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

isn't that cause it was Acer? Acer definitely made lots of ODD if i recall correctly.

edit: ok, after very brief research, Acer didn't have lots of ODDs.

Currently I have the BenQ 1620, Lite on 1633S, NEC 3500AG and LG 4163 here at home. I will definitely sell the Lite on. Perhaps I will sell one of the NEC or the LG but I haven't decided yet. There is only so much physical space in my computer, so we shall see.

If I was to choose one single drive to have, it would be the BenQ though, considering that I use DVD Writers to burn home videos on DVD.

What do you use GSA-4163B for? Office videos?

does anyone know tdk 1616n
why not in the vote section
and nobody talk about this fella

It's because the TDK ...N drive is made by NEC.

ohh
thanks for the info
kenshin so far which dvd writer is the best in ur opinion

Blah... I'm new to all this and I'd really appreciate it if someone would tell me what the differences between Dvd-R / Dvd+R are and what uses they posess. Also, what media tends to work best for the highest voted Dvd writers on this thread?

I see that the BenQ is rated the highest and I was wondering if anyone could refer me to a place or website that sells that model. Feel free to private message me the url if you want that way its not a form of advertisement or whatever. Thanks in advance.

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Last edited by Digital Fate; 26-01-2005 at 00:50.

kenshin do u think i have to wait for the 8x dvdrw writer cos in my mind the benq1620 pro will fine for my needs

I'm not Kenshin so maybe I'm not the person to answer but if you're sure 4x DVD+/-RW is good enough for you then go for it. Ultimately, kenshin cannot decide for you what would best fit your needs, requirements, financial situation etc. If you were to give us a clearer idea of these details and what exactly it is that is giving you problems in deciding, maybe we could offer greater help but it is in the end your decision. Only you truly understand your specific situation and therefore you are very likely to be the one who will make the best decision, provided you properly understand all the facts and think about it properly.

Also, from your profile, I suspect you might be in form 5 although possibly form 4. If you're in form 5, your SPM is coming up and although I'm sure you don't want to waste what I'm guessing is either your parents money or your allowance, don't agonise too much over the decision as there are more important thing in life. Even if your in form 4 or if you circumstances are different from the average Malaysian, the fact remains, time is always precious. Don't waste too much time agonising over it.

hey bro
thanks and u dont hve to suspects
i am a form 5 students this year
but i am sure what am i doing every day
i will remember ur words

it's decision time ..... my friend has agreed to get a dvd drive for me from USA ...

NEC ND-3520A
BenQ DW-1620A

What I care about: KProbe Scans, Bit-Setting, Writing Time .... (Listed in Order of Preference)

Which one do you suggest?

hey sammy bud . another drive already?

if you want to be able to error check, NECs can't do that at all. you won't be using Kprobe either since that only works with LiteOns. with the BenQ you'll be using Nero CD/DVD Speed.

i suggest the BenQ 1620 based on your requirements.

When you say you care about kprobe scans do you mean you care about how good it is at doing the scanning or how good the disks it burns are. If you mean the later, I would suggest you say "burnt disc quality" or something like that since it is less confusing.

Get both and tell us about your experiences.

I don't have that kinda money Kenshin bro ..... I care about the Disc Quality Rating in Nero ..... and I have a DRU-710A ... so my NEC DVDs will be scanned using that.

now which one??

also, BenQ has more support for overspeeding and more frequent FW updates??

I'm assuming that there is a reason such as lack of availability are your location or the price that are the reason you are not looking at the Pioneer and LG drives which IMHO are probably better choices then the BenQ and NEC given the same price.

But if it comes down to the two drives, I would probably say the BenQ is the best choice for good quality burns.

thnx bro .....

You didn't say how much money you have or how much your resellers are charging.

Quite many US consumers seem to be able to get PX-716A for less than what I would pay for LG GSA-4163B. Most Chinese earn less than US$10 in a day. Most people who post here earn more than US$100 in a day. So when asking questions on what drive to get, it's best to post the details. Like where you live, how much you want to spend, what media you will be using, what you are going to use the drive for... and so on.

Very often, one can get two drives for one just by looking at hardware websites harder. Personally, I ordered 8 cases for 3.5-inch HDDs a while ago, plastic Enermax products, for about US$6 per each including 10% VAT and a few percentage of credit card fee. Total shipping price, a little under US$0.3. They will arrive here tomorrow if there's no unexpected delay. I paid well over US$100 to get my DW1620. Most people I know in South Korea paid more than that for ND-3500A. Many people on this board got both DW1620 and ND-3520 for what I paid for DW1620 or what my friends in Seoul paid for ND-3500A. In the end, to say "get two drives" isn't to say that you are rich. It is just to say get both for the peace of the mind.

Over the Christmas time I picked up a Cyberdrive DX162D. It uses the same chipset as the Benq and has been burning great, better than my Benq 800@822 and NEC 2510a for sure. It is made in China so you might get it for a good price there. I paid about $60US for it here in the States.

Hello!

After I had read many threads here I still don´t know what´s the best writer for ME. I see that here many people prefer the Benq, but I´m not sure is the Benq good for my purpose.

I have a LG GSA 4082, which is a very good writer with top-writing-quality. But the firmware-support from LG is not very good and some 8x-media like Ritek G05 and Optodisc OR8 are only supported @ 4x.

I use mostly DVD-R, top-brands like Mitsubishi, Verbatim, Ricoh and Sony/Daxon for important things. I also use cheaper media like Infosmart, SKC, Gigastorage and Optodisc.

I need therefore a writer that can low quality media well and not to slow (NEC´s 3520 burns my GSC01 only at 2x).

I collect some experiences from friends and forum´s:

The good ones:

1. LG GSA 4163

+Real fast with the right media
+DVD-RAM-support
+Good CD-R-writing-qualit+good reader for DVD and CD
-some quality issue´s with midrange and low quality media
-no overspeeding for the most media
-bad FW-support

2. Plextor PX 716

+Fantastic FW-support
+very good DVD-writing-quality and fast speeds with DVD+R DL-media
+very good CD-burning
+On-site collect and return
+Plextools
-very expensive
-picky with some media


3. Pioneer DVR 108

+Good quality with most media
+reads DVD-RAM
+good reader for DVD
+good FW-support
-bad reader/writer for CD
-one of the slowest DVD-writer


4. Benq DW 16xx/Philips

+very good FW-support
+best writer for DVD+R
+overspeeding with many DVD+R
+Scan abilities
-picky with CD-media
-DVD-R-media isn´t supported like DVD+R

5. NEC ND 3500

+Good quality with most media
+fast reader for DVD-/+R
+overspeeding with some media
-poor DVD error-correction
-bad CD-writing-quality
-bad FW-support
-underspeeding with some media



Some writers that I don´t want to buy:

1. Toshiba SD-R 5372

+FW-update for 12x to 16x DVD-R and faste RW-speeds
-worst DVD-writing-quality ever tested in c´t-magazin

2. Samsung TS-H 552
+good CD-writer
- 2nd worst DVD-writing-quality ever tested in c´t-magazin

3. BTC DRW 1016
Don´t have found a review, but I read at cdrinfo some experiences from a moderator and he wrote that that writer have a really bad writing-quality, he killed many DL-media with that writer and maybe he will not bring a review.

4. Liteon 1653S

+good CD-writer
+KProbe
+good FW-support
-writing-quality with DVD-media
-slow
-underspeeding with some media like optodisc

Any recommends for me, what writer could be real good for DVD-R, even for lower quality media?

Thanks

I wonder why BenQ has so much support compared to LG?

Made in China does not mean they are meant for sales in China. Made in Asia more often means "for export to the US" if you know what I mean. What is really cheap in China is human labor. Computer and electronics are cheapest in the US.

Depends on what kind of support. From my point of view, LG has more support actually than BenQ. But I guess you meant on CDFreaks board. Relationship with manufacturers is one of the key factors. Firmware patchers contribute to such things as well. Herrie really helped the name NEC in the DVD recorder field on the web to get popular and later Liggie, Dee, Queekie, etc. joined there. Lots more people behind Lite-On, including Codeguys, Ala42, Karr Wang, Dhc014... LG Europe in Germany and in the Netherlands was never good with CDFreaks until very recently so LG got almost ignored naturally. BenQ and Philips by comparison have been very cooperative. Samsung Europe wanted CDFreaks to have a Samsung forum here and so you can see what happened. Remember BTC?

Yeah, only because of the subforum on this site and I did mean support on here. The rivalry with some manfacturers is almost as big as universities!

Hm, the firmware-support from LG is not so good. Benq had maked in the past every month a new firmware, new FW from LG is more rare, for my old 4082, too