Hello to all,

I'm new here but have been lurking around in the past.  This site is probably the best on the web when it comes to reviews of DVD/CD drives.  And that's what brought me here.

My Plextor PX-712 is behaving badly and I'm looking for a replacement.  Of course Plextor in not what they used to be so I have been scouring the reviews looking for a competitor to the Plextor drives and a successor to the PX-712.

Quality is of the utmost importance to me.  When it comes to burning data/movies/music, I want the information to last and to be burned without errors.  So I try to use good media, namely Taiyo Yuden.

I'm looking for a drive that has excellent error correction for both CD and DVD and excellent burn quality.  I'm not interested in having a drive that does this at the highest speeds because I tend to burn audio at 8x-16x where as DVDs get burned at 4x-8x.

Please give me your suggestions.  Your help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Ted

Right now, my favorite is the Samsung SH-S203B... I still have a couple of Plextors (PX-716A and PX-75SA), but they get little use.  The Samsung is actually a very capable drive.

(in reply to tv69)

These were the final words posted on the CDRInfo review for the Samsung SH-S203D Drive.

Starting with CD/DVD reading and error correction tests, the reading process of pressed CD and DVD media was completed successfully, reading all of them but the 90 and 99 mins audio discs. As far as CD error correction is concerned, the drive produced high levels of noise which could be audible. Furthermore, the drive's error hiding mechanisms are not so good, thus spreading the noise to almost all the surface of the disc. However, this does not mean that the produced sound will be defective in all its extent. On the other hand, DVD error correction tests showed us that the drive is a good DVD media reader, correcting and successfully reading almost all of the defective discs. Procceding to the writing quality tests, the Samsung drive turned out to be an average writer. It was able to read all the burned DVD discs without any speed fluctuations, but the Datarius Analyzer reported uncorrectable errors on the majority of them. Furthermore, the analyzer was unable to read some parts of a few discs. As for the CD media, all the burned discs produced no uncorrectable errors, and the majority of them were flawless burns. To sum up, the SH-S203D left us with an average impression. Its pros are its high DVD±R DL writing speed as well as its good DVD error correction mechanisms. Should the writing quality be improved, the drive will definitely be one of the best currently available. This Samsung drive can be found at the stores for about $40-$60.

The bold text makes this drive seem to NOT hold up to the high quality of error correction.  Am I reading this incorrectly?? I know the review is for the SH-S203D but is the SH-S203B any different?

TV

(in reply to SithTracy)

Gracious yes child the 203B is VERY Different!

(in reply to tv69)

So I have looked around to find what the differences are between the 203B and the 203D.  Was not able to find any info on the D version.

So what are the differences???

(in reply to qz33)

I see what you're saying now.

Look here http://club.cdfreaks.com/f105/s203b-s203d-232679/

Not alot of help but its something.

(in reply to tv69)

quote:

ORIGINAL: qz33

I see what you're saying now.

Look here http://club.cdfreaks.com/f105/s203b-s203d-232679/

Not alot of help but its something.

Thanks qz33.  It's clear I'm not the only one confused.  Samsung should really try a different naming convention for their drives.  Having all numbers/letters the same except for the last letter could be hard for many to distinguish.

CDRinfo is a great site, the only one so far that I have found that performs such thorough tests, especially the testing with the Clover and Datarius systems.

However, they seem to perform all tests at the highest speeds.  I wonder what the performance of many of these drives would be like with reduced burning speeds.  I usually burn audio CDs at either 8 or 16 times and DVDs get burned at either 4 or 8 times.  Like CDRinfo advises, I burn at these reduced speeds because I want my burns to be accurate and to have longevity.  I still wonder which drive would serve me best based on this criteria.  Could CDRinfo add these slower burn tests to their reviews?

I also notice no reviews of the newer 800 series Plextor drives.  I know they are not as good as previous drives but it would be nice to see a review.

One thing I liked about the old Plextor drives was Plextools.  The newer drives do not provide as much functionality with Plextools.  Are there other optical drives that provide similar functionality where you could somewhat accurately test the quality of your burns.  I know it will never provide truly accurate results compared to Clover/Datarius, but I still like to have that kind of functionality.  I have burned audio CDs on media that was faulty and had many C2 errors present.  So I reburned a new disc once I discovered the C2 errors.

Thanks for the advice,

TV

(in reply to qz33)

tv69, hi. I'm new here, as you. I'm also searching for the new optical drive..
Guys, what about this rating? http://www.testfreaks.com/optical-drives/?sort=score
As I understand scores based on professional and user reviews of optical drives. Please let me know are these scores really good? Is this objective way to find something interesting? If no - please suggest me other ratings of articles how to choose right optical drive.
Thank you!

(in reply to tv69)