Posted by Bob on 11/03/05 14:48

On Thu, 03 Nov 2005 08:24:00 -0500, "Karen C."
<karenscribes@yahoo.com> wrote:

>> Not really. A visit to CDFreaks forum will show you that it is crucial
>> to match the media to burners. Lite-On has its own list of preferred
>> media.

>Good grief! I just took a look at the CDFreaks site. There's a
>whole heck of a lot more to this DVD recording/playing stuff than
>I'd ever dreamed there would be. Wish I'd known before I let DH
>talk me into the Lite-On burner. Thanks for pointing me to that
>site. I can see we have a whole lot of reading/research to do
>before we get the equipment/software working the way we need it
>to. Thanks, again!

As posters to this and similar DVD forums know, I am a fan of the NEC
3540. I conducted an informal survey several months ago and the
consensus was that the 3540 had the best overall performance plus the
largest following, so you would never be alone. My son got one too,
and we have not been disappointed. CDFreaks love that drive - there is
very good hack firmware available that defeats Riplock and region
codes called LD1.W5 (.7 is the latest, but I use .5).

The BenQ 1640 is coming out of nowhere to become the latest fashion -
CDFreaks are flipping over it. But then they have never met a burner
they didn't love at first sight, so I am going to give it some time
for them to discover the warts. But if you are adventuresome and have
the money to risk on a relative newcomer to the spotlight, the 1640
may be your ticket.

But for my conservative money, the NEC 3540 is the way to go. The
others, including Lite-On, LG, Pioneer, Plextor are credible. Do NOT,
repeat DO NOT, ever touch anything branded by Sony. They are notorious
screw job artists. Don't sucker for their name - they don't even
support their own products. We had a Sony/Lite-On and got rid of it
after making coasters all the time with a variety of different discs.
Now we have about 100 more coasters as the discs we burnt with it are
no longer readable after 6-12 months.

For someone like you the NEC 3540 is your best bet. You can get one in
your favorite color at either Directron or Newegg. I know Directron
personally because I live about 8 miles from them. Newegg has been
reported to be shipping defective drives. That may be a false rumor
but they do resell returned merchandise.




--

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable
one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore
all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-- George Bernard Shaw

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