Sony & LiteOn DVD Readers

bcsman 2005-01-20 09:36:24 UTC #1

Couple questions about DVD readers in general:

Are Sony & LiteOn made by the same company?? Thought I read somewhere they were.
Supposedly LiteOn is one of the best for reading tricky DVD's whether from scratches or dirty. Any others that are equally adequate??
Have a few DVD's my BenQ 1620 just won't read in spots and need some good ideas for a DVD-ROM that will do a better job.
Does anyone have a Pioneer DVD-ROM? I know their burners are top notch how about the readers??

Thanks!!

fsh42na 2005-01-29 10:31:12 UTC #2

I'm looking for the same thing. Debating between a dvd-rom vs a combo drive. Lately I'm leaning towards a dvd-rom only. Liteon's and Sony are the same drives now. I used to like liteon's but they're too noisy for me now. Regarding ability to read bad discs, I've heard just the opposite regarding Liteon's.

I've heard in these forums that the AOpen 1648 is a very good reader/ripper AND QUIET so I probably will get one of these.

MrScary 2005-02-01 18:55:27 UTC #3

Don't buy a Combo...reason: if it stops working for any reason, you'll not have a Rom drive or a Writer.....Best way is to buy (1) LiteOn DVDRom Drive
(2) LiteOn CDRWriter (3) NEC DVDWriter....Costs more but you'll never Regret it...

Namoh 2005-02-01 22:57:19 UTC #4

If I buy 2 LG GSA-4163B I'll have 2 drives that can read DVD, can write CD's, can write DVD's when 1 stops I still have 1 drive that can do all this .............. and it's cheaper than your solution ................... and I can burn DVD-RAM.