Are they any good? It seems that its not a popular brand. Im in the market for a DVD writer and like all the newbie here, I dont know which to choose.
Im looking toward a DVD420i CD freaks has no reviews of any HP writers even CD SO I was wondering, are HP dvd writers any good?
thanks.
EDIT just found out NEC = HP, sorry about this post
HP 420i = NEC 2500A
As far as I know
HP buys CD and DVD drives from LG, Samsung, NEC, Ricoh, and whoever else that gives best prices for reasonable performance. HP DVD writers are usually good and they are supported relatively well. Visit http://www.dvdplusrw.org for complete list of HP DVD writers. All HP models from 100 to the near-future models are discussed in the forum there.
I’m not really sure why one would buy an HP drive these days. Why not look at a Pioneer? If you want an NEC, just buy an NEC, not a rebadge. It’s not like HP’s support is so good. I had an HP rewriter and they never supported it at all- no firmware upgrades, patches on patched software, and nasty phone support. Personally, I would look anywhere else for my optical products at this point.
If HP is not good, then what is good? Good or bad is a relative notion in this because we are comparing brand names.
HP’s support is at least far better than Samsung, better than Lite-On, better than NEC, better than Pioneer. You would have to experience all of them for a long time to compare. Whether it’s servers, printers, or even optical drives.
Ask yourself. What does NEC do to NEC optical drive buyers in the US market? Phone calls can’t count. In the US, it costs really much to hire a person with in-depth technical knowledge and experiences to receive phone calls and answer to the questions in a friendly manner. How much would you charge if you were in the working position for a hour of counselling? I personally spend literally tens of thousands of hours here and other forums with more direct technical discussions than such employees usually found in big company phone call centers. They are just there to lip-service.
Anyway, I would rather have products imported from US rather than buying the same products from LG and Samsung. That way, I have to pay much tax myself in addition to outrageous shipping cost while there’s no warranty on products exported to the US and then sold to South Koreans. Samsung DVD players cost a lot more here than at Walmart stores in California or New York even now. In such a case, it’s often better to import individually what were exported nationally at the first place than to buy locally from a domestic retailer.
Sometimes HP IT products are expensive but sometimes very competitively priced. It’s not every time that HP optical products are expensive or of poor quality. It may not be always but HP’s service is one of the best in the world whether you want to admit it or not. There have been quite many happy users of HP DVD writers along with many angry users. It’s usually the angry voices that first are quoted in the news pages. That was once seemingly the biggest obstable for the DVD+RW/+R to overcome -R/-RAM.
This question has been asked before, Which DVD writer to buy? Im sorry for asking it again.
Here are my choices
All of these prices are in canadian dollars
NEC 2500a - $100
NEC 2510 DL - $122
Artec 12x - $138
Pioneer DVR107 - $115
Pioneer A07 - $161
Sony DW-U18a - $120
Liteon 812 - $107
Liteon 812 DL - $139
Liteon 832 - $136
Liteon 1213s - $129
Benq 822 - $80
HP DVD420i - $129
Here are my choices
Im gonna use the DVD for back up purpose, for pictures, videos, backups, etc…
DL is a plus but not a priority. Can anyone give feedbacks on those writers, thanks
2510A > 2500A if you want DL, 22$ is not something to fret about
DVR 107 is the OEM version of the A07, so go for the DVR 107
HP DVD 420i is = 2500A + Money for HP, so forget about this one unless it’s cheaper (i know futureshop has a sale on it but forgot how much)
I’m buying a 2510A from Razorcomputers.net @ 112$CDN if that information helps you
IMO the best picks are either the 2510A, the DVR 107 or the new LG DL drive (ends with 420, forgot model #)
Of course, I’m planning to used Herrie’s firmwares, hope you feel comfortable with hacked firmware if you’re using the 2510A for +R burning purposes…
Well, if you’re not comfortable with using hacked/modified firmwares, then the HP drive might be a better option than an “actual” NEC drive because the firmware supports bitsetting natively, unlike NEC’s stock firmware.
You mean LG GSA-4120B EIDE Dual Layer DVD±RW
yup A07 = retail and 107 = oem, they have this us$30 mail in rebate for the ao7, ~can$45, thats why im kinda interested in that, coz the face looks pretty nice.
the dcd420i is onsale for 129 at futureshop, used to be 149
Thanks, I also thinking about the 2500/2510 or 107/a07 but the LG? hmm heard LG drives arent that nice. Its $140 at razorcomputers
Im buying my drive at pacificmall, so I can save on shipping for the 2510a or the a07
thanks.
Well Kenshin, I can only say that I have not needed LiteOn or Plextor support because the drives did what they were supposed to do. I will tell that HP definitely sold myself and the unsuspecting public a disaster of a cd drive- the 7200e. I spent years troubleshooting the drive, and tweaking the computer, hardware and softwarewise trying to get it to work. I downloaded every patch on the HP website. After countless hours of fixing things, and system down time, I isolated the problem to the drive and its driver. I finally figured out that part of the problem was there was never a firmware upgrade released for the drive, even though there were upgrades released for the original Phillips drive on which it was based.
It was a very frustrating situation. The drive could not back up audio discs, despite it saying you could in the manual, and pictures on the box showing this, as well as included software to do this.
I coastered 7 or 8 discs for every one that I was able to record.
The several times I was on the phone with HP, all I can say was they acted very independent, unconcerned, and with canned answers. They never were able to get the drive working in a satisfactory answer, and just told me to go out and buy a new HP one.
In addition, my printer and scanner are from HP.
If this is how they treated a loyal repeat customer, I will no longer purchase their products. I realize this was an earlier piece of hardware, however HP provided virtually no support.
I am thankful for this forum and others. The many hours you and the other moderators devote to helping others is to be commended. I have learned far more from surfing forums than HP tech support could ever provide me with. If they are the best in your opinion, they still are awful from my experience.
Oh, the Pioneer, NEC 2500, or LiteOn 812 are fine choices if DL is not critical right now.
:a If they told me that I’ll ask them the money to buy a new HP.
That’s exactly what I meant. Come to South Korea and you’ll see tens of millions of South Koreans that hate Samsung. But that common fact does not stop them from surpassing Philips and Sony.
Wasn’t that something everyone who earns profits from selling says?
In 2002, only HP in the United States actually gave money to buy a new HP DVD writer among all the DVD+RW companies in the world. HP Korea didn’t. Sony Japan didn’t.
?? I dont get it
HP gave money to the early buyers of HP DVD writers to upgrade theirs to the second-generation DVD+RW writers. Though it was only US$100 per each.
But every other company just ignored it. HP in South Korea didn’t even comment once.
Ahh didnt know that hahahaha.
A hisotry, long forgotten. 
Hey Kenshin, I decided to get either the a07plus us$30 mail in rebate, 107 or the 2510. Im buying my first few dvd disc, are ridata one in a red spindle any good? And What’s a good medi a+R or -R??? Using the drive for backing up pictures, movies, etc…
For A07, most media work well. But beware some Ridata media are not of good quality.
People who use a lot of recordable media usually buy hundreds of disks at once using all kinds of information to buy at the lowest possible prices. Since they use many, the average quality must be reasonably good as well. Use some of the “hot deal” information. If I were you, I’d buy TY disks sold under names such as Fuji, TDK, Memorex, Samsung, and son. I don’t know exactly what media brands are made actually by Taiyo Yuden in US market because they always seen to change the sources. Prodisc and CMC media are a little cheaper than Ritek/Ridata. Prices and performance are often similar between Plus and Dash if the manufacturer is the same. TY DVD-R is better than Ritek DVD+R but Verbatim DVD+R is as good as Verbatim DVD-R. For the highest possible speeds, use 8x DVD+R from TY.