My DVD+-R drive died ...

andy

Honestly, it's almost a blessing that, while flashing the firmware of my BTC 1004 DVDRW drive, my computer crashed mid-flash, and rendered the drive completely useless.  I can't even get my computer to boot up unless I disconnect the drive from the IDE cable.

I've actually had nothing but problems with the BTC drive.  It was very picky with media -- very few brands worked well -- and when I did find a brand that would work, it would only work reliably at 1x.  Try to burn any faster, and it made expensive coasters.

I am looking forward to having a drive that will burn at 4x or 8x reliably -- that will save me so much time!  I prefer to buy a drive locally, and that leaves Best Buy as my only real viable option. The drives they're currently carrying are here.

Does anyone have a suggestion?  Any good (or bad) experiences with any of these drives?

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

It just occurred to me that another local choice would be Circuit City.  That's a link to their DVD+-RW drive selections.  I'm hoping someone can personally recommend one or more of these drives.  Thanks again!

You're in luck!  Both Anandtech and Tom's Hardware have performed DVD±R/RW reviews within the last week or two.

Anandtech: storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2260
THG: storage/20041102/index.html

Both THG and Anandtech like the NEC 3500A, mainly for its DL capabilities.

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Check my thread here. I just bought the A08XL, and it's one of the best out there. An important note, though: make sure you buy the retail A08XL and not the OEM 108XL. I read that the 108 is slower.

, but the price is about the same (actually a bit more with shipping), so I'd probably just buy it retail, locally.

I will sleep on it, but I'll probably get one tomorrow.  I have a lot of burning to do.    I'm just excited about the prospect of being able to burn reliably at speeds over 1x!

The philips 1640P (also sold as philips 1620k/00 - the box just lacks a blank 16x DVD-R) is a nice, solid drive. It's fast and the quality is quite good for that cheap burner. You should get a drive with firmware p2.2, older firmwares aren't that stable (and the users who complain about that drive have these older firmware...)

Regards
Koepi

OK, I have a question...

AnandTech's review prices the Pioneer DVR-108 at $78!  I'd pay that in a heartbeat, but I can't find it for anything near that price.  Best Buy has it for $149.  NewEgg's is $139.  Am I missing something?

Originally posted by Red Right Hand
OK, I have a question...

AnandTech's review prices the Pioneer DVR-108 at $78!  I'd pay that in a heartbeat, but I can't find it for anything near that price.  Best Buy has it for $149.  NewEgg's is $139.  Am I missing something?

The Pioneer DVR-108 is $72 on Newegg (black), $76(beige).  The Pioneer DVR-A08XL is listed for $139.

For the money, again I'd suggest the 108.

Strange!  From everything I've read, I thought that the DVR-A08XL was the same drive as the DVR-108.  What exactly is the distinction between the two models?

), for $149. There is a $30 rebate available from select stores, and 4sure.com is one of them. This way, after I mail in the rebate, it only costs me $109. Thus you're better off getting the retail A08 than the OEM 108.

The DVR-A08XL differs from the cheaper OEM model, the DVR-108, in that the retail model comes with packaging, warranty, and a different faceplate. I've also read review that the OEM 108 model is not as fast as the A08 model in certain aspects.

Thanks to everyone who posted replies to my original inquiry.  Sorry, MrNoogies, that I asked again about the difference between the two Pioneer drives -- I should have read your original post more carefully.

Based on both of the reviews and on the personal suggestions, I bought a DVR-A08XL today.  It was great -- I felt so informed looking at all the other drives on the shelf, and I felt really confident making my ultimate selection.

I was surprised at how many off-brands were present on the shelf at Best Buy.  At least half of the drives on the shelf are (a) not listed on their website and (b) made by companies I'd never heard of.  One of them, I think, was CyberHome, or something like that.  They had off-brand 16X16 + DL drives for around $100, and if I didn't know better, I would have bought one of them, thinking that they're all the same -- you're just paying for the name.  But my first DVDR drive -- the one that just died, necessitating replacing it -- was an off-brand (turned out to be a rebranded BTC 1004), and it was, quite honestly, a piece of junk from the beginning.  I didn't realize it until I'd had the drive awhile and had educated myself about DVD burning.

I am looking forward to burning my first DVD with my new drive.  As I mentioned before, the fastest I could burn at all reliably with the BTC was at 1X.  Anything faster, and I would almost always have read errors towards the end of the disc.  If I can burn at even 8X, it will seem like absolute lightning speed compared to what I'm used to.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!  I will let you all know how I like the DVR-A08XL, as soon as I've had time to really put it to the test.

Ah, so you bought the A08! Did you get the white, silver, or black model  ?

I got the beige.  Not that it would have mattered that much, but my enclosure is a beige server tower, so I figured it might as well match.  I found it vaguely amusing that they did have all three colors in stock on the shelf.

For my first backup using my new drive, I picked a movie that requires a lot of compression in order to fit onto a DVD5.  My computer is 83% through the re-encoding process -- about 20 min. left to go.  Then I'll see how this thing really works.

The only media I have on hand at the moment are some Memorex 8X DVD+R's.  They are discs that were presenting a particular problem when used with my previous (BTC) drive.  Even at 1X, I was burning discs that skipped and were intermittantly unreadable by any drive.  I'll be thrilled if the Pioneer handles these discs well.  It will bode well for my DVD-burning future.