DVD Burners: which one?

[Pepse]

Okay, I am about to buy a DVD burner for my Linux box and as for the 2 mentioned (HP & Micro Advantage) which one would be better? Quality-wise?? For what it is worth, also, they are both "dual layer", but the HP is 8X 4X ?X and the M/A is 16X 8X 48X. Speed is not really an issue. They are both the same price. Come to think of it there is a place that has an Aopen for the same price but, I don't remember the speeds. All 3 are +/- RW, +/- R. For what it's worth the M/A is sold through Office Max.

 

Later. Pepse.

[aRTee]

I don't know those burners, but I have something to add that you may want to keep in mind: there are new dvd media every month.

 

The drives have a list internally in their firmware, which needs to be updated for these new types of discs, basically there's info on the best write strategy and such.

 

So you know beforehand that whatever you do, at some point you will be updating your firmware.

 

My advice: if you can, choose a drive of which you can update the firmware without having Windows, and if possible, from within Linux.

 

I have a NEC ND-3500 of which I have updated the firmware several times, from within Linux, and without a reboot (opening and closing the drawer was good enough), and I could burn certain discs at a higher speed.

Trust me, it makes a difference if you can burn dvds at 4x or 8x (15 mins vs 8 or 9 ).

 

If you were completely open as to which drive to buy, I'd say go for the NEC ND-3520 - fastest drive on the market, and you can update the firmware from within Linux.

 

And avoid drives like the Philips ones, they only provide windows programs to do the update.

[Pepse]

Glad you pointed that out, about the media. Yeah, I believe the media changes about as fast as computers. As for the 3 I mention, I would think HP might/would have firmware updates for Linux. I will look into that aspect of which DVD burner is more Linux compatible. As for the choice of NEC, for the few places I have to look at I don't think any have NEC (that is within 60 miles of home). But if need be I could always get one through pricewatch.com . Never bought anything there but I have always used it as a gauge to value new computer parts And I always TRY to get hardware that is Linux friendly.

 

Thanx for the tip. I tend to sometimes look at price before compatibility. That's a lingerling effect from windoze. Hardware, like the OS requires no brains. Just buy it and run it :lol:

 

Later. Pepe.

[adamw]

I like Lite-On drives; fast, quiet, and they have very good third-party firmwares. You can't flash from Linux, but you can flash from DOS, and it's pretty easy to knock up a bootdisk which boots to a basic DOS and does the flashing. I have an 812S, which I've flashed to unofficial 832S firmware - it does far better writes now, and supports dual layer, which would be great if anyone actually *sold* dual layer discs (for a remotely reasonable price).

[Ixthusdan]

I have this one. Seems good to me!

[scarecrow]

NEC 3520 is about the best drive on the market currently- mainly regarding burning reliability.

[adamw]

lite-on unofficial firmwares use a very similar writing strategy to the NEC drives, and apparently produce 'better' burns (according to DVD writing geeks who know far more about this than I do, and actually have applications to analyse this kind of thing...). www.rpc1.org is a good clearing-house site for this kind of thing, codeguys.rpc1.org is good for lite-on stuff.

[aRTee]

Hmm, you're reading stuff from other dvd geeks than I am, know quite a few who just use their lite-on drives to check the quality of all kinds of burns, but who burn on NEC.

 

In any case, lite-on is surely a good brand too.

 

Besides, with dvd burners at the price they're at, who cares if they'll only last 2 years; buying two dvd movies sets you back more 'pecunia' than buying a new dvdburner.

 

I still think being able to update the bios from within Linux is a strong point though. It's 2005, and you're proposing people to mess with floppies? :P

Well, beats having to uninstall the hardware and bring it to a Windows using friend to have it flashed, then re-install it again in your own system. Sure won't impress the Windows users with Linux... :D

 

Oh, last thing: don't worry about region coding, flashing the drive to RPC1 or whatever, the drive will stay uncoded if you're just on Linux and use libdvdcss.. more info on my website, review for mdk 10.1:

file:/home/robert/webhtml/mandrake.tips.for.free.fr/configuration101.html#dvdplay

[Darkelve]

<snip>

more info on my website, review for mdk 10.1:

file:/home/robert/webhtml/mandrake.tips.for.free.fr/configuration101.html#dvdplay

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Ahem... : http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/configu...01.html#dvdplay

 

I don't think everyone has this amount of access to your webserver, aRTee!

[adamw]

yeah, you're right about region coding and whatever, the domain name is a bit of a misnomer as they cover a lot more stuff than just region-free.

 

How quiet are the NEC drives? One of the major things I like about my lite-on is it's amazingly silent for an optical drive. I have an LG DVD-ROM in the same machine and it's noisy as heck by comparison.

[Pepse]

First thing to mention is that I haven't received emails regarding additional posts to my topic since aRTee's first reply. Common problem.

 

Now on to the situation. aRTee, are you from the US?? I went to NEC's website and found nothing pertaining to Linux, especially in dealing with firmware upgrades. But, after reading the other replies it sounds like there are 3rd party vendors for firmware updates. I do not have a dual boot system, but I do have another hard drive with windoze on it.

 

adamw, what I find interesting is that I have an LG CDRW and a Lite-On DVD ROM and the LG is very quiet when burning, but the Lite-On is noisy when loading a CD or DVD, and a bit noisy when running. And before the Lite-On I had an LG DVD ROM and it was as quiet as the LG burner. In reference to Phillips products, I haven't heard much good about them from some windoze users. Seems thy are poor quality and troublesome.

 

I did email Lite-On, HP, and NEC in regards to firmware and so far Lite-On replied and stated I should use windoze as their firmware upgrades are excellent for windoze. I kindly emailed them back and stated that I will stick with Linux and that I will probably find at least one company that supports Linux. I have thought about looking in to Plextor, also.

 

Later. Pepse.

[DragonMage]

IMO, plextor makes the best burner, but the price range is usually on the high side.

 

Anyway, I have an 8x BenQ DVD+RW that I like, the only problem is that I have to change firmware if I have to burn Dual Layer DVD (which is not a problem in my case since dual layer disks cost a lot of moolah). It's a bit on a slow side for reading (24x max for CD), but it has the best burn quality on all the 8x burners I have yet seen. The 8 MB buffer probably help :)

[adamw]

pepse: I haven't used an LG CDRW or a Lite-On DVD-ROM, but my experience is maybe a bit more relevant, as both the drives I have are recent models bought new. Of course, it's possible that LG DVD-RWs are better than their DVD-ROMs, as it would seem is the case for Lite-On, from your experience. I can't give you a definitive answer on that.

[Pepse]

adamw, yea, my LG CDRW is about 3 years old, whereas the Lite-On DVD ROM is about 6 months old.

 

Dragon Mage, I know I've heard of BenQ, and IIRC the quality is good to very good. If anything it is another company to check and see how, or if, they have any LInux support.

 

And, I am beginning to think that having a dual layer DVD burner is along the lines of "Mine is bigger than yours", or "My 80X CDROM is better than your 77X CDROM". Just something new and cutting edge to get the hardcore "I gotta have it before my friends/neighbor/brother/dad/etc. gets it" .

 

Later. Pepse.

[aRTee]

Darkelve, thanks for fixing that link. I won't change my post since that would make yours redundant, now it's just very funny and helpful - bedankt!

 

Pepse, indeed or should I say: naturally, the firmware update tool to flash under Linux is not from NEC, but from someone who goes by the nickname Liggy. It works great though.

 

As for dual layer, it's partially 'mine is bigger than yours' but also: if there are loads of drives sold with dual layer capability, there will seem to be a larger market, so it will attract more vendors, hence the prices will drop faster.

And considering the price, there's no need anymore not to buy a dual layer burner.

 

Last thing: if you can choose between a dual layer dvd+r9 burner or a dual standard dual layer (+ and - dual layer), take the latter.

 

Something most people bitch about are the 2 (3) standards in dvd burning, but that's the only reason why media and burner prices have come down so fast - the standards competition. Bring it on, I say, for Blu-ray vs HD-dvd!

 

So for dual layer discs to become cheap, just wait for the dvd-r dual layer discs, and make sure people buy dual standard dual layer drives. Today there are only dvd+r9 discs, so they are all miliking the market. In a month or so, there will be dvd-r dual layer discs too, and you can expect the prices of dual layer discs to drop faster than a brick.

My guess is that mid 2006 dual layer discs will hardly be twice as expensive as single layer discs - so just slightly more expensive per GB. And I know I said that if your burner dies, you just get a new one, but on the other hand, you are hoping to use your drive a bit longer than just one year, right?

 

Just some thoughts.

 

Later,

aRTee

;)