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I bought the Benq 1655 last year and it has been great. Turns out the family really likes playing with Lightscribe which I did not expect.

Any way I need to get another drive that has Lightscribe but of course a good overall drive as well. I would get another 1655 if I could find but out of luck there so I have been looking at either the Lite-on LH20A1H-185 or the Samsung SH-185M based on what I have seen here.

Is it a coin toss between the 2? Any other suggestions based on experience? We rarely burn over 8x speed and mostly DVD-R but would like to use more DL media.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

You should also consider the LG GSA-H22L

Ian wrote:You should also consider the LG GSA-H22L

Thanks Ian, missed that one some how as supporting LS. I will check it out.

Now I see why I missed it. Seems it is hard to find at my usual locations.

Yeah, its hard to find online. Best Buy carries it in their stores though.

Yep just found it there online. I will check my local store in the morning.

Thanks for the help!

I was over at CompUSA this evening. They still have the OEM Benq DW1655 LightScribe drive selling in an IOMagic retail package, in the NorwoodMicro package, and in another brand package, at least at the store I was at. Some of the boxes are not sealed, so you can take a look and see for sure what drive is inside.

I like the H10L better than the H22L, personally. Best Buy stocks the E10L (external version) still, it was on sale a week or two ago for $79.99...

LG drives are too slow to detect inserted media type and they can't do quality test.
They are poorly manufactured when compared with BenQ drives (I love the BenQ "black inside" style even for beige drive, the soft but fast ejection tray of my 1620 and 1655, etc.) and have a poor firmware support (many many LG models with few firmware updates since GSA-4163).

stix wrote:I was over at CompUSA this evening. They still have the OEM Benq DW1655 LightScribe drive selling in an IOMagic retail package, in the NorwoodMicro package, and in another brand package, at least at the store I was at. Some of the boxes are not sealed, so you can take a look and see for sure what drive is inside.

stix,
Thanks for the tip. I have been out of town for a week so I just saw this reply. Does the drive actually say dw1655 on it even though it is rebranded?

Turns out I use my dw1655 more than any other drive because it is so flexible.

I saw the LGE at a Bestbuy while in San Jose this week but could not carry it back. I will check at Compusa tommorrow for the dw1655

Thanks.

I like BenQ 1655 with LightScribe.

VideoRoy wrote:stix,
Thanks for the tip. I have been out of town for a week so I just saw this reply. Does the drive actually say dw1655 on it even though it is rebranded?

Thanks.

VideoRoy-

you're welcome,

Yes, it's an OEM Benq DW1655 with a Benq DW1655 label on the drive, in an I/O MAGIC box or Norwood Micro box.

Hope you can find one.

Try this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0075860818

link courtesy of 2Dogs

I've bought a new Philips DVDR1668=BenQ 1655 in a french store a few day ago. Ebay is the very last way I think... Check this thread : "BenQ DVD Writer Are Vanishing ".

Better yet, check here:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22156

I checked at CompUSA and they only had one I/O Magic but the box was sealed. It looked fairly new and did not have some of the other signs that people have mentioned as possibly being a BenQ.

I also appreciate the link to eBay and almost purchased one there but I have not had really good luck with eBay in the past.

So after after getting all the help and good advice here, I decided to give the Lite-On LH-201H a try any way. Newegg had it for $36 and free shipping so if it does not work out well I can use it for a scanner and maybe pickup an LG.

I have been wanting to replace my DRU-710A as a scanner for a while and thought I would give Lite-On another chance. If this new drive works as good as the 710A as a reader / scanner it is worth it just for that. The 710A will recover discs than none of my other drives can read.
I am convinced it will read a sand paper disc from my sander

Thanks for the help. Great discussions as usual.