Which DVD Burner would you get?

Stupid boy · Post by **Stupid boy** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 4:07 pm

I am probably going to get one of these:

NEC - $66
LG - $80
Plextor - $98.5

I want to know which one to get, so I want to know whether the quiet is worth getting a more expensive drive, so here's the best way to ask my question:

If you weren't going to burn any movies to be read in a DVD Player, which drive would you get?
Also, would you get one that I didn't list?

Thanks

Nefarious · Post by **Nefarious** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 4:13 pm

I"d get the plextor. Its an excelent drive and worth the extra money. Go on to www.cdfreaks.com (http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=43) and hear what people say about the burner. It has some nice features to it such as Quiet Mode and GigaBurn, both of which I use constantly.

Tiamat · Post by **Tiamat** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 4:14 pm

Nec is supposed to be good. I got teh Pioneer AO8XL only because i liked the bezel :p

Plextor is usually a safe name, but I think they charge too much, so I usually go Pioneer. Nec is slightly better performing than the Pioneer.

wooglin · Post by **wooglin** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:15 pm

I got a Plextor for Christmas from my brother. It runs reasonably loud and fast when it needs to, but if you're playing a CD or DVD is slows right down to near silent.

Haven't had any problems with it. Now just need to find a better backup solution that will allow me to burn the 4.7gig images instead of defaulting at 700meg

edit... I guess technically I could burn 6 images per DVD... worth a try I guess.

Nefarious · Post by **Nefarious** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:19 pm

wooglin,

What program are you using? I use Acronis True Image, and seems to work well.

autoboy · Post by **autoboy** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:26 pm

i just got a new NEC and it is very fast. Unfortunately, it is also very loud. worst i've ever had. I got the new version of the drive i guess cause some people said the drive was quiet. get the plextor. i had one and loved it. silent costs money

wooglin · Post by **wooglin** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:04 pm

Nefarious wrote:wooglin,

What program are you using? I use Acronis True Image, and seems to work well.

I'm trying out TrueImage... seems to work really well so far, although I'm just backing up to a spare HD at the moment. Playing around with the DVD/RW functionality now. If all works as it should, I'll be laughing.

From what I've seen, does TrueImage allow image sizes (splits) larger than 700 meg? Will it write direct to a DVD? Is my idea of writing 6 CD images to a DVD workable?

Sorry for threadjacking.

Tim_U · Post by **Tim_U** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:10 pm

Just bought an LG GSA 4163B in black for $AU108. cheap as chips!

I've only had it a week, and haven't burnt anything with it yet, but backing-up DVDs at full-speed is reasonably quiet. Not SILENT quiet, but not too bad, considering.

The GSA 4163 can burn DVD+/-RW, Dual Layer, and burn DVDRAM discs.
There's a few reviews around the place.

Nefarious · Post by **Nefarious** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:13 pm

wooglin, Sent you a PM!

If noise is really an issue. Get the Plextor. Theres a "silent mode" you can set the drive to. It works VERY well. As autoboy said "Silent costs money"

Audiophiliac · Post by **Audiophiliac** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:32 pm

I just ordered the PLextor PX-716SA SATA DVD drive. Then I started looking at what features it has. It has a SilentMode utlility which allows you to control read/write speeds, spin-up/down rates, and even tray open/close speeds. ALl to make it more quiet. The only reason I can see to have a quiet optical drive, would be in a HTPC in a small living room or bedroom where you could hear the drive spinning over a movie. In almost any other circumstance, you really dont need it to be quiet. When you are burning or copying a CD or DVD, its gonna be loud no matter what you do. But I would go with a Plextor. The 712 also has this feature I believe. Good luck!

Cams · Post by **Cams** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:17 am

Tim_U wrote:Just bought an LG GSA 4163B in black

Likewise, only mine wasn't quite as cheap as chips. I wanted the RAM capability and it has good reviews on cdfreaks.com.

Mario · Post by **Mario** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:48 am

I have the LG and I like it very much. Very quiet and very good quality burns. I had a Lite-on before and I can say that the LG is much more quiet even at high speed.
The LG is slower and with less features than the Plextor, but to me it is good enough. Also LG has DVD-RAM.
Good luck

halfpower · Post by **halfpower** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:19 pm

I'm looking at the specs for some of the NECs and it says the total harmonic distortion of the DAC is 0.10%! I don't know what normal for a DVD/CD drive. Maybe for a DVD/CD dirve 0.10% is good. As far as good DACs go it is truely dreadful.

kcg · Post by **kcg** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 1:51 am

Nefarious wrote:I"d get the plextor. Its an excelent drive and worth the extra money. Go on to www.cdfreaks.com (http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=43) and hear what people say about the burner. It has some nice features to it such as Quiet Mode and GigaBurn, both of which I use constantly.

Are all these fancy features supported only in MS OSes? Or is there also a support for Linux & BSDs?

Thanks,
Karel

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 2:08 am

Has to be the LG GSA 4163B.
I just got it, it's pretty quiet playing DVDs at 1x which is all I'm concerned about, and it has excellent format support etc.
If you're concerned about noise you can always use Nero Drivespeed (free software) to keep it under control.

Alev · Post by **Alev** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:52 am

I got LG GSA 4163B and very impressed with it.

It is not quet (actually, are there any quiet high speed optical drives?), but extremely smooooth drive: it smoothly spins up, does the job and spins down. For the 1st time I feel there is no need to artificially slow down the drive (as I had to do with Plextor PX-708A, which was quieter then the newer drives from Plextor)

Sizzle · Post by **Sizzle** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:52 am

I have a Pioneer A09XL. Quiet as far as writers go. Behind my Antec 3000B case door with AcoustiPak it's pretty quiet.

munichkid · Post by **munichkid** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 4:08 pm

Got the Plextor PX-716A myself. Not a totally quiet drive, seeing what we are accostomed (sp?) here but for reliability it CANNOT be beat. I have burned about 150 dvds and only one coaster. I messed up.

As far as movie playing goes for a HTPC, I do not see a problem at al. Quiet in that respect. Seems to be nearly silent for first 90-120secs of a 8x burn and then ramps up to fairly loud by end of the burn.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 5:06 pm

munichkid wrote:Got the Plextor PX-716A myself. Not a totally quiet drive, seeing what we are accostomed (sp?) here but for reliability it CANNOT be beat.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Plextor has software provided to allow it run in quiet mode, if you can settle for a little less speed.

liquid_celica · Post by **liquid_celica** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:04 pm

Out of the list I'd recommend the plextor.

Off the list I highlly recommend the Sony duel layer series. Its been very high on many pc mags/sites out there.

sthayashi · Post by **sthayashi** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:14 pm

Though I'm a fan of Plextor (their PlexTools is a very complete package), for a Quiet DVD burner, I'd pay attention to this post by a trusted staff member.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 9:25 pm

Plextor has a reputation (well deserved) for having better compatibility than just about any other drive. Not all media brands are compatible with all drives, and not all drives can correctly interpret all the formats (especially if you are trying to rip an existing music CD).

If you slow the Plextor down to BenQ speeds, it is quiet. However I suspect that the BenQ is priced lower than the Plextor, since most of their products are about the lowest price one can find in their category.

The Plextor PX-716A/SW has a $30 mail-in-rebate offer until 31 March 2005, making the net price about $107.00 at NewEgg.

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:54 pm

Having tried just about every single 16x burner model and also read anechoic chamber dBA measurements done by c't magazine, I'd select either of the two (for true hc spcr people):

- Pioneer DVR-A09XLA (can be stepped down to much quieter mode with QuietDrive utility)

- Plextor PX-716A (can be stepped down in speed to much quieter mode with Plextools Pro)

Granted, neither is the best dvd-burner in terms of media support or burn quality, but they are both good.

Remember, none of the 16x writers is anywhere near quiet at normal speeds (i.e. not slowed down with a utility).

BTC's drive comes the closest at stock speeds, but it's a horrendous writer and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I'm still using both myself (along with BenQ, LiteOn, AOpen, Optorite, etc. ad nauseaum).

I'd utterly and completely stay away from LiteOns. They are very noisy.

regards,
halcyon

PS If you want to gamble and try Nec ND-3540A with one of the speed down utilities (CD Bremse, Nero Drive speed - which may or may not work - no guarantees), then you could get a very wide media support + very good burn quality AND a semi-quiet drive (the same goes for BenQ DW1620).

|Romeo| · Post by **|Romeo|** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:40 am

Perhaps most worryingly about the pioneers is their data corruption bug (when the drive experiences a read error, rather than reporting that, it substitutes random data). Which is a pity, because it produces very low error rates on CDs. I couldn't in all conscience suggest getting a pioneer since they've been unwilling to sort it out (Just for the record there are some cheap non pioneer drives that crash rather than substituting random data when they get a read error. More annoying, but better behaviour).

halcyon · Post by **halcyon** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:32 pm

[non-silent topic]
|Romeo|,

can you point to a source where this bug has been documented and tested?

Thanks!
[/non-silent topic]

|Romeo| · Post by **|Romeo|** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 1:34 am

I would suggest talking to http://www.infinadyne.com/ as they're the ones who discovered this/worked out what was causing the problems. After it was explained; the wierd behaviour of the drive became clear. I don't have all the information about it; but strongly suspect that disc structure is important in reproducing this bug.

Pétur · Post by **Pétur** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 1:56 pm

If you're ever going to do audio extraction, buy a Plextor and only a Plextor. There once was this site from 'R3mix' full of measurements and for reliability and error-correction the Plextor drives always won.

It's the only brand that will ever get into my PC.
(I recently ordered a PX-716 for my new system, arriving any day now)

Peter

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 6:48 pm

I use a Plextor drive myself, a PX-712. This drive is pretty good and very reliable... When I first installed it, it was a bit too loud but with Plextools Professional, I was able to lower the drive speed and also the tray speed (loading/eject)... The drive came with EasyCD Creator 6 which I really don't like... I installed Nero 6 instead which is far better!

The silentmode settings of the drive will remain when they are "saved to the drive" and this even when PlexTools Professional is not active or installed.

I removed Plextools at startup because for strange reasons, it took 100% CPU resources! Since the changes made with Plextools are directly written to the drive, you don't need Plextools in the background. Writing settings to the drive instead of using a TSR is a very good thing!

Wraith · Post by **Wraith** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 7:37 pm

Am I right to assume that Plextools Professional either comes with the drive or is downloadable for free from their website?

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 7:47 pm

Wraith wrote:Am I right to assume that Plextools Professional either comes with the drive or is downloadable for free from their website?

Plextools Professional came with my Plextor... The bundled version was very buggy, so I downloaded the latest version on Plextor's website and installed it... I mainly use Plextools to control the drive speed...