IOMagic IDVDRW8D from multiple vendors.. which do you have?

[PerfMan]

I have confirmed at least 2 different manufacturers of DVDRW8D. I bought one, then a friend bought one.. same store (Staples - $99).. one box behind the other.

Mine is a BTC1008IM and his is the Optorite DD0401.

I initially had problems with the BTC1008IM for 2 reasons. First was my old DVD player I replaced had to have the IDE channel set to PIO mode. This really messed up the BTC.. So changed to UDMA mode and was better, but still did not burn right in NERO 5.x.. was VERY slow.. around 1x. So upgraded the firmware from 052 to 054 and it fixed the problem. Can now burn with Nero and DVDXCopy with no problems. Have burned a Ritek 4x DVD+RW and Imation 4X DVD-R.

No update on the Optorite yet...

The key seems to be firmware updates... as well as get rid of the Roxio Drag and Burn software. Nero really hates Drag and Burn... disable it and it helps...

[The village idiot]

I asked to open the box before I bought mine, it was the Optorite. The BTC seems to have many reports of problems, so I was going to stay away from that model.

Didn't install the software that came with it, won't touch that garbage.

Installed the drive in a firewire box I had. Works great, at least until I can get a faster Panasonic RAM drive, I like the cartridges for the RAM disks.