Advice on DVD Rewriters / Burners

[josel]

Hi all

Just asking advice on which will be the best DVD Rewriter / Burner, mainly for quality. What do I look for in the specifications i.e. what is 4 speed comapred to 8 speed.
Still learning, I use premiere Pro 1.5

Cheers Josel

[InXess]

Newest LG, Benq and NEC's according to CDRINFO.com are most consistent or so it seems.

[Cobra]

I've always found the Pioneer burners go on and on forever. I have two in my machine right now. LiteOn are also pretty good, as are NECs.

I've had an LG die on me before, and I've never used a Benq drive so I can't comment.

[psx_pirate]

4 speed and 8 speed are the writing speeds of the dvd rewriter .... usually refered to as 4x or 8x [4 and 8 times write] this means that the drive will write at 4 [or 8] times the normal speed of a dvd rom ... ie (assuming the standard of... a 4.7gb dvdr will hold 2 hours (120 mins) of video) if you are going to burn the full 120 mins it will take 30 mins to burn in a 4x drive and only 15 mins to burn in an 8x drive

Note1 ... most new drives are now 16x ... so using the example above burning would take 7 1/2 mins

note2 the above examples only work if the actual media (blank dvdr's) are rated at the same (or higher) speed as the drive ... ie if you use 8x blank dvdr in a 16x writer you can still only burn at 8x ... also the times given in the example are approximate as there are many other factors that can affect burning times

[josel]

Thankyou all,
psx_pirate mentioned about the different speeds, but will you lose quality burning say from a 16x than a 4x as a 4 x is slower. Or does it make any difference?


Cheers Josel

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer, LiteON and LG are the best drives.
Pioneer especially.

[budz]

Best dvd burner on the market right now is the BENQ 1655 & the soon to be released in USA the BENQ 1650 that replaces the 1640. The 1655 has lightscribe technology and the 1650 doesn't. Check out the BENQ FORUM at Cdfreaks.com for more info. BENQ has a tool called QSUITE 2.1 which remembers the write strategy for known/unknown brands of dvd media. It's a good tool to use and it's free unlike PLEXTOR with their PLEXTOOLS. BENQ also has official firmware upgrades to match the newer dvd media that manufacturers release.

Use good quality dvd media then you won't have problems. This question of what is the best DVDRW has been around and around. Read the reviews at BENQ FORUM and all the other forums at Cdfreaks.com. Every manufacturer has quality control issues.

[Cobra]

Thankyou all,
psx_pirate mentioned about the different speeds, but will you lose quality burning say from a 16x than a 4x as a 4 x is slower. Or does it make any difference?


Cheers Josel

No, you won't. As long as you use media rated at 16x in a drive that can do 16x, it will turn out just the same as if you burned it at 1x. I used to think that slowing it down prevented glitches (you wouldn't have a constant quality degradation) but having read loads of discussions about it, it seems that this too is false. Don't worry - if it's says 16x, you can do it no bother! Just make sure you use decent media, though.

As for the "best" DVD drive, there's already a difference in opinion here. "Best" is a very difficult thing to ask for, because it's largely subject to opinion. I swear by Pioneer drives - in my own experience, they'd write to a used beer mat if you could fit it in the drive. However, others have evidently had similar experience with other drives (I saw Benq mentioned) so they're obviously good drives too.

It will eventually come down to your own decision, unless you make this a poll with different brands as options. If you'd like to do this, make sure you are logged in and go back to your original post. Above the text, there will be an edit button (my apologies if you aren't a newbie to forums like these). Edit your post, and you'll see the option to add a poll. Do so. Or, if you'd prefer, I'll edit your post and put some up for you.

Cobra

[josel]

Thanks cobra,

Would you mind very much to sort that out, the poll that is, I am new and I have no idea what to do.

Cheers Josel

[josel]

Hi Cobra

I have gonr into my original post, gone into edit, but cannot find poll?

Can you help

Thankyou Josel

[AlecWest]

Here's an interesting note that left me scratching my head. My first DVD burner was a MagicSpin 8x. I ordered the 4x Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs from SuperMediaStore. But, for some reason, the MagicSpin would "coaster" any attempt to burn at 4x ... so I just got used to 2x burns. Recently, I got an NEC 3550A 16x burner and still use the 4x Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs. But, the NEC burns them at 4x with no problem at all. A pleasant surprise but have always wondered why the 8x burner couldn't handle a 4x disc. At the time, I thought the problem was disc-related. Now, I'm not so sure. Oh well...

[chas0039]

If you use Taiyo Yuden +R 8X media, any drive you buy, other than the latest NEC 4570, will turn out a perfect burn at 8X. Almost all of the drives made today by LG, BenQ (not the DQ 60), Liteon, Pioneer, and NEC will turn out high quality burns as long as you get good media. Currently Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim MCC are the best.

[Dubber]

Here is NEC 3550A sold as another drive, all for $28.00
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4636838?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

[Cobra]

Hi Cobra

I have gonr into my original post, gone into edit, but cannot find poll?

Can you help

Thankyou Josel

Josel,

It's just above the "Submit" button, for future reference. I've gone ahead and added as many brands I can think of for you, so you don't need to worry about it.

Hope this helps!

Cobra

[Faustus]

Pioneer then NEC personally speaking.

[josel]

Thankyou very much cobra

Josel

[Cobra]

Anytime.

[ROF]

The best brand of burner is the best brand that works the best for you. All the above are good depending upon model. All the above are bad depending on model. All the above could be recommended depending upon model. All the above could not be recommended depending on model.

There are many choices, I dare say hundreds, given the list provided so I'd choose the best burner that will work the best for you given your requirements and desires. No need for someone to recommend you something or a feature you will never use.

[josel]

Thats really deep man.


Josel

[mattso]

Pioneer.