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I no it's probably been asked before but I want to buy one and would like to get the best one, as you guys appear to be the experts I would like ur advice! Plus I think it will be a useful post for other newbies (up to date list of the best drives).

I have been looking at-

Pioneer DVR-110DBK
LG GSA4163B
LG GSA4167BAL
Benq 1640

What's the diffence between the 2 LG's please?

Thanks in advance for all your help

James

My suggested burners:

#1) BenQ DW1640
#2) Pioneer DVR-109 (or)
#2) LG 4163B

The BenQ DW1640 is by far the most versatile and user friendly drive available, and also very good when it comes to burn quality. In my opinion, nothing even comes close in overall disc compatability to it either.

The Pioneer DVR-109 has MUCH better firmware support for media then the DVR-110D, which is why I recommend it next. It has superior burn quality to many drives, and on CERTAIN MEDIA, even better burn quality then the DW1640 sometimes.

The LG 4167 has lightscribe, and a few other advantages over the LG 4163B (faster DVDRDL support if I remember correctly). I'm recommending the LG 4163B as an alternative to the DVR-109 because it has good burn quality, but incredible speed! So depending on your personal focus, you might prefer the LG 4163B over the DVR-109 or BenQ DW1640.

The reason I don't recommend the LG 4167 over the LG 4163B is because I don't know if it performs as well.

Hope that helps!!

Yeh that's great advice

Thanks

i have the benq 1620, benq1640, and LG 4163b....all are awesome...never a hickup

ok there seems to be a pattern emerging here!

The LG GSA4167BAL doesn't state that it's got lightscribe, if it hasn't what's the difference? It would seem like a newer model?

The LG GSA4167 isn't Lightscribe but a new model, 4166 or 4168 will do LightScribe.

The LG GSA4167 has DVD+R DL @8X and maybe little other speed improvements.

Ok so would that be the one to go for out of the LGs?

Who knows for newest LG drives ? 4163 is great but has no PI/PIF scanning, no overspeed hability, no DVD-R DL support.

So I prefer BenQ 1620 or 1640 for a first drive (PI/PIF hability, overspeed of 8X @ 12X or 16X, big communauty like NEC) and then a LG as a second drive (burns a lot of DVD+R DL and DVD+R 16X better than actual BenQ drives, whitout the PIF spikes at the end @16X).

Two good drives for ~ 80 euros is a good deal IMO.

ItalianJob wrote:Who knows for newest LG drives ? 4163 is great but has no PI/PIF scanning

What is PI/PIF scanning spikes? sorry I'm no expert!

The answer is two or three of the above! Hard to find a burner that is good at everything,media friendly,works out of the box, easy to install, and no quality problems!

Yeh I've noticed every drive has flaws!

Go to newegg and buy two! LOL

Hello!

In the last c´t-magazine the 4167 was tested with FW DL10 (DL11 is now avaible). The 4167 have(had?) problems at 16x SL, but was the best performer (writing-quality) with DL.

paxman21 wrote:

ItalianJob wrote:Who knows for newest LG drives ? 4163 is great but has no PI/PIF scanning

What is PI/PIF scanning spikes? sorry I'm no expert!

=> Curves giving quality of a burned media.
The less, the better.

Hey Buddy,
if you can afford, Just go for Plestor. King of the Burners. The only *MB buffer (I know of) in the market. It is available @ costco for 149 CAD. you cant beat that.

mikepraba wrote:Hey Buddy,
if you can afford, Just go for Plestor. King of the Burners. The only *MB buffer (I know of) in the market. It is available @ costco for 149 CAD. you cant beat that.

PX-716 has 8Mb cache, but who cares ? 2Mb are enough...

By the way, the PX-740 = BenQ 1640 with 2MB cache, a limited firmware and an amazing high price...