I've come into some cash recently, and rather than doing the sensible thing and put it towards my education, I've decided to do some computer upgrading. Most of the new components I'm looking at shouldn't be too difficult to decide upon, but the area where I'm running into the biggest difficulties is the CD-burning/reading component area.

The gist of it is: I have very difficult-to-rip CDs (bizarre encrusted dust patterns, thanks to a terrible CD-case. My own fault. I noticed it happening for quite a while), which I believe a better drive than my ASUS 52x could rip, and I'd like something with the capabilities (audially speaking) of a Plextor. Yet I also want DVD playback. Possibly even DVD+R or something for large-scale backups.

Thus, a few questions:

• How good is the Plextor CD-writer/DVD-reader?
  
• What is a good DVD-writer?
  
• Are these DVD-writers even on the level of the Plextor/Lite-On in terms of audio extraction?

I have attempted research, but there's no easy source to go to for information. I'm not certain whether or not it's worthwhile to even purchase a DVD writer. Please help convince me to take one path or another.

The uses of this drive will be likely everything I can think of to use it for: DVD-playback, archival, audio-extraction (which is a rather important use), probably not so much gaming, although the knowledge that it can properly duplicate CDs that have bizarre copy-protections will make me happier.

With current prices of dvd-rw drives, I wouldn't use one for dae. If you are getting a dvd-rw drive, just get one that's good at writing dvd's, for example the multi-format Sony drive (DRU500 or something?). It'll live longer if you use it for archiving only.

For dae, I'd get a 'specialist dae' drive, like the Liteon 48/24/48 cd-rw drive. It's cheap, and can be trusted to report C2 errors 100% accurately (see here), and at the same time, it reads almost anything (edit: I mean, scratches and dirt don't matter to it). Note that Liteon 48246S and 52246S are the same in this matter, the important thing is the 6 in the typename (denoting the control chip).

For Dae LiteOn (allmost as good as Plextor but tons cheaper)
DVD burner, I would wait until the format wars are over (learnt that from my father who got a BetaMax) .

I just bought a LiteOn 48246S burner with the latest firmware (SS0B) and it can't read at least two CDs I have in my collection. At first I thought it was a faulty unit and the retailer exchanged it for a new one.

Now I realise that one of the CDs is definitely copy-protected (says so on the back cover!) and I suspect the other may be copy-protected - but being circa 1998, it may not be. Both CDs are in perfect condition.

Both CDs read okay in an old unbranded CD-ROM (read-only) drive installed on the same IDE cable, but they stop the LiteOn dead in its tracks..

Canar,


Slightly off topic, but I had a major problem like the one you describe from your cd case. I have found that the Skip Doctor works wonders on this.

Skip Doctor, eh? I'll have to look that one up. It may be off-topic, but it's helpful, heh. Thanx.

Hmm, I have one, but I was using my Pioneer SD-M1502 dvd drive to rip my cds because Lite-On caches audio data and therefore it's much slower.
I wish I didn't mind the price and got a Plextor, their audio extraction software is apparently so good.

I own a Plextor. I have owned a Lite-On, and an Asus CD/RW.

Plextor is clearly worth the money. Not for copy protected cds, but for audio ripping and overall writing, Plextor is sweet.

The Pioneer DVD is very well rated for problem discs at rip time.

Peace,
David

I'd personally recommend what a lot of people here have said, and that is: look for a good price on a DVD-RW drive, and buy a CD-RW for ripping. I have a Pioneer DVR-A03 DVD-RW (2x1x8x4) and a Samsung 48x24x48 CD-RW. DVD writers typically don't perform that great with DAE (slow speed; my drive can only read data CD's to 24x), and with CD-RW drives being so cheap, you wouldn't want to use your DVD-RW to rip anyway. As far as DVD format, I would either go with a multi-burner (i.e., + and -), or a - RW, but not a + only drive, as the discs are more expensive and (said to be) less compatible with certain players.

My 2 cents on DVD writers (don't know much about CD-RW's):

Good DVD-Writers: Pioneer DVR-A03/04 (2x), DVR-A05 (4x), and also Cendeyne drives which are rebadged Pioneers, Sony DRU 500 (+/- RW)

Bad DVD-writers (stay away from): Panasonic LF350 (?) (DVD-RAM, 1x R), HP dvdi100 (Only burns +RW's, not R's!).

You might try using the firmware they use in this review, the drive performs quite well on copy protection there. Be aware though - it's a 52246S firmware, so that would mean "hacking" your drive.

*Emotional mode*: I would be reporting how mine performs, were it not that the people I ordered the drive from took off with the money paid in advance. Now the bank has laid hands on their property, and I've been begging them to just give me my drive, since I'm a customer at the same bank... Not going to work that way I'm afraid...

That's odd. I own two Pioneer DVD drives (one SCSI and one IDE) and they both suck at DAE. Absolute worst performance and quality I've ever seen on a CD/DVD-ROM... >_<

I second that. Just when I thought no optical drive can be worse at DAE than my HP CD-Writer 9300, I bought a Pioneer 106S DVD-reader...

Not to mention the utter lack of speed of the Pioneer (2.5x secure at silent mode), it cannot do a proper burst-mode rip even of brand new CD's. Constant skips and scratches everywhere.

Luckily it's a very good data reader, you can shove your pizza leftovers in it and get a full TLOTR: TTT movie

BTW since my HP writer is getting old, I'm planning to replace it with Liteon burner. Does anyone know whether the 52x burner is better than the 48x model? Some hardware reviews (cdfreaks.com and such) claim that the 52x drive is better at just about everything than the 48x model. Can anyone second that?

I can't verify it but I doubt it. Wouldn't surprise me if it's only the firmware that differs. I've already managed to reach 50x reading on my 48x burner without any firmware replacement. It's very good at DAE too, using C2. I get identical results with and without C2 in EAC with it... (LTR-48246S is the name of the drive, using the latest firmware...)

It would need more testing, see my tests in http://www.digital-inn.de/showthread.php?t...14640#post61042




Skip doctor repairs CD in bad condition, not CD in perfect state.



With C2 turned on, caching doesn't slow the ripping as long as no error is detected.

Thanks, I didn't know that.



It does, actually. See here, fifth post.

Oh yes, it turned out that the previous LTR-48125W model was indeed a bit worse than LTR-52246S. The newer LTR-48246S should be almost identical to the 52x model. I guess I will invest on the LTR-48246S because it's considerably cheaper than the 52x model

From cdfreaks.com:

Thank you all for the input and time. I'll likely end up going with a Pioneer / Plextor combo, at least from your recommendations. Heh, any further comment on that? I'll look into these more, and make my decision. Still not sure if this is the most economical use of my cash, but what the hell? I've allocated it for computer upgrades, so why not use it for that, eh?

If you're looking for great "bad disk" and copy protection readability, check out the drive I wrote up Here