Newbie - need advice on 1st DVD Writer

[BrettOlbrys]

OK, I'm finally going to be getting a DVD Writer b/c I will be creating lots of DVD's from home video's, as well as picture slide shows.

From reading numerous posts, it seems as though most people would go with the Pioneer 108, but since this will be my 1st writer and I'm open to anything, what is the best internal DVD writer I should go with?

Thanks,

Brett

[fritzi93]

Check out www.cdfreaks.com, they have a poll on that currently. Last I looked the BenQ 1620 was leading, with the newest NEC dual close behind. In fact, all the poll picks are good, have a look.

EDIT: Look in the Recording Hardware sub-forum. Woops! The NEC is in the lead now. Pioneer, LiteOn, Plextor, LG, there too.

[Bodyslide]

The Pioneer 108 and the Newer 109 is also a good buy. DO a search on the forums. Alot of info.

[samijubal]

The NEC is a quite a bit ahead of the BenQ.

[daamon]

Pioneer 108 always gets a good mention (I've got one - love it). And an NEC (the 3500 or something like that) always recommended too.

Update your lcoation in your profile, and people can also recommend where to buy them from.

[budz]

Get a BENQ 1620 from newegg.com or a NU TECHNOLOGY 163 which is a rebadged BENQ 1620.

Check out the forums at cdfreaks.com - PLEXTOR, BENQ/PHILIPS, PIONEER, LITEON forums. You can read about all those brands at their respective forums. In my opinion BENQ 1620 is a good drive because it has BITSETTING automatically without the use of a hacked firmware and is also a good dvd reader. NEC drives are known not to be able to read dvd's well such a disc that is scratched and to enable BITSETTING hacked firmware needs to be used. NEC firmware support is not the greatest but hacked firmware is available.

BITSETTING means burning DVD+R media to the DVD-ROM setting so that dvd players that cannot playback DVD+R media will be able to do so. Not all dvd players are compatible with DVD+R media. PLEXTOR has BITSETTING by using PLEXTOOLS. PIONEER only has BITSETTING for dual layer DVD+R media someone can correct me on that if I am incorrect.

[broadway]

my 2cents

I bought a Pacific Digital dvd burner which was a rebadged BenQ1620.
It would only read 1 out of 4 DVD-RW 2x discs I had. These dics had video recorded with a JVC DVD recorder. I returned the unit even though it was a great price from Staples after rebates.

I then bought a NEC 3520 because of assurance that it would read DVD-RW 2x discs, and sure enough, it did. No problems.

[OmahaVike]

you're not alone. i'm a dvd burner virgin too.

after weeks of reading everything here, and over at cdfreaks, i decided i was going to make the jump. orderd a benq 1620 from pcontime.net ($61.97 - shipping included) yesterday.

just remember to upgrade the firmware on it. there are a ton of comments under the player if you search for it.

seemed like its the best bang for the buck, which my wife carefully monitors. boo!!!!

now i enter the battlegrounds of "which media works the best?". grrrr.

best of luck compadre!

[CogoSWSDS]

I have had good luck with my NEC 2500A. It's dual format (+/- R/RW). I am also a DVD burner newbie though and haven't burned very many DVDs in it yet. That will change very soon though.

As far as authoring software goes, if you like free tools, DVDAuthorGUI is quite good, IMHO. Check it out in "Tools" on the left side of this page.

CogoswSDS

[erdons]

Theres Pioneer, and then theres others. Definetely go with the Pioneer, you will not regret it.

[handyguy]

If you ever come back, let us know what kind of computer it is.

[BrettOlbrys]

Ask 1 question and get 10 different answers. I wish it was much easier then this, but it seems as though it whould either be the Pioneer 108 or the BENQ 1620 based on everyone's opinions.

My computer is a Gateway. I running WinXP Pro SP1, 768 megs ram, (1) CD-RW drive and (3) hard drives. I live in CT.

Thanks

[canadateck]

I live in CT.

Thanks

Go with the Pioneer 108 ..

[lordsmurf]

Not even remotely impressed by BenQ.

Get a Pioneer. My 109 is working great. Had several Pioneers through the years, never a problem.

[waheed]

Try the Nec 3520. 16x Dual layer burner and the first burner to support writing for DVD-R Dual Layer Discs (though the discs are not available yet). as well as DVD+R Dual Layer.

[stiltman]

What ever you do, don't get a BTC/Emprex
Might just be me, but I can't stand writing with it. I just use it for a reader after a bunch of coasters. I know my Pioneer 106 will get the job done.

[lordsmurf]

I have BTC 1004 (x2) and 1108 ... fine drives here.

[steve2713]

Get a Pioneer. My 109 is working great. Had several Pioneers through the years, never a problem.

That's not the impression I got reading of all of the problems with the 109s on CDfreaks.com

[samijubal]

NEC, hundreds of burns, haven't had a coaster yet.

[lordsmurf]

Get a Pioneer. My 109 is working great. Had several Pioneers through the years, never a problem.

That's not the impression I got reading of all of the problems with the 109s on CDfreaks.com

Check again. With the ability to now use RECORDNOW MAX on the drive, pretty much all problems are gone. Reliable software.

NERO 6 and a few others are not working well. Those programs suck anyway, some are still beta.

Things like DECRYPTER are fine too.

[steve2713]

Another vote for NEC 3520 1st. Benq 1620 2nd, Pioneer 108 3rd.

[steve2713]

Check again. With the ability to now use RECORDNOW MAX on the drive, pretty much all problems are gone. Reliable software.

NERO 6 and a few others are not working well. Those programs suck anyway, some are still beta.

Things like DECRYPTER are fine too.

So decrypter DOES burn the discs fine? I thought I'd read that the 109 was having all kinds of issues burning -R media properly. I use Decrypter mostly, but I also use Nero for data burns and some other stuff, burnatonce sometimes as well. I'm not a fan of Recordnow, nor do most people have it that I'm aware of, so that still leaves an issue. If you don't have recordnow max, isn't that awfully limiting?

[fritzi93]

I'm very pleased with my BenQ, beats hell out of my old rebadged Sanyo. The bitsetting is great, now I have more media choice. My Apex can't play straight +Rs. Did a couple +DLs too with DVDDecrypter, no coasters, scan quality 94 or better, no layer break trouble.

Reading some of the comments at cdfreaks, I wasn't sure how well it would burn -Rs, but no problems with TY, MXL, MCC, even a few leftover CMCs. (Yes CMCs, got a 99% scan on one. Naturally, the next one wasn't nearly so good, no surprise).

Hell, get what you want, just don't buy a no-name pig in a poke. Good luck.

[lordsmurf]

Check again. With the ability to now use RECORDNOW MAX on the drive, pretty much all problems are gone. Reliable software.

NERO 6 and a few others are not working well. Those programs suck anyway, some are still beta.

Things like DECRYPTER are fine too.

So decrypter DOES burn the discs fine? I thought I'd read that the 109 was having all kinds of issues burning -R media properly. I use Decrypter mostly, but I also use Nero for data burns and some other stuff, burnatonce sometimes as well. I'm not a fan of Recordnow, nor do most people have it that I'm aware of, so that still leaves an issue. If you don't have recordnow max, isn't that awfully limiting?

Not really.
That's mainstream software.
Nero 6 is the other one, yet buggy as hell. On any burner.
At least Nero 6 sees it.

Decrypter is fine for DVD Video. It had issues on XBOX stuff, but I'd never tried DD for XBOX. That's not a suggested method anyway. RNM and Prassi was always the XBOX suggestion. Never Nero.

[TerminalVeloCD]

My current picks: NEC ND-3520A and Pioneer DVR-109.

Regards,
TerminalVeloCD

[-jsl-]

Check again. With the ability to now use RECORDNOW MAX on the drive, pretty much all problems are gone. Reliable software.

NERO 6 and a few others are not working well. Those programs suck anyway, some are still beta.

Things like DECRYPTER are fine too.

So when you had issues with the BenQ you blamed the drive but when you have issues with the Pioneer you blame the software, interesting...

And BTC drives are not "fine" unless you want crap burn quality, see for example CDfreaks' review of the 1108 here.

[BrettOlbrys]

Since I will be buying in the next day or two:

POINT BY POINT, why is the BenQ driver better to get then the Pioneer 108 or 109, what makes it so much better? Vice versa, what makes the Pioneer a better choice?

Am I missing something here, but wouldn't the Pioneer 109 be a clone of the 108 (PHYSICALLY), but it would just be the software that makes it different? If that is the case, then why wouldn't you get a 109 when the software will be corrected?

Thanks,

Brett

[lordsmurf]

Check again. With the ability to now use RECORDNOW MAX on the drive, pretty much all problems are gone. Reliable software.

NERO 6 and a few others are not working well. Those programs suck anyway, some are still beta.

Things like DECRYPTER are fine too.

So when you had issues with the BenQ you blamed the drive but when you have issues with the Pioneer you blame the software, interesting...

And BTC drives are not "fine" unless you want crap burn quality, see for example CDfreaks' review of the 1108 here.

Yes. BENQ acted the same on all software.
The Pioneer acted correctly when used with non-bloatware and non-beta software.

BTC drives here have given me solid burns for ... I think it's been a year now on the oldest one. No complaints at all. Have three of them total now. The only complaint is Taiyo Yuden, and then I saw one drive commit suicide on a firmware update (1108IM). The 1108 is an old drive, 8x only. The new ones are the 1016IM drives.

CDFREAKS is too concerned with PI/PO and that's just stupid. That's only one of about 3-4 tests to judge media quality. I take their reviews with a grain of salt.

[-jsl-]

POINT BY POINT, why is the BenQ driver better to get then the Pioneer 108 or 109, what makes it so much better? Vice versa, what makes the Pioneer a better choice?

Main things:
BenQ: Supports more or less all available media at their certified speed or faster (usually with excellent burn quality). Pioneer: Quite bad support of media at their certified speed or faster (with official firmware).

BenQ: Supports bitsetting for all plus formats. Pioneer: Only supports bitsetting (auto) for DVD+R DL.

BenQ: (P)CAV burning for all speeds >4x. Pioneer: ZCLV @8x-12x for all media except some of the very few 16x media Pioneer has included support for in the firmware.

BenQ: Supports quality scanning of media (PI/PIF/POF/jitter/TE/FE). Pioneer: No (reliable) quality scanning of media.

The only advantage of the DVR-109 vs. the BenQ DW1620 is future support for 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and DVD-R DL (whenever the media will be available for these formats) and better support for old 1x-2x DVD-R/RW media (if anyone still uses it).

Am I missing something here, but wouldn't the Pioneer 109 be a clone of the 108 (PHYSICALLY), but it would just be the software that makes it different? If that is the case, then why wouldn't you get a 109 when the software will be corrected?

No complete different hardware.

BENQ acted the same on all software.

Problem with your system in that case as it works perfect with all tested software here and for most other people. Your continued unsubstantiated bashing of the BenQ only reduces your own trustworthiness as it has proved to be an excellent writer in several reliable reviews (such as CDfreaks and CDrlabs) and it's one of the most popular burners at the moment (see for example this poll).

CDFREAKS is too concerned with PI/PO and that's just stupid. That's only one of about 3-4 tests to judge media quality. I take their reviews with a grain of salt.

The review also include read transfer graphs on a Lite-On DVD-ROM. Several of the tested media @8x were unreadable (CRC errors) and most have some sort of slow-downs. So there is no doubt the burn quality is very poor.

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer: Quite bad support of media at their certified speed or faster (with official firmware).
.........
BenQ: Supports bitsetting for all plus formats. Pioneer: Only supports bitsetting (auto) for DVD+R DL.

You exaggerate too much.
Pioneer firmware is brand new. Support for 16x media is really the only thing not working well yet. An update in the near future will surely fix that. You can barely even find 16x media in stores. It's still all 4x and 8x.

Bitsetting is one of those "nerd" things too. It's not often needed. Usually if the DVD player does not see DVD+R, it failed because of the hardware. Magically changing the booktype rarely helps. Like I've said before. You can put a pear and an apple on a table. And you can write "APPLE" on the pear in marker. Some will be fooled. But people will usually still know it's just a pear. Same thing for DVD players. This is a feature that is valuable, but only to a small minority.

PI/PO testings ... also a "nerd" thing. Nobody really messes with that. Most people want to burn a disc, and then watch it. If you want to scan it, run a surface test to be sure the burn is good. You don't need PI/PO or speed read tests as Joe Q. Consumer. Even Joe Q. Experienced rarely cares.

The BENQ drive was not the fault of the system. Other burners worked great in it. The BENQ was just a piece of junk. A survey of 90 people is NOT an acceptable sample for a poll, NOR is a site like that (one concerned MOSTLY with scanning tools) an appropriate polling location.

You sound like the kind of person that buys a car based on how well the floormats fit in, or the shade of window tint. Totally ignoring gas mileage, warranty, engine size, upkeep costs, etc.

I try to give advice to the "common person". The layman. My people. We are not concerned with the "nerd niche" when it comes to technology. It just needs to work, and decently at that. Obscure frills do not matter.