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Seems everything is a Lite On or a rebadged Lite On. What if I don't like Lite On's? Is there a list some where that tells which products are rebadged Lite Ons?

I am looking for a CD-RW player, a CD Player, and a DVD Player. I am trying to build a quiet machine, so I would like quiet drives. I was thinking about the Toshiba 1712 DVD Drive and possibly the Asus 520 CD drive. Are these good choices, and are these not Lite Ons? What is a great CD-RW?

Thank You.

If your looking for a CD-RW, CD, and DVD, why not try a combo drive from LG or Samsung. Both companies do make some nice drives and would make a nice alternative to a Lite-On.

Here's a review on the Samsung 48x24x48x16 CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=164

I don't want a combo drive because 1) They are very expensive 2) If it breaks, everything breaks, and I have no drives 3) I don't want to wear it out with use.

Toshiba and Asus are not LiteOn. Neither are Samsung, Pioneer, LG, Yamaha, Plextor, BTC, Benq, Artec, AOpen, Teac and many more. Even manufacturers that have in the past rebadged LiteOn drives, such as Cendyne, Verbatim, Digital Research, etc., don't exclusively resell LiteOn drives. It is definitely not the case that everything is a LiteOn or rebadged LiteOn.

Ian does have reviews of both Toshiba and Asus drives. Although they may not be for the specific models you are looking at, reading through them all should give you a feel for the general quality of those brands:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/

cfitz

if you don't like lite-on's then don't burn cd's

Thanks for the info. cfitz.

Why do you say that hoxlund? Surely Lite On can't be the only decent cd burner?

hoxlund wrote:if you don't like lite-on's then don't burn cd's

I could have expected that from a Plextor die-hard fan one or two years ago but not for Lite-On.

no but it rates right up there with plextor, and plextor is like twice as much and still can't do EFM encoding, Lite-On can

From what I know, all burners can do EFM encoding, it's what they need to do to write a disk... And hoxlund, you're way off the mark with this comparison between Lite-On and Plextor... The price difference is there with a reason and doesn't even fully reflect the difference in quality of manufacture and reliability between the two drives.

HazMat wrote:From what I know, all burners can do EFM encoding, it's what they need to do to write a disk... And hoxlund, you're way off the mark with this comparison between Lite-On and Plextor... The price difference is there with a reason and doesn't even fully reflect the difference in quality of manufacture and reliability between the two drives.

WTH? Get your facts straight please.

hoxlund wrote:if you don't like lite-on's then don't burn cd's

Oh! That is a harsh statement made by you. Though I'm a Liteon's fan but others also have their own opinion. You can't said Liteon is only the best drive in the market. Thing that is working great for us (at least we like Liteon very much) do not mean it is good for others also. Different people has different needs. Anyway I'm not meant to offend . Just my very owned opinion.

I didn't mean to start any great debate here. I have not had good experiences with Lite On. I just needed some suggestions for other great drives.

Empty7 wrote:I didn't mean to start any great debate here. I have not had good experiences with Lite On. I just needed some suggestions for other great drives.

LG. Definitely LG for CD-RW drives. They are excellent and very quiet.

And if you are worried about companies that rebadge drives, just don't buy a CD-RW from one of these companies! Get a real LG or what have you.

I thought LG were rebadged Lite Ons? ack, I don't know, I keep reading different stuff. Which companies are not Lite Ons?

dhc014 wrote:

HazMat wrote:From what I know, all burners can do EFM encoding, it's what they need to do to write a disk... And hoxlund, you're way off the mark with this comparison between Lite-On and Plextor... The price difference is there with a reason and doesn't even fully reflect the difference in quality of manufacture and reliability between the two drives.

WTH? Get your facts straight please.

He is right when he says that all drives do EFM coding whilst writing discs. The difference is that the Mediatek chipset is the only one that makes the right short-cuts to defeat Safedisk 2. AIUI even Mediatek isn't absolutely perfect; compromises must be made.

As for the reliability difference between LiteOn and Plextor ... it's there alright. But are LiteOn drives good enough for 99% of applications? Of course they are.

CignaXI wrote:

hoxlund wrote:if you don't like lite-on's then don't burn cd's

I could have expected that from a Plextor die-hard fan one or two years ago but not for Lite-On.

You hit the nail on the head!

Empty7 wrote:I thought LG were rebadged Lite Ons? ack, I don't know, I keep reading different stuff. Which companies are not Lite Ons?

Here's a short list
LG
Yamaha
Plextor
Samsung
Artec
Benq (Acer)
AOpen
Asus
Teac
BTC
Optorite
CyberDrive
MSI
Philips
Pioneer
Toshiba
Visiontek

BuddhaTB wrote:Here's a short list
<snip>

That might not help, BuddhaTB. I already gave him essentially the same list (yours is a bit more complete ), but Empty7 still questioned whether or not LG is made by LiteOn. Maybe hearing it from more than one source will convince him.

Empty7, LiteOn is a Taiwainese company. LG and Samsung are Korean companies. So if you go with one of these two you won't even be getting a drive from the same country as LiteOn. Does that keep you far enough from LiteOn? I actually do think LG and Samsung should be two good contenders for you if you don't want a LiteOn.

cfitz

LG or Samsung !

Just got the new LG52x24x52 drive @ WallMart ($63.99)

Hopefully they'll also get the new Samsung 52x24x52, too !

BTW, they are both Korean companies, but their latest drives are made in China (LG) & Philipines (Samsung)

Please also check the latest reviews here, by Ian !

Okay, thank you very much everyone. I have some good ideas for some drives. Thanks.

You're very welcome & stick around this (the best !) Forum !

small correction:

BuddhaTB wrote:Here's a short list
LG
Yamaha
Plextor
Samsung
Artec
Benq (Acer)
AOpen
Asus
Teac
BTC
Optorite
CyberDrive
MSI
Philips
Pioneer
Toshiba
Visiontek

VisionTek is (or rather was) Lite-On.