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  • #1

    Which DVD Drive?

    Ok, now I have a nice spangly G400 DH 32MB and it would be nice to take advantage of the TV Out for DVD. I notice that quite a few peeps are into DVD...so can someone please tell me which DVD ROM Drive should I buy? One mate told me to get the Creative Labs cos you can change the Region on it and someone else told me it doesn't matter 'cos you can get software to change the region no matter what the drive? Who is right? I don't want to fork out £60-70 for a cheapo to find I should have bought a better one 'cos of the region selecting?
    Thanks in advance for any advice!

    ------------------
    G400 32MB DualHead,
    PIII450@504,
    64Mb,
    QDI Brilliant 1 Mobo,
    Goldstar 32X CDROM,
    6.4Gb UDMA SAMSUNG HD,
    3.2GB Quantum Fireball UDMA HD,
    Int. IDE ZIP Drive,
    ASUSCOM ISDN TA (Internal)
    10/100MB Fast Ethernet Card,
    SB AWE64 Gold,
    Belinea 10 70 10, 17" Monitor,
    Hmmmm and a Floppy Drive
    Geforce 4 Ti 4200 64MB,
    PIII800,
    256MB,
    ABIT SA6R 815E MB,
    Pioneer 104S DVD ROM,
    Plextor 16/10/40A CDwriter,
    40GB UDMA100 Fujitsu HD,
    80GB Maxtor ATA133 7200RPM HD,
    Int. IDE ZIP Drive,
    512K ADSL Link
    10/100MB Fast Ethernet Card,
    SB Live 1024,
    Belinea 10 70 10, 17" Monitor,
    Hmmmm and a Floppy Drive
    Tags: None
  • #2
    I've been looking at getting a DVD drive as well. So far, the Pioneer 103 series seems to be good. I'm looking for something that is region-free, and has good output (DA, SPDIF). Advice?
    Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

    Comment

    • #3
      up!
      Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

      Comment

      • #4
        If you don't concern about SPDIF, I think that Toshiba SM-1212 is a cheap and good solution. Moreover, it is very quiet, and there is no Dual Layer DVD disc compatibility problem, like Matrix...

        ------------------
        Celeron 300P@558/2.0v, P3B-F, G400DH/32MB

        [This message has been edited by WayneHu (edited 08 November 1999).]
        P4-2.8C, IC7-G, G550

        Comment

        • #5
          the pioneer 103 is a truly superb pice of kit. It's regionless by default. Plays every type of cd you can possibly think of and isn't particularly expensive. If you want one try www.scan.co.uk they have them at about 54 quid plus vat i think.
          1st system

          Athlon AXIA Y 1Ghz @ 1.40Ghz, coolermaster hsf, Elite K7s6a, 512 MB Crucial DDR RAM, 20GB IBM 7200RPM Hard drive, Radeon 8500le 64mb, SB Audigy, 3 com 10/100NIC, 300w PSU, midi tower, FPS 1600 Surround, Belinea 17" monitor, Intellimouse explorer USB

          System 2

          Athlon TB 1.4 @ 1.5, Zalman Flower in silent mode, Elite K7S6A, 768MB DDRAM, Ati Radeon 8500le 64mb ddr, SB Audigy, 3Com 10/100NIC, 80GB IBM 7200rpm, Liteon 16 speed DVD, Lite-on 24102b CDRW, Songcheer Superwide, USB scanner, Intellimouse explorer, Microsoft keyboard, 19in iiyama Monitor, FPS1600

          system 3
          Abit ST6 RAID, Celly 1.2 @1.4 ,512MB SDRAM, Zalman Flower HSF noisey mode, ATi Radeon 8500le, SBLIVE, 3com 10/100 NIC, 80GB Seagate barracude HDD, 40GB IBM120GXP, 60GB IBM60GXP,Extra highpoint controller card, 16x Pioneer DVD, Pioneer DVR-104 DVD-RW, ATX Full tower case. 300w psu, 17in LG monitor, 20in Samsumg telly, epson stylus colour 880, 200W RMS Surround sound amp with Mission M71 Speakers.
          .

          System 4
          Elite K7S5A, Duron 1.0, 128mb sdram, Coolermaster hsf, 80GB 120GXP IBM, Liteon 16x DVD, Radeon 7200 64MB DDR, SBLIVE.

          Linksys 4 port router/firewall

          512k Cable modem. nice

          Comment

          • #6
            I use the AOpen 6x/32x DVD-ROM player. Haven't encountered any problem and seems very fast with both DVDs and CD-ROMs. And it is not region locked as long as you don't remove the jumper on the back.

            Comment

            • #7
              As far as I know the Pioneer 103 does not have a digital out which is why I never bought one. But, their slot load feature of the 103S is very nice.

              Also, there are about three companies that make DVD/CD-ROM drives. Its usually faceplate and firmware differences.

              I would go for either a Creative or Sony.

              But, thats just me.

              CB
              Abit BX6 Rev.1
              Celeron 366A PPGA @ 566, 2.1v
              192 meg RAM, CAS2
              13.0 gig Maxtor 4320 HD
              6.0 gig Maxtor (in removeable drive bay)
              HP8110i 4x2x24
              Pioneer DVD-104
              SB Live! 1024
              USB ZIP 100
              G400 32MB DH 5ns RAM at 187/211
              Two KDS 17" Trinitron monitors
              YAMAHA HTR-5140 Reciever

              Comment

              • #8
                I have a Pioneer 103S (6x/32x) and love it. It's a great drive. Slot load is cool.

                It's read every CD I've put in there so far, including a burnt backup, and an old slightly scratched demo CD.

                Clint

                [This message has been edited by Clint (edited 08 November 1999).]
                Intel Celeron 300A @ 464mhz
                Abit BH6 with LN BIOS
                192MB PC100 SDRAM
                Matrox G400 16MB @ ~132/174 (105%)
                Xitel Storm Platinum Vortex2 (A3D 2.0)
                Quantum KA 9.1GB 7200rpm
                Western Digital Caviar 8.4GB 5400rpm
                Pioneer 6x/32x DVD (Slot load)
                Acer 76c 17" Monitor
                MS IntelliMouse Explorer USB
                MS Sidewinder FF Joystick
                CTS PCI network card
                56k ext modem, HP Deskjet600
                UMAX 1220U USB Scanner
                Windows98 SP1, DirectX7

                Comment

                • #9
                  Pioneer 103S here also. Don't go for the newer 10x if you are worried about regions.

                  Tony.
                  FT.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Yup, I also have the Pioneer 103S. So far... no complaints.

                    However, if you want to compare more drives, try http://www.dvdutils.com/. They have a large table looking at features of many drives. They also have some interesting and potentially useful articles about almost everything you'd want to know about DVDs.

                    I must admit, however, that I was disappointed in one article, so far, where they discussed the use of ATI DVD Player 3.1 to cicumvent macrovision. I was disappointed in that I couldn't get the program working properly without macrovision with the G400, if indeed it's capable. It took me awhile just to rest everything back to the Matrox DVD Player and get it working properly.

                    Anyway, they have another interesting section on RIPPERS, although I haven't yet had the pleasure of trying them out.

                    --------------------------------

                    Windows 98SE
                    AOpen AX6BC Pro Gold (24k)
                    Cel 366 (@550, 2.1v)
                    64 Megs PC100 (1 DIMM)
                    Matrox Mill G400 Dual 32 Meg w PD5.30 (@119%)
                    Sound Blaster Live!Value w Liveware 3.0
                    Pioneer 103S DVD3 6x/32x
                    3DMark99 Results (@ 1024 x 768 x 32 x 32, triple)
                    3DMarks ~4200
                    CPU 3DMarks ~5250
                    No Overclocking (@ 1024 x 768 x 32 x 32, triple)
                    3DMarks ~3000
                    CPU 3DMarks ~3500


                    [This message has been edited by James (edited 08 November 1999).]

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      I have Toshiba M1212 in a machine at work and use the SPDIF (digital out, the two wire thingy) and it sounds great. As previously mentioned www.dvdutils.com is a good place to get stuff. Yeah and all the other things that WayneHu said are true, very quiet. It copied the Win98 dir on the SE CD in less than 20 secs. At www.mwave.com it costs US$79.90
                      [size=1]D3/\/7YCR4CK3R
                      Ryzen: Asrock B450M Pro4, Ryzen 5 2600, 16GB G-Skill Ripjaws V Series DDR4 PC4-25600 RAM, 1TB Seagate SATA HD, 256GB myDigital PCIEx4 M.2 SSD, Samsung LI24T350FHNXZA 24" HDMI LED monitor, Klipsch Promedia 4.2 400, Win11
                      Home: M1 Mac Mini 8GB 256GB
                      Surgery: HP Stream 200-010 Mini Desktop,Intel Celeron 2957U Processor, 6 GB RAM, ADATA 128 GB SSD, Win 10 home ver 22H2
                      Frontdesk: Beelink T4 8GB

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        CrazyBee,

                        Hey Crazy guy/gal. Are you saying that the Pioneer 103S doesn't have digital audio out? I believe you're mistaken if so. My Pioneer 103S has the plug for digital out, although I don't presently use it.

                        Actually, I've forgotten when such a thing is useful. When would you be playing stuff that would make use of the digital out?

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          See el_bruto's response in: http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/004984.html where DVD drives were previously discussed.
                          <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Thanks for the replys everyone!
                            and thanks xortam for the link to that previous thread..... loadsa info there!


                            ------------------
                            G400 32MB DualHead,
                            PIII450@504,
                            64Mb,
                            QDI Brilliant 1 Mobo,
                            Goldstar 32X CDROM,
                            6.4Gb UDMA SAMSUNG HD,
                            3.2GB Quantum Fireball UDMA HD,
                            Int. IDE ZIP Drive,
                            ASUSCOM ISDN TA (Internal)
                            10/100MB Fast Ethernet Card,
                            SB AWE64 Gold,
                            Belinea 10 70 10, 17" Monitor,
                            Hmmmm and a Floppy Drive
                            Geforce 4 Ti 4200 64MB,
                            PIII800,
                            256MB,
                            ABIT SA6R 815E MB,
                            Pioneer 104S DVD ROM,
                            Plextor 16/10/40A CDwriter,
                            40GB UDMA100 Fujitsu HD,
                            80GB Maxtor ATA133 7200RPM HD,
                            Int. IDE ZIP Drive,
                            512K ADSL Link
                            10/100MB Fast Ethernet Card,
                            SB Live 1024,
                            Belinea 10 70 10, 17" Monitor,
                            Hmmmm and a Floppy Drive

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

                              Comment

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