Ideas on a good dvd burner...

[KaizerDan]

Im half expecting there to be no one person that has used many kinds... Hell im still using one from 3 computers ago that still works! But any knowledge is good knowledge.

Heres my deal, Im stuck with an IDE burner right now that only does single layer. Im looking at making backups for my Xbox 360, so its going to need to be dual layer. As far as a budget goes... it really doesnt matter, but i already have a blu ray player so i dont need that, and im not interested in buying the expensive lite scrips dvd's. ; Im fine with the ye ol' marker!

So any ideas what a good brand dual layer SATA burner out there ?

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

its gotten to the point where almost all the dvd burners are the same quality wise.. cant really say which is better because ive gone through 6 different brand dvd burners and they have all died at some point but i burn a ton of dvd's.. most survived at least 1000 DVD's.. though for burning games i tend to stick with LG.. they just seem to be more consistent at lower speeds which is what you want for burning games..

 

[paco16]

Quality vs. Price is so small of a factor when it comes to optical drives. You have to do your research or read up on the drives that enthusiasts post and/or review on sites and different magazines (i.e. "Maximum PC").
Lite-On is a great brand who I believe contributed to Plextor's de-focus of the Optical drive market.
52x CD burner from Plextor in 2002- $50-100
52x CD burner from Lite-On in 2002- $15-30
DVD burners are pretty much the same (as the CD burner market) when it comes to company reputation and support.
Both Lite-On and Plextor produced the same or similar performance and features. Plextor was just slightly faster burns (about 3-5 seconds depending on media used).
I burn closet to 1000 DVD's in any given year. CD's is somewhere around 500. I've had Lite-on's, Samsungs, Sony's, Lg's, Pioneers, Plextors, Asus and even Optiarc(Staples off-brand). Out of them all Lite-on has the best firmware support out there and their drives perform years after I've installed them in customer's PC. In the 9 years I've been building PC's; I've yet to see a Lite-On die. (I'm sure I've just been lucky or uninformed).
However, I recently bought the new Samsung 203H and I have got to say wow! This DVD burner rarely produces a bad burn (once out of every 100 burns or so) and burns dual layer discs in about 15-20 minutes. They have a new model the Samsung 223(i think) and it's supposedly faster and also has Lightscribe support. You don't need Lightscribe, but it's coming standard on a lot of the new drives. The only potential issue is this drive is SATA only. (They do have a PATA version)
SATA optical drives I've found a not only much snappier during reads and writes, but they also use less power and are quieter (at least Samsung's are). I highly recommend any of the Samsung 203b/h or 223 series burners. You don't need the best... but if it's only $26... instead of $15-20.... why not spoil yourself... Here's a Link to a few that I'm suggesting--> CLICK ME

 

[paco16]

though for burning games i tend to stick with LG.. they just seem to be more consistent at lower speeds which is what you want for burning games..

I disagree: "Myth of burning slower. Discs are made to perform at an ideal rotational speed, which is where write strategy originates. The disc will perform best up to a certain speed, and the drive will not permit any faster. The inverse is the same, but until recently, drives would not prevent unreasonably low speeds. Modern human nature tends to want more speed and more power, so this was not really a concern.

But believe it or not, there are still people who insist on waiting 55-60 minutes to burn a CD or DVD at 1x speed, because they are convinced anything faster will yield a bad or "lower" quality burn. However, burning too slow is often just as bad as burning too fast. Because of this unreasonable impulse to go too slow, some discs and drives now block out the lower range too (and causes problems, see the 16x section for more).

There was some truth to that statement in the beginning, (circa 1995 for CD-R, 2001 for DVD-R), but those days are long gone. The only reason that myth ever held truth was because 2x was the fastest speed, and burning a single full or half speed under the maximum rating is helpful on lower quality blank CD/DVD media. If you are worried about quality, or if the media tends to be dodgy quality at the maximum rated speed, then burn a full or half step slower. No more. With a 8x disc, for example, a burn speed of 4x or 6x would be optimal. " <-- Reference site

 

[KaizerDan]

Interesting stuff in that article. It mentioned burning in CLV vs. CAV, And to my understanding, CAV is a bit better? More stable building up speed then jumping the speed around. And to add that with Sirmonkey1985's comment on LG being better for burning; LG has ratings of x22(CAV) on Newegg and Samsung doesnt say one or the other. So is that a sign of LG actually being better for burning? Or they all do both and its not advertised...
I Find it kind of odd that with the Samsungs, the light scribe hardware only adds 1$ to the drive, but I guess they just get you with the litescribe dvds and such.