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I have been wanting to buy a Lite-On, and didn't have any luck with Cendyne 48x or Pcific Digital, they were all BenQs.

I was wondering if anyone here has bough the Cendyne 52x and know who is the real manufacturer of the Cendyne 52x (I have my fingers crossed for it being a LiteOn)

Thanks

The serial number on the back label of Cendyne drives will identify the drive sitting in the box. If you see a serial stating LTR-52246S then a Lite-on drive will most likely reside in your box. All the drives at my local Office Max recently(5/3) were Lite-ons, so I figure that you will have a good chance of getting one. Also, if you see a BusLink drive with a Smartburn sticker instead of the JustLink sticker, then you've also found a Lite-on. Happy Hunting!

Companies like CenDyne and Pacific Digital are known as rebadgers. In other words, they are just distributors of drives made by various drive manufacturers. They are known for changing manufacturers in mid-stream without warning, so the true manufacturer may not be known until the box is opened.

In the case of rebadged LiteOn drives, usually the retail packaging will have the SmartBurn logo or description. Smartburn is a LiteOn trademark so you will be assured that the box will contain a LiteOn.

Buying a rebadged drive sometimes is economical if large rebates are offered, but a true LiteOn brand drive is not expensive to begin with.

If you're a big spender, you can get the full retail boxed LiteOn LTR-52246S at newegg.com LiteOn Drives for $53.00 shipped.

Newegg is one of the best online retailers for reliabililty and prompt service.

Thanks for replying guys. I am also going to buy it from Officemax. Wanted to gets some informed opinions before looking around. I'll let you guys know by Wednesday what I got

Buslink also rebadges Lite-On drives. They are proably the easiest to identify for a Lite-On drive inside. Look for boxes that mention "Smart Burn" on that red and blue sticker. If it mentions "Seamless Link" then its a Acer/Benq. Hope this helps you out.

Look for boxes that mention "Smart Burn"

I've heard that Buslink boxes no longer carry the SmartBurn sticker, but I have not seen this with my own eyes.

rdgrimes wrote:I've heard that Buslink boxes no longer carry the SmartBurn sticker, but I have not seen this with my own eyes.

Could be, but I just bought two Buslink/LiteOn LTR-52246S drives (at different retailers for $50 total after rebates ) and both had SmartBurn on the box. It isn't a sticker, but an integral part of the packaging designed especially for LiteOn drives. On the end panel "Features", it lists both SMART-X and SMART-Burn.

I picked up at internal Cendyne 52 x 24 x 52 at an OM here in Denver and it's the Liteon model LTR-52246S. You will see the model number printed just above the UPC and serial number on the box. The deal I got was $79, less $30 MFR rebate, less $30 OM rebate, less a $10 off coupon that was mailed to me. Final cost $9.99 plus tax. The drive I bought came with Nero 5.5.9.13. Even if you don't have a $10 off coupon I getting a Liteon for $19.99 is well worth it IMO.

I'll add that the OM 5/4 flyer advertises the Cendyne external which comes to $79 after rebates. Both the OM and the Cendyne MFR rebate apply to either the internal or external drive.

I bought the External CenDyne 52x at OfficeMax today and it was a Lite-On drive. (Nothing like what was on the packaging- packaging shows a beige enclosure- I got the nice black enclosure with the black Lite-On drive.)

This afternoon While I was brawsing in Best Buy I saw Buslink 52x24x52 Burner with no indication of Smart-Burner nor Smart-Buffer, instead the drvie came with Seamless link Logo. Obviously the package was not Lite-On. As Inertia indiacated Buslink repackage different manufacturer drive.

Well it apears for some reason that now Circuit City has the buslink 52 with smart burn on the box for 79 at the moment. They had several when I went in to look for camera memory and decided to check out their burner brands. My local BB no longer has any Buslink 52 drives of any flavor but has many Memorex, CenDyne, and Verbatem drives that might all be rebadged LiteOns for 79 to 89 bucks.

Strange - my Buslink 52x24x52x box had a sticker that mentioned Smart Burn! Sorry for the confustion!

Thanks.... I also ordered the Cendyne 52x from OM website. As it was > $50, it will be shipped free, and as Entropy said, the Lite-On for $19.99 is very well worth it.

Thanks

Oh No !

The one in my box has model CRW-5224A ! And serial number starts with 31DM..

What is it ?

k000 wrote:The one in my box has model CRW-5224A !

probably the Asus CRW-5224A

I am kinda new to CD-RWs other than Lite-On. So where does Asus stand as compared to Lite_on - higher or lower.

I am very very adamant right now to buy only a Lite-On... will go to physical store and see what they have got.

ASUS and LiteOn are very similar in terms of performance, many people really like the ASUS drives.

I checked the Asus website and looks like I definitely have Asus !

http://www.asus.com/products/optical/crw-5224a/overview.htm

So... good drive ? Shoudl I keep it or try a Lite-On ?

I just picked up a Verbatim 52x drive, had a picture of the LiteOn on the box, but guess what? ASUS-5224A. I guess I'll keep it, for $19 I can't lose much. So far it seems to be making slightly lower quality burns than my LTR-52246S, on identical media, but it seems good enough for general use.
It's difficult to judge, cause I have to test the burns on the LiteOn, and it's not as accurate as testing on the same drive they were burned on. The ASUS only works in CDSpeed so far, for testing.

What do you mean by slightly lower quality burns ? Does the music skip ?

What do you mean by slightly lower quality burns ?

Higher C1 error rates.

rdgrimes wrote:It's difficult to judge, cause I have to test the burns on the LiteOn, and it's not as accurate as testing on the same drive they were burned on. The ASUS only works in CDSpeed so far, for testing.

IMHO, I think that if you are testing both discs on the same drive, you have a more accurate comparison. That way, you can see which disc is better without worrying if one drive "sees" less C1 errors than the other when scanning.

if you are testing both discs on the same drive, you have a more accurate comparison

Agreed, but I've also noticed that the drive that burns the disc always reads it best, so comparing a disc burned in the ASUS to one burned in the LiteOn, both reading in the LiteOn, might give the LiteOn the advantage.
Testing them both in a 3rd drive would be best. Still, the LiteOn 52x is the best reader I've ever had, so I tend to trust it.

Oh, I see what you mean. Good point!

rdgrimes wrote:

What do you mean by slightly lower quality burns ?

Higher C1 error rates.

Please pardon the newbie type questions.

What are C1 errors ? Are they write errors ? Or only read errors ? Do the C1 errors make my data being written skipped on the CDs ?