Which drive for best burn quality (DVD-R media)?

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

Right, I’m about to change my PC and thus need recommendations of a reader/writer combo. I would appreciate any help, as it’s getting difficult to choose.

At moment have AOpen 1648/AAP DVD-ROM, NEC 4571A DVD-Writer and original Plextor Premium CD-Writer. These were best of breed at purchase point, however been out of the optical drive route for a while now so what should I go for in new PC?

  • Can be either IDE or SATA, whichever best.
  • Either DVD-ROM + DVD-Writer or if latter has as good read quality then two of them
  • Assume to be region-free under Vista will need AnyDVD (or similar) rather than 3rd-party firmware
  • Writing DVD-R, DVD+DL, and CD-R media (Taiyo Yugen or MCC mostly).

Priorities (in order):
READER Tolerant of errors, fast
WRITER Write quality, then long way behind features and speed

Initially research has shown:

  • Samsung S183 (or 182D) looked ideal but appear to be poor(-ish) at writing to DVD-R media.

  • LiteOn LH-20A1H (IDE) or 20A1P (SATA) also looked good but then found poor(-ish) at dual-layer writing.

  • Pioneer 112 - ?

  • How are NEC/Optiarc now?

  • BenQ have given up now haven’t they?

#2

If you can’t dedide after reading these, you never will :slight_smile: .
Regarding Pioneer, 112D if you are going to do alot of DL. 111D if not, IMO.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=210543

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=210519

#3

From initial results in the Pioneer forum, I’d say the Pioneer 112. It has the best dual layer burn of any I’ve seen, and also does well with Yuden and MCC single layer.

#4

Thanks, checking out that second thread now kent.

Since the LiteOn mentioned is poor for DL media, the Pioneer would seem to be best. However, looking at the forum I’m unsure whether 111 or 112.

How’s the Pioneers for reading? I know they dont do proper scans, but I guess 2 writers would be more flexible than just one with a ROM drive.

#5

After further reading, I’m tending towards:

READER - Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM or LiteOn LH-20A1P or H
WRITER - Pioneer 112

Are these good choices? Anything to add?

#6

The Plextor PX-130A is just a relabeled BenQ DVD-ROM.

#7

Thanks, leaning towards the LiteOn as a reader and Pioneer as writer.

Is CD quality top draw on the Pioneer 112 or would I be better transferring my Plextor Premium over (despite it being the wrong colour)?

#8

I have tried many times to find a DVD drive even half as good as my Premium and nothing comes close at any speed. Keep the Plextor, the Premium was the only Plextor drive I ever saw actually worth the extra money.

#9

I see this is a few weeks old, but it was hit #1 on google when i was looking for dvd burn quality.

I have the 111D and honestly i am fairly un-impressed. I think the samsung and the Benq i have both do a better job then my 111D overall. I work pretty much Exclusivly with Taiyo Yuden Dvd+ and - media for single layer and i work with Crap ritek dls for some data backup and some better verbaitum dls for video. Now im not talking technical aspect, as in i didnt run and compare the read/write tests etc. But if i take the discs and put them into a 2 year old dvd player the ones from both the benq and the samsung both play flawless, wheras the one from my 111D Does play, but it will jump on the occasion. Also it seems to take much longer to read manu data for some reason. Can’t figure that one out yet but it just spins and re-reads the disc a few times to get the menu whereas the other burns play fine… Have done this a few times with matching results. I did attempt to do a video burn on the ritek, but it failed on the 111D and worked on the Samsung, but it didnt play well… (as expected)

just throwin out my experience with it…

On the + side though i unlocked a pioneer 106 and it can read and analyze a full dvd in minutes and it has hit rip speeds of 6+megs a second. before it was unlocked it was pretty fast already… i will keep that thing until it dies just for its rip speeds.