Drive to buy

vbimport
#1

I know it’s been asked many times, but given the choices I’m going to list, what are the users opinions on what I should buy. My number 1 priority is accuracy, not speed. I want a DVD-burner that is as flexible and reliable as possible. I want to copy movies accurately moreso then games. I hate visual artifacts and hiccups u often see on burned movies.

BenQ 1655 w/ Lightscribe - $65 CDN
NEC ND-3550A - $50
Pioneer 111D - $50
Plextor PX716A - $150
Plextor PX716SA - $165 (yeah, i could go SATA, any benefits tho?)
Plextor PX740A - $120
Plextor PX740A - $140

I was leaning either to the BenQ or the Pioneer based on what I’ve read in the forum, and leaning even more towards the Pioneer. Price isn’t an issue either. So whats your take based on what I have locally available.

TIA
Mike

#2

Check the Pio 111 review! :wink:

#3

chef,

I did, but sorta got confused with all the throw-around talk about firmwares there. Does it do bitsetting yet, or lightscribe on a 111D version of the drive, with the new firmware that is? I assume if it does, its using the firmware from TDB. Is there only one firmware on these things, or is there you apply a firmware, then patch it with another hack to change certain firmware bits, it all got me lost. I haven’t dealt with any drive since I bought my Plextor 40x CD-RW a few years back and I figured it was time to upgrade to a DVD± RW.

Are there any other reasons why its the best drive out of the box, or after its flash-upgraded? It looks good for the $50 price, I’ll give it that.

Oh, and up above in my original post, the last drive I listed I typo’d
Plextor PX7[B]4[/B]0A - $140 should have read:
Plextor PX7[B]6[/B]0A - $140

#4

It does Bitsetting, Labelflash, even probably Lightscribe, but all those firmwares are not available yet (because they are not offically released) or not flashable yet.

TDB have released a bunch of great patched firmwares so far. To remove regioncode limitations and enable DVD-RAM writing for 111D drives. :wink:

Please check out this wonderful review: http://www.speedlabs.org/index.php?page=23

On the other side, from your list the BenQ 1655 is surely a good burner, but I wonder why it is that more expoensive than the Pio. :-X

I still would prefer the Pio - no one would probably surprised to read that from me, eh.

#5

I think the benq is more expensive because it allready comes equipped with lightscribe and the pioneer doesn’t also you don’t have to wait around for bitsetting firmware with the benq, i personally think the benq is a better writer then the pioneer, some of the quality scans of burned discs i saw in the rivew of the pioneer have really high pif readings. Also, i think pioneer doesn’t care about their customers and that’s why they don’t include bitsetting in their firmware, but they are willing to do so for the buffalo version of that firmware which is kind of ironic. My first choice would be Benq, second would be lg either the 4167b or H10A and maybe third would be SHW-1635S, and maybe if someone offered the pioneer for free, i would take that as my fourth choice. he he.

#6

The Benqs give crap results with RW and DL media compared to the Pio 111…