Lite-On 411s (451s) or Micro-Advantage Superdrive ?

[jtommyj]

Looking to get a cheap back up for my Pioneer 104 and both of these are available for 79.99 after MIR. Any input ?

And does anyone know off hand if either supports bitsetting by chance ?

TIA

Tom

[falberni]

I'd go for Lite-On 411 only because CDFREAKS.COM had a review on them and they gave it the editors award. You can read about it there. I don't know anything about the Micro Advantage drive.

[overloaded_ide]

Where's it at for that price on the 411s?
I just got one for $140 or so at wallmart, but it's defective and is being returned. Heck if I can get working ones for $79 maybe I'll take two
Well one at least.

Make sure it works before cutting off the upc! One guys posted he's getting scrathes on disks, and mine had a problem, updated firmware and got a differnt problem and lite-on tech support guy said I probably had a bad drive and to return it.

Lite-on has Sunday tech support on a toll free number with a real person

I love lite-on products, but with 4 coasters (first ever TRUE coasters) I must say I did not like the 411s so far!

[jtommyj]

Where's it at for that price on the 411s?

Best Buy 129.99 - 50 MIR = 79.99

Some people on some forums are saying they are getting a model 451s in the box, supposedly same specs but newer or different chipset.

[jtommyj]

Just picked up the Lite-On. Haven't installed it yet but will tonight and report back. Mfg. in Nov 2003 and an 8 as the second digit of the serial leads me to believe it is a ldw-451s.

Tom

[lordsmurf]

I've got the BTC (MicroAdvantage) drive, and I've got nothing bad to say about it.

I did update it to 0043 firmware after one coaster, and not a problem since. Also updated to Nero 5.5.10.54 because older Neros did not see the drive (because it's too new).

It replaced my Pioneer 103.

The BTC is an awesome drive. Used RITEK, MXL, RICOHJPN and TDK on it with no errors, both +R and -R discs. Not used +RW or -RW in it yet, don't use those much anyway.

And it only cost $58 after rebates and coupons at OfficeMax.com

[jtommyj]

OK - Some preliminary results.
Burned 4x DVD+RW that came with burner @ 4x. Ricohjpnw11

Burned 4x Imation DVD+R @ 4.2x.

Burned Fujifilm DVD-R 4x @ 4x. TYuden

Haven't done a DVD-RW yet (takes alot longer LOL @ 1x).

Ripped a dual-layer encrypted DVD (using AnyDVD) at a max of 8.4 (make image mode using Alcohol 120%), the same speed as my Lite-On XJ-166s. Very impressive to me although with the XJ-166s for 9.99, I won't be ripping very many DVD's with the burner.

As for the cheapie media (-R), still got my Pioneer 104 for that.

All play on my Toshiba 3950 set-top player fine with no problems. I obviously haven't had time to wtch the 3 DVD's from start to end, but I did forward to the end chapters and play and didn't notice any issues.

This after the first thing I did was to update the firmware to the latest.

It is a LWD-411s and not the 451s some people had been reporting.

First impressions, I'm EXTREMELY happy. Time will tell (kow).


Tom

[musher70]

A friend of mine had an lg4040
said liteon411 was supposed to be
best drive on market? he got to BB
for 79 bux, burned two dvds and took
back, drive was awful noisy, and disc
writing was inconsistent, run a few nero
dvd test on it, its on nero6 BTW, see how
they burn, he says audio cd burns are
excellent, but dvds arent, so look out ....

[jtommyj]

I refuse to use Nero on this machine cause it never even played right with my Pioneer 104 which has a reputation a very reliable burner. It wouldn't let me use DMA on XP Pro. I have since switched to Server 2K3 but don't want to goof it up. The only things I use to burn my DVD's are the engine in TMPGEnc Author, Alcohol 120% for all DVD images, and Recordnow DX for DVD folders.

I don't burn any CD's on this machine. I have an Abit NF7-S with a 32x and 52x CD burner for that.

Like I said, time will tell. My drive is very silent ( at least when compared to the fans in my computer since it's dual processor machine with some loud CPU fans LOL).


At the very least we should all thank Lite-On and the other Taiwanese manufactures for dropping the prices on the Japanese made models.

The Sony at BestBuy just had a $100.00 price drop to 179 and a 30 rebate on top of that. Same with the Pioneer for 169 now - 30 rebate.

Last year when I bought my Pioneer 104 2x burner, 253.00 plus tax at Newegg. Big difference now.

Tom