Is "Optorite DD0203 DVD±RW" any good?

[lal]

I've seen this for $199.00. I haven't seen a +- drive for this cheap so far.

If anybody has this drive or know about it, can you please post your opinions? I am looking for reliability in burns and media compatability.

Appreciate your help.

[henry_nettles]

I just ordered one, so I'll let you know what I think in a few days.

For those interested, I found out about the drive through the Hot Deals forum on anandtech, the link to the discussion there is

http://subscriber.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=40&threadid=1060532

The link to buy the drive itself at accupc is here

http://www.accupc.com/itemDetail.jsp?pid=DROPDD0203

Seems to be a very interesting drive, has the 8 meg buffer and the HD-BURN capability (record twice the capacity of CD-R media).[/url]

[soundforbjt]

This is an accesstek drive. You can find info on it here.

http://www.accesstek.com.tw/products/dd0203.html

From what I've read about it, it has limited -R media support.

[lal]

Found out the following info on this drive:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/archive/topic/68198.html
http://forum.firmware-flash.com/viewtopic.php?p=51011#51011

[henry_nettles]

My drive arrived about 3 hours ago, and I have initial impressions. The package is Retail, comes with one 4X DVD+R blank, Sonic MyDVD software, and B's Recorder Gold software.

I installed the drive, immediately upgraded the firmware to 2.06, and then burned a movie. I used RecordNow DX 4.60 to record a move to a Ritek G03 DVD-R disc. The move was a full 4.3 gigs, and recorded in about 30 minutes (must have been 2x, although RecordNow just said "MAX" for speed). The recorded movied plays fine on my 3 settop players (Pioneer, Apex, and Cyberhome).

More results later, so far so good.

[lal]

henry_nettles - Thanks for posting your observations.

[zanos]

Is there a particular reason why you're only considering the optorite? I've seen the Pioneer 105 (DVD-r/DVD-RW) in a number of places for $160+

[lethaldoser]

Is there a particular reason why you're only considering the optorite? I've seen the Pioneer 105 (DVD-r/DVD-RW) in a number of places for $160+

most likely it is because for $30 more you would also get the +R/+RW option.

[lal]

Zanos - As lethaldoser said, you'll get both +/- for $30 bucks more.

[atb]

why not at Dual format drive with $30 more than pionner A05?
With Dual format drive there will no need to worry which format win the war! Also this drive comes with HD-BURN, isn't is worth just $30 more?
All the function add up is worth more than that!

DUAL FORMAT ROCKS

[AmeliaK]

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know if there is a site where this burner can be purchased, that will send to Australia?

Most of the sites that seem to have it, only seem to ship to the US.

Thanx
Amelia

[StudeBarc]

AmeliaK,

The same burn engine (sanyo, I believe) is available as an MSI unit in Australia. Here is a link to Altech (Bris and Syd) with the RRP of $440 Aus.
HD-CD burn and 4x +/- DVD writing all in one drive...pretty cool.

http://www.altech.com.au/price/price_goodlist.asp?shop=B&type=91

Regards
Studebarc.

[AmeliaK]

Thanks Studebarc,

I am going to check it out now.

BTW: Do you actually have this Drive?

Thanks
Amelia

[StudeBarc]

AmeliaK,

No, I don't have this drive. I have seen a few posts on DVDRHelp regarding it. Some confusion as to whether it uses and NEC 1300 burn engine or the Sanyo burn engine. I believe it is the Sanyo as this is stated on DVDPlusRW.org.

Here is the link to Optorite information: http://www.optorite.com/dd0203.htm

The Sanyo engine is based on this:
http://www.sanyo.co.jp/koho/hypertext4-eng/0209news-e/0925-2e.html

Let us know how you get on with the unit.

Regards
Studebarc

[AmeliaK]

Just checked the Altech site and they don't appear sell via the web. Also check with their Victorian Resellers and they don't stock it

I am going to try and contact them direct and see how that goes.

Will let you know of the outcome

[twodogs]

There's a couple of Optorites on ebay.com.au under DVD section

otherwise, for MSI, check out www.jw.com.au
their website says $409 but they were listed at $389 somewhere last week, maybe in the trado, can't remember.

[KOJACK]

I have SONY DRU-500AX and Optorite DD0203. I was using Memorex and CompUSA brand DVD-R media. I made some coasters with Sony ,when try to burn as X2. But, I never made coasters with my Optorite DD0203. To me, Optorite is better than Sony!! I will test more different brands' DVD-R and DVD+R. I'll let you know more later.

[AmeliaK]

Thanks twodogs & KOJACK,

I am going to checking out the link for the MSI now (thanks Twodogs )

Lets hope I can get it before the weekend

Kind Regards
Amelia

[Jukka]

Anyone know where I can get this in the UK / Europe?

[i am x]

I spent the past 2 days reading about this drive, and decided to go out and buy it today. There was a small computer store by my place that I didn't even know about, and they had ONE LEFT. I called all the main chain stores in my area, and NONE of them carried it. They all carried the big wig brands that cost upwards of 250 to 400 bux. Anyways, this store had one Optorite left, and they had it on sale for $179.00. I snatched it off the shelf like LIGHTNING.
I then went back to 1 of the big wig stores and bought a bunch of DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW disks. LESSON #1, when you buy this drive, GO TO THEIR WEBSITE AND FIND OUT WHICH DISCS IT IS COMPATIBLE WITH!!!!! If you make the mistake of buying the wrong brands, THEY WON'T BURN. Lesson #2, download and install the firmware that they have for this drive. The newest one as of today is version 2.11. It makes the drive compatible with more types of blanks than if you don't download and install it.
I ended up having to take back the DVD-RW's, and the DVD-R's that I bought, cuz they weren't compatible with the drive. As of now, I have the following discs, and they all burn fine with the drive:

Memorex DVD+RW: Part number 32025560

Fuji Film DVD-R: Part number 7410175241 (Double check if you get this one. That part number is on each individual case, but if you buy a 10 pack like I did, the part number on the 10 pack box is 740175243, so I had to open the box and look on an individual case to find that little detail out)

HP DVD+R: Part number C8009A (Double check this one too. That part number is on each individual case, but I bought a 5 pack of these, and the part number on the back of the wrapper label is C8009E)

I wasn't able to find the DVD-RW discs that are compatible with this drive at the big wig store I went to. The only 2 DVD-RW brands that are compatible with this drive are Verbatim v1.1, and Mitsubushi.
Once you work THAT little detail out, then you can burn just fine. The next hurdle is finding DVD authoring software that does what you need it to do. I'm going through all this madness because I need to convert (to DVD compliant) and burn SVCD movie files onto DVD discs. I have been spending the entire day tinkering with this program "ULEAD DVD Movie Factory". It is easier to understand and more user friendly than the other programs I've tried. It does what I need it to do, but it tends to be buggy sometimes. So far, I've been able to convert and burn a 60 meg SVCD music video onto DVD+RW and it played fine on my stand alone home DVD player. This program converts SVCD files for you and makes them compliant for DVD, so you don't have to use any other programs. But the thing is that sometimes it won't do a particular SVCD for reasons I don't know. When THAT happens, I use the program SVCD2DVDMPG to convert the SVCD and make it compliant first, THEN I author the converted file with DVD Movie Factory. Between those 2 options, things seem to be working out pretty well.
What I don't like about DVD Movie Factory is if you use it to do the compliance conversion, it takes a LOT longer for it to convert a video file than it takes SVCD2DVDMPG. If the movie file is really big (about 1.3 gigs), then you better be ready to leave the computer alone for a while and watch a movie on your TV or something, cuz its going to be converting for a while. There's another thing. There seems to be no way to cut off the conversion option on DVD Movie Maker. for example, if you convert a movie file with SVCD2DVDMPG, then author it with DVD Movie Maker, DVD movie maker will run the conversion process AGAIN on the already converted file. I can't figure out how to shut that option off. If there's anyone that knows how to do that, PLEASE post the into on the board. What's weird is that sometimes you HAVE to convert a particular file with SVCD2DVDMPG, because DVD Movie Maker will fail the conversion, but if if you convert the file with SVCD2DVDMPG first, then author it with Movie Maker, it will THEN pass the conversion process and convert/author/burn the file onto DVD.
I know this was 1 heck of a long winded post, but I wrote it in the hopes that I could help anyone else that might run into the same problems. I know what it's like to look for help, and nobody wants to help you with your problems, so for those of you that are starting off with this drive, and plan on using DVD Movie Maker in conjunction with it, then I hope that this message will help you to get though it with as few problems as possible.

[TBoneit]

Well I just upgraded one firmware today for this drive at work and it then Burned the Fuji 4X -R that wouldn't burn before. So far it seems a decent drive.

It works fine with Nero in my testing. I never much liked B's software.

You'll notice that the media it comes with (ones I've seen) are Taiyo Yuden (Spelling?)

Cheers

[jolo]

Thanks all for sharing !! Please keep posting youor experiences with the Optorite (imade by Accestek with a Sanyo engine). It is much harder to get info on other than the brand names. It sounds here that once the new drivers are installed it worked great. I would like to ask the Optorite users of the Optorite if they have success with the HD-BURN technology in the drives so that you can write 1.4GB to a blank CD ? From what the web site says, it will work at CD-RWs as well.
I do know from speaking to them, that they have had some difficulities with the HD-BURN on cheaper made CDs. Better to buy those made in Japan.

If someone mentions pricing hear, please do not "count" rebates, please also mention if there is free shipping or not ?

Someone mentions why not get the Pioneer. My answer to that is WHY get the Pioneer or Sony if the Optorite is a better value, especially with it handling all formats and the HD_BURN feature.

Has someone used it for just playing DVDs ? I wonder about read speed. Also how it does when using a DVD ripper, slow, fast ? The manufactorers numbers can be so innacurate.

I am about ready to bite on this one, I was thing about the NEC 1300a or the Optorite, but I think I an now convinced on the Optorite.

[jolo]

One more item !!

I just saw this for $164.00, which included free Fed Ex Shipping and taxes at New Egg. No rebate nonsense.


http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=27-182-012&refer=pricegrabber