DVD recommendations please

[Laszlo]

Please recommend a DVD that I can use with my ATI AIW card. Links to reviews would be appreciated.

 

[StanTheMan]

I think what you need is not actually WHAT DVD ROM, but WHAT DVD ENCODER works with the card. To choose a DVD ROM, there are 2 factors that needs to be considered, speed and firmware. for speed, all of us know that the faster it is, the better it is. New generation of DVD usually has RPC 2 firmware, while old one usually have RPC 1. The different between RPC 1 and RPC 2 is that RPC1 drive is not region locked. so, the region is determined by the software only. RPC2 drive is region locked, means that you will only be able to change the region of the drive for several times only, before it is permanently sets. to know more about which DVD is RPC1 and which is RPC 2, you can go to:

http://www.inmatrix.com/drives.html

 

[AMB]

I think that you are talking about DVD Drives, the the actual media.

If it is DVD Drives, the Pioneer Slot Loading drive is the best, thw 10x DVD, 40x CD is the A104S, they have a new 16x but I do not know the product code for it.

 

[johnk]

The Pioneer 16X DVD / 40X CD-ROM (Slot Load) Drive's product code is DVD-105S for the OEM ("ATAPI Bulk Model&quot.

http://www.pioneerusa.com/cd_dvd_singledrives.html

I checked one out today in a store in Toronto for CDN$185 plus our 15% tax. I think I'll go back soon and buy it.

 

[RayEarth]

remember my great deed I have done today, for if you want a 16x dvd pioneer or Aopen(which is also pioneer dvd drives being sold by Aopen) are both good, www.googlegear.com sells a OEM 16x pioneer slot load dvd drive with powerdvd 2.5 software,but if you want a retail 16x dvd which i would choose myself but instead got a OEM because at the time of my purchase, most 10x dvd were gone so i was stuck with a oem. www.tccomputers.com sells a 16x Aopen dvd drive which i think is retail because they specify oem on other dvd drives they sell but not this one, for only $137. I recommend this Aopen one more than the oem pioneer, becuase it's retail & $2 cheaper.

 

[johnk]

I got that 16x/40x Pioneer today (bulk/slot) for CDN$181 plus 15% tax. Its up and running, tested with a few different CD's including audio. Now I've got to get my hands on a movie DVD. My only comment so far is that the drive is kind of loud, at least compared to my Creative 36x CD.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Another Pioneer made drive is Actima. I picked up one of these a year ago for around $90. It's been a good drive, but my decoder won't read 1 DVD I bought.... Weird, but I think that's my creative labs playcenter. Ohh well....

 

[Laszlo]

Thanks, sorry if I wasn't clear; I'm after an internal DVD drive to allow me to rent DVD movies. The Pioneer 16x looks good on spec, I noticed that you get digital sound only with the slot, not tray load version. Since I already have an ATI card, the encoder/decoder thing should already have been taken care of, so oem should be ok. Think I'll get one, seen it for 179 in Canadian dollars.

 

[AMB]

As I have said before, personally, I do not think that you a digital output. Most newer programs are capable of reading it of the IDE channel.

 

[dszd0g]

If he doesn't use a decoder card and the ATI doesn't need the digital out then he probably doesn't need it. It's nice to have though in case you want to add something later that needs it. Don't most DVD decoder cards require the digital output? It sounds like he is using software decoding though.

 

[mastertech01]

I use a simple Pioneer 6x SCSI DVD drive and software decoding.. works great for me... thing I like about this drive is that it will do DAE at 11x... not a bad little drive for the money.