Fastest reading, most reliable DVD burner?

[Sephiroth666]

I'm looking for a new DVD drive. Don't they make something faster than 16X yet? Or at least, something that AVERAGES closer to 16x instead of just maxing? We can burn at 22x, but only read at 16. Yeah, that makes sense.

Also, is there something specific that causes BSoD while trying to backup a scratched disc? I don't appreciate my whole computer crashing because the bloody disc has a scratch on it. My current drive is an Samsung(?) SH-203B.

[zoobie]

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters?&orderby=Rating

[budz]

Get a PIONEER 216 drive. PIONEER no longer has a riplock when ripping dvd files. You can even have it rip at faster speeds by using MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT.

[samijubal]

The fastest reader I've seen is the NEC 3550, it's a lot faster than Pioneer on RW discs and a little faster on R discs. I don't use it on retail discs so I don't know about that. The Pioneer is better on scratched discs though.

[budz]

The fastest reader I've seen is the NEC 3550, it's a lot faster than Pioneer on RW discs and a little faster on R discs. I don't use it on retail discs so I don't know about that. The Pioneer is better on scratched discs though.

NEC 3550 is such a old model why even bother mentioning it when the OP can't buy one brand new.
OP wanted suggestion on a new dvd burner.

[samijubal]

I see new ones on ebay regularly. The NEC is much faster than Pioneer on RWs. The Pioneer takes about 50% longer to read RWs and about 3-4 times longer just to scan the disc. The NEC is also faster at scanning and reading Rs, though the difference isn't what it is with RWs.

[lordsmurf]

The Pioneer 111 is a speedy reader/ripper.

[samijubal]

I've got the 111 and the 115. Both are SLOW on RWs compared to the NEC, they are both slower on Rs too.

[lordsmurf]

I have two 111's so I don't know what your problem is. Mine are fast.

[samijubal]

The NEC will read an RW in under 6 minutes, the Pioneers take a little under 10 minutes.

[budz]

I've got the 111 and the 115. Both are SLOW on RWs compared to the NEC, they are both slower on Rs too.

Use MEDIA CODE SPEED EDIT and you'll get even faster ripping speeds. All of my PIONEER 111, 112, 115, 212, 215 & 216 drives rip fast. I guess you don't use hacked firmware on your PIONEER drives.

As I've mentioned already the OP wanted a recommendation of a NEW DVD Burner.....why even bring up a OLD MODEL like the NEC 3550...

[samijubal]

Read the first two words in the subject line, that's why I brought it up. I don't need to use hacked firmware, I've got the NEC.

[Sephiroth666]

Yeah, I'd sort of prefer not to screw with firmware.

[budz]

Yeah, I'd sort of prefer not to screw with firmware.

Then just buy the PIONEER drive which doesn't have any riplock speed when ripping files. Nuff said....but if you wanna get a older model like the NEC 3550 suit yourself. LG drives are known to be slow readers. You asked about getting a new dvd burner....the NEC drive is like so OLD...

[samijubal]

Newer isn't necessarily better. My 9 or so month old Pioneer 115 makes coasters frequently, my NEC 3500 made 1 in 4 years.

[budz]

Newer isn't necessarily better. My 9 or so month old Pioneer 115 makes coasters frequently, my NEC 3500 made 1 in 4 years.

To each's own....I have owned many flavors of dvd burners with the one exception I never was interested in purchasing a NEC dvd burner EVER! Why because it was a known fact long ago that they were terrible readers....so they've come a long way but PIONEER is still the pioneer of dvd drives. I've said enough in this thread....let the OP decide for himself what new dvd burner he will purchase. Who cares about a dvd burner that's a model from 4 years ago!

To the OP if he's still lurking in here:
check out cdfreaks.com which has dvd burner forums for PIONEER, NEC, LITEON, SAMSUNG, BENQ, SONY & LG. See for yourself what burners are good for your use.

[samijubal]

You never owned the best burner then so you just don't know. I don't really care if my main burner is a good reader or not, I've got enough burners around I can use another one to rip. The 115 is a pretty good reader, it's just SLOW with RWs, it's about the same speed as the NEC 3500. It's not as good as the Toshiba 5112 at reading, but what is? It's just VERY annoying to me to have burns fail all the time when they never did before. I guess if you're used to that then it isn't as annoying.

[budz]

I guess if you're used to that then it isn't as annoying.

Nope you're the one who's very annoying! :P

[classfour]

The best ripper that I have: Plextor PX712A = ancient SATA drive

Rips at 12X on everything.

The best difficult disc ripper: Panasonic LF-D521 (old 2X DVD burner)

Why?

Because I could care less about fast ripping, if the drive can't read the data!

When will I upgrade?

When the drive dies!

Patience, Patience!

Very little shown in this thread.

BTW: I would trust LS's advice on the drive.

When the old drives (they've lasted thru 3 puters) die, I'll likely buy the Pioneer. Heck, at under $30 for a burner these days, I might buy one just to try. LOL. I your first DVD-R burner was $300 for a barebones, you get where I am.

[samijubal]

I'm about to take my POS 115 out and smash it. Every other time I use it it makes another coaster or three. Pioneer sucks! NEC is far better.

The 3550 isn't a bad reader. In fact, EAC chooses it over the 115 and rightly so, the NEC will rip a CD in 1/3 the time or less and give better results. That makes a BIG difference when loading a few gigs or more into an MP3 player.

[ricoman]

I'm about to take my POS 115 out and smash it. Every other time I use it it makes another coaster or three. Pioneer sucks! NEC is far better.

What the hell kind of media are you using? I've had 4 legendary writers: NEC 3500, BenQ 1640, LG 4167 and the Pioneer 115 and the consistently best of the bunch is the Pioneer. I don't think I've ever had a coaster. I get 99 QS and less than 100 PIF on a regular basis. Of course I only use TY 8x +R media and write at 12x because quality is everything to me and speed means nothing. Like I'm really going to sacrifice quality to burn a DVD in 4 min. instead of 5 min. This obsession with speed is silly to me, though I do wish the burners would read a little faster.

[samijubal]

I use Verbatims at 12x. I never had any problems with the 3500. I don't do scans and don't care too. All I know is every disc I burned on the NEC in 4 years played fine and it only failed a burn once for no apparent reason. The Pioneer discs play fine when they burn, they fail to burn regularly though. I've about had it with Pioneer.

[DarrellS]

My friend just bought two new 22x Samsungs and a 20x Pioneer. The Samsungs work fine but the Pioneer keeps freezing up the computer when trying to read a disc. He has to shut the computer off and manually take the disc out with a paper cllip.

I was tempted to buy a new Pioneer from all the reviews but now I'm leery. All I've ever owned is LITEON and since my PC is beige, that's probably what I'll buy next.

[somebodeez]

I'm about to take my POS 115 out and smash it. Every other time I use it it makes another coaster or three.

Are you using your 115 in an external enclosure, per chance?

I've got a Pioneer 112 in an external enclosure that was behaving the same way until I got an enclosure w/ a CYPRESS chipset. (Thanks, budz! It's still working reliably for me to this day )
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic348211.html#1828560

I can't really vouch for it's ripping speed though because I'm still using an old drive for that. (It's not good for burning anymore. I use it to rip only in the hopes that it will help make my Pioneer last longer).

[ricoman]

I use Verbatims at 12x. I never had any problems with the 3500. I don't do scans and don't care too. All I know is every disc I burned on the NEC in 4 years played fine and it only failed a burn once for no apparent reason. The Pioneer discs play fine when they burn, they fail to burn regularly though. I've about had it with Pioneer.

Verbs are very good discs, they are the only other discs that I use occasionally, and the 3500 is, as I said, a legendary burner. I'm just very surprised that he 115 has been so inconsistent for you. I have to wonder if you just got a lemon. It happens with every product occasionally. If you read CdFreaks forum and reviews, it's probably the best reviewed and best like burner in the last couple of years.
Sorry to go off topic (fastest reader). My fastest are the NEC 3500 and BenQ 1640 with hacked riplock removed FW. But of course, you can't buy them anymore.

[samijubal]

Does your Pioneer stop and start in the middle of burns? Almost every burn my burn speed drops to zero and starts back up again 1-3 times. It's always done it and the discs play fine so I just figured it's the way they are. The NEC never did it.

[ricoman]

No, it doesn't. I'm using FW 1.22. It's the latest official FW:
http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html
Scroll down the page to find it. DVR-115 Series the last or second to last one.

[lordsmurf]

The burner honestly sounds dirty. Do you smoke in the house, perhaps?

[samijubal]

I don't smoke and I have the latest firmware. It's always dropped to zero when burning, from the day I installed it, with the old firmware and new both, +R and -R discs. I've swapped IDE cables, doesn't do anything. It's not in an external enclosure.

[samijubal]

OK, I just burned 2 discs with IMGBurn, they both burned start to finish without the burn speed ever dropping to zero. Whatever the problem was it's something to do with DVD Decrypter.