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Help wanted on choosing the right DVD writer

Forum Storage : DVD/CD Writers - Help wanted on choosing the right DVD writer

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sabbath1   08-21-2003 at 05:00:06 PM

I could really use some help on what DVD writer to choose. My three strongest picks right now are the SONY DRU-510A, the Pioneer DVR-A06 or the soon-to-be-released Plextor PX-708A.

I've heard that the Pioneer isn't very picky at all about media. Is that a general opinion? What about the Plextor? How picky is usually the drives that Plextor makes?

Any help would be very appriciated. Opinions are very welcome too.


My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
SamsungDVD / Lite-On CDRW

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jp5   08-21-2003 at 10:40:19 PM
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My DRU-510A broke after a month or so, see my post. I'd have to recommend a cheaper option.

Reply to jp5
sabbath1   08-21-2003 at 10:48:56 PM
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Where can I read about that DRU510 problem? It sounds really serious indeed.

So you don't know which brand of Pioneer or Plextor that works best in general?

My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
SamsungDVD / Lite-On CDRW

Reply to sabbath1
khha4113   08-21-2003 at 11:53:35 PM
- 0 +

I heard <b><A HREF="http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDnameid=113&Search=Search&list=0" target="_new"><font color=red>Pioneer A06</A></b></font color=red> is great which I also plan to buy.

:smile: Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

Reply to khha4113
LancerEvolution7   08-22-2003 at 12:55:34 AM
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Get the A06. Its less picky on the "cheaper media". The two best out are the Sony and the Pioneer. The Sony have had more reports of failures, especially within the first month, but its been out longer than the Pioneer. The Pioneer is less expensive also than the Sony.

Reply to LancerEvolution7
sabbath1   08-22-2003 at 02:21:01 AM
- 0 +

Does that mean you think Pioneer is a better choice than the Plextor as well?

My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
SamsungDVD / Lite-On CDRW

Reply to sabbath1
sabbath1   08-22-2003 at 02:25:49 AM
- 0 +

Actually I think I'll choose between the Pioneer and the Plextor, because the Sony drive only reads DVD+- R/RW discs at 4x speed. I'm poised towards the Pioneer as well, because I've had nothing but good experiences from their drives from the past. But the Plextor on the other hand, is faster with it's 8x DVD+R writing, 4x DVD+RW writing, 40x CDROM reading and 24x CD-R writing. It'll be a tough choice.


My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
SamsungDVD / Lite-On CDRW

Reply to sabbath1
LancerEvolution7   08-22-2003 at 03:00:25 AM
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There is a small problem with 8x +R write speed. There is no such thing as 8x media avaliable out on the market right now. The highest speed that is out right now is 4x.

Reply to LancerEvolution7
sabbath1   08-22-2003 at 03:13:55 AM
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Yes that's true. But do you know if the Plextor writers are as good as the Pioneer's?

My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
SamsungDVD / Lite-On CDRW

Reply to sabbath1
LancerEvolution7   08-22-2003 at 05:03:43 AM
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I'm not sure. I trust Pioneer since they've been making dvd burners for about 5 years now. I myself have an A05 and its burns just about every type of media I've thrown at it.

Reply to LancerEvolution7
caimbeul   08-22-2003 at 08:04:21 AM
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By all accounts the Pioneer id the best. The Sony is good but I have also heard about lots of faulty ones. Side note: My new TDK A040212N is shite, so i wouldnt recomend that one even though the spec is good and cheaper than the Sony by far.

<i>Mmmm Dawn AND Eve at the same time...Drroooooll
-------------------------------------------------
<b>XP2100+, 2x512Mb PC2700, ASUS A7N8X, PNY 64Mb Ti4200. :cool:

Reply to caimbeul
sabbath1   08-22-2003 at 12:14:53 PM
- 0 +

Yeah Pioneer's stuff are great...I've been using several CD and DVD readers in the past, and all have been working long-term without failure, until I sold them.

Anyone else who knows how good Plextor writers are?

My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
SamsungDVD / Lite-On CDRW

Reply to sabbath1
jp5   08-22-2003 at 05:53:38 PM
- 0 +

I'll just go ahead and tack on to this thread too. My DRU-510A broke and others are having the same problem. See my post on this board

Reply to jp5
Toejam31   08-26-2003 at 05:55:30 AM
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The Plextor CD-RW drives I've had in the past were the best quality optical devices I've ever installed. I've got a Plextor PX-504A coming in on Wednesday with a fifty pack of Memorex DVD+R 4x media ... I'll give it a workout and post back with the results sometime this week, when I get some free time.

The Pioneer DVD-ROM drives I've used have also been top quality devices, but perhaps not quite as error-free as the Plextor drives. I recall returning one or two, but that's out of several dozen, and was probably due to rough handling during shipping.

I've never RMA'ed a Plextor, which is pretty unusual, really.

Toey

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Reply to Toejam31
sabbath1   08-26-2003 at 11:36:41 AM
- 0 +

Thanks for the info, though I bought my Pioneer DVR-A06 yesterday. I decided that I trusted Pioneer a bit more than the rest, because I've used several of them in the past without any problems. What's fun though is that my story seems all reversed from yours, because I've had to scrap a Plextor drive that occasionally jumped or locked up when trying to read or write. I've used only one Plextor drive in the past, and while I believe I had just bad luck, it still felt best to trust Pioneer again, despite the lower speed.

My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Pioneer DVR-A06

Reply to sabbath1
Toejam31   08-28-2003 at 08:22:49 AM
- 0 +

If you get a chance, I'd love to see some comparison's between the two drives. For example, I installed the Plextor tonight, updated the firmware, and upon burning the first disk (with fairly cheap media, a Verbatim 4x DVD+R), this was the result, with Nero 5.5.10.42:

Data burned: 4422MB (a single, large folder that contains many stored programs.)
Speed: 4x (UDF) or 5,520KB/s
Time: 14 minutes, 11 seconds

The disk turned out perfectly, so I'm fairly pleased with the drive ... and very happy that I can finally give up the old CD-R disks, and start ripping those rented DVD movies.

How's the Pioneer working out? Is it faster than the sexy Plexy?

Toey

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=328&s=91c282f2e5207e99b7a652ee13b3512a" target="_new"><font color=green>My System Rigs</font color=green></A>
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Reply to Toejam31
sabbath1   08-28-2003 at 10:14:25 AM
- 0 +

So far I've burned only backups on a DVD+RW disc, so this far, I can't give you any comparisons, but if I burn a DVD-R anytime soon I'll let you know ;)

But why didn't you pick the PX-708A? Or is it much more expensive where you live?


My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Pioneer DVR-A06

Reply to sabbath1
Toejam31   08-28-2003 at 11:13:36 AM
- 0 +

Two reasons. One, the PX-708A costs about $70.00 more than the PX-504A, and I didn't want to spend quite that much money on an optical drive. Two, I wanted to order a device that I could install and use within a few days, and the PX-708A still isn't shipping yet; even at the Plextor online store, it's set up as a pre-order.

Toey

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=328&s=91c282f2e5207e99b7a652ee13b3512a" target="_new"><font color=green>My System Rigs</font color=green></A>
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<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/" target="_new"><b><font color=purple>BTVILLARIN.com</font color=purple></b></A> - <i><font color=orange>Your Computer Questions Answered</font color=orange></i>

Reply to Toejam31
sabbath1   08-28-2003 at 01:16:39 PM
- 0 +

Ok, clear enough :)
I just trusted Pioneer more after quite some tableturns.
Btw, do you know if the 8X DVD+R discs are coming anytime soon?

My system: Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800FSB / TwinMOS 1Gb DDR400 / MSI 875P Neo / Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro / Antec TruePower 550W / 2x Western Digital Raptor / Hercules G.T XP /
Pioneer DVR-A06

Reply to sabbath1
Vapor   08-30-2003 at 02:34:00 PM
- 0 +

according to plextor, if you use the recommeneded media, burn rates of about 8x are possible. some dvd+r discs can handle 8x already, even though they are labelled 4x, much like how you can go to a store and buy 40x or 48x cd-r media and have it work at the full 52x speed without any problems.

Reply to Vapor
LancerEvolution7   08-31-2003 at 03:10:23 AM
- 0 +

Unfortually, 8x is not really 8x. Its more like 6x since it takes only burns at 8x during the outer tracks.

So it takes like 9-10 min to burn a whole DVD.

1x=~1hour
2x=~30min
4x=~15min
8x=~9min

See something wrong?

Reply to LancerEvolution7
jackscotty   09-03-2003 at 10:00:46 PM
- 0 +

I bought the Sony DRU-500A 6 months ago (which is almost identical to the 510)and I have not had a problem with it yet. When I bought it, the price was the same as the pioneer and it recorded both formats. I bought some cheap media to see what would happen and I recall losing only 2 disks for every 6 that I would attempt to make into a movie.

Even though I feel a sense of assurance buy having a burner with both formats, I never needed to use the +R format for anything so I would reccomend the Pioneer A06

Reply to jackscotty
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