DVD Writer recommendations wanted

[fat jez]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a replacement DVD writer after a slight water cooling accident flooded my old one. Basic criteria is that it should be good at ripping audio CD's, especially scratched ones. I don't need Lightscribe or Labelflash, I've got a perfectly good sharpie that will write on my discs

Any suggestions?

Cheers,
Stephen

[Re-Invented]

Pioneer 112d, but they all do the same job, Samsung if you want SATA

Lee

[Phil_P]

Plextor for ultimate audio quality.

[aidanjt]

I have a Samsung, pretty chuffed with it thus far.

[gha128]

Another vote for Samsung - very quiet and SATA whilst not offering any speed improvements does lead to lower cpu usage and makes the inside look nicer

[EtheAv8r]

Samsung, Pioneer, and Plextor, but Plextor are way overpriced and no better than the other two.

I have drives by all three - Samsung for SATA and Pioneer for PATA. Nowadays there are probably no real 'bad uns' from the main manufacturers, the market is too mature and competative for 'cowboys' to survive.

[dangel]

Plextor are crap thesedays - we buy them in in big numbers and we've had a spate of failures. I've always liked Lite-On drives but I recently picked up a couple of OptiArc drives (Sony/NEC joint venture) from here http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=540215 and they seem great so far!

[fat jez]

Thanks for the recommendations guys, I'm sure all of them burn DVD's perfectly. However, the burning (groan) question I have, is how well do they read damaged audio CD's? Which makes will sail through and which will give up at the first hint of a scratch?

Cheers,
Stephen

[staffsMike]

lol if you figure out that one let me know.

[dangel]

I'll scratch up some CDs when I get home..

[Mad-Max]

Pioneer 112 or you could get it in sata

[fat jez]

Pioneer 112 or you could get it in sata

I am quite tempted by the Pioneer, I must admit, as I have an older Pioneer 8x drive already which sometimes read disks where my NEC drive failed, but even it struggles sometimes. The best drive I ever had for reading dodgy CD's was a Sony CD-RW drive, although that struggles to read DVD's, never mind write to them!

I use Exact Audio Copy to rip my discs, but even so some of them fail to rip (they came out of the bargain bucket in HMV, so I didn't see the point in taking them back as they play OK in a CD player).

Cheers,
Stephen

[silentvoice]

Well Plextor don't make their own drives anymore - they're just rebadged NECs I believe although there are rumours that the new 810SA model is a rebadged pioneer.

The Lite-on (20A1H/P/S) is good for reading, ripping and scanning discs. It writes pretty well too. They can be noisy though and there are a few complaints regarding their overall build quality.

Pioneer (112/212) is good for writing (especially DL) as are LG (H44 or H62).

Samsung (203) are supposed to be good all rounders but in the past they had DVD-R lead-in issues. I don't know if that's still the case though.

If you after reviews and scans on their writing ability (with various media) for the models above (plus more), I'd take a look at cdfreaks. There's a wealth of information there which may help you decide on what's best.

[Phil_P]

I use Exact Audio Copy to rip my discs, but even so some of them fail to rip (they came out of the bargain bucket in HMV, so I didn't see the point in taking them back as they play OK in a CD player).

Same here - great app

[Koolpc]

Samsung, awesome.

[DougMcDonald]

I went for a NEC thingy from scan in the end, I believe it's a re/non branded Sony effort.

Got the silver version to match the front of the case