Suggest me a dvd-r drive for ripping

[RealTelstar]

to put in the HTPC that i'm building.

It must be fast and have good error correction for audio cd and dvd ripping. It must be SILENT when operating. Lastly, the open button must be in standard size/position to use the faceplate of the HTPC ecnlosure.

[oldandinthe way]

Error correction is identical for all CDs and DVDs. Its DIGITAL and all drives must interpret the same ECC (error corection codes).

[RealTelstar]

Error correction is identical for all CDs and DVDs. Its DIGITAL and all drives must interpret the same ECC (error corection codes).

So all drives support ECC? Ripping speed though varies also depending on how good is the unit in reading errors. Basically you are saying that there are no big differences among various drives so I could buy any?

[redwudz]

Some drives seem to be better at reading problematic discs than others. DVD-RW drives also vary in reading speeds. Some are locked at 2X, some are not. Others can be unlocked with a firmware upgrade. Other members may be able to tell you which ones. Or you could use a DVD-ROM drive as most all of them can rip at full speed.

[budz]

to put in the HTPC that i'm building.

It must be fast and have good error correction for audio cd and dvd ripping. It must be SILENT when operating. Lastly, the open button must be in standard size/position to use the faceplate of the HTPC ecnlosure.

Get a SAMSUNG 20x SATA S203B dvd burner. Cdfreaks.com just posted a review on the drive. I have 2 of those drives and it can rip fast since there's no read speed riplock. The drive burns well with good quality dvd media like VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN as well as crap media RITEK.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Samsung-SH-S203B-DVD-Burner-Review/Introduction.html

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer 111 is great at reading fast. Disc must be good.

[budz]

Pioneer 111 is great at reading fast. Disc must be good.

PIONEER drives read speeds are riplocked with the exception of the PIONEER 212 SATA DVD BURNER. One could use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to unlock some of the PIONEER drives to enable faster read speeds.

[JohnnyBob]

to put in the HTPC that i'm building.

It must be fast and have good error correction for audio cd and dvd ripping. It must be SILENT when operating. Lastly, the open button must be in standard size/position to use the faceplate of the HTPC ecnlosure.

I've recently bought LG GSA-H55N and LH-20A1P Lite-On burners and they're both recessed about 1 cm compared to my former WD DVD-ROM. So getting one to align perfectly with the front of your particular tower might be problematical.

If it's fast, it won't be silent, however some are quieter than others. My LG is quieter than my Lite-On. LG has riplock, Lite-On doesn't. The riplock on the LG can be removed with a firmware patch but it wasn't easy to figure out. If I had to pick just one of them, I'd go for the Lite-On. It has ripped and burned everything I've tried. The LG seems a little peculiar with the layer break on DL discs while burning (it sometimes stops writing for awhile), although the resulting discs play OK (so far).

[lordsmurf]

Pioneer 111 is great at reading fast. Disc must be good.

PIONEER drives read speeds are riplocked with the exception of the PIONEER 212 SATA DVD BURNER. One could use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to unlock some of the PIONEER drives to enable faster read speeds.

No they're not.

The Pioneer 111 drives I own were able to rip or read at max speed right out of the box. These were the Pioneer S710 variations sold at Best Buy in summer 2006.

[budz]

Pioneer 111 is great at reading fast. Disc must be good.

PIONEER drives read speeds are riplocked with the exception of the PIONEER 212 SATA DVD BURNER. One could use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to unlock some of the PIONEER drives to enable faster read speeds.

No they're not.

The Pioneer 111 drives I own were able to rip or read at max speed right out of the box. These were the Pioneer S710 variations sold at Best Buy in summer 2006.

LS get your facts straight ok. the PIONEER 710 drives sold at BEST BUY are PIONEER 111D drives. BEST BUY always sells PIONEER retail drives which come with software but the hardware is in fact the same as the PIONEER 111. How do I know this? Well, I bought 2 of those PIONEER 710 drives which the stickers on the drives say PIONEER 111D. I also bought OEM PIONEER 111D drives as well.

Don't be giving out wrong information to other members. Sure the PIONEER 111 drive can rip fast only if you use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT which allows you to rip faster. The drive is riplocked by default from PIONEER.

As I've mentioned the only PIONEER drive that's not riplocked by default is the PIONEER 212 SATA drive.

[lordsmurf]

Then you explain to me how, with no special software and no firmware upgrades, the 710 (111) drives I have are able to read/rip a full disc in just a few minutes, up to ~15x by the time it reaches the edge of the disc.

I stuck the drive in, then did some burning and ripping/reading, and saw it was reading and ripping fast.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

So I went and bought another one the next day, and it's the same way, in another system.

No extra software, no firmware hacks, nothing. It just worked.

[budz]

Then you explain to me how, with no special software and no firmware upgrades, the 710 (111) drives I have are able to read/rip a full disc in just a few minutes, up to ~15x by the time it reaches the edge of the disc.

I stuck the drive in, then did some burning and ripping/reading, and saw it was reading and ripping fast.

I liked it. I liked it a lot.

So I went and bought another one the next day, and it's the same way, in another system.

No extra software, no firmware hacks, nothing. It just worked.

Here take a look at the PIONEER 111D review from Cdfreaks.com where the read performance is.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Pioneer-DVR-111-DVD-Burner-Review/Reading-performance.html

The main negative points: There are not that many negative things to say about the Pioneer DVR-111. Media compatibility with CD-R and DVD±R could be better. Many of our 16x rated media was only burned at 12x. Having said that, the media that did burn at 12x did burn with excellent quality, so perhaps this was a wise decision on Pioneer's part, and I would chose quality over speed every time.

The Pioneer DVR-111 reading performance could be better, although the drive performed well enough in our tests. We would like to see DVD±R media being read at 16x and DVD±RW media being read at 12x, instead of the present DVD±R/RW 12x/8x

We would also like to see some improvements in writing quality when burning 'Ultra speed" CD-RW media. This at present is one weak point with the Pioneer DVR-111.

Commerical Dual layer discs are riplocked to 8x and single layer discs are riplocked at 12x. Nuff said! :P
LS Stop with the BS already you're embarrassing yourself!

To the OP read the PIONEER 111D review at Cdfreaks.com if you feel the need to.

[smitbret]

Yep, both of my Pioneer DVR-111Ds are locked at 8x when ripping DVDs. Doing it right now, just out of curiosity. Otherwise, they're the best.

[Delerious]

Pioneer 111 is great at reading fast. Disc must be good.

PIONEER drives read speeds are riplocked with the exception of the PIONEER 212 SATA DVD BURNER. One could use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to unlock some of the PIONEER drives to enable faster read speeds.

I thought my 112D did 16x on SL and 12x on DL. I've crossflashed to a 112L so I'm not sure, but looking at the
cdfreaks review of the Samsung 203B (which looks like a really nice drive) they have the results for various drives here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Samsung-SH-S203B-DVD-Burner-Review/Reading-performance.html and that shows they got 16x and 12x with the 112D with pressed discs - about the same as the Samsung.

J

[RealTelstar]

to put in the HTPC that i'm building.

It must be fast and have good error correction for audio cd and dvd ripping. It must be SILENT when operating. Lastly, the open button must be in standard size/position to use the faceplate of the HTPC ecnlosure.

Get a SAMSUNG 20x SATA S203B dvd burner. Cdfreaks.com just posted a review on the drive. I have 2 of those drives and it can rip fast since there's no read speed riplock. The drive burns well with good quality dvd media like VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN as well as crap media RITEK.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Samsung-SH-S203B-DVD-Burner-Review/Introduction.html

Oh i thought this thread was almost dead and instead there's a nice discussion going on

I would prefer a writer because of occasional needs to dump stuff, but that's not mandatory (i have a 4gb usb key).
I like my current samsung pair. Oh and yes it MUST Be SATA, i dont build PCs with IDE anymore, i got totally fed up with it. For a HTPC cable management is also an issue. So only SATA drives.

[RealTelstar]

About noise:
My Cyberhome stand alone dvd/divx player is quite noisy and I don't like that, expecially if i leave a disk inside (funny, to the point that i have to turn on-eject-reinsert the disk). So I want a SILENT unit for dvd playback. Most of the playback will be from ripped movies and audio, but when you get a new dvd you dont want to wait to rip and let the software index it.

I cannot tell the noise of the samsung S183A and D163A because my pc is way too noisy, that any sound from them is muffled by the fans.

About ripping:
Speaking of dvd ripping, I made a test yesterday, to rip a dvd9 movie, with the latest build of DVD Fab Decrypter, which turned to be 7.7gigabytes. I used my samsung S183A sata dvd burner and it took about 15 minutes. It's this the average time that it'll take? i have about 60 dvds to rip and I'm thinking that maybe i should start

Also, I made a test with EAC flac ripping (following the instruction literally) and that took about 5 minutes.
My audio-cd are all in pristine/excellent condition, because I dont use my hi-fi much and they are all ripped in the computers in high-bitrate mp3s - they will be re-ripped in lossless format.

I have to redo the same tests with the samsung dvdrom, i think the audio ripping time can improve.

[budz]

RealTelstar get the SAMSUNG S203B SATA 20x dvd burner. It is a decent burner as well as a reader. Take a look at the review at CdFreaks.com.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Samsung-SH-S203B-DVD-Burner-Review

I've got 2 of these drives.

[RealTelstar]

RealTelstar get the SAMSUNG S203B SATA 20x dvd burner. It is a decent burner as well as a reader.

OK

[Seeker47]

Yep, both of my Pioneer DVR-111Ds are locked at 8x when ripping DVDs. Doing it right now, just out of curiosity. Otherwise, they're the best.

I'm pretty sure there is alternative firmware (Dangerous Bros., maybe others) that will remove this limitation.

The 111 seems to have the best reviews of any Pioneer burner in recent memory, so I bought a couple, but have not deployed them yet, for unrelated reasons I won't get into right now. I'm wondering how well their current models stack up, in comparison ? For example, I noticed that Fry's has a Pioneer external for $60. after rebate at the moment. Given the issues with 80-wire cabling and finding compatible enclosures for models 111 and later, that could be a pretty good deal . . . if the burner is good.

[budz]

The DANGEROUS BROS firmware will not remove the speed lock, it only provides region free and bitsetting to dvd-rom for DVD+R single layer media. You'll have to use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to increase the read speed.

[Seeker47]

The DANGEROUS BROS firmware will not remove the speed lock, it only provides region free and bitsetting to dvd-rom for DVD+R single layer media. You'll have to use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT to increase the read speed.

Wasn't this one you needed to crossflash, anyway ?

I seem to recall that there was firmware for some previous Pioneer burner models that did remove the riplock. We used to have other sources, like Flash's Repository. But it may be that TDB is now the only game in town for alternative Pioneer firmware ?

One of those 111s will probably go into the next box I put together. The other one will be saved as a spare for my 640. (It is apparently the closest match.) I would have retrofitted a 111 in the computer by now, but my 108 is such a workhorse -- it just keeps on burning and burning, and hasn't faltered yet ! So far, haven't really needed anything better.