

Any other thoughts? Thanks, guys.

[budz]

Hmm okay, so I guess the Samsung SH-S203B is probably a good choice right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153

Any other thoughts? Thanks, guys.

Yup the SAMSUNG S203B is a good choice. It's a SATA DVD burner so make sure you have SATA connections on your motherboard or you can get a PCI SATA CONTROLLER card that has the SILICON IMAGE chipset to attach the S203B drive. JMicron chipsets don't work well with optical drives so if you have that on your mobo the S203B will not work correctly. It will work on mobo's that have INTEL chipset controllers.

[davlor]

Yes, my motherboard has Intel SATA controllers, so that drive should work nicely for me. Thank you very much for the advice!

[pepegot1]

Plextor is very good. I had discs that would not play in various DVD Players, and used Plextor to rip them for a reburn which solved the problems.

[budz]

Plextor is very good. I had discs that would not play in various DVD Players, and used Plextor to rip them for a reburn which solved the problems.

Those were the good ole days of PLEXTOR when they manufactured their own dvd burners. I have a PLEXTOR 708 that's retired now but still works. Too bad they now use rebadged drives.

To davlor: Good to hear you have INTEL SATA CONTROLLERS.

[lordsmurf]

Samsung does about the same as the Pioneer 111 does. Quite decent, but neither are stellar. Sadly, it's about as good as it's going to get. They will both get through some degree of damage, but both will be tripped up by scratches and read errors that other drives can handle.

LiteOn, BenQ and LG drives are pretty mediocre at reading. I believe Plextor was pretty unimpressive too, but I don't remember that one anymore (been a long time since Plextor actually made drives). Some of the NEC drives were miserable, some of them have been decent.

Funny how a number of those "scanning" drives read miserably. It's easy to see why scanning media is for fun only, as poor reading gives false negatives.

None of these even comes remotely close to a BTC drive, in terms of raw reading power. Interesting how the BTC was only a mediocre burner (several quirks) and could not scan accurately. Oh well.

A lot of it depends on the exact model, but brands tend to use many of the same parts and build designs model to model. So most of them are similar in several areas of functionality. It'll probably take some degree of trial and error with a disc you know is crappy (yet you ALSO know can be read), before you find the drive you want. Anytime I test drives, it gets tested against the BTC for read quality.

Better care of discs (don't use wallets that might scratch, for example) and cleaning discs (no devices, no toothpaste, just use soapy water and a gentle cloth) will go a long way too. Use good discs, not cheap crap. It's not just the drive, but the disc that also need to be good.

Software with retry abilities (DVD Decrypter) and error skipping is also imperative.

... and budz, you don't what you're talking about. Keep your eye-rolling smiley for yourself.

[Almost Human]

When all others fail to read a disk I just stick it in my old HP200i (2.4 +R burner), and it has not let me down yet.

[budz]

... and budz, you don't what you're talking about. Keep your eye-rolling smiley for yourself.

I know more than you think....so stop with your constant BS when you don't even own a BENQ drive or one of the latest SAMSUNG drives....it's a bit tiring when you give BS/wrong info... no wonder they blew you out of the forums at cdfreaks.com..... :P

[lordsmurf]

I do own one of the latest Samsung drive, plus an older one. I once again have access to a BenQ drive too. Several LiteOn, LG, NEC too. And the last Plextor died some time ago. I've not left any forum, I just don't have time to visit them all and no current need. Video amateurs / keyboard warriors such as yourself really get on my nerves.