I am putting together a new PC, and part of it will obviously be a DVD/CD writer.
Features that I really want, listed in descending order of importance:
--robustness/reliability (e.g. error free writing)
--speed
--economical
Also, like many of you, I am a freedom fighter for media liberation, so very important is to be able to turn off all copy protection, region encoding, etc. (I have not researched this in depth, but it seems like a key component is the ability to get firmware upgrades which have been cleansed of DRM contaminants?)
Looking at the following websites
www.cdrinfo.com
cdrlabs.com
CDfreaks.com
it appears like some of the top choices right now are
CyberDrive DX082D DVD+RW
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Arti...%2BRW&Series=0
LiteOn LDW-811S DVD±RW
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Arti...order&index=13
Sony DRU-530A Dual RW 8x DVD±RW
http://www.cdrlabs.com/common/print....=review&id=213
From what I can piece together, I think that the CyberDrive is probably the best choice. Fast and very reliable. (By the way: does anyone know where their official homepage is? I was unable to track it down.)
The Sony was reviewed well, but I am generally biased against Sony because they are arrogant, more expensize than they should be, and are aggressively into copy protection.
It appears that the LiteOn is a reasonable choice too.
Please feel free to give me any advice here that would help me pick between the 2 models.
What I would love to see is a comparative analysis of all the top drives pitted against each other, rather than individual drive reviews. Does anyone know of a good source for this, and the specific conclusions drawn?
Another issue: how important is it with a new drive that it be mt rainier compliant?
If it is important, below are the top mt rainier compliant drives that I have found so far:
BenQ DW800A
Plextor PX-708A
What is the current status of mt rainier anyways? The definitive site for mt rainier
http://www.licensing.philips.com/information/mtr/gi/
has only one link in its links section, which goes to The Beast
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/...w_support.mspx
and the above website only seems to discuss the status of mt rainier drives under "Longhorn" (a future release of their OS).
Is mt rainier at all important right now, and is it supported by any OS, even if just for CD-RW?
Also, does anyone know, for those drives which are NOT mt rainier compliant, whether or not they easily can be made so by a simple firmware upgrade? |
Posted:
10-01-2004
