Guide to choosing a DVD writer

[drvarunmehta]

I saw this at Club CD Freaks and thought this might be helpful for people trying to choose a DVD writer.

BenQ:
* DVD write quality: Good and fast
* Reading: Good but slow (riplock can be removed by MCSE)
* Bitsetting: Yes
* PI/PIF scanning: Yes
* Misc: Good customer support/focus; official media overspeeding support (no need to use patched firmwares for overspeeding); the use of PCAV for 8x and 12x allows it to burn discs very fast, good 16x speeds, also

NEC:
* DVD write quality: Good (slow burning speeds at lower speeds)
* Reading: Good and fast (riplock can be removed with a hacked firmware)
* Bitsetting: Yes (requires hacked firmware)
* PI/PIF scanning: Yes (at the moment only in the 3520)
* Misc: Very poor customer support/focus, though there is a strong die-hard community that makes up for it; media overspeeding is available through the use of hacked firmwares; the use of ZCLV for 8x makes it the slowest burner when burning at 8x (though its 12x and 16x speeds are up to par)

LiteOn:
* DVD write quality: Average at 16x. Good at 12x or slower
* Reading: Excellent but slow (riplock can be removed with OmniPatcher)
* Bitsetting: Yes
* PI/PIF scanning: Yes
* Misc: One of the few DVD burners that excels at overcoming CD copy protections; strong community; hacked firmwares that allow for limited amounts of overspeeding; the use of PCAV for 8x allows it to burn 8x discs very fast, conservative 12x is a bit on the slow side, decent 16x speeds

Pioneer:
* DVD write quality: Good
* Reading: Good and fast
* Bitsetting: No
* PI/PIF scanning: Yes
* Misc: Strong community support (at rpc1.org)... >NIL:'s hacked firmwares allow for overspeeding; the A08/108's has gotten poor press about its ZCLV use (not just for 8x) and its 16x burn speed, which is slower than its 12x burn speed (effectively making the A08/108 more of a 12x burner than a 16x burner)

LG:
* DVD write quality: Good and fast (esp. with the latest models)
* Reading: Good, but there is a riplock (no hacked firmware to remove riplock exists yet)
* Bitsetting: Partial (not all plus media types)
* PI/PIF scanning: No
* Misc: Good customer support; no hacked firmwares for media overspeeding; DVD write speed can be quite good, depending on which model it is; newer models seem to do quite nicely in the 8x/12x/16x speed department...supports DVD-RAM

Samsung:
* DVD write quality: 552B poor/552U good
* Reading: Good but slow (no rip unlock)
* Bitsetting: No
* PI/PIF scanning: No
* Misc: Good CD-R write quality; good at CD copy protections; 552U has 6x +R DL; no hacked firmwares for media overspeeding

Plextor:
* DVD write quality: Good and fast (needs latest firmware)
* Reading: Good and fast (supplied software allows read speed increase)
* Bitsetting: Partial (not all plus media types)
* PI/PIF scanning: Yes (scanning software provided)
* Misc: Rich on features; Poor -R media compatibility; Good DAE speed; 8MB buffer; Expensive; no hacked firmwares for media overspeeding

Source http://club.cdfreaks.com/

[magnet]

nice post but sony missing frm list......nyways want any reviews abt the writers visit here


http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Revi...x?CategoryId=1

[drgrudge]

See this thread started by :Keith Sebastian

http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17851

[drvarunmehta]

Originally Posted by magnet

nice post but sony missing frm list

Sony is just a rebadged Liteon drive

[AlienTech]

Seems I am not the only one

LiteOn:

Current Model: SOHW-1693S
Book type setting: Yes

Made famous in their CD-R writing days as the “tweakers� drives, a zebra and his friends did the same, for the DVD writing era. All these things aside, LiteOn have recently had a decline in the quality of drives, becoming the least preferable for serious burning fanatics.

Pros:

• Amazing tweak ability. If you can imagine it, we can mod it!
• Superior CD-R write quality and speed to any other DVD writer on the market
• Very hard to damage from internal firmware flashing
• Ok for 1:1 games backups!
• Finally supports DVD-R DL media

Cons:
• Potentially the worst write quality on the market currently
• Very poor media matching capability – this is one picky little drive
• Build quality is declining quickly, as reports suggest
• DVD-R DL is finally supported, but it is SLOW compared to other hardware

Current Firmware: KS04

Overall: 55/100

Postscript to LiteOn - SONY Rebadge and OEM's

ALL the Sony DRU series writers are currently rebadged LiteOn drives. The most simple example being the DRU-700 (actually a LiteOn SOHW-832S). The firmwares may be flashed interchangably for better results. Newer still is the Sony DRU-800, being a LiteOn SOHW-1693S.

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=9&t=9764