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Is it just me, or did Plextor's new drives (announced a few days ago) look like re-badged drives? I am nearly certain that the CD-ROM looked exactly like a Mitsumi.

Plextor's DVD recorder was also made by a company other than Plextor.

Are we going to see any more "real" Plextors, or is Plextor just becoming another rebadge company? Does this mean that Lite-On is going to start making Plextors?

LiteOnGuy wrote:Is it just me, or did Plextor's new drives (announced a few days ago) look like re-badged drives? I am nearly certain that the CD-ROM looked exactly like a Mitsumi.

Plextor's DVD recorder was also made by a company other than Plextor.

Are we going to see any more "real" Plextors, or is Plextor just becoming another rebadge company? Does this mean that Lite-On is going to start making Plextors?

I doubt it. But if LiteOn did start to make Plextor drives, it would be a huge improvement. LiteOn builds good quality fast optical drives for a reasonable price and Plextor now makes (as in the case of *most* of their drives) poor quality drives that don't perform well and are overpriced. Believe me--I know. I went through 3 Plextor 48/24/48A drives--all of which had defects, not to mention their huge lack of performance. And the second two Plextor 48X drives were replacement drives. I am a new LiteOn convert.

Hey LiteOnGuy: I had a look at the 54X Mitsumi CD-ROM drive listed on their website at www.mitsumi.com and agree that it looks identical to the new 54X CD-ROM drive announced by Plextor Europe. I definitely agree from the way it *looks* that Plextor has done a rebadge job with their new (actually Mitsumi's) 54X CD-ROM drive.

Ah, so I wasn't imagining that Plextor had apparently re-badged Mitsumi's drive.

I am sorry to hear that you had such bad luck with the Plextors. I remember when they used to be high priced and high quality...

Yep welcome to the world of Liteon. I have a LTR 48246S and very happy with it, a darn good burner all around, good top quality burns, fast and beleive me one of the best value for money drives out there on the market. Even though they are made in China, but Liteon is a Taiwanese company that really doesnt bother me, the Chinese are definately making good quality stuff out there, and at the end of the day, it's not where it's made in that counts, but quality control. Plus also if other company's are having their burners manufactured by Liteon, surely they must be doing a darn good job. Hmmmm should we call this the Liteon Forum

I have been quite happy with my Lite-On drives, too. My first CD-RW was a Lite-On LTR-12101B, although I didn't know that at the time because it was re-badged as a Creative RW1210E. My 32123S is great too, if a bit slow. I am anxiously looking forward to the LTR-52327S!

LiteOnGuy wrote:I have been quite happy with my Lite-On drives, too. My first CD-RW was a Lite-On LTR-12101B, although I didn't know that at the time because it was re-badged as a Creative RW1210E. My 32123S is great too, if a bit slow. I am anxiously looking forward to the LTR-52327S!

Hey LiteOnGuy, out of curiousity, about how many discs have you burned on your Creative RW1210E re-badged LiteOn drive? I'm guessing you bought that drive in the year 2000. I'm wanting to know how much wear and tear a LiteOn drive can take and since you have an older LiteOn drive, I'm curious how much you've used it. I'm hoping my TDK 5200B (52/24/48) rebadged LiteOn LTR-52246S that I just bought last month will last well beyond the end of the one year warranty period. In addition to providing great performance and good quality at a low price, my understanding is that LiteOn drives are also very reliable.

I bought the 12101B in August, 2001, or somewhere around there. I'm not sure how many discs I burned with it; 100 discs (CD-R) would be about right. The drive's still running great, though; no problems at all. I did do a good amount of CD-RW burning and CD reading with it, too.

Yes. The CD-ROM is Mitsumi and the DVD-ROM is Pioneer (DVD-120?).
The DVD writer is an NEC OEM.

They seem to have gone the same way as TEAC.
TEAC CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs are made by Pioneer, etc

The TEAC CDRWs look like they're made by ASUS.