Recommend a DVD-ROM drive

[GNEP]

Hi guys...

My Pioneer DVD ROM drive (slot- not tray-loading) just died on me, so I need a cheap and reliable replacment. Any particular brands that come recommended? Lite-On, Samsung, NEC, Panasonic, Pioneer all seem to be around the same price (30-35 quid incl VAT). I just want something reliable (on IDE).

No real hurry, as my CD-RW stands in pretty well until I want to watch any movies...

Thanks

Gnep

[DentyCracker]

Toshiba

[lecter]

ASUS. Great performance and it's zonefree without having to be reflashed. You might also consider sticking with Pioneer though, from what I've seen their tray-loading units are top notch.

[Jammrock]

Plextor or LiteOn. Plextor for quality, LiteOn for cheapness and good performance. Of course, with the Plextor you have to take all the burning stuff with it too.

Jammrock

[VJ]

I am pleased with my Toshiba SD-M1612...

(Apparently now replaced by the 1712)

http://www.toshiba.com/taissdd/

downside: no headphone output (if you care about that)
upside: reads DVD-RAM (not in cartridge though)


Jörg

[K6-III]

LiteOn.

Much better audio extraction speeds and oh so cheap...

[Tjalfe]

On that note, does anyone know any other brands / drives which are zone free right out of the box?

[Nowhere]

or are easily flashable...

btw, most drives I encountered here and there doesn't switch to slow (quiet) mode when reading dvd (with film). Are there any?

[GNEP]

Hmmm - yup the zone-free out of the box thing hadn't occured to me but would be nice... so comments there definitely welcome (and I'm in the UK BTW)

Otherwise not much of a strong consensus above... these things wouldn't all be made in the same couple of plants and get separate facias by any chance?

[K6-III]

Originally posted by tjalfe
On that note, does anyone know any other brands / drives which are zone free right out of the box?

I flashed my LiteOn LTD-166S to the DS-14 firmware and used the region free Liteon app to make it region free.

For my Toshiba, same thing.

Check www.firmware-flash.com for details

[dZeus]

Lite On

btw. I just had my Pioneer S305 SCSI die on me too.... and slot-in as well.

[GNEP]

Yup. I think I'm going to avoid slot-ins from now on as I have seen other reports of reliability problems (even though this is 2 years old and has had fairly heavy use) - although judging from what is actually available, the manufacturers have concluded the same... (this is a shame though as with 2 drives having the top one slot loading and the bottom one tray-loading was v. convenient)

Lite-On is getting the bias now it looks like. To match my CDRW

[DentyCracker]

I'm actually going to buy a new DVD ROM as well. I however am keeping my Toshiba and simply buying the cheapest DVD-ROM I can get to go into the GF's machine. I am also not giving her the G400, I'll get her some cheaper faster not so good 2D ATi type card. I'll be getting an 8MB cache Maxtor 120GB HD and a LiteON 52X CDRW sometime next week

[Nowhere]

what about the noise of drives? I mean, it's hard to watch film when dvd drive spins the dvd at 16x speed when 1x would do...

[agallag]

My slot load pioneer drive died on me last year. Replaced it with a 16x sony. It's quite nice. Fast and quiet.