advice on buying dvd burner

[zinc]

i want to buy an internal dvd burner and i need recommendations for the best once with a good price.
at the moment i have cd rewritable drive if i take this out and put in my dvd burner would i still be able to burn cd's.

and finally i hooked up our cd burner will the dvd burner connect the same way.

thanks people.

[CrayonEater]

Yes, you will be able to burn CDs. The thing about buying a DVD burner is whether you will be burning DVD+R single-layer (4.7 Gb) discs. Those discs use a trick called bitsetting/booktyping to make them compatible with many DVD players. Problem is, lots of burners don't take advantage of this. They do for Double Layer (8.5 Gb) discs, so you're good there.

I have and love the NEC ND-3550A. BUT, like many other burners on the market, you need to get your hands on a hacked firmware and flash the drive with it in order to bitset (specifically, Liggy's and Dee's 1.06 Bitsetting firmware). Drives like the popular Pioneer 111 also need something similar.

Modern Lite-Ons are the only major manufacturer's drives that will bitset out of the box. The problem is, Lite-Ons don't seem to be to be very good drives. I'm sure others here will swear by them, but based on what I read here and Afterdawn.com, Lite-Ons are the subject of an enormous amount of complaints, behind LG and Samsung drives. Those also bitset, but are the subject of an even more enormous amount of complaints.

[zinc]

thanks for your help crayoneater.

[olyteddy]

Modern Lite-Ons are the only major manufacturer's drives that will bitset out of the box.

I just got a Samsung SH-S182M in an I/O Magic enclosure that can bitset from either Nero 6 or ImgBurn. Newegg, iirc, has them as an internal for about $32.

[budz]

Modern Lite-Ons are the only major manufacturer's drives that will bitset out of the box. The problem is, Lite-Ons don't seem to be to be very good drives. I'm sure others here will swear by them, but based on what I read here and Afterdawn.com, Lite-Ons are the subject of an enormous amount of complaints, behind LG and Samsung drives. Those also bitset, but are the subject of an even more enormous amount of complaints.

Benq 1640, 1650 & 1655 drives bitset out of the box as well. I've no problems with the Benq 1620, 1640 & 1650. Liteon has come a long way since their earlier dvd burners. I just bought a Liteon 18x dvd burner that I crossflashed to the Benq 1800 drive. It burns well with the Benq firmware but others have also had good results using the Liteon firmware. BTW both drives can use Qsuite and Smartburn.

I don't know how you can say LG has enormous amount of complaints. Ever take a look at the dvd burner forums at CdFreaks.com????????? You'll see that every major manufacturer will have complaints/problems with their models of dvd burners.

To the OP: Buy what you can afford and use good quality dvd media with whatever brand you decide on. Buy any of the following brands of dvd burners: PIONEER 111, LG H10 & H22 series, BENQ 1640/1650/1655 if you can find them.

[CrayonEater]

I did not include Benq because they are no longer in production, and the 1670 is not considered to be of the same stellar quality as the 1650/1655. Everybody who has one of these raves about them. As far as LG, I have read an inordinate amount of complaints. As the owner of one whose double-layer capability failed after a dozen burns (and this seems to be a somewhat common problem with the 4163B) I can personally attest to their lack of quality, unfortunately. Although you're absolutely right that there are problems with any drive and manufacturer, it seems Pioneer and NEC get relatively few (other than for their lack of out-of-the-box bitsetting capability - I still don't understand why these manufacturers haven't figured this out yet!)

[wtsinnc]

I have used NEC (ND-3550), BENQ (DW-1650), and LG (GSW-4163 flashed to a GSA-4166b; a GSA-H10A, and most recently, a GSA-H20N) and all have performed well out of the box. Overall, I have found the LGs the most reliable and they are fast. Using Verbatim or Fuji 16x media, I can burn a DVD5 in just over six minutes and the finished product has been totally compatible with DVD players from Panasonic, JVC, Onkyo, Sony, Apex, and RCA. Based on what I have heard from others as well as my personal experience, I think the LG GSA-H20 series or the Pioneer 111D offer the best value (a good friend owns two of the Pioneers and he is totally satisfied with them). Brands to stay away from are Lite-On, Teac, Sony, and Samsung; all of these brands are apparently having serious quality control problems worldwide. Good luck !

[ZippyP.]

Another vote for Pioneer.

[budz]

wtsinnc wrote:

Brands to stay away from are Lite-On, Teac, Sony, and Samsung; all of these brands are apparently having serious quality control problems worldwide.

Every manufacturer has quality control problems. :P
Sony stopped manufacturing their own dvd burners long ago. So far they've used rebadged drives from BENQ, LITEON & now with NEC.

[golfnut]

Merry Christmas everyone. I am getting ready to purchase the Pioneer 111/710 DVD burner. Can someone tell me how and where to set up the bitset/booktype firmware for single layer discs. I know nothing about this so I may not even be saying this correctly. Also is there anything else I need to do to the burner itself before burning discs (other than enabling DMA that is). Thank you for your help on this.
Golfnut

[budz]

golfnut in order to acheive booktype setting to dvdrom for single layer media you'll have to crossflash the drive to the "The Dangerous Brother's buffalo firmware 111L.

http://tdb.rpc1.org/#DVR111L

download the 8.19 INT (buffalo internal)* firmware first then flash the drive in safemode and reboot your pc. then download the 8.29. INT (buffalo internal* firmware then flash again in safemode and reboot pc. you'll now be able to have booktype setting to dvdrom for single layer media. by doing this crossflashing you'll void the original Pioneer warranty.

this drive is factory set to booktype to dvdrom for DUAL LAYER MEDIA.