12.5 Our Picks
ATAPI DVD-ROM drives have
largely replaced ATAPI CD-ROM drives, which are becoming increasingly
difficult to find. Current DVD-ROM drives substitute well for a
CD-ROM drive. They're a bit more expensive than
CD-ROM drives, but you can buy a good DVD-ROM drive for less than
$60. For a general-purpose system, we now recommend DVD-ROM rather
than CD-ROM. Here are the DVD drives we recommend:
- ATAPI DVD-ROM drive
-
Hitachi, Panasonic, Pioneer, or
Toshiba. All of these manufacturers produce first-rate
DVD-ROM drives, although they vary in features, speed, and price. If
all you need a DVD-ROM drive to do is read DVD-ROM and CD discs,
nearly any model from a Japanese maker will suffice. If you need a
drive that can read other formats, such as DVD-RAM or DVD-RW, or a
drive that supports high-speed DMA modes, the details become more
important. See our web site, listed at the end of this chapter, for
current detailed recommendations.
- SCSI DVD-ROM drive
-
Toshiba
SD-M1401S. DVD-ROM is primarily a
consumer-oriented technology, so relatively few SCSI drives are
available. Of those, the 10X SD-M1401S is the best we know of. SCSI
is usually a step ahead of ATAPI in performance, but the SD-M1401
SCSI drive is slower than its ATAPI cousin. Although
we're SCSI advocates, when it comes to DVD-ROM, we
use ATAPI. Unless you're building an all-SCSI
system, we recommend you do the same (http://www.toshiba.com).
- Combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
-
Plextor 20/10/40-12A PlexCombo. In May 2002, Plextor shipped the
PlexCombo drive, which combines a 12X DVD-ROM drive with a CD burner
that writes at 20X, rewrites at 10X, and reads at 40X. In the past,
we gave combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drives only a lukewarm
recommendation. Although convenient, they were much slower than
individual components, appeared more likely to fail, and lacked such
niceties as BURN-Proof. Although the 20X writes and 10X rewrites of
the PlexCombo are much slower than those of the fastest standalone CD
burner models, they are more than fast enough for most purposes. The
PlexCombo is solidly constructed, and after extensive testing we have
concluded that it is as reliable as any other Plextor optical drive,
which is to say extremely so. The PlexCombo is also the first
combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive that supports BURN-Proof, which is a
key factor in our recommendation. If you need both DVD-ROM and CD-RW
functions and if 20X writes and 10X rewrites are fast enough for your
needs, we recommend the Plextor PlexCombo 20/10/40-12A without
reservation (http://www.plextor.com).
It's still not easy to choose among the competing
writable DVD formats. Although it is slower and less compatible than
the other standards, DVD-RAM remains an excellent choice for those
who use a DVD writer to archive data. Conversely, for those who use a
DVD writer to record video, DVD-R/RW drives are attractive because
DVD-R/RW discs cost less than DVD+R/RW discs of comparable quality.
DVD+R/RW drives have less robust error correction than DVD-RAM
drives, and their discs cost a bit more than those for DVD-R/RW
drives, but for many people DVD+R/RW is the best compromise. Hybrid
DVD+/-R/RW drives can use -R/RW discs or +R/RW discs, but the drives
themselves cost significantly more than single-standard drives.
Accordingly, we recommend choosing one of the following drives,
balancing your own priorities.
- DVD-RAM drive
-
Toshiba or Hitachi. Both of these
companies produce top-notch ATAPI DVD-RAM drives. Price, performance,
and features vary between models, but if you need a high-capacity
optical rewriter for archiving data, you're likely
to be happy with a current model from either company. DVD-RAM is a
poor choice for general-purpose DVD writing. But for storing data (as
opposed to video), we think DVD-RAM is the best choice, and we
believe that Toshiba and Hitachi make the best DVD-RAM drives
available.
- DVD-R/RW drive
-
Pioneer. Pioneer invented DVD-R, and
its DVD-R/RW drives are first-rate. If you record primarily video, a
Pioneer DVD-R/RW drive may be your best choice. Although for various
technical reasons DVD-R/RW is inferior to DVD-RAM or DVD+R/RW for
storing data, a DVD-R/RW drive unquestionably offers more flexibility
than a DVD-RAM drive. If DVD-R/RW is right for you, we think
you'll be happy with a current Pioneer model.
- DVD+RW drive
-
Plextor. Plextor was very late to
market with a DVD writer, finally shipping its PX-504A DVD+R/RW drive
in March 2003. During a telephone conversation with a Plextor
executive in 2000, Robert asked when Plextor would begin offering DVD
writers. The response was that Plextor would not offer a DVD writer
until it believed that one of the competing DVD standards had won. By
shipping a DVD+R/RW drive, Plextor has come down firmly in the
DVD+R/RW camp, and we can't argue with that
judgment. Our experience with Plextor DVD writers has been uniformly
excellent. DVD+R/RW writers have similar specifications and
performance, but some other DVD writers are much more sensitive to
media variations than Plextor writers. On that basis, and based on
Plextor's traditional robustness and quality, we
recommend (and use) Plextor DVD+R/RW drives as the best
general-purpose DVD writers available.
To view our current specific recommendations by make and model,
visit: http://www.hardwareguys.com/picks/dvd.html.
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