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I have been doing research on dual layer dvd burners and decided to create a post for some valuable feedback from you (hopefully). After reading many reviews I have picked 3 dual layer burners for consideration.

Plextor 716A
BenQ DW1620
NEC 3520A
Other drives??


I am new to this optical technology and would appreciate your thoughts and comments. Feel free to recommend other drives. I like to be informed before I buy. Thanks!

By Far the Plextor 716A. I have used several brands before I came to this conclusion. With the New F/W 1.06 this rocks. Also, You dont need to worry about upgrading another drive for awhile has all the features and including DVD-RDL. THis drive burns all brand name meidas I have tested at higher speed. (Sony, Maxell, Verbatim and FUji) all 8X medias burned at 12X. No costers. Amazing writing quality. Also I tested Verbatim 2.4DL media burned at 4X with solid quality and Memorex 2.4X media at 4X with Lousy quality. Overall. Imy recomendation is go with Plextor

BENQ 1620 rocks.....check out OC-FREAK's comparison between the BENQ 1620 & PLEXTOR 716.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=133065

BENQ 1620 is a great burner for the money....although the PLEXTOR 716 is right behind it.... just my 2 cents!

NEC Europe announced during April the newer 3540A writer, with more enhancements, if you have the time to wait...

DVD +R: 16x max.
DVD-R: 16x max.
DVD+RW: 8x max.
DVD-RW: 6x max.
DVD+R9: 8x max.
DVD-R DL: 4x
CD-R: 48x max.
CD-RW: 32x max.

http://www.de.nec.de/productdetail.php/id/1240/lang/ENG

if the price is no problem, the more expensive Plextor 716 is an option, but they got last week in two days correction F/W updates, so all the latest machines are not yet ready, or 100% completely proof with the latest faster media!

It's difficult to predict,
I went for the 3500 to the shop, and got me a newer 3520A wich F/W should released in the month March, for the waiting of the official DVD-R4 speed standard, and now its April and now this F/W is promised on 1st of May, so all the competitors need time, and to completed hopefully the F/W with the latest bugs elimimated and the PI/PIE testing, and quality scanning possability altogether in one time!

succes, Harry

Thank you for the info. Keep it coming!

I have the plextor 716 and LOVE it. I purchased this drive because I do regular data backups and cds just were not cutting it. The lastest firmware (1.06) really made a good drive into an EXCELLENT drive. I have used everything from OPTOdisc, ritek (g03,g04 and g05's), leadata, MCC's and TYs it gobbles em up and spits out near perfect discs. With TYs the average is the lowest I have seen on ANY drive. That combined with PLextools which tell me how good a burn it did, make it a no brainer. Here is an example of what this drive can do with good media (genuine TY02's -R with aprx 3.7gb of data written in SAO w/ firmware 1.06):
-------------------------------------------------------
PlexTools Professional V2.21 Q-Check PI/PO Test
Copyright (C) 1999-2005 Plextor SA/NV
Saturday, April 02, 2005
-------------------------------------------------------
PIE POE POF
Avg 0.04 0.00 -
Max 7 0 -
Total 5238 0 0

All good burners. You could look at the Pioneer DVR-109 too.

Jim

I read that Plextor is really good about putting out firmware updates. Is this correct? I also read that this might be an advantage in owning a Plextor drive. What do you think? Thanks.

swaage wrote:I read that Plextor is really good about putting out firmware updates. Is this correct? I also read that this might be an advantage in owning a Plextor drive. What do you think? Thanks.

Yes. Plextor has the best firmware-support. And when I say the best, I don´t mean the most updates, but updates that really makes the drive better and better. Some other manufacturers bring every 3 month a new drive, but don´t support the older drives. No other manufacturer have do so much improvements (faster DL-speed, faster +RW/-RW-speed, support of -R DL) with newer firmwares.

And Plextor has On-site-collect-and return-service

Well, unless someone wants to try to persuade me not to purchase a Plextor 716A, I think that that is the drive I will buy. Thanks for all of your time and input.

See the new review on the LG GSA-4163B that was just added today !

Reviewed By: The Digital Dolphin (our optical media expert).

Any thoughts or commencts about IDE vs SATA for the connection type in the Plextor drive?

go over to the PLEXTOR FORUM at cdfreaks.com and you'll see the threads regarding the SATA version of the 716SA. from what i've read there are many compatibilty probs with certain brands of motherboards.

BQ or PIO these days!