Looking to get a dual layer burner. Some questions.

Now that prices for DL burners seem to have hit the floor, I'm shopping around for one. I've got my eye on this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827129160) at the moment, as it's the cheapest on Newegg that supports both +R DL and -R DL, but I wanted to ask for opinions here first as to what brand and model would be recommended. All I require is that it has an IDE interface and supports all types of media besides DVD-RAM. Also:

- Which is generally the more reliable format for stand-alone DVD players: +R Dual Layer or -R Dual Layer?
- What brands of DL media are generably reliable, and where can I get some for relatively low cost?
- Can DVD Decrypter backup a DVD-9 to writable DL and replicate the layer break in the exact same position as the original? If not, what program can I seek out that does this?

 

Wow 645, that's a lot of questions to ask at the start of your Dual Layer burning 'career' - but it's best to know these things 'up front' isn't it! I have the Pioneer 109 and find it excellent in everything it does - having said that I have friends that have the NEC 3520A and the performance of the NEC seems as good as the Pioneer. So far I have only been able to source +R Dual Layer discs, made by Infiniti and have only used these with Nero 6 (although I also have a demo version of Game Cloner that supports Dual Layer).

There, not a full answer to all your questions but I hope this will be of some help at least.

Cheers,

Terry

 

Good Day,
If you are going to use it alot & make alot of backups, I would recommend the Pioneer. I had a LG & a pionner(still do)& I killed my LG. I found the Pioneer to be much more reliable. I still use the Pioneer 108 & it ROCKS !!

Cheers,
Dan Dawg

 

Although a lot of people like the pioneer's and I think they are probably a good drive, they are not capable of booktyping. I would recommend Plextor or BenQ. Media wise I would say Verbatum. Dvd+r booktyped dvd-rom is the most compatable followed by dvd-r then dvd+r. I booktype all my +r media to dvd-rom and am yet to find a stand-alone player that won't play them.

 

I too recommend the Plextor, I just bought the 716UF and it works really great, it can booktype your media automatically. I burned dual layer backup using decrypter and it plays on all my standalones, it is an exact 1.1 backup. Plextor likes Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim and will burn them at faster than listed speed i.e. if it is 4x it will burn at 6x. Purchased from supermediastore and meritline. The quality is good and the Plextools enable to test out your burns and see the errors.

 

DVD Decrypter can backup your DVD-9 movie. The settings for the layer break are located at Tools> Settings> ISO Write. The options are:
1. Calculate Optimal (the default setting)

2. User Specified (I have not tried this setting, but it looks like you specify the sector on Layer0 where you want the break to occur.)

 

Thanks for the opinions so far. I don't have a whole lot of cash to blow on this, and that Plextor drive looks like it's out of my price range. Any comments on this NEC drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152049)? There's a firmware update available for burning -R DL, and Decrypter seems to be able to change the Booktype for NEC brand drives.

 

Over the years I have had several NEC drives CD burners and DVD burner and have always found this brand to be trustworthy, with good support. My burns from my old NEC1300a have always been excellent. I just purchased the Plextor because the NEC is getting up there and I wanted to get a burner with the exact same capabilities. Both NEC and Plextor would be my top picks. You can check out the Plextor 716a which is also a good drive, but I don't think you would be disappointed in the NEC. My two cents :~)

 

@ 645: I think you will be pleased with the NEC 3520A. For those of us who are budget minded, it is an excellent burner. However, the stock or official firmware does not allow bitsetting. You will have to download a hacked firmware to change bitsetting to DVD-ROM for your +Rs. Here is a site for the hacked firmware;.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=134047

 

Hi,

I bought my 1st DVD Burner a long time ago, I bought the LG-4040B for $399.99 Can on Special, I think it was like $100.00 off.

Now you can get the NEC-3520a for like $70.00 Can.

I just can wait to see those Dual Layer media drop down in price.
I've never burned one yet, I will not make coasters at $10.00can each

 

@ cougar_ii: I know where you are coming from. I remember paying over $300US for a 30MB (note megabyte) hard drive. Now you can get a 300GB for less than $200. Note my signature, "we've come a long way baby"...

 

LABOY,

You took the words right out of my mouth. Well said.

645,

Take a look here. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=browse&Manufactory=1583&Category=10 Benq DW1620 PRO Retail for $44.00. I love my benq. It is not nearly as particular about media as my litey and is booktype ready. Comes with all the software if you get the retail version or you can download the booktype utility manager online from benq. Excellent burner. Not a coaster yet with this drive.

Mort

 

Mort81: looks like you got a winner also with your BENQ1620. I can't believe the price! At this rate, in a few months they will be giving burners away. A lot of good choices out there, and if you can't make up your mind, then buy 3 or 4; you can't lose much with these low prices....

 

i would never buy anything other than a plextor.. the price might be good on others, but the quality of plextor never fails.. plus its still cheap

plus DL is on every new burner. Its still expensive for a disc, not really worth it. AND... its going to be obselete in little while anyway.

once the new blue ray discs come out .. so will the new burnable discs.

 

That's the problem the prices are so good I now own four Lol :~)

 

yeah but 40 bucks is cheap, and i might get one if i was using it sparingly but bad burns etc is one of the most annoying things ever.

if i had 4 computers id probobly get 4 burners too.. but id still only get plextor


look at the chache buffer.. 2 MB? thats horrible. i bought mine over 4 years ago and it has 2 mb.. youll get underrun errors if you open up explorer, or somethin that takes up ram while burning. Even if there is a protection against it, it still burns little skips into it.

standard plex is 8 mb now. i think.. well it was about a year ago. i havent looked in a while

 

liteon and nec are decent.. but they are more for get a good deal.

the new plex is only about 120 i think.. well it was about 6-8 months ago.


if you can spend 50 on a cheap one.. i think id rather spend 120 and get a good one, that youll never have problems with.

but it all depends on how often you want to use it. If youre only using it rarely get the cheap one. But if yorue going to make 1000+ burns with it, get the plex, youll have much more success.

 

I have a litey and benq and although the litey will rip faster than my benq, I would recommond the benq over the litey due to its burning capabilities (lower PI, PIF errors on same media than the litey), plus it is not near as finicky about mid quality media. I tried some prodisc R03 dvd+r hub printables and when burned with the litey they wouldn't even play on my stand-alone (terrible high PI,PIF spikes) but play fine if burned with the benq (PI,PIF spikes not much higher than my verbatum MCC media). Both drives have latest f/w and are set to booktype dvd+r media to dvd-rom.

I think plextor is the cadillac but not necessarily worth the extra money. I was going to get one untill a buddy of mine got one and had to return it within a month because it quit reading cd's and dvd's and smelled burnt. Just goes to show you they can all have problems.

I wouldn't want a NEC because they are not booktype ready and I booktype all my dvd+r media dvd-rom for greatest compatability.

Pioneer's are not booktype capable period.

mort

 

I am also looking into getting burner. I have visited cdrinfo for reviews on the LG GSA-4163B ,the NEC ND-3520A and Pioneer DVR-109,
found at
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=12429

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=12314

and

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=12802

respectively. From this review page, suggested by an afterdawn member (can't remember who), it seems like the LG burner out ranks the other two. Any comments on this? Also, i read above that the CD+R DL wont be in the market for long, so is the ability to burn +R DL desirable?

Thanks!

 

I'm leaning towards the BenQ burner at the moment. Any recommendations on where to buy DL media? I'm not a stickler for top-notch quality, as I've never burnt a single coaster on single layer Memorex media (which seems to be bottom of the barrel, juding from what I've read on these forums) on my existing NEC ND-1100A drive in the 2 years that I've been using it.