Also, SithTracy, what is the model number of the SATA LG drive?  I've been searching the net with no luck so far...

(in reply to Dimitris32)

LG's is the GSA-H30N

(in reply to Dimitris32)

Thanks SithTracy,

what is your general opinion on my previous question (see below)? 

Would you say that the LG's have been generally better in terms of writing quality and ability to back up movies (incidentally, do you know what chipset they use and how this chipset rate compared to the one used by LiteOn)?

(sorry for repeating myself, it's probably my difficulty in deciding which drive I should go for!)  :) 

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dimitris32

Hi there,

would you say the LG is better than the LiteOn on the above 2 areas that I am interested in?  (writing quality and ability to back up DVD movies)

(in reply to Dimitris32)

I'll give you my opinion... I like LG DVD burners.  They have two chipsets, Renesas and Panasonic... I like them both.  I have never owned a LITE-ON DVD Burner because I have never heard or read a favorable review.

What I don't like about LG drives is this... they seem to have very few firmware updates (almost none) and seem to role new models out frequently.  I guess I was spoiled by BenQ; a company that stuck with a product line and improved it... of course that business model did not seem favorable to the BenQ ODD line of business and they sold it to LITE-ON... but when you spend on average thirty dollars U.S. for a drive, I guess it's not bad.  The LG is an excellent burner and the quality is superb.  I have three drives and here they are with their uses:

• Plextor PX-716A - Used primarily for DAE and audio CD work
• BenQ DW1640 - Used as a quality scanner and a DVD Ripper
• LG GSA-H10N - Used to burn superb quality DVD's on quality media.
  

Now, if you want to work with CD+G discs (Karaoke), the LG is not for you.  They claim to support CD+G, but it does not comply to standards so I've heard.

(in reply to Dimitris32)

Thanks very much for the info, SithTracy..

I hope there will be reviews for the current SATA drives by Plextor, LG and LiteOn in the near future..

Something else I was wondering today regards LiteOn's discontinuation of that 16x SATA drive and lack of support for it.  That model is not even on their website.  They made 18x and 20x 'super allwrite' models, which, however, had an IDE interface.  Why can that be?

(in reply to SithTracy)

quote:

Why can that be?

People have issues with SATA ODD drives because of the many flavors of SATA support on mother boards and add on-cards.  I would expect it is not cost effective for support to trouble-shoot and RMA ODD drives on the SATA interface.

Of course I have said this before and I'll say it again, I am not sold on the SATA interface for ODD; it is fine for HDD, but ODD OEMs and SATA OEMs still have work to do.

Best of luck to you if you go with a burner on the SATA interface.

(in reply to Dimitris32)

Cheers, and thanks very much for your valuable input.  :)

(in reply to SithTracy)

The LiteOn doesn't even compare.

If these are your choices, definately get the LG

(in reply to Dimitris32)

Hi there MP3Mogul,

you mean the LG is much better in both (a) writing quality and (b) ability to back up movies?

Sorry to repeat myself once again, but do you know, by any chance, what chipset the LG drive has and in what respects this drive is better than LiteOn?

Thanks in advance,

dimitris

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

I'll give you my opinion... I like LG DVD burners.  They have two chipsets, Renesas and Panasonic... I like them both.  I have never owned a LITE-ON DVD Burner because I have never heard or read a favorable review.

What I don't like about LG drives is this... they seem to have very few firmware updates (almost none) and seem to role new models out frequently.  I guess I was spoiled by BenQ; a company that stuck with a product line and improved it... of course that business model did not seem favorable to the BenQ ODD line of business and they sold it to LITE-ON... but when you spend on average thirty dollars U.S. for a drive, I guess it's not bad.  The LG is an excellent burner and the quality is superb.  I have three drives and here they are with their uses:

• Plextor PX-716A - Used primarily for DAE and audio CD work
  
• BenQ DW1640 - Used as a quality scanner and a DVD Ripper
  
• LG GSA-H10N - Used to burn superb quality DVD's on quality media.

Now, if you want to work with CD+G discs (Karaoke), the LG is not for you.  They claim to support CD+G, but it does not comply to standards so I've heard.

Another thing I wanted to ask is, will LG drives still produce better burning quality results than LiteOn when I use average quality media?  That's another thing to consider, I think...

Namely, which drive produces better quality when using lower / average quality media?

(in reply to SithTracy)

quote:

would you say the LG is better than the LiteOn on the above 2 areas that I am interested in?  (writing quality and ability to back up DVD movies)

Hell yes!  I could probably spit on a disc and get better writing quality that a LITE-ON!!!  Okay, I'm exaggerating... a little!  Frankly, LITE-ON has done nothing to impress me.  I hoped with them buying BenQ's ODD division, they recognized a problem and would do something about it... After all, they did make pretty solid CD burners.  So far it does not look like LITE-ON is doing to much to make a quality drive.  The only reason I would consider a LITE-ON is for quality scanning, not burning.

(in reply to Dimitris32)

quote:

ORIGINAL: SithTracy

quote:

would you say the LG is better than the LiteOn on the above 2 areas that I am interested in?  (writing quality and ability to back up DVD movies)

Hell yes!  I could probably spit on a disc and get better writing quality that a LITE-ON!!!  Okay, I'm exaggerating... a little!  Frankly, LITE-ON has done nothing to impress me.  I hoped with them buying BenQ's ODD division, they recognized a problem and would do something about it... After all, they did make pretty solid CD burners.  So far it does not look like LITE-ON is doing to much to make a quality drive.  The only reason I would consider a LITE-ON is for quality scanning, not burning.

Would LG still be the winner, though, if we used lower/medium quality media?  (Just wondering if the LiteOn might produce better quality DVDs with lower quality media...)

(in reply to SithTracy)

What kind of media are you using?

(in reply to Dimitris32)

Well, ask yourself a question:

    Do you want to trust your movie backups or data to LOWER QUALITY MEDIA?

(in reply to SithTracy)

Right, no use cutting corners.  DVD burners can be had for roughly 30 bucks... That's a drop in the bucket... I'm with MP3Mogul, don't pinch pennies on questionable media.

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

Hi there,

and thanks for your responses.  I do intend to buy good media (although I don't think I will afford to always buy the best ones, e.g., Taiyo Yudens) but I wanted to know whether LGs burning quality would be better than LiteOn's overall, regardless of media used, or whether that would be the case only with high quality media.

One reason for this is that I won't always know who makes a particular spindle I see at my local pc shop, or that the manufacturers behind well known brands (e.g., Verbatim) might change... In that case, if, for whatever reason one tries to burn a lower quality DVD disk on an LG drive, would the burning quality still be better than LiteOn's?

In other words, would LG drives always produce better burning quality than Liteon's, regardless of media used?

Incidentally, thanks very much for your input to my questions...

(in reply to SithTracy)