Good slim external DVD burner and DVD+R media question

mattg568

Thanks,
Matthew

Kerry56

The media is excellent. TY 8x +R is my favorite blank dvd media, and has long track record.

We generally don't recommend slim type dvd burners that run off usb. There are some older style, full sized external drives available with their own power supply, but they are rapidly losing favor with the public, from sheer ugliness if nothing else. They are better burners however. Here is an example.

As far as your pick of a slim type drive...it will work as well as any of them. Just don't expect it to last a long time. LG's tend to require good media, and you've picked some that should work well with this drive. I'd burn TY 8x media in this drive at 4x or 6x. But do some experimentation and see what works best for you. That same media will burn at 8x in most internal drives or full sized externals with no issues.

By the way, welcome to the forums Matthew.

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mattg568

That's the same DVD burner I've also had my eyes on but , do know, that it has been discontinued by LG. If you go to the US LG site they only list four DVD/BD burners as still being made and they are all external. Three are slim and the other is an half height BD burner. Do you think that information can be right, LG not even making internal drives anymore?

Kerry56

I haven't heard anything about LG dropping internal optical drives. But it isn't something I've tried to keep up with either.

LG's internal dvd burners and blu ray burners are still easily available through retail channels. Newegg.com has several listed.

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mattg568

That external DVD burner you mentioned will be the one I'll get instead. So, that 8x DVD+R media would burn fine at 8x with that drive, sounds great. Thanks for telling me.

mattg568

If all else fails and the LG burner you mentioned is no longer available, what else would you recommend? Might you recommend the enclosure + internal DVD burner route? I've been looking at this enclosure and this DVD burner. What do you think of those?

Kerry56

The Vantec external enclosures have a good reputation, but I am definitely not the person to talk to about them. I don't know what chipset they use, and that could be important. Maybe Albert, deanwitty or mciahel will look in this thread and give you more input.

For the drive itself, I'd probably get an Optiarc 7280S if I were to buy a new dvd burner. Most of my attention has been focused on blu ray drives for the past few years.

But an external enclosure and internal drive are certainly a viable option.

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mattg568

That is apparently the same drive and almost the same media I spoke of in the first post. That disc scan image, how do I read it? Does it indicate a good or bad burn?

Also, why do USB powered DVD burners seem to be generally frowned upon here? How well do they burn? Have the people that say they aren't great actually used one? Have people generally been spoiled by half height drives? Are people impatient when they burn a disc and want it done ASAP?

I've had a few LG USB powered DVD burners for years and never had a single coaster. Nor was any data on the discs ever corrupted.

It seems like people favor slim drives over half height ones if you look at places like Amazon and Newegg.

Kerry56

That is a very good burn. Look at the PIF levels. 328 with a max of 2? That is really good. The PIE readings show some high spikes, but those can be disregarded as a general rule. Average PIE is also good. I'd like to see a TRT scan as well, but I suppose that isn't available.

They are using 16x TY +R in that scan, which is a type of media we often recommend around here, so a good scan from it is not surprising.

USB burners draw more power than the 500mA that the USB 2 interface allows in its specs. This overload can cause problems, including burned out usb ports. Also, the slim drives have a history of self destructing faster. They also have fewer firmware updates as a general rule (though LG is notorious for not putting out many firmware updates for most of their drives).

The slim drives also burn slower, as you've noted, and many types of modern media burn well near their rated speed. If you're using excellent media to begin with, you may not notice this much. If you are using run of the mill CMC or Ritek discs...it may mean the difference between an acceptable burn and something that fails quickly.

We've been watching the general trends in burners for well over a decade here. What I'm relating to you is simply common knowledge in these forums. A dozen or more members here could have told you the same information.

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mattg568

Then why do you think these slim drives come with USB-Y cables? I happen to have an LG GP08NU6B that does everything I throw at it with a single USB port. Actually I use a 6ft USB to mini USB cable instead of the USB-Y cable. Again I've been using it for a long time and have never experienced any of the problems you mention.

Kerry56

You're making the assumption that your experience with one or two drives can be applied across the whole field of slim drives. We watch long term trends, as well as individual performances of such drives.

Obviously not everyone with a slim drive is going to have it fail, or burn out ports. The uproar would be tremendous. Or would have been when most were still using optical drives.

We make recommendations according to the best information that we have. The external drives with their own power supplies have been more reliable and don't have the possibility of problems through the usb power connections. This tilts our opinion of them in a positive fashion and we relate this to people who come in looking for advice. None of this is written in stone however, and I know there are some on our staff who have used slim drives.

Quality of burns with a slim drive may or may not be good. Depends on the firmware/speed of burn/quality of media combination. But that holds true for any type of optical burner. We just see fewer problems in the large drives. The slim drives are derived from laptop drives, and those fail in great numbers.

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mattg568

I once had an LG USB powered DVD burner that had an AC jack but came with no AC adapter. Would a drive like that have been better? Of course they don't make them like they used to.

Kerry56

I'm sure that it would have switched to the AC jack if you had an adapter for it.

There have been a handful of slim external drives with their own AC adapter. Sony (now Optiarc) made some, and I've seen them recommended in the past in these forums as kind of a middle ground between the large externals and the regular usb powered slim drives. But they weren't very popular. People wanted sleek, small drives with one connection. They weren't using their slim drives to burn a few thousand discs. Just an occasional use, which is getting even less important these days as most people have moved to usb flash drives to move small files, or external hard drives for storage.

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mattg568

If the enclosure is found to be not good, what other enclosures or already made external full size drives would there be?

Kerry56

As I said before, you'll be getting me out of my depth talking about enclosures. Not a subject I've paid much attention to. One of our members recently endorsed this USB3 enclosure though: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145090

As far as other drives, Lite-on has one: http://www.amazon.com/Liteon-24X-DVD.../dp/B002UOURJI Seems a bit pricey.

Edit: wrong first link

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mattg568

I guess I'll go for the Vantec enclosure and the Sony DVD burner. Although I would like to hear the opinion on the enclosure from those other members you mentioned.

Thanks Kerry56 for the informative information.

mattg568

On second thought, the LG will be my primary option, if it's still available when I'm able to buy it.

Another question, what chipset is in the GE24LU20 and the AD-7280S-0B. I'm asking because I'd like to know which drive will do well with Digital Audio Extraction using Exact Audio Copy.

My GP08NU6B works well in that situation. However, at one point I had the eHAU424-08 and it had problems with a couple tracks across two albums that the GP08NU6B had no problems with.

Albert

Optiarc chipset: NEC. (Labeled as Renesas, but, simply put, essentially a newer version of all older NEC chipsets).

LG chipset: either a Renesas (not the NEC variant, but the classic Renesas as used in older LG drives) or MediaTek (as used in newer LG drives, LiteOn, newer Asus, newer QSI/Pioneer, and newer Samsung drives), possibly Panasonic (used less frequently in older LG drives). Depends on which LG drive is actually within the GE24LU20 enclosure.

mattg568

Albert, might you have an opinion on the Vantec NexStar DX NST-530S2 external enclosure?

Albert

I have no personal opinion on that particular enclosure.

My advice would be to browse through user reviews on Amazon as well as Newegg. They can usually tell you of specific cases of failure, and the cause of the failure. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817392021

Also be aware that in any setup, compatibility issues are rare yet may occur. Be prepared to test the enclosure thoroughly should you go this route with ANY enclosure, should you need to return it before your return period is up.

In any case, neither of the enclosure options within this thread seems to be bad, nor would either of the pre made external drives be a bad option. It just depends on whether you want to give yourself the ability to swap optical drives without ditching the entire enclosure, or go for something already setup and guaranteed to work.

mattg568

Kerry, could this DVD+R DL media work well for me too?

What would be a good write speed using the LG GE24LU20?

Kerry56

That's the best DL media available. I always burned Verbatim DL media at 4x personally.

But I gave up on double layer dvds. I've moved on to blu ray 25gb discs.

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jadburner

The Vantec DX NST 530 external enclosures are excellent. I have 14 (or 15?) of them. All work flawlessly. For a few bucks more you can get the 530SU, which will allow you to connect a SATA drive via the enclosure to either USB or eSata.

mattg568

Although my laptop doesn't have a eSATA port, it does have an express card slot. I don't know what kind though. If I remove the slot's placeholder, the placeholder looks like a very thick letter L.

I believe they make add on cards that have eSATA ports on them.

Albert

Indeed they do. It's not necessary unless USB proves useless, but that way you would have options with other computers or if USB indeed didn't work well enough.