Goodhearted experts: BenQ 16x0 vs. LiteOn 5s/6s vs, Nec 3550 vs. Samsung?:)

[Sir Joe]

hi!
It is more than a month that I am spending a terrorific amount of mental energies and absurd quantity of time in internet to find infos. I really really really need to stop all this, I need to sleep and to do other things. i must decide and buy, now, the drive and enclosure.
I must admit that I found out many things, especially thanks to forums like this and all people helping me, and reviews like cdfreak ones...
I determined that I do not need a dvd ram writer, if it is not the only way to get the best overall writer in all the other sectors too.
Yes I need all the rest of medias in + and - format.
I do not matter if the drives is really the absolute faster, apart maybe the "two sheep" ability as cdfreaks call it: the spead in ripping protected movies. But, if not, I prefer one that, even if slightly slower, can have better write quality, write strategy options and modes, and quality control functions as bitsetting and all the BenQ solidburn or Liteon or Samsung features to make a burn process more reliable and sure and write quality better as possible, so to be sure that movies will come good on as many players as possible on many medias (brand and type) as possible, and the drive compatibility with enclosures of course.
At this time I am leading with the definitive choice, and I pray You good hearted experts to give me please your last opinion, considering my needs above expressed, and that the drive will have to fit on a usb2 and firewire enclosure and work in my system (see comp. details), please please please: :P
I would like to chooce between a BenQ (1640 or 1650?), a Nec (3550 or something else?), a LiteOn (SHM-165H6S or 1635S?) or a Samsung. About each one there are pro and contra and unfortunate people which get a failed one and had a terrible impression etc. But I ask the same for a last opinion
I read on cdfreak that BenQ 1640 is probably one of the best writer of all times. As it is quite impossible to find, I wonder if 1650 is the same or better, or if it is worst, as the 1670 seems to be? Or 1670 has already got a firmware which makes it the best one?
About Nec, I read incredible amount of very good things about nd-3550a. Is is true that this is the best Nec for my needs or some one else can be better or good in the same way but faster?
And About Lite On, till today I was sure they were not as good as others, no more, but it seems (see cdfreack forum about liteon) that now with 5s and 6s firmware series thay have implemented lot of functions and are less noisy, faster, and with better quality than any benQ or Nec.
Last, Samsung, lately i found out that Samsung has lot of functios very similars to BenQ ones to control ans ensure quality and strategies.
So, PLEASE, what can you suggest me? Nec 3550 and BenQ 1650 at newegg are quite at the same very low price. And a little more for LiteOne and I think the same for Samsung ones.
THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[OneSickPup]

I have very little experience with Samsung burners. However I do own the other three drives you are considering. All are good drives. I would rate the Benq 1650 and the LiteOn 165H6S a notch above the NEC 3550 though. In my opinion the Benq may be slightly better at burning but the LiteOn is slightly better at reading/ripping/scanning. Either are good choices. I would have to give the LiteOn the advantage considering you say you intend to place this drive in a USB/Firewire enclosure. The UDMA4 abilities of the 6S generation of LiteOn's make them excellent candidates for this situation. The Benq 1640 had an external version of firmware allowing UDMA4 operation I think. I am not aware of such an option for the 1650/55 models. I could be mistaken though. Good Luck!

[budz]

I see you've posted your questions at the BENQ & PIONEER Forums at CdFreaks.com. I have the BENQ 1640 & 1650 which are excellent drives. I'd like to add to your list the PIONEER 111D drive which I also have. I purchased my second PIONEER 111D (710 retail version of the 111D) from Best Buy last week since it was on sale for $39.99 which was a hard deal to pass up. Check the PIONEER Forum what enclosure can be used successfully with the 111D drive.

BENQ 1640 is scarce as manufacturing of this drive has ended and the 1650 is becoming difficult to find as well. Newegg is out of stock. Although Newegg wouldn't be a option for you since they do not ship internationally. Btw LITEON purchased BENQ's optical storage division so it will be interesting to see what will be LITEON's/BENQ's drive will be like. There are already those who are grumbling about LITEON creating crappy firmware upgrades for the BENQ drives. Whio knows!!!! Either the BENQ 1650 or PIONEER 111D would be good choices.

If you do get the BENQ 1650 get a PLUMAX enclosure which supposedly works very well with BENQ drives. Here's a link for Dealsonic that sells PLUMAX enclosures:
http://www.dealsonic.com/plumax.html

[Sir Joe]

I see you've posted your questions at the BENQ & PIONEER Forums at CdFreaks.com. [...] Either the BENQ 1650 or PIONEER 111D would be good choices. [...] If you do get the BENQ 1650 get a PLUMAX enclosure which supposedly works very well with BENQ drives. Here's a link for Dealsonic that sells PLUMAX enclosures:
http://www.dealsonic.com/plumax.html

Thanks for the info and the link !
Yes, I am posting on cd freak... And it is few days I am posting a lot because I really need to come up this situation. I was waiting two months the vendor here.
Could You please tell me the differences You have noticed between 1650 and Pioneer?
About write and read quality, and compatibility of burned dvd in home players. I get contradictory infos about bitsettign abilities of the two, and, also, I never had a dvd writer, so, i donot have a real concrete idea of many thngs I read. My mind is frying...
I see a plextor px-750uf at 90$... It could be a good idea?

[budz]

Plextor's drives are overpriced and their dvd burners aren't the best. There are no compatibility problems when using dvds burned by either the BENQ 1650 or PIONEER 111D@111L. I have a vast variety of brands of dvd players. As far as read/write quailty both drives are neck and neck. I don't do quality scans but if you're wanting to do that then get the BENQ 1650 drive because the PIONEER 111D drive doesn't do scanning well at all.

Bitsetting to DVD-ROM for DVD+R media is automatic for the BENQ 1650 drive. But the PIONEER 111D drive isn't, the only way to enable it to bitset to DVD-ROM is to crossflash the drive with the dangerous brothers (tdb) hacked firmware> 111L 8.19 internal firmware. Only then will the drive be able to bitset to DVD-ROM for DVD+R media. Although it can do the bitsetting to DVD-ROM for DUAL LAYER media without the tdb firmware. It's just for single layer media that you'll need to use tdb firmware to enable bitsetting to DVD-ROM.

Either the BENQ 1650 or PIONEER 111D will do well for you. I wouldn't buy a LITEON that's just my opinion. Hope this answers most of your questions. Get either drive based on what your vendor has available for you. You really can't go wrong with either of those drives.

[CrayonEater]

I have the ND-3550A and it is fantastic. My only complaint is that it does not bitset DVD+R single-layer, but you can fix that with the Liggy's and Dee's firmware from rpc1.org. Tigerdirect has it for $19.99 after rebate. They have a Lite-On for $29.99 after rebate, though I'm less sure about Lite-Ons and I don't know if they ship to Argentina.

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer, LiteOn, LG, NEC = best burner drives

Then comes everything else, with varying quirks, flaws and general nuisances not seen with the better drives mentioned above.

Given your request, you may want to go with the NEC drive.
Usually I'd suggest the Pioneer drives.

[Sir Joe]

Thanks to the three of You!
I discovered that TigerDirect sell to Argentina. Unfortunately it has got no BenQ and not Pioneer 111d...
Pity that the Pioneer has to be hacked to have bitsetting in dvd+r. Do not wanna loose warranty...
Anyway, we´ll see what I find and then decide... 8)
Budz, what is "scanning"? Is it the process of verifying data written?

[budz]

TigerDirect does sell PIONEER 111D. The retail version of the drive is called 710. Here's the link for it:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2078854&CatId=0

Doing quality scanning is done to see how well the disc was written. Some swear by it but I don't. As long as the disc is able to playback without any problems then it's ok. I will only do a quality scan if the disc doesn't playback correctly for some reason or another. Go over to CdFreaks.com where you'll see some quality scan threads in most of the dvd burner forums. The Pioneer 111D isn't a good drive to use to do quality scans. Liteon and Benq are supposedly better at doing quailty scans.

[Sir Joe]

TigerDirect does sell PIONEER 111D. The retail version of the drive is called 710. .

Thanks! I am checking if I can get it here. I have a good new, I can get 1650 and 1655 here. Would get a 1650. I posted on cdfreak but ask it here too: in the shop they tell me to be able to find 1650 in two versions: 9J.B4E15.0B3 or 9J.B4E15.0B11...
Any idea???
So, if I will find also a good enclosure I will very probably buy both here. If not, I will check internet. In meritline there is a 1650 into a Bytecc enclosure with prolific chipset. Is for about $70. Don´t tell anybody or i will not find it anymore !
If I do not find here enclosure and must buy in internet, so, I could also buy Pionneer. A question, is it true that with the pioneer one can be so sure that there is no need of scans?

[lordsmurf]

Yes, Pioneer is probably the best burner out there, in terms of the quality of burns.

Scanning is largely an unnecessary method to check disc quality. There are other methods that work fine on the Pioneer. See http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/burnquality.htm

[Sir Joe]

Hi,
I have found some enclosures. Can You have a look to this post?
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=308664

Thanks Lordsmurf... I am reading the link. I find out only today of your post...

[xxiangg]

I bought a BenQ 1640 about a year ago. I bought a NEC 3550A a few
months ago with an expectation that it would out performe my BenQ.
Well, it was a little dispointment. Certainly, my NEC 3550A is still
a good driver. But if I do it again, I will go with BenQ. I believe
BenQ 1640 and 1650 are almost the same. But my impression is that
1670 is a very different model and I would not touch it.

[Sir Joe]

Yes, this is why I decided to buy a benQ even if it is sodifficult to find a prolific enclosure.
At this point, if the chips I posted on the link above are good with BenQ ok, if are good with liteon i go on LiteOn, if not, well, I buy the memorex external which is a nec but I am tired. Argentina is a nightmare.

[budz]

I bought a BenQ 1640 about a year ago. I bought a NEC 3550A a few
months ago with an expectation that it would out performe my BenQ.
Well, it was a little dispointment. Certainly, my NEC 3550A is still
a good driver. But if I do it again, I will go with BenQ. I believe
BenQ 1640 and 1650 are almost the same. But my impression is that
1670 is a very different model and I would not touch it.

The Benq 1670 uses a different chipset from the 1640 & 1650.

[Sir Joe]

Mmm..., and, is it still so terrible or did they fixed it? If I am right the sony DRU820A, and so I suppose also the DRX820UL, is a BenQ1670... I can find it here. Very very expensive, but I can. Does it wort?