Help Choosing between 3 Burners Lite-On & Optorite.

[TBoneit]

Basic Question I can get easily one of three burners:

Currently using a Sony DRU-500A In USB Enclosure

Lite-On SOHW1633S
Optorite DD-1601
Optorite DD1603

From my research here and info in the writers section, the Lite-On seems picky as to media. And Not much info on the Optorite drives there.

So my basic question is which one to get. In the Writers section the DD-1601 seems much lower cost and a older? model.

My prices on these three range from $59.22 to $62.00

I'm sort of leaning towards the Optorite but have no real reason.

Thanks for any feedback.
Roger

Edit: Why these 3 drives. I can get them today at work. More importantly I'm money challenged til payday at the end of the month and the drive will just be stopped out of my check. 3rd reason I just got some TDK that say 8X compatable on them... And I think I may have toasted my DRU 510A on them (Now it gives power calibration errors after trying 2 of these, 1 before and 1 after firmware upgrade) and All the disks I'm buyinmg these days are at least 8X.

[SaSi]

I would buy the LiteOn drive. It's much more modern and does good recordings. Being picky about the media is not bad and don't expect it to be as picky as the DRU500.

On the other hand, I recorded 4X TDK media that my Sony would not burn at 4x on a Samsung recorder at 4x and I am now re-burning the same material on Tayo-Yudens at 4x because the TDK media won't play properly on many DVD players. Obviously the SONY f/w knew better.

Finally, don't expect a TDK disk to be high quality just because of the name. I've had serious trouble with 4x TDK -R disks that were manufactured by CMC. I later bought TDK 4x +R disks (manufactured by Ricoh) that record at 4x (and on the Sony) and play back everywhere.

As a final advise, don't throw away your Sony just yet. For important recordings, trust it and burn with it at 2x. Also, it's the only recorder I now have that can succesfully burn audio CDs at 24x with no hiss and skip problems.

[lenti_75]

i would go for nec or pioneer, nec is about 60$

but, from your list i whould choose lite-on.

[Noahtuck]

12 hours ago i would also have said liteon.... now i would have to say try a NEC!!!
I just got a ND-3520A and it burns media beautifuly that my liteon was making coasters of, never had problems with the liteon until i started using printable dvdr's, i still have it but i was amazed at how the NEC burned the disc's the liteon was not burning....

And the nec will book type +R's & +RDL to dvd-rom

[TBoneit]

I would buy the LiteOn drive. It's much more modern and does good recordings. Being picky about the media is not bad and don't expect it to be as picky as the DRU500.

On the other hand, I recorded 4X TDK media that my Sony would not burn at 4x on a Samsung recorder at 4x and I am now re-burning the same material on Tayo-Yudens at 4x because the TDK media won't play properly on many DVD players. Obviously the SONY f/w knew better.

Finally, don't expect a TDK disk to be high quality just because of the name. I've had serious trouble with 4x TDK -R disks that were manufactured by CMC. I later bought TDK 4x +R disks (manufactured by Ricoh) that record at 4x (and on the Sony) and play back everywhere.

As a final advise, don't throw away your Sony just yet. For important
recordings, trust it and burn with it at 2x. Also, it's the only recorder I now have that can succesfully burn audio CDs at 24x with no hiss and skip problems.

I'm holding onto the 500A, I suspect the 510A is toast, Easy come easy go. I got the 510A for free from someone that didn't like the styling and bundled software.

But I never found the 500A to be picky about media once in a blue moon it didn't like one disc out of a spindle and onlt rarelt then.

On the other hand I expect TDK media to be better than TKD media.
I'm not joking I once saw someone in NYC, NY selling at bargain prices TKD VHS tapes really cheap. People were buying them thinking they were TDK!

Yup I always had good resluts with Ricoh DVDs and CDs too.

Thanks for the feedback
Roger

[TBoneit]

Everybody, thanks for the replies!

I'm going with the Lite-On Burner. Only drawback with it & the others too is I can't keep using my old relable Nero 5.5 which never let me down. They are too new.

Oh well See what happens with Nero 6.x

Cheers

[bnbhoha]

You really should look at NEC at newegg.com. I don't have it but will get one once my Pionner craps out on me. The general consensus is that this drive is the best bang for your buck. Good luck

[koolaidwa]

Optorite's are very good drives, beleive it or not my 8x one is my favorite, produces the best qulity scans (scanned on my liteon 1633s) so far

i like there drives, but liteon is great too, the 1633s provides the best qulity burns at 6X

[ccbadd]

I personally think the Optorite DD-1601 is the best of the drives listed. It is a rebadged Cyberdrive DX162D and easily beets all the other drives I have. It is based on the Phillips Nexperia chipset like the Benq 1620's. That is probably why it cost more than the 1603. It is supported by Nero CD-DVD Speed disk quality test also. You may need to flash to the latest Cyberdrive firmware however.