Blu-Ray Drive Advice

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

Hi,

I need advice regarding a BD Drive, It would mostly be used for reading discs and occasionally burn some, but mostly reading.

Another criteria is long life, I know it’s not guaranteed how long a drive will last, but I have a few OLD Sony Re-badged BENQ 1640 (Nexperia/Philips chipset) which are still working fine after some grease and a new belt, while I have a junkyard of old LITEONs (MT Chipset) which failed on their own.

Options are:

Pioneer BDR-S06XLB
Pioneer BDC-207BK
Pioneer BDR-S07XLB
Pioneer BDR-S08XLB (A little bit expensive and normally I won’t go for it unless it’s highly recommended)
LG BH08LS20
LG BH12LS30/38
LG BH14NS40/48
LG BH16NS40/48
Asus BW-12B1ST
Plextor PX_B940SA

Thank you.

#2

Another footnote question.

Would a BD Writer/ROM be better at reading old DVDs than a regular DVD Writer/ROM?

Does the fact that it uses a smaller beam contribute to it be being better at reading old degraded DVDs that a regular drive, or does it switch to a “DVD Sized beam” when reading DVDs?

Someone with understanding of the mechanism of those drives please enlighten me.

#3

Go for one of the Pioneers. BDR-x06, x07, or x08 will be quality drives.

The x06 series has had no issues, and probably would work just fine. The x07 may support higher speeds, and probably performs slightly differently on some media (but only minute differences). The x08 series is seemingly just as good, maybe with slightly higher speeds, so maybe not worth the expense. Keep in mind the speeds you would actually use. So the S07 might be good.

The BD[B]C[/B]-207 is just a combo drive: read+write for DVD & CD, read only for BD media. So if you never want to write BD media, you could go with this drive.

To the footnote question: No. There is a separate bit of hardware in the BD drive equal to that of a DVD drive for using DVD media (just as there is CD hardware for dealing with CDs).

If a drive is better at reading, it is because of the choice of components and design of the error-correction capabilities.

[Pioneer claims to make use of the BD hardware for CD media in some of its deluxe drives, but it’s only applicable to CDs, and it’s more meant to get a “higher quality” read from good source material. It’s probably no more helpful for degraded media than just reading the disc at slow speeds.]

#4

Very informative. Thank you.

Do you by any chance have a picture of any of the Pioneer drives board, or know the chipset manufacturer of those drives?

#5

All are Renesas chipsets.

If you navigate under the Pioneer section on this site: http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/index.html
…you will find a listing for the BD[B]R[/B]-206, 207, and 208, plus a number of other drives, and each has a picture showing the chipset. (Don’t worry about the site being in Japanese; you can navigate around easily enough via trial and error).

Some images are not of the exact model (example: BDR-206M versus BDR-S06XLB versus BDR-S06J), but that doesn’t matter, as each drive series/family tends to share most of the same basic structure. (There are regional differences implemented in firmware, feature differences implemented in firmware, and some chassis differences depending on the intended market, but one family is the same drive at the core.)

#6

Again. Thank you very much. This site is Great.

I’ve noticed that some Drives are Made In Japan and some are made in China. Have there been any reporting on a difference on the same model?
What I mean is the S07J is probably made in Japan and 207MBK is made in China and both are using the same chip, has any one reported difference in performance?

#7

Hello,

I can also recommend You a Pioneer drive of the named above.
There are always slight variations from drive to drive within a series, but they are neglectable, because the influence of Your System will be greater.
Drives made in China are nod bad, but if You can get the same or a similar made in Japan, I would go for Japan.

#8

Thank you for the reply katraine.

@Albert

If a drive is better at reading, it is because of the choice of components and design of the error-correction capabilities.

What are the best drives you’ve seem with good components and a good design of the error correction?

#9

Generally you can choose any from your list.
I’d buy an 08XL because its not even expensier here than the 208EXB…and it even has the sexy frontplate among other features.

#10

[QUOTE=chef;2690939]Generally you can choose any from your list.
I’d buy an 08XL because its not even expensier here than the 208EXB…and it even has the sexy frontplate among other features.[/QUOTE]

I have a friend who will get it for me from China which will be very cheap.
S07XLB and S08XLB have the same frontplate afaik.

#11

Typically, for the older DVDRW drives (possibly still true) LiteOn drives or Samsung drives have had great error correction, as do most LG drives.

LG drives tend to be very brute force: it is an all-or-nothing approach. Sometimes these drives will rip through a disc other drives can only hope to read, and will do so at full speed. But if it does not want to read, it will be pretty consistent in failing to read a bad disc past a certain point. (Hence, all-or-nothing).

Meanwhile, Samsung and LiteOn drives (with MediaTek chipsets!) have stronger error correction for some discs in that, they can usually slow down to a good speed and deal with small scratches if there are any problems. Alternatively, they can be asked to read slowly from the beginning (at least with older drives, this is true), which greatly increases the chance that the drive will be able to read beyond a troublesome spot.

As far as I know, users with BD combo or BD-RE drives stick to their DVDRW drives for reading troubled DVDs or CDs. I’m sure BD drives from these manufacturers are still quite capable at reading all the formats…

And you might find that your chosen BD-capable drive, regardless of brand, is able to perform all its tasks perfectly fine. :slight_smile:

#12

Thank you Albert, Very informative.

I was able to revive some of the old LiteONs (20A3S, 20A4P, 20A1P) I have which had failed mechanism, glad to know they still can do some good.

I also have an old Hitachi-LG ROM lying around which will test and see if it can still work.

Thanks again.

#13

[QUOTE=RoamingHawK;2690952]I have a friend who will get it for me from China which will be very cheap.
[B]S07XLB and S08XLB have the same frontplate afaik.[/B][/QUOTE]

Yeah, no doubt.
I meant in comparison to the 206, 207 and 208 drives. :wink:
…and I prefer the MIJ drives.