CDRLabs.com

Quite the broad statement my question is...but from reading bits here and at cdfreaks I'm getting the impression that burners are degrading in build and write quality...am I completely mistaken?

Cheers

X-Nemesis wrote:Quite the broad statement my question is...but from reading bits here and at cdfreaks I'm getting the impression that burners are degrading in build and write quality...am I completely mistaken?

Cheers

This statement is not necessary true look how much improvement has been made to CD/DVD burning process over the last three years or so, you are amazed. Some of us have the impression that manufacturer try to cut corner in design and production in order to reduce the cost and therefore bring the prices down, I personally don't see that.

Yeah, I'd have to agree on both counts.

As far as build quality goes.. this has been going on for years. Companies have been trying to make drives more affordable and one way to do this is to use cheaper materials.

Writing quality is a big issue as well. Many manufacturers seem to be so busy working on their next model that they don't take the time to tweak their current drives. The sad thing is most consumers don't seem to care so they get away with it.

Keep in mind too that people on the forums here at CDRLabs and CD Freaks are pretty anal about their drives. They won't accept anything but the absolute best. Many of these people bitch about writing quality that in reality is well within acceptable limits.

I also agree that production cost pressures are making manufacturers really cut corners.

If you look at a cd-rw drive from two 7 years ago and compare it to a dvd burner now, the differences are obvious in transport stability, weight of the unit and overall sturdiness.

Sure, many signal processing, dsp speed and chipset advances have happened.

And much of that has been negated with the use of lousier transports, cheaper optics, etc.

When you can correct problems in software, it doesn't make sense to build the physical unit too well (i.e. too expensively).

As for the overall quality, I think the dvd burning quality has improved A LOT in the past three years.

It used to be that a single burner (if even that) could burn some of the better disks reliably.

Now the biggest manufacturers all have a model that can burn many (sometimes most) of the quality discs without problems at rated speeds (exluding 16x for now). Some can even burn the not-so-good media in perfectly usable manner.

Even LiteOn has now been able to produce two burners that are working pretty well :)

So, while I think the physical construction is progressing towards the worse (which probably has an effect on the life span of drives), the burn quality/compatibility has clearly improved when using so called quality media.

That's my 2 cents worth.

regards,
Halc

It's really too bad regarding the cutting of costs because the drives available are quite cheap except for the plextor. I mean $60-80 Canadian for a drive is nothing really. So I would gladly pay an extra $20-30 for a high quality build drive that adds the added security of stability in it's make and also not being negated with the use of lousier transports, cheaper optics as mentioned by Halc. I mean hell, it would still come in cheaper that a $160 plexy 716. (wild assumption on my part on that last statement)

Halc wrote:Even LiteOn has now been able to produce two burners that are working pretty well

Which ones? I have yet to find them.

Well, maybe I was over-exaggerating :)

But I do think that SOHW-1673S (and possibly) SOHW-1693S are a marked improvement on their earlier efforts.

But you are right. Not in the top league yet, just usable (with hand picked media).

Also keep in mind that new generation burners are released with firmware that has not been developed for a long period of time.
Therefore, older models/generations have the advantage of a more matured and more refined firmware being available.

I really do think that CD burning has come a looong way.. Most burners are top noch when it comes to burning CD-Rs. They'll burn almost anything.
However when it comes to DVD buring, even if it's +R, -R or DL I think that all drives leave quite some room for improvements. I really think that it sucks thatyou have to buy Top branded media like TY or Verbatim to make sure u get low PI/PO errors, no coasters. That's like testing a car by only driving it on a perfectly smooth, level road.