VeeshanVault

I am buying a DVD burner tomorrow and it is my fault for intentionally neglecting all this shiznat for years, but I was waiting for a standard to shake out of the soup of mediums. I have kept my head in the sand and as such without hours of net searching, reading etc I feel incapable of making an informed and safe decision other than spending over 120 bucks on a Sony reported to do it all (the DRX-500UL) I would much rather spend 60 on something else.

So I ask you, the VV community at large, Do any of you recommend any sites that deal specifically with all the DVD +BS (heh) or have decent non commercial answers to the following, or have them yourself.

If you had to pick a burner to copy DVD's, burn VCD type DVD's, burn DVD data for storage, and to loan movies to others to play in their DVD mutt player, what would you buy?

I would buy a rock, and a string to wind around it.

Lite-on, bang for the buck kicks ass

Here's an excellent Message Board to help make your decision and then how to pirate the everything afterwards:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/

Anyone who knows anything about burning knows the place to go to is...

http://www.videohelp.com/

Previously known as http://www.dvdrhelp.com

Pioneer makes one hell of a burner. I am currently using the A06, but I believe the most recent one is the <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 156&depa=0" TARGET="_blank">108</A> and you should be able to pick it up for about 90 bucks. Check mwave.com or newegg.com. A good thing about this burner is that it has a strong following when it comes to firmware hacks which in the past have dealt with enabling the burning of lower speed media at higher speeds. DVDs are encoded with what speed they are and quiet frankly, it's sort of a scam. I'm sure you can figure it out.

As for media, DVD-R is pretty much the way to go as far as compatibility. I use Princo branded DVDs. Check http://www.rima.com for prices. I found some of the best prices for media there.

This would be the burner of my choice if I were to buy one now.

I bought a previous model back in March when I built my latest system. About half the power of what this is, for almost 3x the price.

The prices now have gone way down.

I'm half tempted to buy a new burner next time I have extra money just for the extra bang in burning speed (mine is -R x4 speed)

The Pioneer is much better than the Lite-On and it's only like 20 bucks more.

In any case, do not ever, for any reason, buy a Sony burner of any kind. I still laugh at my friend who has gone through like 3 Sony burners for my 1 Pioneer. He FINALLY switched. I myself tried a Sony a while back, what a hunk of junk. I don't know anyone with a Sony burner that has been reliable. I used to be a Plextor fan. They still make some decent drives. But when it comes to DVD burners, Pioneer is pretty much the best out there right now. The downside to Pioneer burners is well, their ripping speed sucks ass. Pioneer puts a limit on the ripping speed. But for me it's ok, you can always get a regular DVD drive to rip with.

valryte wrote:The Pioneer is much better than the Lite-On and it's only like 20 bucks more.

In any case, do not ever, for any reason, buy a Sony burner of any kind. I still laugh at my friend who has gone through like 3 Sony burners for my 1 Pioneer. He FINALLY switched. I myself tried a Sony a while back, what a hunk of junk. I don't know anyone with a Sony burner that has been reliable. I used to be a Plextor fan. They still make some decent drives. But when it comes to DVD burners, Pioneer is pretty much the best out there right now. The downside to Pioneer burners is well, their ripping speed sucks ass. Pioneer puts a limit on the ripping speed. But for me it's ok, you can always get a regular DVD drive to rip with.

I bought one of the original Sony DRU500's and it's going strong. Now you know someone that has a sony DVD drive that has worked well. : )

I've found more useful info on Afterdawn's message board than DVDRhelp except for media compatibility. Both good sites though.

Tenuvil wrote:I would buy a rock, and a string to wind around it.

Where was I? I forgot the point that I was making. I said if I was smart that I would save up for a piece of string and a rock to wind the string around. Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of sting around....

Throw the crib door wide
Let the people crawl inside
Someone in this town
Is trying to burn the playhouse down

They want to stop the ones who want a rock to wind a string around
But everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around

good stuff, much better than any DVD +-=RW drive IMHO

I believe Sony was/is rebadging Liteon drives. Liteon use JVC components btw. They are partners of sorts. I personally have a Liteon 812S firmware hacked to 832S dual layer. It works flawlessly with cheap Maxell 4x dvd+r at 8X burn speed and plays perfectly on my sony DAV-S300. http://www.cdfreaks.com for info on the firmware stuff.

Jugata

I just bought a Pioneer 108 from Newegg for $79. I installed it and it runs beautifully and quiet. I haven't tried burning any movies yet. It took me 3 dvd's to store porn.

3 dvds? That all? I'm beyond DVDs, I just buy 250gig drives -

valryte wrote:3 dvds? That all? I'm beyond DVDs, I just buy 250gig drives -

Same here : ) I'm looking forward to the terabyte drives.

I went with the LITEON SOHW-812S refurbed from NewEgg for 50 bucks. I will be firmware upgrading it, and such and rocking on Thanks for the input that did not involve rocks and strings

I just bought this drive:

NEC 8X Black Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model ND-2510A BLK, OEM BULK

as well as a rock to wind a string around

I picked up a prosthetic forehead and wear it on my real head.

Spankes wrote:I picked up a prosthetic forehead and wear it on my real head.

Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real head!

Heres a nice 8x +/- Dvd writer. It was $49. Ive burned about 50 dvd's so far without a single problem, I love it. Newegg owns
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 023&depa=1