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hi all, I want to get a new DVD-Rom (I hate my old Asus E612 cause it has very slow spin-up times and can not read DVDs anymore ) but not sure to which thing?. I think the new one should have a good media compatibility, must fast when reading DVDs and CDs, good DAE results, and also region-free firmware upgradable without any problem.

-Teac 516E (does it have a region free firmware?) not EA so it has 512KB
-Toshiba 1712 (is it good enough for comparing with Teac? and region-free firmware?)
-Liteon 166S (some people said it's very loud)

or any suggestions? except for Asus please.

thanx

Depending who you ask, some people cheer for the Toshiba and others for the Lite-On. I haven't used either, but judging by the raves, I take both are very good drives. Just weigh the pros and cons and decide which is best for you. For example, if you don't want a loud drive then get the Toshiba; conversely, if you don't want to hack the firmware to obtain the maximum speeds then get the Lite-On.

I love the Lite-On because I love being able to check the quality of my DVD Burns and it is a great ripper. It is indeed loud. I have the LTD-163D.

i own both the toshiba 1712 "speed hacked"

and JLMS 166s model, both are great drives, i would say go for either

both rip single layer movies at 16x

thanx guys for your suggestions. CDRinfo test shows that Teac 516E(512KB) drive has better seek times but i wonder does "2.01 firmware" really remove the region lock? and does the "speed hacked" Toshiba 1712 firmware change "the non-hacked drive"'s seek times? Unless Teac 516E drive has a real "region-free" firmware, I will go for Toshiba 1712. does Teac drive have a digital output? I think Toshiba has it.

thanx replies

How often are you going to change the region, honestly? Windows XP lets you change it five times, and if that isn't enough, just uninstall and reinstall the drive.

RPC1 firmware should work fine for TEAC DV-516E, but it looks like it doesn't have a digital audio output.

Hacked Toshiba firmware changes only reading speeds - it unlocks drive's full potential. From my experience, Toshiba is currently the ultimate DVD-ROM.

the hacked firmware is also region free, no region lock

heres the site for more info:

http://hijacker.rpc1.org/toshiba_nolimit/

I have a Pioneer 305S. I love it. It is extremely fast at extracting. I don't know if it does everything everyone wants, so ask me to try whatever you are interested in and I'll see what I can do.

hmm not familar with that model, dvd-rom only or burner too?

i owned the 160s, the slot loader, worked like a champ, but out of all dvd drives ive owned, the toshiba is great

The 305S is a 10x SCSI slot-loading DVD-ROM. It may be an older model, but it extracts quickly. One example: a 133 minute movie in about fifteen minutes. Max extraction speed was 10.2x, minimum at disc start was about 6x. I'd say that's pretty good. A lot of the 16x DVD-ROM drives never even reach 11x. I do not have any Toshiba experience. Anyone see a DVD-ROM extract at 16x? Pioneer also has a 16x DVD-ROM that I only assume can do 16x, but I already had a SCSI CD-ROM (UltraPlex 40Max) so I wanted a SCSI DVD-ROM to match the system.

both my toshiba and JLMS do 16x dvd movie extraction