DVD Burner Recommendation - please, I'm new to this!

[newbie3]

My burner died, I can't even tell you what I have now. But I need to shop for a new DVD Burner, I want the ability to change the booktype (so it can play on different dvd players). Also, I need an IDE type drive NOT SATA.

I've heard good and bad about Lite-On and I don't really know anything about the Pioneer brand.

I've used DVD Shrink, DVD Decryptor, CloneDVD and ANYDVD in the past.

Anything information that anyone can provide would be helpful. Thank you for your time.

[hech54]

Pioneer would be your best bet I think. I also hear they finally gave in and added the ability to bitset (booktype).
I'm an LG fan myself but they are more popular in Europe than America....from what I hear.
I'd buy a Pioneer in a heartbeat though....especially now that I've heard some bad stories about the newer LG's.

[ricoman]

The Pioneer 112D seems to be the latest and greatest. Came in 1st in a recent poll as CDfreaks.

[newbie3]

Thanks, I saw a few reviews for the Pioneer 112D. I can't find anything about whether it's a SATA or IDE drive. Anyone know anything else?

Thanks.

[KTH]

The SATA version of the Pioneer is called the DVR-212D.

[budz]

do yourself a fav and buy either a PIONEER 112D drive or SAMSUNG 183L. difference between the 2 is the SAMSUNG 183L is lightscribe and will automatically enable bitsetting to dvdrom for DVD+R media. the PIONEER 112D can only enable bitsetting automatically to dvdrom for DUAL LAYER DVD+R media. in order to enable bitsetting for SINGLE LAYER DVD+R media you would need to use a hacked firmware to crossflash the drive to the 112L drive.

don't knock the SATA DVD BURNERS! I bought a SAMSUNG S203B 20x SATA drive which unbelievably burns 16x -18x dvd media wonderfully without any freezing of any kind when playing back on my standalone dvd players. Check out the thread at the SAMSUNG FORUM at Cdfreaks.com. It's the hottest dvd burner at the moment.

hech54 wrote:

Pioneer would be your best bet I think. I also hear they finally gave in and added the ability to bitset (booktype).

PIONEER only allows bitsetting to dvdrom for DUAL LAYER DVD+R media. But as far as I know they haven't enabled SINGLE LAYER DVD+R media.

[bevills1]

A little more than a year ago I got a Pioneer 111D and cross flashed to 111L and like it so well I got a second 1 for backup, and today I'd get the 112D and cross flash to 112L to enable auto bit setting for +R single layer media if I needed another burner. I also have a Pioneer 107D that still performs flawlessly after many hundreds of burns albeit at 8x and single layer only for that model.

[Rich86]

I'm currently using Benq 1650/1655 ide burners and a Lite-On sata 16x burner. They perform very well and offer booktype setting and smartburn type features for media not already established in the firmware. New Lite-On sata burners are available wherever (I got mine from Newegg), and occasionally you see Benq 1650/1655 burners on EBay (although I haven't had the need to look recently to see if they still show up).