Used Plextor or New Liteon

vbimport
#1

First post everybody, so be gentle.

My burner seems to be dieing, so after a few days of digging I narrowed my choices to new Liteon  DH-20A4P-04 on newegg($24 shipped), or used Plextor 760A on ebay. I'm not sure if it's ok to post the actual links, but there are mainly 2 sellers- ocean-tech and sharonind, and they both seem to have positive feedback, one is slightly cheeper,the other is around $70 shipped. I would assume the drives were pulled from old computers or refurb, possibly bought in bulk. I found a few links about used Plextors, but didn't notice the sellers names. 
I wish I could buy both the new and used one but now my budget is limited. I really don't intend to scan every disc- after I get used to it, maybe a few per batch. I don't use cheap media and I don't care about 8x or 16x- whichever results are better will do. I don' really care about CD ripping or burning. So here are my questions:
  1. Should I get the new or used?
  2. Any recomendations or success stories from Ebay?
  3. How long does the Liteon scan take- I know Plextor could be very long- around an hour?
#2

Welcome to CDFreaks!

[QUOTE=iceburg;2024740]1. Should I get the new or used?[/QUOTE]

The original Plextor drives like the 760 offer some unique functionality you’ll not find in any other drives. So the question is, do you need any of it? Anyway the question is what you need the drive to do. If writing CDs is of any concern for you i’d recommend the Plextor WAY OVER the Liteon, for example.

[QUOTE=iceburg;2024740]2. Any recomendations or success stories from Ebay?[/QUOTE]

I’ve had no problems so far. But then it all depends on ones ability to recognize the lemons.

[QUOTE=iceburg;2024740]3. How long does the Liteon scan take- I know Plextor could be very long- around an hour?[/QUOTE]

Liteon scans are usually done at 4x and can also be done at 8x. Liteon scans do PIE/PIF in the same run and need an extra run for Jitter. Plextor scans are done at 2x (can be done faster with specific soft- and firmware) and you need 3 runs for PIE/POE/POF, PIF/POF and Beta/Jitter. The PI/PO parts of these can be made faster with an accuracy setting in Plextools (enlarges the scan interval, results are a bit lower in total error count but still reliably shows spikes and the like). IMHO Plextor scans are slower but more complete and reliable. The Plextor also scans CDs, the Liteon doesn’t. Also i’d like to note that the Liteon is an extremely tolerant (good) DVD reader and thus shows notoriously low error counts. IMHO a drive used for scanning should be able to be ‘critical’. A good reader will give you no warning of (future) potential problem zones.

#3

[QUOTE=iceburg;2024740]First post everybody, so be gentle.

My burner seems to be dieing, so after a few days of digging I narrowed my choices to new Liteon  DH-20A4P-04 on newegg($24 shipped), or used Plextor 760A on ebay. I'm not sure if it's ok to post the actual links, but there are mainly 2 sellers- ocean-tech and sharonind, and they both seem to have positive feedback, one is slightly cheeper,the other is around $70 shipped. I would assume the drives were pulled from old computers or refurb, possibly bought in bulk. I found a few links about used Plextors, but didn't notice the sellers names. 
I wish I could buy both the new and used one but now my budget is limited. I really don't intend to scan every disc- after I get used to it, maybe a few per batch. I don't use cheap media and I don't care about 8x or 16x- whichever results are better will do. I don' really care about CD ripping or burning. So here are my questions:
  1. Should I get the new or used?
  2. Any recomendations or success stories from Ebay?
  3. How long does the Liteon scan take- I know Plextor could be very long- around an hour?[/QUOTE]Welcome to CDF’s:

How many hours are on the Plextor?

#4

[quote=Bob;2024872]Welcome to CDF’s:

How many hours are on the Plextor?[/quote]

I don’t know- both mentioned sellers seem reputable, so I’m pretty confident it won’t be a lemon,but still a guess:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=120236071934&Category=51065
http://cgi.ebay.com/Plextor-DVD-writer-burner-PX-760A-excellent_W0QQitemZ120236051512QQihZ002QQcategoryZ51065QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Good point.

#5

For what it is worth: The first link says stock photo so no telling what the actual look will be or condition is. The second link shows a TLA#[B]01[/B]03 meaning it’s the later hardware-revision of the drive (no known advantages or disadvantages).

#6

This ebay seller has about 20 new in the box 716A drives, though right now he only puts up one at the time: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBTOX:IT&item=190207684574&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI

#7

I decided to go with e-bay and Plextor- I received it yesterday-burn time showed half hour on each(CD and DVD)- I’m not sure if the letters mean anything, but they may be tied in the counter too…flashed the firmware to 1.07, scans to follow. Thanks for the help guys!

#8

Half an hour is as good as new (if it didnt suffer from any power surges or mechanical shocks)!

#9

Don’t give up on ebay though, I’ve gotten some great deals on unused Plextor burners in the last year.

#10

I’m as happy as I can be- (hardly) used for 70 bucks shipped- Ebay :iagree:
So far it seems to hate TDK DVD+R 16x(CMC MAG M01 00) 25 pack, but gets along fine with Memorex 16x white inkjet printable, same MID. FUJI(F16 01) from Fry’s 50 pack although rated at 16x is detected at 12x but anything above 6x is crap. Sony(D 21 00) 25 pack at Walgreen’s seems to be the best so far at 8x.



#11

TDK(CMC MAG M01 00) burned at 8x:




#12

CMC MAG M01 isn’t a great MID on any drive, from what I’ve seen.

#13

Memorex white inkjet printable 16x (CMC MAG M01 00) burned at 8x:



#14

Fuji (Ritek F16 01) burned at 16x,AS On, Power rec reduced to 6x. It seems it never got to 16(which I knew already). AS did its thing- total time- log says 10 min, but I saw the counter over 12 min.
[B]Total PIE 99k Total PIF 264[/B]






#15

[QUOTE=Two Degrees;2032571]CMC MAG M01 isn’t a great MID on any drive, from what I’ve seen.[/QUOTE]

Very true. All media from the same spindle:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/1637016-post126.html
http://club.cdfreaks.com/1860412-post35.html
http://club.cdfreaks.com/1922811-post18.html

#16

[QUOTE=hwp;2032701]Very true. All media from the same spindle:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/1637016-post126.html
http://club.cdfreaks.com/1860412-post35.html
http://club.cdfreaks.com/1922811-post18.html[/QUOTE]yeah…:rolleyes:

#17

To be honest CMC MAG M01 (Memorex +16) was my favorite on NEC 2510- cheap and Fry’s has the same packaging for more than a year. I really don’t care about speed - before the NEC was burning it great at 8x (about 8 min) - I checked few old disks and they all burned better on all but the burst test- they showed quite a few POE- not too high, so I assume dirt and scratches- disks are readable too. I never tried 16x till now- the extra minute of burning is easily lost now when I have so many testing options :bigsmile:
I love everything about the Plextools- the automated tests,the AS, but I have a few gripes with it- although I’ve set the tray not to eject, it still does it when verify/compare is enabled and sometimes after that it doesn’t acquire the disk quick enogh and fails to verify it.
Another quirk is once in a while it doesn’t want to do the Q-Check TA test- says this feature not available on DVD-Rom when the exact copy of it on another disk is fine.
Is there an option(registry?) in Plextools to default the picture format to PNG?
Forced AS, combined with low speed burning and I’m all set till the Plextor dies. I hope I don’t kill it prematurely with too much testing:rolleyes: