Pick two! Say goodbye to the other!

[dja2k]

Which one would you get rid of - A Pioneer 108, an NEC 3520, or a Benq 1620 Pro? Also take into consideration that a brand new Benq 1650 is on its way. Also, Dual Layer burning is not really a big deal for me, but better burning at desent speed is.

dja2k

[dja2k]

Here are some specs I came up with using Ritek R03 8x +R media. All three disks were burned at 8x using the same source disk.

Scanned with Benq 1620 Pro at 8x

Pioneer 108 (stock firmware)- PI Errors (44) PI Failures (21) Score (76)

Benq 1620 - PI Errors (30) PI Failures (8) Score (95)

Nec 3520 - PI Errors (40) PI failures (8) Score (95)

This is just one media that I use, but I am always a follower when it comes to buying new media for the drive that it burns better in. I buy Ritek R03's because they are affordable and they burn well.

Now with these scores, can it help pick one out to get replaced?

dja2k

[varunmehta]

Get rid of the Pioneer

[haveacigar]

Yeah, id get rid of the pioneer as well. Also.... dont use ritek!

[dja2k]

Thanks guys! Why not use ritek, they are so universal and 100 pack for $16 wholesale is great! I have never had a disk that doesn't work with them unless it was my fault writing higher than 8x on them. The reading curves and them are always upward with no spikes whatsoever, not like some others using high quality media and still getting downfall spikes, ouch! Anyways I use verbatim's as well for the better copies...

dja2k

[chef]

Dunno really, I would assume that the Pio still works so it would give you good results even burning at 12x with 16x media.

Did you do some quality cans?

[saugmon]

dja2k: Congrats on the new addition!

I buy Ritek R03's because they are affordable and they burn well.

Given that situation, I'd go with swapping the pioneer out for that Benq 1650.

All 4 of my benqs love Ritek-R03 media.I probably did over 500 without a ligitimate burn coaster.Maybe a playback coaster or 2?

That's a heck of a price. Best i can get was on Office Depot's buy 1-get 2 free of the +8x Office Depot brand for 20 cents each. These riteks perform as well as my hitachi maxells/Yuden000-T02/Ty-go2/MCC-004-heck,they'll burn anything I slap in them. My 4x Ritek-R03 backups scans compare to my 8x and 12x scans with the MCC-004 and Yuden000-T02. I burn them a hair slower than my normal media,but they do perform.

[dja2k]

Yes of course I have done scans of these burns. The NEC can't burn them good at 8x, only 4x, but the Benq 1620 burns them better or equal at 8x over 4x. So give or take, NEC and Benq burn them good at 4x and 8x. I have never seen anything higher than a 60 PI error or higher than a 10 PI failure on this Ritek R03 media. Heck that is much better than back in the day using Liteon getting PI errors up in the 200+. I am not going to buy verbaim's or yuden's just to get low PI errors in the lower 10's. Anyways the Riteks reading curve has always been upward on those that I have checked, no downward spikes, and the score has always been 95 +. They are all readable til now, of course there is always one here and there that didn't work, but that would be my fault.

dja2k

[seeker010]

yes it would seem that the pioneer is the drive to get rid of if you use R03. My problem with R03 is that there's too much variation. some discs burn very well, others burn terribly, and too many have dye defects. about 1/20. I've only had 2 dye defects with verbatim out of maybe 200, and none so far with TY. (dye defects = zone of PIF of >4, usually 10-20 or higher)

[dja2k]

I have burned over 500 ritek 8x +R disks and only coasters less than 10 to estimate. I used to use the ritek 4x +R which were ricoh branded, but that was then. As far as the benq 1650 goes. Can it be installed with the 1620 and still be able to use the benq utilities for both?

So ritek aside, if the pioneer 108 was going against the nec 3520 without the benq's, would you still pick NEC over the Pioneer? Or is there better burning with other media better suitable for the Pioneer than the NEC. All aside, if I use Ritek, then both benq's can burn them, and the third drive can be the better of NEC or Pioneer.

dja2k

[dja2k]

Nevermind , the pioneer 108 is gone! I stayed with the NEC 3520 because I think it is better with generic media than the pioneer 108.

dja2k