CDRLabs.com

What are the next two best dvd burners after Plextor?

I'am planning to buy two new drives.
1 for burning
and for playing dvd's

Seeking the best at each catagory

The problem with your poll is that Plextor has not made the best burners for a couple of years now. I own both a Plextor Premium cd burner and a 716uf, both of which I think are excellent machines. However, the last few generations of Pioneer drives have been so much better than the last few generations of Plextors, and much more reliable. I rarely use my Plextors, except for the one thing they can do that the Pioneer's can't, which is quality scans. But for the best burn quality and solid rips I'd take the Pioneers any day. And of course half the Plextors available today aren't even real Plextors but rebadges. It's no surprise the Pioneers come out on top of the monthly poll so often - great build quality, all round great performance.

Okay,What about these new Pioneers?Like the 1810?
Does pioneer make any good external burners?I'd really prefer a external drive.

The 1810 is simply the retail version of the 112. Why Pioneer gives it a different number is beyond me, but they always give different numbers to their oem and retail versions of the same drive. And yes, the external version of the 112 (which I own and am very happy with) is the 122. Best Buy carries it, New Egg doesn't. When it's on sale at Best Buy it's $70, regular $100. The box will have a sticker on it with the manufacturing date - try to get the newest date possible, at least March of this year. There were some problems with the earliest batch of 112's (they wouldn't burn cd's), but as time has gone on those customer feedback comments have slowly disappeared, indicating I think that the problem is solved. In fact, my 122 burns cd's as well as any drive I own.

Thanks for the insight on that matter.Yeah,I'am go with the pioneer from bestbuy or try a Sony external.

Here's the Sony.Tell what you think?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=5439204

I went to the bestbuy near my house.And the Pioneers that they have were manafactured in April of 2007!

I'm not sure if it still is, but the Sony 830 used to be based on Samsung designs.

That's a good price for the Sony, especially with the free shipping. I haven't used that particular drive, so I can't compare it to the Pioneer. But if you look at the monthly poll on this site, the Pioneer's have dominated for a while, and for a reason. Here's a link to CDFreak's review of the Pioneer 112: http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Pioneer ... ini-Review and one to the Sony 830u: http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Sony-DRX-830U-Review.
Both reviews are positive, although they seem to like the Pioneer better.
Hope this helps your decision, good luck.
(can't seem to get the sony link to work, but if you go to CDFreaks review section you will see it listed and that link does work)

Well,how are the samsungs?
Maybe,I should just stick to a internal drive.But,bothe of my SATA connections are taken up for my Harddrives.
Do,I have enough IDE's for another drive?I currently have 2 dvd burner drives installed.One's a HP LightScribe Dual-layer and the other is a Lite-on LH-20A1P .Both ide.

Here's my board info;can I have another burner added?My case still has one 5.25" opening available.


BioStar 6100-M9

6100 + NF410

• Memory:
4 x 184-pin DDR400 memory modules
Maximum 4GB system memory
Dual-channel memory architecture

• Slots:
1 x PCI Express 16x
1 x PCI Express 1x
2 x PCI

• IDE:
Up to 4 EIDE devices
Ultra DMA 33/66/100//133

• I/O:
1 x Parallel, 1 x Serial
1 x PS/2 mouse, 1x PS/2 keyboard
1 x VGA port
8 x USB 2.0 (4 rear, 4 front)
3 x 5.1 channel audio jack
1 x RJ-45 LAN jack
1 x Floppy connector
2 x IDE connector
1 x Front audio header
2 x SATA connector
1 x IrDA
1 x SPDIF Out
1 x CD-in connector
1 x System fan connector
1 x CPU fan connector



• SATA:
Up to 2 SATA2 drives
NVIDIA RAID Technology
SATA RAID 0, 1

• Video:
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 GPU

• Audio:
Realtek ALC655 AC97 5.1-channel audio CODEC

• LAN:
Realtek RTL8201BL 10/100mbps LAN

• Hardware Monitor:
CPU / System Fan Speed
CPU Voltage
AGP Voltage
CPU Temperature
System Temperature
Vcore,+3.3V,+5V,+12V

• Size:
Micro ATX form factor
24.5cm x 24.5cm ( W x L )
9.6in x 9.6in

bicomputational,

Okay,I've made-up my mind to purchase a internal Pioneer 112D
But,do I have to check the manafacturing date on those too?I'am ordering it from online;so how would I pull that off?LOL......................Where would be the very best 2-3 places to order a reliable Pioneer 112D(black)from?

I waited until Best Buy had them on sale just so I could check the date.
Unfortunately, they were just on sale last week. I always order from New
Egg because they are cheap, fast, and good if you have a problem - but you'll get whatever they have on hand.
By the way, I bought my son an external Samsung (184M, which is the external version of the 182M) and really like it too, but not as well as the Pioneer.
I'm almost to the point where I'm willing to spend the extra cash to go retail all the time on optical drives because I've ordered too many drives lately (2 LiteOn's and an LG) that were wonky out of the box, and it's just too much hassle getting an rma and sending it back - much easier to just run it back to the store.

bicomputational wrote:I waited until Best Buy had them on sale just so I could check the date.
Unfortunately, they were just on sale last week. I always order from New
Egg because they are cheap, fast, and good if you have a problem - but you'll get whatever they have on hand.
By the way, I bought my son an external Samsung (184M, which is the external version of the 182M) and really like it too, but not as well as the Pioneer.
I'm almost to the point where I'm willing to spend the extra cash to go retail all the time on optical drives because I've ordered too many drives lately (2 LiteOn's and an LG) that were wonky out of the box, and it's just too much hassle getting an rma and sending it back - much easier to just run it back to the store.

I feel your point on that!Besides,Bestbuy,CompUSA,OfficeMax,and CircuitCity all are very easy to return components too.

Who sells that Samsung 184M?

New Egg & Best Buy - but it's more expensive than the Pioneer by about $20. And I think overall the Pioneer is better, especially for dvd's.

bicomputational wrote:New Egg & Best Buy - but it's more expensive than the Pioneer by about $20. And I think overall the Pioneer is better, especially for dvd's.

How good are the Pioneer 111's?

The very best. I actually have 3, there's nothing they don't do well. But they are really hard to find now because of the 112. If you can find one grab it.

Okay,is there firmware updates for the 111d?

Yes, there have been 4 updates. The latest is 1.29, and each update has made the drive even better. Can't always say that about updates, but can with this drive.

bicomputational wrote:The problem with your poll is that Plextor has not made the best burners for a couple of years now. I own both a Plextor Premium cd burner and a 716uf, both of which I think are excellent machines. However, the last few generations of Pioneer drives have been so much better than the last few generations of Plextors, and much more reliable. I rarely use my Plextors, except for the one thing they can do that the Pioneer's can't, which is quality scans. But for the best burn quality and solid rips I'd take the Pioneers any day. And of course half the Plextors available today aren't even real Plextors but rebadges. It's no surprise the Pioneers come out on top of the monthly poll so often - great build quality, all round great performance.

I've found the last generation of true Plextor drives (755/760) to be superior to the 716 series and on par with Pioneer's latest offerings. I've had more issues with the Pio drives burning at full speed for sure.

I've heard great things about that series of Plextors, but I've also heard that much like my 716, it was hit or miss whether or not you got a good one. I got lucky with my 716; didn't want to push my luck again. With the Pioneer 111, I don't think I've heard of anything but normal isolated problems you'd see with any kind of equipment - which isn't true of the 112 and its cd burning problem being fairly widespread.
I burn everything at 8x, even on my Plextor. Didn't notice a huge jump in errors at 16x on the Pioneer (nor the Plextor), just like to be careful.

I'am seeing several statements on sellers sites.Claiming the Pioneer DVR-710R is the the 111D .Just in a different casing.I've seen the at a few sites today.

Couldn't find them all.

Check this out!


http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters/pio ... r-710/1522

Media2007 wrote:I'am seeing several statements on sellers sites.Claiming the Pioneer DVR-710R is the the 111D .Just in a different casing.I've seen the at a few sites today.

Yep it is. I actually bought one at Best Buy when they were on sale. They cleared them out a few months ago and I haven't seen them since.

I got one of mine from Best Buy for $29 during their Black Friday sale.
Score!