I need a 100% reliable burner and media.

[sneaux]

I need a high quality burner and media that will never let me down. Any suggestions?

[ntscuser]

There's no such thing. The NEC 3520 which I use now only achieved 97.5% in VideoHelp's consumer rating, which I think is the highest rating ever?

Even Verbatim's DVD-R x16 media fails occasionally.

[hech54]

For me it's been an LG 4167B and Taiyo Yuden 8x silver topped(naked) media.

Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, see store for details.

[loconess]

for me it's Benq 1655
verbatim media

[SLK001]

I'm with ntscuser on this... your requirements are not possible to meet - especially with consumer based equipment.

The only places where 100% reliability is required is in life-support equipment, aircraft controls/electronics, manned space vehicles, etc. In these cases, redundancy is the order of the day, and you pay through the nose for this equipment. What's so special about your requirements?

[Nelson37]

I agree there is no such animal.

Have them commercially pressed, or be prepared to live with a roughly 5% failure rate. There are a fair number of drives and standalone players that just refuse to read a burned disk, no matter what.

[ricoman]

For me it's been an LG 4167B and Taiyo Yuden 8x silver topped(naked) media.

Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, see store for details.

I assume you mean +R T02's. I have to agree, I have 2 other legendary burners, the NEC ND3500 and the BenQ 1640, but neither of them can touch my LG 4167 with the TY T02's. Just amazing and consistent. I burn'em at 12x and regularly get 99 QS with less than 100 total PIF on DCspeed scans. I'm surprised I don't hear more touting of LG. I wonder if you can still get he 4167 anywhere.

[redwudz]

Benq 1640 and TY 8X Silver Tops work for me. But I haven't had any write failures with my other burners either, and I have some cheap ones. But no 'cheap' media.

Of course that still doesn't mean they will play back perfectly on any player out there.

[budz]

All of my BENQ 1620, 1640, 1650 & 1655 drives using VERBATIM or TAIYO YUDEN media. BENQ no longer manufacturers their own dvd burners so those above models are hard to find. My suggestion would be to get a PIONEER 112D or PIONEER 212D SATA drive. Use good quality dvd media then you'll have no problems.

I have many flavors of dvd burners which have no problems using VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN media.

[ozymango]

Any suggestions?

Just this: Don't ever succumb to the belief that something will "never let you down." That is, make sure that you always have a backup or contingency plan when it comes to important stuff, and don't take shortcuts when it comes to things that really matter. Take care of your tools, never think you know everything, and always be willing to start again when something breaks. Works for hardware, software, and relationships, too.

[videobread]

Pioneer is the industry standard for burners. I have 4 111D's and 2 112D's. I have owned A106's and A109's. My firmware is always the latest. Pioneer is the best at supporting their firmware as new discs come to market.
(Scanning software is written for specific burners and Pioneer is not on the list. I don't scan.)
I only burn TY and Ver ever once in a while (to get the cake box).
I NEVER HAVE A COATER EVER. I just burnt 300 in the last two days. Zero coasters as usual.
I burn two discs at a time on three workstations.
The key is - keep your hardware and firmware current. Buy new drives ever once in a while. They don't last forever. Buy name brand burners for the firmware support. Stay with name brand media that works for you - TY.
NEVER A COASTER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sneaux]

Thanks alot guys. The most help is all the names of different burners you are throwing out there. I've been looking around the internet, cutting and pasting suggested burners into ebay and whatnot, and looking at media as well.

[hech54]

For me it's been an LG 4167B and Taiyo Yuden 8x silver topped(naked) media.

Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, see store for details.

I assume you mean +R T02's. I have to agree, I have 2 other legendary burners, the NEC ND3500 and the BenQ 1640, but neither of them can touch my LG 4167 with the TY T02's. Just amazing and consistent. I burn'em at 12x and regularly get 99 QS with less than 100 total PIF on DCspeed scans. I'm surprised I don't hear more touting of LG. I wonder if you can still get he 4167 anywhere.

I've always wanted to try TY's +R's...but the ones I keep buying are -R.
I have two LG's...both are in the same computer. an old 4040B and my 4167B.
Both have proven bulletproof so far. I'd buy another 4167B "new in package"
in a heartbeat.

[redwudz]

Just to mention a few online sources for DVD media that have been dependable for me:

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

http://www.supermediastore.com/index.html

http://www.meritline.com/media.html

They all should carry TY and Verbatim, along with other brands.

[lordsmurf]

Stop shopping on eBay for burners and media.
Buy at a media store for media, hardware or media store for burner.

[ntscuser]

I bought my last burner from the same store where I buy my media so if either goes wrong I can blame them and only them

[Gen-An]

Stop shopping on eBay for burners and media.

Depends on whom you buy from. I've purchased both media (genuine TY, Verbatim, Maxell, etc) and burners (Plextor, mint and new in the box) on ebay with no issues.

[SCDVD]

Stop shopping on eBay for burners and media.

Depends on whom you buy from. I've purchased both media (genuine TY, Verbatim, Maxell, etc) and burners (Plextor, mint and new in the box) on ebay with no issues.

I'm happy to hear you have been lucky - so far. Ebay is crawling with vermin that sell awful media. So just keep on Ebay-ing around and you will get burned.

[videobread]

I would never buy media on ebay, but have had good luck with burners. I never buy from someone selling one or two drives. Only buy from a seller who has listed, say, a lot of 50 units. A seller with good feedback who has been around for a while.

[Rich86]

Stop shopping on eBay for burners and media.

Depends on whom you buy from. I've purchased both media (genuine TY, Verbatim, Maxell, etc) and burners (Plextor, mint and new in the box) on ebay with no issues.

Although I don't buy media on EBay, I have purchased hardware with no problems. Just make sure you are dealing with a merchant with decent sales volume and high customer ratings. My last 2 Benq dvd burners came via EBay (a 1650 and a 1655) - brand new, great price, and working with no problems. Also a new Plextor Premium external cdrw drive which I got for 1/3 of what internal ones get (I guess folks don't know how to remove the screws from the case on an external?).

[overloaded_ide]

I agree with Smurf, get off ebay.

"cutting and pasting suggested burners into ebay "

Newegg.com, low prices like maybe $30 for a great burner, often free shipping, reliable merchant and returns or RMA for a bad drive is no problem and no hassles, last time I had to rma anything no questions! Thousands spent over the years and never a problem! I did get a DOA or a hard drive die quick, and replacements were fast easy and perfect. Not a Newegg fault, was the makers fault.

Very rare you will get that with any E-bay seller! No matter how good the seller it's simple fact that every manufacturer makes a dud or dead item at some point. And just where do most of these E-bay sellers get their Drives cheap enough they could sell for less than a vendor like Newegg? And if it dies in 2 months, where do you get the replacement from, do you get a valid receipt for proof of purchase, etc..

Newegg often has free shipping also.

Unless your getting the drive for total $15 including shipping I'd go to Newegg.com where you know they will be there in the future and will be selling the same products for awhile.

This is comming from an ebay seller with 2 accounts both 100% positive and Wife 99.9% positve (some people would bitch about crapping a gold brick)!
I think she's is near 8,000 feedbacks and I would not buy a drive from her

As for media, like others said trash is all over e-bay, you want something sure to work then stick with real stores like Rima.com or others that were mentioned and use only the best brand named disks like TY or Verbatim. I would never buy those from E-bay, to many fakes run around everywhere and most e-bay sellers would not know a TY from a princo, they mostly just sell what they buy from just anywhere, if they get lied to they don't even know it themselves most likely, then others know and don't care as long as they can push it and make a buck.

[SCDVD]

Good advice overloaded_ide. But there are those who would buy from Ebay for the simple reason that someone says to not buy from Ebay. The fact that someone didn't get burned on an Ebay purchase doesn't disprove the point at all. No one said you will get burned every time. But if you hang out in the bad part of town, sooner or later .......

[Gen-An]

Good luck trying to find an older drive anywhere other than Ebay. As for media, pick sellers with good feedback that post the pictures of the actual item and not a stock picture. Heck, the seller I got my TY media from has a web store: www.genesysdtp.com. Can you name one legitimate reason NOT to buy anything from the seller off ebay as opposed to the site?

[overloaded_ide]

Ya I know what you mean SCDVD

I buy allot on Ebay myself at times, but not disks and drives!

I have not got burned really yet, maybe once but iffy rather seller or Fedex was to blame!
Still I got a $500 broke printer for $200, did not work but I got $250 worth of parts from it to fix another one when it broke later. So I did not lose much though I was supposed to be getting a perfect printer like new and it was physically broke!
Sometimes that insurance ain't worth anything either, like then!

Fedex said they would pick up and inspect the package, then IF they paid the claim it would be to the shipper not me! Ya right and if he was a crook then how would I get the money from him??
If they decided they did not break it then they would send the printer back to the shipper, not me!
So again, how would I get back that broke printer? Pay another $50 to have it shipped a second time to me already broke? Would the seller refund my money if Fedex claimed they did not break it and did not pay, would he send the printer a second time, would he just say hey I got the printer to sell again and cheat someone else while keeping my money also, would be a great racket, just keep selling the same broke printer over and over letting Fedex return it free each time some-one tried to file a damage claim!

So I got $200 in junk to use for parts later, still came out a little ahead due to cost of replacement parts I would have had to buy. How often does that happen nicely like that though?

I got things I wanted just fine that others would have been burnt on, Dead UPS's claimed to be good and working, but for the price I didn't care I wanted the parts inside I figured would be good rather it worked or not, and they did not work! Some other buyer would have been burnt and that seller had good feedbacks up till about then and in a few months I saw he went way down then disapeared! Going out of business sales perhaps? Grab what you can for nothing then pop back as a new user and start over?

Heck with stuff like disks even from a reliable vendor like Newegg or Rima do you really know they are going to work? Not really, but you do know they will ship what you ordered and they will be real disks like TY or Verbatim or Ritek, but then will Ritek work or not? Crapshoot! So I only buy TY now
And not from some guy on the street corner out of a car trunk either.

[overloaded_ide]

Can you name one legitimate reason NOT to buy anything from the seller off ebay as opposed to the site?

Yes they are TOO HIGH and you SPEND TOO MUCH!!

Well if it is a real store that is reliable like RIMA or SHOP4Teck, or supermediastore or ???? store etc.. I geuss not if price is right, but if it's just some few pages on a yahoo site showing products in a store few people ever heard of, YA I would not buy disks from there either!

I have 2 stores I use for demos, real stores I built, you would not know it was not used by looking at the site, I only use the site to host pictures though and show off my work to others with the stores I built! If you placed an order though you would get what you bought cause it's fully working store, but I just don't use them.

Sure there are lots of good E-bay sellers out there, not all crooks, I'm out there sometimes too
Check those reseller ratings for some other reall stores, just cause someone has a store does not mean people are happy buying there. Lots of real stores are bad, not saying his is I never saw his and have no opion on his!

Let check his store now, this is what I find!
I checked them out a bit, lost my sale already! Though they have a link from the store to Ebay listings, it's an error and does not even find them!
I found them through searching Ebay though.

Seller has one listing only and for 10-Pak TDK =DIGITAL-AUDIO= MUSIC CD-RW 80-Min! $18.99 buy it now, ridiculous shipping calculation shows $10.56 UPS ground 1-6 days to me, crap I can get 200 DVD shipped for $8.70 from RIMA. WHY $10.56 for a lousy 10 disks even if they are in a jewel case maybe, so something extra for handling must be tacked on there I geuss.

Now lets compare store prices on stuff I buy myself!

Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 4.7GB, 8X, White Inkjet - Hub Printable, 100-Pack
Rima price $32.99, your guys store $35.99 Same disks $3 more

Taiyo Yuden DVD-R 4.7GB, 16X, White Inkjet (Hub Printable), 100-Pack
Rima $38 Your guys store is $38.99 Same disks $0.99 more

Rima shipping $8.70 Your guys store shipping $12.60 Same address $3.90 more

Rima total for 200 disks shipped $79.69 your guys store for same order $87.58
Same order, your guys store total $7.89 more.
I know RIMA and been buying there along time, so why would I spend more money at a store I don't know for the same disks?

Those are the disks I would be buying if I placed an order tonight for disks, so I checked prices on what I would buy myself.

Best deal I found on Ebay was on 600 8X TY, with shipping comes out to $36.07 per 100 still!
Why BOTHER??
100 at rima worked out $32.99 plus half of total shipping at $4.35 so $37.34 total and only have to buy 100 of them not 600, I could buy that iffy stuff in a lot of 600 and save a whole $1.27 per 100 disks or $0.0127 cents per disk but only saving that buying 600 at once and IF I got them for minimum bid, would actually cost MORE than Rima 100 packs if I used buy it now!

But wait it gets better, what if I bought 600 at Rima? Then it's $32 a 100 and shipping, so works out to $34.60 total per 100, $1.47 LESS per hundred than iffy stuff on ebay!
So 600 ebay disks is $216.42 and 600 RIMA disks is $207.60, I save $8.82 buying at Rima, I know what I am getting for sure, and I don't have to wait for an auction to end or worry about being outbid. At that's if I luck out and get the disks at minimum bid cause the buy it now on Ebay was higher than I was figuring!

So I did just now after all the above found a listing for 100 TY disks of the same type, lets look at those now quickly.
Ebay Disks $31.99 BID Shipping $13.85 total $45.84 /or Buy it now $33.99 for total $47.84
RIMA PRICE for just 100 same disks, $32.99 shipping $7.74 total $40.73
Rima again saves $5.10 or $7.11 on just 100 disks compared to buying on Ebay, no hassles and no waiting, just place order, and disks will be what was ordered not possibly some crappy junk from who knows where like could happen on E-bay.

No matter how you figure it, same disks are cheaper at Rima than I found on Ebay! Period!

Other disks may vary, but I buy those 8X. I checked a couple other off hand I wanted, they were even worse on ebay than I listed here!

Just cause I buy allot at Rima don't really mean their the best, shop around, but I am happy with them and certainly they are better than Ebay in many ways!!

[Gen-An]

One reason I order from GenesysDTP is that it's located on the East coast and it doesn't take five days for a product to get to me when using UPS Ground. Rima is just too darned far away. Ordering, say, 100 TY 8x hub printables from Rima and using 3 day shipping is more than the same item from GenesysDTP with Ground, so it makes sense to do the latter for me. Besides which, the item I ordered, TY 16x DVD+R hub inkjet printable, wasn't even offered by Rima at the time. Also, I don't think you understood my point either. I was saying there is no reason not to order items off ebay as opposed to ordering from the web store from the same seller.

[overloaded_ide]

Also

I need a 100% reliable burner and media.

Good luck trying to find an older drive anywhere other than Ebay.

Due to title of post, really he should NOT be looking for an older drive on ebay, he should be looking for a good new reliable drive that works with todays media and is of high quality.

Some old stock gathered up here or there being off loaded on Ebay is not really what he should be looking for. Fine for me needing a Socket A motherboard or an old 4 gig laptop drive, but not what I would call 100% reliable by any means.

[DereX888]

I need a high quality burner and media that will never let me down. Any suggestions?

Disc-press line.
But may be out of your price range...

[overloaded_ide]

sorry Gen-An

I see what you mean there. Ya if your buying from the same person don't matter from where or what name I guess if same person handles the orders and the price is same or lower.

I would buy from Rima I geuss if they sold on Ebay just as fast as I would buy from the store.
I do that with other type vendors some. I buy the same thing form the same person, from whichever is less, store or Ebay.
What gets me is the over head on ebay with extra fees and I buy it from same person for $1 less than buying direct. Some people are just stupid that way I guess. They could sell to me direct from store and cut $10 fees out, but they pay the fees and I buy for $1 less on Ebay sometimes. They actaully make less money per sale that way!

I'm in central USA myself, almost dead center, so really for me shipping should be the same from either coast, but ya if your next door to one seller and the other seller is acrossed country then the rates will vary that way some. I thought both was west coast.

[Gen-An]

Being in the Central US has its advantages for shipping I see. Just watch out for twisters!