I'm having a very tough decision between four DVD +/- dual format burners and really don't know which to choose. I also don't know if any one of them is any better than the other.

It's between these four, please ignore the prices it doesn't matter:

• HP dvd840i
  
• Plextor PX-755SA
  
• LITE-ON SHM-165H6S
  
• NEC ND-3550A

Also a quick question, when sites like NewEgg.com list the cache are they referring to audio caching (which I don't want), or is it some other cache they're talking about?

You want caching... you're probably thinking about the "disable read cache" or whatever feature in EAC... If you didn't have a cache then your CPU would have to write to the disc directly (which would either stop the laser, or make a new coaster every time the CPU got interrupted!) Bigger caches let the drive store-up a write operation in the drive, and then do the physical burning from there.

Read caching can be disabled on most drives from EAC anyhow, so its not something to worry about. Accurate C2 error reporting is the only real selling feature that i'd look for.

They are referring to the drive's internal memory that is used to buffer chunks of data before they are actually written to disc. The size of the buffer (every optical drive has one btw) does not state anything about the fact whether this buffer is used for DAE caching or not.

If you search around the web, you will find drive feature databases which will tell you whether a specific drive does cache during DAE or not.

If you don't care about the price, I would go with the Plextor unit (did you consider the PX-760A?).

Also, what about a BenQ drive?

I had the same problem and couple of days ago i finally went for Lite-On SHM-165H6S...

The main reason to buy it was the review from c'and't magazine posted somewhere here according to which the "read quality" of this drive was simply astonishing...and it really is...it reads even badly scratched CD's and now i get 100% quality with no C2 whereas my Plextor had problems with these discs...
The read speed is a bit slow but i use CDSpeed to spin the drive up and it works like a charm...

I am totally satisfied with my decision...

That's just what I did on Newegg.com, I got the PX-760A after reading a very lengthy and technical (some of it was over my head) review on cdrinfo.com.

Edit:
Oops, I forgot to say thank you to everyone that posted a reply!

I am anxiously waiting for your impressions...

If you don't mind, we can make a comparative review...write me a PM, ok?..

Under no circumstances burn DVDs faster than 12x with this burner. Quality can go to hell with higher speeds (see c't 8/06, p.121f).

I would've chosen maybe a NEC ND-4551. Plextors are too expensive.

Well, i choosed a PIONEER DVR-111D due to it's DVD+R burning quality (check the cdfreaks review)

I mean that you have to consider that you buy a burner TO BURN, not to rip !

CiTay, I have the NEC ND-4551, and while I recommend it for burning, I definitely cannot recommend it for ripping CDs. It has massive problems with scratched discs and the reading speed is not great on my machine with EAC and secure mode.

Yeah sorry, i should've added, i would choose it as a DVD burner. There are better rippers indeed.

Everything's going to have a positive and negative to it, in that it may be excellent in many areas and fair/good in others.

About the pricing, I didn't even expect a name brand quality dual format DVD burner to be under $100 USD let alone seeing brands such as LITE-ON inbetween the $30-$40 USD range. But then again I don't exactly keep up on current PC hardware to know about the pricing and such.

Out of the reviews I read on the PX-760A one of them (don't remember which) stated that it was poor with DVD-R media. I however don't write that many DVD's to begin with (rarely to be honest). I'm aware that writing at too fast of a speed can spell disaster (Hydrogenaudio.org is a good teacher) which is exactly what I ran into with a very horrible batch of Memorex CD-R's manufactured by CMC - which were the worst damn CD-R's I've ever used and will never use again.

I ended up choosing the Plextor PX-760A because of these key features:

AUTOSTRATEGY
(taken from the PX-760A data sheet):
Writing technology for unknown media with uneven quality. When a
writable disc isn’t listed in the drive’s internal media catalog, AUTOSTRATEGY automatically checks the disc and develops a write strategy. This couple with the automatic media selection to determine disc quality sold me 100% on the PX-760A.

PoweRec
(taken from the PX-760A data sheet):
Plextor Optimized Writing Error Reduction Control (PoweRec) adjusts laser power and writing speed so they’re at the optimum settings for that particular disc. Yet another feature that sold me.

Audio CD Ripping Capabilities:
The review on cdrinfo.com had some info about it, however it really needed no explaining because of the posts on HA.org about Plextor's ripping capabilities. I just can't wait to team it with PlexTools Professional and/or EAC to see if I can rip a few currently error ridden audio CD's that none of my current four drives can rip.


Will do! That is if I remember.

Please be careful not to fall for marketing terms. Many manufacturers have different fancy-sounding terms for what in essence is the same, sometimes fundamental and necessary feature.



SolidBurn of BenQ/Philips works better. Autostrategy allows over 12x speed DVD burning and often ruins quality in the outer regions of the media.




This is a standard feature that's also integrated in SolidBurn. It detects if the quality gets too bad and decreases the burn speed. But it's not very reliable (see >12x burning). Having said that, SolidBurn is also not 100% dependable. It's best to forget the idea that these features magically make every burn perfect, and rather limit to 8x or 12x speed manually.

Your best bet is really to just buy media that's not garbage, such as Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim (specifically, MCC 004)
Personally, I'd buy a Pioneer DVR-111D for burning, and something else for ripping.

I'd recommend the Pioneer DVR-111 for burning. BTW, you can buy the 111D and reflash to 111. The only difference between the two is the firmware.

Well I got the PX-760A and so far so good. The only strange thing is the drive access light stays on constantly with a disc loaded. I'm glad the install DVD had PlexTools Pro, and with some of it's funtionality I can remove a couple of old CD/DVD writing applications.

One question to other PlexTools Pro users, is it considered secure for DAE when selecting the proper error/re-read options?

The yellow LED? That's strange. If you're talking about the green LED, that's not the access light.

Looks yellow. I think I'll email Plextor support and ask why it's doing that.

They did the same thing with the 110D (which I own, and promptly crossflashed).

According to Plextor Tech Support via email they stated that "it's normal for the light to always be on while a disc is inserted." Thank goodness I didn't want to have to get an RMA number being as I haven't even had the drive for a day as of yet. I was very clear in my questioning so they'd understand as I asked why it was always on even if the disc wasn't in usage and wasn't being read from. That was an f'n quick response from their tech support team, I didn't expect a reply in only a few hours!


I can answer my own question here:
No it isn't secure for DAE using PlexTools Pro. I ripped a few audio CDs I bought used that I know have enough scratches to trigger error correction in EAC and PlexTools Pro didn't correct them when I listened to the ripped wav's. However after ripping the same tracks again but instead using EAC I listened to the wav's and I didn't hear any skips/glitches. EAC is still the DAE king and master on my PC!

Edit: Fixed a typo.

Did you really state that you are talking about the yellow LED? It's normal that the green LED is on when a CD is there. The dark orange LED is used only when writing or for certain error codes. Just in case you didn't know what the 3 LEDs stand for.

I looked at their support FAQ's first but none of the led error codes they listed pertained to what I was seeing, there's no blinking just a light on solid all the time when a disc is inserted rather it's being used or not. I can't even hear the drive spinning when the drive isn't being used - so perhaps it just an indication to the user that a disc is in the drive. Albeit it's strange, it will remind me not to shutdown with a disc in the drive, which is something I'm guilty of all the time. After I read the FAQ's only then did I email them.

I think we're talking at cross purposes. The light that you see - what color does it have? Is it green? If yes, that is normal and indicates that a disc is inside the unit. Is it yellow? If yes, that indicates that the unit is accessing the disc. If the yellow LED is on all the time without the unit doing anything, you have a problem.

Putting my two penn'orth in, a while back I bought the DVR-109 because I wanted to make a large scale run of dependably-readable DVDs to be given to over 100 people (sixth form DVD interactive yearbook, if you're asking), and whilst I'm happy with the drive and it's given me very little problems, its audio ripping capabilities aren't as good as my older Pioneer DVD-ROM drive (the DVD-106, which I bought a LONG time ago now in PC years) - the old slot loader can read the worse of my scratched discs better than the DVD recorder can, for some reason, if I had a spare IDE interface I'd probably buy a Lite-On now both for its audio ripping capabilities and its ability to bitset which would've REALLY come in handy late last year during that yearbook project of mine.

I use Burst mode to read heavily scratched Audio CDs with Pioneer DVR-110D - EAC's Secure mode has inappropriate ripping speed there. The drive recognizes the damaged part of a disc and reduces ripping speed accordingly, so the resulting wav image has no audible clicks to me.

With normal CDs it is fine with Secure mode, and it's DVD burning quality is just perfect.

Edit. Just re-listened image from a really damaged (it is actually slightly scratched on the top layer) CD, which I recently ripped with DVR-110D in burst mode and it *has* clicks and skips.

How is your Plextools configured? I ripped a batch of over 100 CDs with Plextools (twice) always comparing the results. Everytime the files failed to match (binary file compare) Plextools successfully reported the error in the log. Also, there were errors successfully corrected. This was with a PX-708A.

Im also looking for a dvd burner.
Id like to be able to buy a drive that is very multi use. ie good at ripping/burning both CD and DVD.
Bearing this in mind im pretty certain that the LITE-ON SHM-165H6S is the drive for me. It costs only ~£22 and has many good reviews and seems to be the best multiuse drive out there.

Could anyone confirm this for me or suggest alternatives that I should look at. (Id like to rule out Plextors as they cost 2-3x as much)

As seen here:

Nothing I've selected in the configuration fixes it, it seems to be ripping in burst mode. It doesn't really matter to me though because I use EAC anyways.

This isn't an attempt to say yes or no against a Plextor, it's just my individual thoughts:
I wish I had went with the LITE-ON SHM-165H6S, for only about $38 USD - too late now. The "myth" of Plextor being so good, and so much better than anything else should be taken with a sigh and a grain of salt nowadays. "Perhaps" things were that way a few years ago but I honestly don't think so anymore and for 1/3 of the cost I very well could have been completely happy and delighted with the LITE-ON, or for that matter another similiarly priced brand.

I was under the belief/impression that a Plextor drive coupled with PlexTools Pro software would be the best configuration I could get. But the reality of it is I already have CD/DVD burning software (Burrrn, Burnatonce, Sonic RecordNow Deluxe) that I prefer much more over what I'll call the clunky PlexTools Pro, which is close to getting uninstalled from my system - albeit I know PlexTools Pro can control allot of functions of the unit, however I seriously doubt I'll ever use them or have any real need for them. Also my old three year old TEAC DVD+RW DV-W58E which has only been used for creating CD-R and CD-RW backups and only a handful of rips with EAC seems to rip not only better, but allot faster.

That option screen looks OK (you should set retries to '99', though), but did you also select "Use audio CD error detection" in the DAE window?
Plextools always rips at burst speed, so this is normal. AFAIK, it should give the same security as EAC in secure mode with Cache override an C2 enabled, but at much faster speed.

Yes I have it configured to use 'Audio error detection' as it says in the main DAE window.

Hehe. I got burnt badly, too. Just search for Triza and Plextor. In short my Liteon CD-RW has far better DAE. Even better then the old Premium. Plextools is increadibly buggy. It cannot even remember some settings. Let alone that I cannot even save profiles. And 2.28 had better DAE than 2.32. I could replicate this with a Premium, and did it 3 times by up and downgrading 3 times and ripping in between. Plextor has a good marketing and bullshit machine. Never again. But their RMA machine is spot-on. Still it is unlikely that they get business from me in the future. The funny thing is that I felt ripped off because all the bullshit around that brand and all their claims about being "the king of quality". When I buy a Liteon or go to their piece of junk looking website, I do not expect much, yet they more or less deliver. Not a perfect product, but my Liteon CD-RW is 5 times cheaper.

Beware the cult of Plextor.

For the money and what you get in return, the BenQ 1640 is one of the best DVD burner bargains of the year as far as I can tell.

I would've bought one if I didn't already own a trusty NEC-3500.

It's not just Plextor that feeds us this "the best" line I've grown used to for several years. Also there's multiple members of forums, and don't forget all the reviews. Anyways I'm not going to bitch about the drive because I've learnt a valuable lesson and should have payed more attention to what CiTay had written about not falling into marketing terms a few posts earilier. I find it really funny that the LITE-ON was the first drive I looked at and thought heavily about purchasing but "stupidly" changed my mind, oh why! Oh well.

But in the realm of optical DVD drives, they're the loudest about it because their drives tend to be the most expensive and they have to justify that via the marketing. Funny thing is one of their more affordable drives is just a rebadged BenQ (a unit that is inferior to the 1640).

Plextor has a great customer support IMO and their "original" drives also have some nice gimmicks. Anyways, I am getting my second PX-712A replacement unit tomorrow or in two days.

Talking about great customer support, Plextor sent me a PX-755A as replacement unit for my second defective PX-712A!!!