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Well the store in Gresham Oregon is subbing the MD/3500 drive, They just sold me one after I asked if they still had any of the blowout DVD burners on sale. Guy says no but he sending the manager back to get me their sub and that's what it was. My other 3500 is a great drive and I dont think you can buy them this cheap anywhere. So if your 1608 is bad try to get a MD and be happy, or just go in and try for a sub, depends on the store manager but I think most are doing it.

thanks, TCAS, I'll wait as there is still three weeks left. Then I'll pull it when they get some MadDogs and see if I can get one for same price or, if not, I'll just get a refund.

I'd appreciate it if you let me know when they get MadDogs in again.

Thanks,

Slim

TCAS&Slim! It is a good reader so far and burns ty at 12x. If I can get a Mad Dog for the same price I wll do the swap. But the 1608 is ok! It reads faster than the 3500 and the DVD backups on -R and +R are good so far.

Wow, I just did Ladder 49 and it decoded in 8-9 minutes.

My 3500 takes twice as long with rip lock. I am keeping both 1608s.
Mouse Hunt took 8 mins to encode. WOW!

Here's my deal:

1. With the NEC 3500 I could rip movies, Nero Recode, and Nero to burn out the *.VOB files to DVD Video without booktyping/bit setting and they would play on my Cyberhome player. They also play in my Philips.

2. With the ATI AIW 9600XT I capture TV tuner video in *.mpg, use Nero Vision Express to transcode to *.vob files, use Nero Burning ROM and the M/A (AOPen) to burn out the files to DVD Video with and without booktyping and they do not play in the Cyberhome. They do play in the Philips. What is up with that?

Somehow it is encoding them different. What about Decrypter?
for a burn? Does it do the same thing?
Also does it burn original DVDs ok when set to book type = ROM?
I haven't transcoded videos to my computer in a long time. But when I did I used a digital pass through on my Sony pro camcorder with a firewire to my computer and a VHS player to my Sony. I did all my vhs movies this way and they burned perfect in Sonic and play everywhere. I think they were all mpeg2.

PS/ the first time a put a movie in the 1608 I had to set the region. I know decrypter and shrink can be set to region free.

ETP/Slim; Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner; I don't have a way to get in to net for the time being, last night I was troubleshooting my son computer which I found out he has blown his memory, then I stick the tested memory which was mine back to my compter evidently the power was on and I lost the video output, checked the meory was Ok, then it must be either my motherboard or my AMD3000+ processor. That is why I don't a means to internet, I am know using my son computer which I fixed but got my own not working. AS for AOpen DVD drive, I believe that is very good drive and I might regret I returned that.

The M/A - A/O drive is very good.

Actually, I have two of those CyberHome players, same model, purchased several months apart and not really identical. The newer of the two DOES read the DVD Videos that I've burned from captured TV. So I finally switched them from room to room as downstairs I usually like to watch replays of the races and movies upstairs.

Slim

Slim, I am having the opposite problem. My dvds play in stand alones but not my computer. Media player says to decrease my resolution and Nero player won't open it. I will load power DVD today and see if it fixes the problEM
SLIM/TCAS

Power DVD works great! Just confused why my other DVD player software is hosed.

CowboySlim wrote:Actually, I have two of those CyberHome players, same model, purchased several months apart and not really identical.

Slim, which model of Cyberhome do you have?

I recently picked up a CH-DVD 462 (partly because of your reports) and am quite happy with it. I checked it out on a German site before I bought it (apparently the European model is partially designed in Germany) and there are several firmware versions in circulation. On my player you can see the fw version with "Setup | General", it's shown on the last line of that page. In my case it's the "25" in "Mpeg:EU462Z.V7.HD62.025".

If your players have different fw versions, check with the manufacturer- you may be able to upgrade by flashing from a CD.

G

MediumRare,

They are both Models CD DVD-300. Good tip it is the firmware that is most likely different. Anyway, I'll check it after the race. I've got to do some video capture now.

Very interesting, two slightly different models.

The one that reads the DVD Videos that I made with both the M/A and the NEC is:
Model 300ZS, April 2004, S/W MPEG: S_1C_00_18S_4M

The one that reads from the NEC only (AFAIK):
Model 300S, November 2003, S/W: 3005.20.03

I'm not sure what that tells me.

Slim

Slim/ETP:

As a matter of fact; the few DVD Video I made with M/A run flawlessly with best quality of burnt DVD both in my stand lone JVC and my computer DVD player but the two or three DVD I made with replacement "Digital Max " which was repackaged of Lite-On 1633S were so bad in playing in my stand alone dvd with lots of distortions and none playable portions. I am glad I returned the Lite-On one.

Liteon was a great brand at one time. But technolgy will pass you up if you don't make the investment needed to stay on top.
1608 was a Bargain.
Someone at CD Freaks bought a pio 109 for $62. Nice price!

I flashed my 3500 to 2.19 and 1608 to 080.
This is still a very fast reader. My current setup is read with 1608 and burn with the 3500. This weekend I will try some more DVDs with the new firmware. This was a grand theft at $39 for a retail pack.

I've having some real problems with the M/A AOpen drive. I'f starting to jerky videos - some of my earlier ones were OK. These were from captured TV in MPEG which plays perfectly from the hard drive.

I reburned a recoded movie that I had previously burned with my NEC ND-3500. The reburn with the M/A cannot be played by the newer of my two Cyberhome palyers.

I have booktype set to DVD-ROM for all burns, no help.

TCAS: Any word yet from Office Max that they have some NEC writers now?

CowboySlim wrote:I've having some real problems with the M/A AOpen drive. I'f starting to jerky videos - some of my earlier ones were OK. These were from captured TV in MPEG which plays perfectly from the hard drive.

I reburned a recoded movie that I had previously burned with my NEC ND-3500. The reburn with the M/A cannot be played by the newer of my two Cyberhome palyers.

I have booktype set to DVD-ROM for all burns, no help.

TCAS: Any word yet from Office Max that they have some NEC writers now?

Slim;

I was just there today during the lunch time, they still don't have the Maddog in store, they checked the computer, was no any indication they might have it soon or at all. I ask if I could have my returned M/A one, that was out for good also the one they had and could offer to me was "Digital Max" wchich is repackage of Lite-On 1633S drive and I have had very bad experiece with it, and have no use for it. So buttom line I might have to give up getting any thing.

Thanks, TCAS,

I made sure I had all the stuff together, including the audio wire that you always get and never use, so I can return it. I guess I'll just go for a refund.

ETP/Slim;

Today I went back to Office Max and got the Micro Advantage drive back because based on so many testing done by Ripit in other forum and you ETP I still think this drive which is Aopen (1608) worth more than $39 sale price and deserve to be kept.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

I keep shifting on this one, too. I was getting errors by Nero when it said that burn was in process, but these were not correct. So I had Nero "burn" to a drive image and still got the burn error message even though there was no blank CD in the burner. So maybe it isn't the burner after all. Still standing bye with it.

CowboySlim wrote:Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....................

I keep shifting on this one, too. I was getting errors by Nero when it said that burn was in process, but these were not correct. So I had Nero "burn" to a drive image and still got the burn error message even though there was no blank CD in the burner. So maybe it isn't the burner after all. Still standing bye with it.

Slim; I just burnt the "Movie 1984" from George Orvel the quality is very good, just finished watching the burnt movie. I am coming to the point after all the this drive deserve better attention.

BTW; I ripped the movie with shrink then closed the shrink and burnt the ripped movie by Nero Burning Rom process.

I also created a data disk using Maxell 002 8X and then run transfer rate with following graphical results, the f/w is still M/A A070:

TCAS,

When I've had good burns, they quality is very good, also.

I now think that the failed burns are due to other things and that the jerky, screwed up burns and those with temporary freezes and then continue with out of synch audio and video during playback are due to the video cRapture software. Going to capture at lesser quality and smaller chunks (4Gb instead of 4.3Gb per MPEG2 file capture).

Over and out.

I can't believe you guys even consider returning this drive back to Office Max! How much time you spend on thinking: return or keep? What is it that you don’t like in this drive that you paid $39 for? How many $39’s you leave at supermarkets or gas stations?

I used this drive for making copies of a few of my DVD’s: the fastest drive ever for ripping original DVD with DVD Decrypter. It starts ripping at 7.4X and ends at 15X with single layer and ends at over 8X with DL! I have never had a DVD-ROM drive with such ripping speed. Most DVD’s were burnt using 8X TDK DVD-R media: burning speed – 8X, playback – excellent.

The new A080 firmware was released and became available for download on M/A website earlier than Aopen released its own firmware. Since there is no description of changes in new firmware, I tried to call tech support. There was no answer and I left a message. Tech support returned my call in 1 hour. I asked about compatibility of firmware revisions of M/A and Aopen drives. The guy stated that these drives are similar, but not identical, and would not recommend using Aopen firmware on M/A drive. The new firmware release is mostly for more media compatibility. I asked if there is any chance to have 16X DVD-R and 4X DL speeds with future firmware releases. He said that for higher speed the drive will need different laser head, and future firmware releases will not increase these speeds. M/A is trying to get rid of these drives through Office Max at very low price so they can start shipping the new drives with 16X +/- and 4X DL speeds.

Now, my question is again: what else do you expect from this drive? Ripping speed is excellent. CD-R capabilities are excellent: burns at 48X while most DVD burners have speed of 40X. Writes DVD’s as it supposed to write: 8X with DVD-R and 16X with DVD+R. Writing quality depends on media brand and type as with any other burner on earth. Don’t like the burn or playback quality - try different media.

People are happy with their purchases of cars. They don’t always compare their cars with Lexus’s or BMW’s. Most people are happy with what they paid and what they got. And I am happy with what I paid and what I got. And I don't think about returning the drive every time I drive by Office Max!