Are Cheap DVD Burners Worth the Trouble?

[polarity]

The test setup information is pathetic. It doesn't matter what computer the drive is hooked up to, so long as it can get the data out quick enough. Tom's reviewers need to get over their hardware fetish and give information on what settings were used in the software. (Reviewers think it's more important to get across "Oooh! Look at us! We've got a Core 2 Extreme, WD Raptors and an X1900XTX!").

How about some more useful tests, like whether the disks burned are actually readable in the drive that burned them (no information on if verification was turned on or not), and whether the drives can read disks burned in other drives. My experience of cheap burners is that they fail to do these things. I've got a half dozen of the damn things stuck in a box. If I want to burn disks I'll use my BenQ DW1620 (chosen after reading clubcdfreaks.com).

What's the point of making back ups at high speed, when there's a good chance the disk is a coaster? Performance isn't everything (although having a drive that can burn 8x disks at 16x with no errors is nice, and worth paying extra for).

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Plextor > liteon > a-open > asus > this review.

 

[hergieburbur]

Yeah, This is the perfect example of how Tom's is slipping:

Misleading title - I never spend more than $40 for the DVD burner on any of the PCs I build for people, and the biggest problem or "trouble" any of them have had is they can be a tad bit noisy.

No Lite-On? Thats an egregious oversight for a supposed review of low-end drives. Even if they wouldn't send a sample, they are $40 bucks, shell it out yourselves.

No High-end to compare to as an illustration of the "troubles" referred to in the title?

C'mon guys, you can do better.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Can they?

 

[Luscious]

I think the article should have done at least some comparison to the more expensive and better performing burners out there - focusing in a bunch of cheapies alone with similar specs still leaves me thinking if the cost of a more expensive unit is justified. Also, bring in some of the other brands out there.

I would have liked to see a more comprehensive benchmark set as well - there are more than just those three applications out there.

I guess it's time to focus on some EXTERNAL burners now...

 

[hergieburbur]

One would hope...

 

[supageek]

I bought a pioneer drive a few months back, I'm having problems ripping cd's with copy write protection. it takes more then an hour ripping a cd which my lg drive does in less then 10 minutes. It also has a really slow response time, NEVER buy pioneer, they perform horribly.

 

[HotFoot]

I was pleased to see an article on cheap DVD burners today, since this afternoon I went out and bought one. I picked the LG line because the review indicated that the drive was extremely quiet. The one I got makes less noise than the Sony $100 DVD burner I got a couple years ago, so I'm happy. I don't care about maximum burning speed since I always burn slower anyway to avoid "coastering" disks. I want my data backups to last, and going slower produces fewer errors.

Speaking of errors, I think there is a lot more to picking out a burner than the read/write speeds. Is there a way to measure number of errors on a disk? It would be good to see some kind of analysis on that. I know DVDs have a lot of data redundancy, but too many errors do lead to lost data and avoiding that is the most important consideration for me when choosing a drive.

I know that any review must have a limited scope, but there are a huge selection of drives to choose from. Looking at the LG lineup at my local store, there were 4 models under CAN$50. This included SATA and IDE interface choices. I found very little information to differentiate between the models, so I just picked one that was both in stock and was a good price. By the way, no current pricing was included in your review. That means that even after reading the article, I'm still missing vital information.

One note that I think needs to be brought up is that most of the graphs don't have units labeled on the axes. This is a huge no-no. I would really like to see reviews take a little more technical approach to things. If you're going to present data, there must be no question as to what the numbers mean.

I like the idea other posters' had about comparing these "cheap" drives to a reference one. Data that I would like to see explicitly presented are read/write speeds (bandwidth and latency), measured noise levels, and error frequency in burned media. It would be good to take one of the drives and show how error frequency changes with different writing speeds.

One last thought I have before closing is that I've had some experiences with bad disks being more readable on one drive than on another. It would be good to see some kind of analysis of which of the tested drives faired best when reading hard-to-read disks.

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

I dont even consider them a major contender.


Sony/Lite-on/Plextor/Samsung sort of.

Plextor for the best you can buy... Sony for midrange, and Lite-on for budget, though it really is near the quality of sony's drives.



P.S. Sony is the devil and i hate their burners.

 

[joex444]

I gotta agree with phrozt on this one, the author is a complete gorilla, with all that entails.

Take, for example, when trying to combine 7th grade english and math in one sentence:

"DVD ripping speed was clearly too long, as Pioneer and Sony finished the same task 40% faster (11 minutes versus 27 minutes)."

Maybe my Bachelors in Math is failing me here, but isn't 40% of 27 minutes 11? So, to be 40% faster one would need to finish it 11 minutes faster, thus in a time of 16 minutes.

In actuality, the 11 minute drive is 60% faster than the 27 minute drive. Or, to put it another way, the 11 minute drive finished in 40% the time of the 27 minute drive.

Pwned.

 

[Omegavirus]

I have the Samsung SH-S183L. It's alright. It hasn't messed a cd or dvd up yet. I wanted to go with a sata optical drive on this build ( no specific reason, I just did ) and the local store had the Samsung for $40 or a Plextor for $110.

I don't burn that many I need the expensive plextor and it turns out the samsung works pretty good. So it's not the fastest writer, oh well.

 

[sparky79]

Im glad someone has had good Lite-ons since I have had 4 of them all went bad quick. One quit reading and writing to cds completely, dvds still work though, 2 just up and died within a week and the last one i had doesnt like to eject discs, goes to open then slams shut. Ive had the samsung sata drive for a couple of months now and no problems yet!

 

[ikjadoon]

Im glad someone has had good Lite-ons since I have had 4 of them all went bad quick. One quit reading and writing to cds completely, dvds still work though, 2 just up and died within a week and the last one i had doesnt like to eject discs, goes to open then slams shut. Ive had the samsung sata drive for a couple of months now and no problems yet!

Hehe, I must be lucky. I'm still waiting for proper support under Vista 64-bit for it, however. Nero can only burn DVDs, no Lightscribe.

~Ibrahim~

 

[immagikman]

Ever heard of constructive criticism?

Only saying even if that is how you feel, putting it that way does nothing but cause anger/hard feelings and does nothing positive. Explain that you would have preferred if he used more brands, etc., and he might actually listen.

Of course, you don't HAVE to take my advice, but if you want people to be influenced by your opinion, give this a try. You'd be surprised that people might actually listen/agree with you.

Constructive criticism takes maturity, the guy is probably on 12 or 13. :roll:
You just got ot ignore the flamers.

Altho Lite-on would have been a good product to review.

Oh and I have two NEC's in my Alienware laptop so someone doesn't seem to be up on the market for NEC products.

 

[nukemaster]

Sony drives for the past years where made by Lite-On

it is just recently they started to use NEC and other companies

Cant hate one and not the other.

 

[HDDFreak]

Sorry but that was a disappointing article. Maybe you could rewrite it with some of these suggestions.

I hate to be a killjoy but isn't using any program, (DVD Decrypter etc.) to make an electronic copy of a copyrighted disc illegal. I know it doesn't say what movie you used, which is a lucky thing cause if it was terminator (which you seem to use for everything else) that would be a big no no. Also it says on afterdawn

Thus, distributing DVD Decrypter is now as illegal as it would be to distribute cracked copies of Windows operating system or pirated copies of games.

Perhaps you should find a different program for this sort of testing. Also perhaps you should include prices of these "Cheap" DVD burners. It has been said enough, but how the hell am I meant to know the prices of these drives without searching for them myself.

Please spend a little more time writing these articles so that I can actually learn something. Or perhaps actually read and answer to the posts that we write, you might just learn something.

 

[hergieburbur]

I hate to be a killjoy but isn't using any program, (DVD Decrypter etc.) to make an electronic copy of a copyrighted disc illegal. I know it doesn't say what movie you used, which is a lucky thing cause if it was terminator (which you seem to use for everything else) that would be a big no no. Also it says on afterdawn Thus, distributing DVD Decrypter is now as illegal as it would be to distribute cracked copies of Windows operating system or pirated copies of games.

Nope, you are still allowed to make backup copies for your own use. This kinda up for ongoing debate though, as my understanding is most copyrights don't explicitly allow this, but they don't prohibit it either. To my knowledge, it has held up in court so far.

 

[rickzor]

what a coincidence, i just bought that lg drives yesterday

 

[killerb255]

STOP WRITING REVIEWS

Crickey, you are HORRIBLE.
- You fail to incorporate one of the newest leading names that people use more and more of everyday: Lite-On.
- You use NEC, which practically no one uses for DVD drives.
- You don't mention price other than bundling thim all as "low end $40 DVD burners."
- You don't use a high end burner as a control for what all the "low end" burners should be trying to achieve.

GO BACK TO 7th GRADE SCIENCE AND LEARN WHAT CONTROL AND VARIABLES ARE

...and often people fail to realize that the word "you" is a fighting word, no matter how much the person is "telling it like it is."

 

[gonzowtg]

Is high performance DVD drive an oxymoron?

 

[theender]

THIS IS JUST ANOTHER SAMPLE OF WHAT READERS DONT WANT, ANOTHER USELESS REVIEW.


I LOVE LITE ON AND NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH IT.IT DOES WHAT THIS BRAND NEW SAMSUNG 18X CANT DO AND THATS READ AND WRITE GOOD.TO SAY LIGHT ON IS THE GOD OF DVD BURNERS IS NOT TRUE OR IS IT.EITHER WAY YOU FAILED TO COMPARE ONE OF THE TOP DVD BURNERS IN THE WORLD,AND IS THAT AN UNDERSTATMENT?NO IT ISINT.IT SEEMS A LACK OF WHAT PEOPLE WANT FROM TOMS HAS LONG SINCE GONE.THE REVIEWS,THE HOW TO,AND WHAT WE REALLY NEED FROM THIS FORM IS JUST A PLACE IN THE PAST.I RARLEY COME HERE ANY MORE JUST BECAUSE WHAT I NEED IS NOT HERE. WHAT WE NEED FROM A REVIEW IS JUST THE BASIC ATLEAST.WHAT PEOPLE DO THE MOST WITH THE HARDWARE THEY BUY,AND IF YOU FIND THE TIME FOR A MORE DETAILED REVIEW WE WOULD LOVE THAT TO.HERES WHAT WE ATLEAST NEED IN A REVIEW OF A BURNER.THE WRITE SPEED OF BOTH CD,DVD.THE RW SPEED OF BOTH.THE THE AUDIO RIP SPEED,AND ISO READ WRITE,THE ERROR TEST AND THE END SPEED OF EVERY DRIVE,AND MOST OF ALL THE PRICE PREFORMANCE RATIO OF THE DRIVES.CD MEADIA,OH YEAH.GO TO OFFICE MAX WHERE THEY SELL ALL THE CHEAP MEADIA IN THE WORLD THAT 99.9 PERCENT OF THE WORLD WILL USE.AND YOU CAN THROW IN SOME HIGHER PRICE MEADIA DISK FOR REVIEWS IF YOU LIKE,BECAUSE THEY ARE SOME PEOPLE THAT WILL USE IT FOR PICTUERS AND VIDEO,BUT THE REST OF US 99.9 ARE STICKING WITH THE GOOD LCHEAPO MEDIA.

PEACE OUT.

 

[bigjb01]

Alright dude. All that shouting is hurting my ears. Also, consider spaces between sentences.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

Out of curiosity, does anyone else find my earlier statement to be true in general? I almost never have good results when burning over 8x DVD's or over 12x CDs, no matter what drive/pc/cpu configuration and no matter what media I use. Does high speed burning HAVE to cause problems down the line...always? Anyone have any 16x DVDs burned over a year ago that still work flawlessly??

 

[raytracer06]

I have another question : since almost all DVD writers are priced around $40, except Plextor drives, is a $40 DVD drive "cheap", or is it the $100 drive that is overpriced ?

 

[StylinLP]

What bothers me the most about any DVD burner article I have ever read is that they never talk about burn quality. To me thats the most important issue to look at. Much more important on how "fast" or how "quiet" a drive it. reviews like this one and others look like they have been written by Consumer Reports magazine. Horrible. I have 750 movies burned in my collection and I really care how well they are burned. Errors and how long they will last in my collection.