Which 16x DVD writer should I buy? (Dec. 12)

At first, I was going to post one poll for each new week, but I was strongly discouraged by the general poor performances of ALL 16x DVD writers. But most 16x DVD writers by now have become quite ubiquitous, affordable, and widely used and some even actually write at 16x with acceptable write quality. As there are now newer models available, it's a bit late for a revised and restarted poll for 16x DVD writer. Main candidates are:

1. HLDS GSA-4163B
2. NEC ND-3520A
3. Philips-BenQ DW1620A Pro
4. Pioneer DVR-A08
5. SONY/Lite-On SOHW-1653S (or SOHW-1633S)
6. TSST SD-R5372
7. Plextor PX-716A

Some outdated and very poorly performing drives are removed in the list intentionally even though not all in the above 7 models perform always well. Choose one (or more) that you think is the best buy for the money regarding performance, reliability, service, design, and any other thing of value for the most visitors on this forum rather than the one you like out of personal reasons. Discuss as little as possible because any reply on the performance of the listed drives will seriously affect the poll. There have been literally thousands of threads on the performances of the listed drives available here and other nearby forums. If you do not know well about each drive, it is strongly recommendable to do some research first of all.

You probably know more about burners than 3/4 of the people on this forum. I bought a Mad Dog (NEC 3500) with stock 2FA firmware and I like it just fine. After Christmas I may get a Benq 1620 to try out. I have never had a burner show 93 to 99 on quality scans.
Good luck with which ever one you get.

There it is!!!! 100% for NEC.

Just say you have ND-3500A. Don't say you think ND-3520A is best. Not here. It serves no purpose other than making it more and more difficult to have fair judgement on a web forum.

Facts and evidences are very welcomed. Like official specifications and write quality test resuls either from CD-Speed or C't or whatever else.

This thread is not personal. Personally, I am not interested in DVD writers at all because I don't need one for myself other than to share the information on forums. The I in the thread title should be interpreted as we who might buy 16x DVD writers in the coming few weeks.

Somehow i still prefers BenQ DW1620Pro

you know what i voted..

I voted three.

GSA-4163B (or GSA-5163D based on it)
ND-3520A
Something else (like DW1650 and SOHW-1673S)

I tossed in my vote for the BenQ and the LG (for the 16x PCAV).

since the liteon i have is already a good dvd writer .... but not all that good .... im buying myself another one ...


nec was my choice, but we dont get them here ...

i will be using moserbaer media only .... so with that in mind ...

i have the following options ...

benq 1620
asus 16x dual layer (whichever is is)
pioneer 16x dual layer ...


which ones do you suggest??

@Sammy2066

Asus == Pioneer

oh yea ....

but im more inclined towards benq ....

i really like big patented techology shortforms ..... WOPC

it reads stuff @ 16x .... it has nice FW updates every now and then .... and people here love it ....

BenQ it is ...

now whats the difference between 1620 and 1620pro?

There is no hurry in this. As you already know well, there's the Philips-BenQ forum that has good answers for all of your questions.

hehe ....

yeh ... im gonna read through that forum ...

@Kenshin ..
which one do you personally suggest .... except NEC .. which we dont get here?

or do you think i should wait for the next gen drives?

No discussion here as suggestion and recommendation can affect the poll result (even though the polls were never meant to affect buying decisions decisively) and there have been hundreds of threads about good and bad 16x DVD writers here.

Personally, I suggest you buy all of what I have.

I voted for the Benq 1620 Pro and for something else like the DW-1650 .

Interesting, I always thought the NEC 3500A was the best. What about the Plextor 16x?

Why arn't people saying why they prefer the Ben-Q?

I voted for the BenQ 1620 and something else..like future models from BenQ.

@REL749
I suppose you haven't popped into the BenQ sub forum to take a look, have you?
LOL~..If you have, you would find amazingly good Nero CD/DVD scans and Kprobes.
I suppose that's the main reason why they are (me included) voting for the BenQ.
Cheers!

If u were to tell me a moth ago that I should buy a Benq i would've lought in your face. But know after seeing 1000 of scans , readings , writings etc I am proud to say that Benq is my favourite drive I had ever.

I think there are 3 brands that fight now for the title
:Benq, Nec and from behind comes fast LG

If I were to make nec vs Benq , I would have to say that the only pros for Nec is an extra 10% in compatible media. But when it comes to firmware support, testing software, bitsetting, overspeed, reading quality I 'd go for benq

I've burned about 30 dvd's and I dunno how a coaster looks like

For me Benq was a noname drive (at least a low end) and Plex and Lite on were supreme. But as I see the tides have turned.

As the thread starter has requested, please try to refrain from discussing why you picked one over the other. It biases the thread. And also turns the thread into somewhat of a rivalry.

If you want to know why people are picking one over the other, see the other which-16x-writer-to-buy thread that is stickied--that one is rife with discussion, rivalry, and ballot stuffing.

well ... i ordered the benq ....

After playing with PX-716A tla#202 - send back to BB and
order DW1620-retail from Tigerdirect;

I would get these drives: (note: they are not listed in order of preference)
1. LG 4163 for high quality burning all around plus DVD RAM.
2. BENQ 1620 Pro for excellent quality DVD+R with bitsetting and PI/PO scans.
3. Plextor Premium for excellent CD backup abilities, Plextools Pro and C1/C2 scans.

And I would keep my old Pioneer DVD-ROM because it's slot loading, region free and won't read ATIPs.

"Quality" is subjective and should not be mentioned in this thread. That LG has DVD-RAM, BenQ has bitsetting and PI/PO scans and Plextor with Plextools Pro are all facts. Though even listing a few facts out of the many can often mislead and it is better to list more complete lists of specifications and charactieristics of all concerned drives to give fair chances.

Yea. Should've listed -RAM in that overview in the first post of the other thread. Oops. *adds to to-do list*

Problem is that people also weigh priorities differently. Some care lots about bitsetting and PI/PIF testing. Some care lots about the speed of PCAV vs. ZCLV. Some care lots about being able to do CD backup. So all of those little factoids are useless unless people know how much they want to weigh each one. But how many times have you seen a post asking for advice about what drive to get and also providing details about what features are important to them? How can someone recommend a drive if they don't even know what the person wants in a drive? A lot of people go around and say "yea, get the XYZ drive, it's great!" without adding the part about "but, that depends on what your needs are". Okay, I should stop ranting now.