Recommendation External Drive

[Tintin06]

Hi all,

I'm looking for an external DVD burner. I'd like to burn a DVD+R DL with booktype DVD-ROM. I've tried three drives I have on hand: ASUS SBW-S1 and two laptop build-in burners. Non of these burner support DVD-Rom. Asus ist not listed as a manufacture in ImgBurn (and I think also the OEM manufacturer ist Asus) and the others don't accept a change to DVD-ROM.

Therefore, any recommendation?

Thanks!!

[cholla]

I can't guarantee this will work but have you tried the old Nero CDSpeed or DiscSpeed for Bittsetting your external burner ?

[dbminter]

While I cannot comment on any particular drive's effectiveness for setting the book type, I can offer some general advice on an external drive.

 

I had an ASUS BD burner that was good, but it was ONLY good drive ASUS made I had.  They no longer make that USB drive and the current USB model they have most likely uses the internal version of the 2nd ASUS I tried that was trash.  It destroyed rewritable DVD and BD! 

 

However, you're most likely not going to find half height USB drives anymore.  You'll mostly only find the trash slim models.  Avoid those; they're junk at writing.  So, what you'll most likely need is a half height drive and an external enclosure.

 

I've tried 2 different enclosures and each had its own problems.  VanTech likes to drop communication with the drive.  Other World Computing's power supply needed replacement after 2 months and if you power off the connected drive, you must either restart Windows or unplug and plug the USB cable back in before Windows will recognize the drive again.

 

As for half height drives, I only recommend BD burners anymore as I haven't had a DVD only burner in over 5 years.  You'll want either an LG or a Pioneer.  If you're going for the LG, get the NS60 UltraHD BD one and not the 40 one.  The 40 has all kinds of writing problems but the 60 passed all writing tests I threw at it.  Pioneer 2209 is what I recommend from them, but they're constantly borking the firmware on those when it comes to writing 8x Ritek DVD+RW.

[cholla]

It depends on what ripping & burning you do otherwise what new drive you might want to purchase.

All my drives except one in a laptop are half height.

If you plan to work with UHD at some point or not.

The LG with a better price is the WH16NS40 . (Considered a UHD"Friendly" drive)

Just make sure has the SVC Code NS50.

That way if you want to downgrade the firmware for UHD support you can.

If you prefer you can pay more & get the WH16NS60 .(Considered a UHD official or real drive.)

You still need to downgrade the firmware to work correctly with UHD.

I have a VanTech enclosure for a WH16NS40 downgraded to version 1.02 .

It is working fine.

I have also read that the Other World Computing enclosures are good but I don't have one.

I also have a SYBA enclosure for an IDE Samsung DVD drive. It is OK for DVDs  but isn't for CDs(writing).

It is a chipset problem. 

I still do most of my DVD ripping & burning with an internal Benq 1650 IDE.

[dbminter]

I can't recommend the LG WH16NS40 because of the various writing problems it has.  I've found it and someone else posted it, too.  Writing BD DL media generally fails Verify 9 times out of 10.  But only if you burn an ISO.  If you use the on the fly writing option, it doesn't happen.  The NS40 also doesn't properly write BD-RE DL discs as giant floppies.  Files written to the first layer are fine.  All files written to the 2nd layer are corrupt. 

 

These write errors happened on 3 different NS40's I had over the course of a few years.  So, when the NS60 came out, I spent the extra to see if LG had fixed the N40's problems.  And, they had.  The only problem I've found with the NS60 is if ImgBurn has to recover buffers while writing to BD-R beyond 6x, the maximum write speed it resumes writing at after buffers recover is 4x.  The NS40 had a similar issue but it was better at recovery: 6x.

 

So, while the NS40 is cheaper, it comes more expensive in the long run.

[cholla]

@dbminter,

Do the  LG WH16NS40's you have tested have the SVC Code NS50 ?

Have they been "downgraded" to firmware version 1.02 ?

I haven't tested mine on any BD discs but I've flashed two for other people to version 1.02 & they reported that their LG WH16NS40 burned BDs fine.

I have burned DVDs with my LG WH16NS40  sucessfully with no coasters.

Tintin06 was asking about a DVD  burner.

So my thought was the LG WH16NS40 would make a good drive for DVDs.

There are ASUS UHD friendly drives but they are supposed to be just re badged LG drives.

All having the  Mediatek chip MT1959.

I don't know if the LG WH16NS60 uses a stronger burning laser for burning than the LG WH16NS40.

That might be a hardware difference that would make the difference even if the chip is the same.

I do have an IDE drive that can't be bitset  to DVD ROM it is a Matshita sw-9585 which is a re badged Panasonic.

It's a good reader & burns well also as long as the DVD disc doesn't need to be DVD-ROM.

 

Edited November 28, 2018 by cholla

[dbminter]

I don't know what code the NS40's were.  I don't have any of those units anymore.  I threw them away as they died off.  I believe I only ever used 1.01 or 1.02 firmware.  There may have been a 1.03?  I forget whether it was 1.02 or 1.03, but one of those firmwares only patched a copying hole for UHD BD.

 

The NS40 burns BD-R and RE SL fine.  It's the DL media it doesn't like.  The NS40 also has no other problems with DVD or CD media.

 

I recommended a BD drive because I've not had a DVD only burner in like 5 years.  Plus, a BD drive will burn DVD.

[cholla]

From what I read & I could have incorrect information.

The patched firmware also has modified write strategy.

The Hex editing of the patch is to match it to the specific drive.

There are "older" LG WH16NS40s that are SVC Code NS40 .

Those can't be flashed with the patched firmware.

Those drives can have the stock LG firmware in versions 1.00 to 1.02 .

I believe the problem with them is they don't have the same hardware inside as the  SVC Code NS50.

I haven't been able to verify this but I believe they have a less powerful laser.