Best burner for reading DVDs

[samijubal]

It looks like my trusty Toshiba 5112 finally died. I never used it to burn, but, it would read discs nothing else I have would. I need something to replace it. I don't really care about burn quality, I have other burners and mostly care about being able to read problem discs, though if I can get something that reads and burns well that would be a plus.

[budz]

SAMSUNG S203B is a good reader as well as the new PIONEER 115 (ide)/215 (sata) which both have no riplock.

[stiltman]

I've got an old BTC/Emprex that reads better than my old Pioneer 104 and better than my NEC 3540s

Just the other night I was having a problem with one of my DVDs and tried to rip it. It failed on my NEC and Pioneer, but the BTC/Emprex had no problems at all.

However, it's the worst *burner* out of all of them.

[samijubal]

Is there any big difference betyween the Pioneer 111 and the 115? I have a 111 I haven't used in a long time. If I remember right, it was pretty inconsistent as a reader. Sometimes it would zip right through a disc and other times it would slow down and speed up then slow down all through the disc.

[budz]

Is there any big difference betyween the Pioneer 111 and the 115? I have a 111 I haven't used in a long time. If I remember right, it was pretty inconsistent as a reader. Sometimes it would zip right through a disc and other times it would slow down and speed up then slow down all through the disc.

The PIONEER 115 drive is a very good reader & excellent burner from what I've read at the PIONEER forum. Especially when burning VERBATIM DVD+R DUAL LAYER media.
The 115 has no riplock. Check out the PIONEER FORUM at CdFreaks.com.

I'll be buying the PIONEER SATA 215 drive when I'm vacationing in San Francisco in July.

[OneSickPup]

It looks like my trusty Toshiba 5112 finally died. I never used it to burn, but, it would read discs nothing else I have would. I need something to replace it. I don't really care about burn quality, I have other burners and mostly care about being able to read problem discs, though if I can get something that reads and burns well that would be a plus.

It really depends on what YOU mean by "Best burner for reading DVDs". If fast reading/ripping is the goal then budz recommendation is a good one. However; I've never found recent generations of Pioneer's (let's say the 108D thru the 115D) to be particularly good for data recovery of damaged media. I've also found drives that could read through severely scratched pressed dvd's but choke on recovery attempts of burned media with a minor scratch/abrasion. I keep an old LiteOn SOHD-167T (dvdrom) in an external enclosure for problematic recovery needs. That drive is the best I've ever found for that type use. I've also had pretty good luck with the Samsung SH 182D and M (the Samsung 18x generation burners). Good luck.

[bevills1]

About a year and a half ago I got a Pioneer 111D which was the only burner rated above average reading in CDFreaks burner reviews at that time and rated very good burn quality too. Mine reads very well and has never failed to read any disk tried; ditto for an older Pioneer 107D. I'd choose Pioneer because it's excellent reader and excellent burn quality as well.

[free is better]

i also have a toshiba 5112 and it works great. i like the liteon 16_ series. very reliable and fast ripper. i just purchased a phillips DVD8701 burner to save wear on the toshiba. not only does it read great but it burns my crappy onidtech media and they play great ! go figure that out.

[samijubal]

Reading problem discs would be what I want. If the Toshiba couldn't read a disc, it couldn't be read. I guess I'm hard on discs, I've got quite a few thrashed ones. Fast and good with RWs would be good. I do a lot of RW recording and editing on the PC. My 111 didn't come riplocked. I've seen other people say theirs was. The 115 is in Newegg's daily deals today. My only reservation is I've read they don't work well as a slave drive. This will definitely be a slave. I've got an NEC 3500 as master and am going to keep it that way. That drive burns excellent and always has. In 4 years it's made one coaster for no apparent reason.

[samijubal]

I went ahead and bought the 115. For $30 if I don't like it, no big loss.

If I update my 111 to the latest Pioneer firmware, will it riplock the drive? Mine definitely didn't come riplocked.

[classfour]

Panasonic LFD-521: Old like the Toshiba, but would read discs even the old 5112 that I had in the same machine wouldn't. So valuable, I put it in an external enclosure just for the purpose of reading discs (current machine is SATA cabled). I have an old Toshiba SDM-5102 (DVD-ROM) somewhere in the stockpile... I wonder what kind of reader it is?

[samijubal]

There's one of those on Ebay for $380+shipping. A little much for me. I could buy a lot of replacement discs for that. I only paid $10 for the Toshiba AR.

[classfour]

Who'd pay $380 for a five or six year old panny?

I believe that I could sell mine for that, LOL.. Maybe I need to hold out until they hit $1K

Thanks, samijubal: You made my day.

[samijubal]

It's in an Ebay store, not the auctions, there hasn't been anyone actually bid that much. That was without shipping and it's a refurb. I didn't see any in the auction listings. There were only half a dozen or so Panasonics in the auction listings.

I updated my 111 to the latest firmware without any riplocking. I don't know where people got 111s that were riplocked.

[[_chef_]]

It's in an Ebay store, not the auctions, there hasn't been anyone actually bid that much. That was without shipping and it's a refurb. I didn't see any in the auction listings. There were only half a dozen or so Panasonics in the auction listings.

I updated my 111 to the latest firmware without any riplocking. I don't know where people got 111s that were riplocked.

...from official sites.

I wonder what the problem is with the discs you have that they are so hard to read/rip/to recover??

[samijubal]

I got my 111 from Supermediastore. I just have quite a few scratched discs, a lot of RWs. Going from the standalone to the PC, back to the standalone, they don't seem to last long for me. My main drive is an NEC 3500, it's an awesome burner, but a crap reader.