good dvd+-rw for the price, phillips?

[hackslash]

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10086625&catid=20236#

need a dvd drive. figure I might as well get a decent one, with all the standard features.

is this one worth it?

[trinh]

go to your computer shops and buy liteon, nec or lg or pioneer brand, there're plenty of them in toronto. They cost about $40 which is a bit cheaper than the philips.

[Jucius Maximus]

I would choose LG first. NEC and Pioneer are also good.

Lite-on is cheap, configurable and good for hobbyists but I wouldn't recommend it for people who just want a solid drive to burn their discs.

[M-e-X-x]

i've said it many times.. i can't recommend anyone to go LG... i've had 2 fail on me... they're ok at the begining, but fuk up the same media i give them later on.. ie: i use the same media and at the beginning the discs burn fine.. a while later, using newer media (same, just manufactured later on), it fuks it up!

Pioneer is solid, reputable, and worth every penny

[apvm]

i've said it many times.. i can't recommend anyone to go LG... i've had 2 fail on me... they're ok at the begining, but fuk up the same media i give them later on.. ie: i use the same media and at the beginning the discs burn fine.. a while later, using newer media (same, just manufactured later on), it fuks it up!

Pioneer is solid, reputable, and worth every penny

Same here, I have two LG failed on me as well, a 4x and a 8X both within a year tho, the 8X was a rma replacement of the 4X (4X was OEM, 8X was retail box) they sent me another new retail box 8X to replace the failed 8X but I sold it and never look back. One thing to add is LG rma is very smooth.

I'd recommend Pioneer for the newer drives but given today's price of a DVD-RW drives, they don't make them as good as before, expect them to fail in a year or two if you burn a lot.

[Jon Lai]

Strange. My LG 4160 is still running strong after 1.5 years and having made almost 1000 burns. *touchwood*

[hackslash]

any suggestions as a good place to buy any of those alternative brands with the same set of features as the phillips, and around the same price?

[The Digital Dolphin]

For drives the only one I can recommend at this point is the current Pioneer model (DVR-212 and DVR-112, one is SATA the other IDE). Lite-On isn't too bad, but they are kind of hit and miss. Samsung and Asus are pretty crappy. Toshiba is utter garbage when it comes to optical drives (especially burners!). NEC is not bad, but it uses the same chipset as Pioneer's, and I've never found them to offer nearly as good firmware support. The biggest problem with LG's lately is that they seem to release new models every 2-3 weeks, so their firmware support is some of the worst in the industry right now. So basically it goes like this:

Pioneer
Lite-On / NEC / Philips (Philips is mostly Lite-On OEMs)
LG / Samsung
Asus / Toshiba

The last thing I'm going to mention is that speed ratings don't matter. A good 16x burner will perform about as quickly as a 20x burner. It's sad, but true.