The new Sony 16x DVD burner vs. Memorex 16x vs. Pioneer 16x

[kethnaab]

The Sony is comparatively higher priced vs. the Memorex and the Pioneer that I've seen.

All share basically the same speeds, overall:

Maximum Write Speed 2.4x DVD+R DL (double layer)
16x DVD+R; 8x DVD-R; 48x CD-R
Maximum Rewrite Speed 4x DVD+RW; 4x DVD-RW; 24x CD-RW
Maximum Read Speed 16x DVD-ROM; 40x CD-ROM
Cache Buffer 2MB

The Memorex reads CDs a bit faster, the Pioneer writes -R and -RW faster, and the Sony apparently has a really really kickass Nero software bundle.

So...which to buy?

If you were me, which would you buy? I am almost ENTIRELY concerned with burning DVD movies I've purchased and wish to take with me on deployment to play in my computer's DVD player.

That kinda makes me think that the Nero bundle isn't really worth it to me, since DVDShrink and DVDecrypter should handle all the burning I need to do, and they're FREE!! Yeah, I love free!

Is the Sony THAT much better that it's worth the extra $$$, or can I stick with the lower priced Pioneer, or the even-lower-priced Memorex?

thanks a lot for any replies.

[Capmaster]

Definitely the Pioneer. IMO they make the best DVD writer. Most people who own them love them, myself included. I have yet to find a media it doesn't like, or burn a coaster with it. Superb drive

I don't know enough about the Memorex.

The Sony writers tend to be twitchy. Users report bugs and media sensitivities. A forum search will pull up all the comments on these drives.

And, for what it's worth, I bought a brand new Sony Vaio Media Center Desktop PC in July. The writer it came with: A Pioneer 107D. Makes you wonder

[code65536]

Sony = Memorex = Rebadged LiteOn

[Bodyslide]

Over 2500 burns on a Pioneer 107, and 300 burns on my new Pioneer 108. I really love the Pioneers......

[kosekjm]

I have had a Pioneer 106 (4X burner) and have recently upgraded to the pioneer 108. So far I have no complaints. I have only burned maybe four movies so far with the 108, so I don't have a lot of experience on it yet, but if it is anything like the 106, then I will not be disappointed. The 106 handled any and all media that I threw at it with no complaints.

Also, the 108 will actually burn the Verbatim dl at 4X as opposed to the 2.4 of the Sony. I have tried the dl burn and I'm highly impressed (If the media prices fall, I'll play with it some more)

I'd recommend the Pioneer over anything else that I've seen.

kosekjm

BTW, I hope all goes well with your deployment. (I spent 10 months in Bosnia courtesy of the army travel service.) My thoughts and well wishes go out to you and the rest of the troops.

[steptoe]

I've just bought the NEC 3500, on the simple fact that the reviews on CDFreaks said for DVD burning accuracy it was the best, slightly slower at burning, by that they mean a couple of minutes difference, but that was down to the burner adjusting the speed to get the most accurate burn from whatever media it was using

Also got fed up with the problems my Pioneer A05 was giving me, it still works perfectly, just fancied a change and plus the NEC burns dual-layer media, plus the speed increases in burn rates should keep me going for another year or so ..........

Have a look at http://www.svp.co.uk, cost me £60 including postage and O got it plus media I ordered in 2 days, thats damn fast considering how abismal the postal service is in UK now

[steptoe]

Wrong link, it shoudl be :

http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/

SVP is the company name , duhhhh

[dmagic1]

IMO, Benq 1620.
Not that it was one of the choices.

[RottenFoxBreath]

pioneer 108.
best writer out just now.

[handyguy]

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters

[Tidy]

I have used nothing but Pioneer since I bought my first burner (103) and have never had a problem at all with them ever in fact I have kept selling them to offset my upgrade prices and they hold value fairly well too. I have a 108 now and have yet to find a media it does not like. Plus with NIL's firmware I am able to burn 8x prodisc, Taiyo Yuden, and Ritek at 16 with no jerkiness or transfer rate problems in cdspeed and kprobe (kprobe is unreliable). I don't have a lite on burner so I have not been able to do PI/PO testing, but from what I read the testing is crap because you get wildly varying numbers on the same disc from one test to the other.

[RickTheRed]

Really, you cannot go wrong with the Pioneer 108 or the Nec 3500. Both are very good.

[Mawdryn]

I recently bought the Pioneer 108 and I just love it. It's fast and very reliable. Have not had a bad burn yet. I used to test all my disks after burning them and I used to find a lot of bad ones, but not since I bought the Pioneer. I have not found a single bad burn and I've stopped checking them all.

This was an upgrade from my 7-month-old ($230) Sony DRU 530A. I bought the Sony because I trusted the brand name, but I must say I was kind of disappointed in the Sony. It usually did fine with 4x disks, but there were still a fair amount of disks (perhaps 5-10%) that appeared to burn fine but wouldn't play back. The thing was supposed to be an 8x burner, but it really didn't do 8x very well at all. Of the 50 or so 8x burns I attempted with the Sony (all on official 8x media), only about 15 were successful. (And that early 8x media was $2-3 per disk.) That same 8x media is now burning at 12x or 16x in the Pioneer without any trouble. The Sony is an excellent player though, and I use it all the time for on-the-fly copying.

My vote is for the Pioneer. Sony, in my opinion, is no longer worth paying more (or in many cases even the same) for. To be fair, mine was a different Sony drive than the one you're asking about, and I know nothing about the Memorex.

[sssax2003]

CAUTION: On a tiny sticker on the plastic bag this drive comes in is a note indicating that you should use an 80 pin IDE cable. BE SURE TO DO THIS! I missed the sticker and since there is nothing in the brief manual, I hooked it up to the 40 pin cable I had been using with my Plextor PX-708A 8X drive. Result: Drive was very slow, could not flash bios, coasters, etc. It must have an 80 pin IDE cable. Also, I am surprised at the accolades that this drive is getting for speed. My Plextor PX-708A burned DVD+R 4x media at 8x all day long and would burn it with Nero 6 usually in 8-9 minutes (full 4.3 Gig). This Pioneer takes 9-10 minutes using Ritek 8x media at 8x with Nero 6 and if I select 12x (which it is supposed to burn at), it takes longer than at 8x!
Ans yes, I'm using the latest 1.14 bios. That said, the drive does work and I burn MANY DVD+R's with it.

80 pin? HAve any users had this problem?
A user posted this on newegg for the pioneer 108

[Bob W]

I would buy the NEC 3500a.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-152-029&depa=0

[RickTheRed]

That kinda makes me think that the Nero bundle isn't really worth it to me, since DVDShrink and DVDecrypter should handle all the burning I need to do, and they're FREE!! Yeah, I love free!

I have purchased the Pioneer 108 at a local computer store. It was the plain version, but it was bundled with Nero. There was no option w/o software to reduce the cost. I have made other calls and it was the same price with or without nero.

So you may end up with "free" nero anyway
Btw, nero is fine they update their software way too often and you have to download almost the whole frigging software each time (many files at 20 mb each! That sucks, even when you have a good connection).