which drive burns Verbatim +DL the fastest and most accurately

[A New Guy]

I want to purchase a new drive to burn Verbatim +DL the fastest and most accurately. Is there some consensus as to which single drive or group of drives stand out amongst the rest.

Edited December 11, 2006 by A New Guy

[polopony]

first get over the fastest thing and dont get caught up in the numbers ,on single layer discs faster than 12x and the quality of the video goes down ,same thing with Dual Layers faster seems to have problems 2.4x-4x will be fine ,all the DL media should be Verbatim and the best single layer is Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden

 

Pioneer ,NEC,BenQ,Lite ON all do the job the media you use is very important

[Shamus_McFartfinger]

Get a Pioneer as they automatically set the booktype for DVD +R/DL to DVD-ROM. All this means is that there's no farting around with program settings to get the thing working properly.

[A New Guy]

good call it was the 760 A and not the SA couldn't find anything on it that wasn't Euro /Aussi, is it so much different than the 755SA that is available ?

The average consumer usually assumes the latest model is the best? My knowledge of drives is low. The big sales pitch on the 760 is it burns single layer 18x. Of course will it do it on the disc I use? Is that disc in production? If so does it cost an arm and leg? Is it in North America? I hope someone who makes all the graphs in Drives and Media section can give me an educated answer? I hope they read the chat section. When I saw the form titles I thought I would post this question in Drives and Media but after seening the content there, I thought it was better in imgburn support section. Now for some reason its in a section where jokes and Doctor Who postings are the most popular.

Edited December 11, 2006 by A New Guy

[A New Guy]

first get over the fastest thing and dont get caught up in the numbers ,on single layer discs faster than 12x and the quality of the video goes down ,same thing with Dual Layers faster seems to have problems 2.4x-4x will be fine ,all the DL media should be Verbatim and the best single layer is Verbatim and Taiyo Yuden

 

Pioneer ,NEC,BenQ,Lite ON all do the job the media you use is very important

 

Does a successful verify mean a good quality burn? If so I would like to let you know that I have had great luck burning 100+ Verbatim +DL at 6x on my Plextor 716SA. I do not think I had a single failure (except for the last 2 weeks, where the wheels have fallen off).

 

The graphs and charts say there is nothing special with Plextor any more?

Edited December 11, 2006 by A New Guy

[polopony]

a successful verify means that what you've burned to disc is exactly the same as the ISO and putting it on great media (Verbs,Yudens ) means a flawless playback.

 

There is no 18x media available theres 16x and the drive manufacturers write firmware that allows 18X burns on 16X discs

 

all the testing and scans clearly show that the quality of the burns drop off after 12X and like yourself I burn at 6X also and can't remember the last time I burned a coaster everything verifys and the discs are perfect. For me its start the process and go away let the comp do its thing,if I have more than 1 ISO to do then I use the Queue function and just feed the burner media

 

Plextor made a great reputation for itself years ago when drives first started burning DVD's but as time goes on the other manufacturers have caught up and these days you can get 2 sometimes 3 drives for the price of 1 Plex ,overpriced in my opinion

 

the manufacturers use speed for marketing ,some people have to have the newest, fastest ,most gimmicks ,the highest speed only comes on the outside part of the disc ,if the drive hits 18x for 1 second then its considered a 18x drive its not like the drive burns like that from start to finish

 

I'd say the majority of the BETA TESTERS burn at 8X

[Movie Junkie]

For what it's worth I burn DL discs at 2.4x (Verbatim) and I've never had a problem . I was using Sony DRU710A drives until a few months ago when I purchased two Plextor 760A drives. Since there are other things I can do while the disc is being written to the additional time it takes is of no consequence to me. I know I'll get a good burn and that's all that matters.

 

That said, I must add that on two occasions I have burned 2 DL discs at 4x and have not noticed any problems with them.

[A New Guy]

I found a Plextor 760A review from June 06.

 

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/87359/plextor-px760a.html

 

"...a 6.4x speed translates into 16 minutes to burn 8GB of data, whereas an 8.8x speed burns it in 11 minutes... But it's ultimately eclipsed by the LG GSA-H10N. At ?34, it was easily the fastest drive on show. Single-layer discs burnt at 12.7x for both +R and -R, and dual-layer DVDs at 8.8x and 6x. "

Edited December 11, 2006 by A New Guy

[Grain]

The Plextor 716 did/does an excellent job with dual layer discs. The Pioneer 111 also does a fine job, as does the LG H22N. These are drives that I use with DL's. I don't particularily like the way Benq 1655/0's do DL's, but then again you can't easily buy them now anyway. If you are looking for an all around excellent drive, the Pioneer 111 might be for you. The LG is a favorite of mine, but it isn't a good reader. You may want to wait for the new Pioneers which are due out in January, with FINALLY a sata version following a few months later.

[cornholio7]

funny you dont like your 1655 for d/l grain , i mainly use my 1640 for d/l now as its giving the best scanned results at 4x.

my 1655 only has 2.4x supported speed for d/l, my 716sa isn't that good at d/l , the pioneer is almost as good as the benq though

[kevdriver]

Yea, have to admit for D/L burning its a toss up between my Benq 1640 and my Pioneer 111D. Both give excellent finished products but as Corny said the Benq seems to produce better scan results then the Pioneer for some reason. The LG GSA 4163B does a great job of D/Ls as well but doesn't like to scan well for some reason, although once again the finished product is excellent.

[Grain]

funny you dont like your 1655 for d/l grain , i mainly use my 1640 for d/l now as its giving the best scanned results at 4x.

my 1655 only has 2.4x supported speed for d/l, my 716sa isn't that good at d/l , the pioneer is almost as good as the benq though

 

My 165X's will do an average job at 2.4X, but they seem to do not so well at anything faster than that, IF you can find media that it even can, as you say Corny. Pion 111 & LG 22N both will scan 93-96% at 6-8X, and as Verbatim rate's and guarantee's the MKM 001-00 at those speeds, they are the drives I use. Don't have the Plex 716A in the box right now (need a bigger case!).

[polopony]

wondering about the scans I was thinking that all the manufacturers are not working to some set standards when it comes to scanning hence the difference in the %'s each maker has their own specs and comparing them might be futile

[Pain_Man]

From my experience and I realize that since I've only been involved with optical media for three years (a short time compared to many here; many of the "IB Gods" as I call 'em).

 

Drives:

 

In my experience, the best have been Plextor and benq (not sure on the URL).

 

Despite the fact that Benq was damaged (it would not upgrade FirmWare and the QSuite software necessary for burning DLs faster than the glacial 2.4x, didn't work; and this happened on two different computers so it was obviously the drive). Despite the problems with it, it was kick-ass drive and I recommend. In the US, you can usually get the DW1655 for $50-$70 depending on the website and if there's a sale or rebate.

 

Plextors have also been great. I had a 716A for a long time. I've know bought a 760A which I rec'd and installed today. Already burned my first DL of Uncle Olddude's 117th birthday party.

 

(Here's the ibg graph for those interested:

 

)

 

 

I've had mixed experiences with the three Pioneer's I've owned (DVR-106, 107 [a rebadged Memorex True-8] and my last one 110D. The first two were solid drives (in fact I gave the first one to my brother when his burner refused to burn faster than 1x and he couldn't afford a new one; 4x is better than 1!). I had good results from them. The last one, the 110D, it was never as good as the first two. It's scans never matched the Benqs, often not even close. It's ibg (write graphs) always looked like someone in ventricular fibriliation (if that's the right term). It's burnt discs didn't scan well either (DVDs, that is; it's CDs always scanned great).

 

I've got an LG that came with my new Gateway FX530G. So far, it's OK. It's on the slow side with DVDs (tho' with CDs it burns nicely). I know that LG burners have a bad rep amongst some people. I'll probably replace it at some point, but for now it's ok. (and also, it's the only drive left with the Gateway front bezel on it. When I replaced the CDRW/DVDROM, it screwed up the nice, slick look of the FX. But, oh well, function over form!

 

 

Media

 

But in my experience Verbatim makes the best DLs. (Veratim also makes good DVD5s as well; beware their CDs! A 50 pack I bought turned out to be CMCs!)

 

Taiyo Yuden makes the best CDRs and DVD+/-Rs. (unfortunately, they don't make RWs of any kind). They also invented the dye technology for CDRs.

 

While Taiyo does sell to rebranders/rebadgers (Fuji, for one, rebadges them, as does Sony, but you never know when a given brand is going to switch from Taiyos to Prodisc and suddenly you've got 50 DVDs that suck ass).

 

So, therefore, always buy your Taiyo's directly from a reputable internet vendor. You'll never find them on store shelves under their own name (at least I never have).

 

I use supermediastore.com and meritline.com (this is in the US; perhaps our UK, European, Aussie friends can put up trustworthy web merchants in their countries, areas). They prices are always good; keep in mind that Taiyos--barring the odd kick ass sale--are always going to be more expensive. But they are worth it.

 

Most of us use a prog called DVDInfoPro to scan our disks (however, with the retirement of my damaged Benq 1655, it appears I won't be doing that anymore since neither the LG that came with my new machine or the Plextor 760A that I just rec'd and installed today, will interact with the Pi/Po scanning module).

[polopony]

I'm considering a new drive that can scan ,my experience with Pioneer is a Pio 115 DVD Rom that I bought years ago 7-8 ? it still has the original firmware on it its my read drive still works flawlessly and its had thousands of discs through it a real workhorse .I burn with an NEC3500 and theres been well over 1000 burns with it and still every burn is perfect ,luck or just great drives I dont know, they both came from Newegg.com