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**Liggy** · 23-10-2003

Hello Marco,

although I already returned my drive, I'd like to answer to your comments.
My negative opinion about this drive is due to my experiences I had with it. I bought the drive for 169 Euro. A good price for what the drive offered at that time.
I immediately installed the drive, started my PC and found a BIOS message, saying that I have no 80pin-IDE-cable installed, which is absolutely false and the message dissapeared immediatle, after I disconnected the drive.
Strange, but not too bad, since the transfer rates were not that high, I would run into problems with that.
Because the shop where I bought this drive didn't have many different media and I didn't know, what my standalone DVD-Player ist capable of (unfortunately only DVD-R

), I bought one Platinum DVD+R and one DVD-R. (which were not very cheap there, although they are relatively low priced)
I wrote to the DVD-R and the disc could be read. Happy about that, I bought some different media. Some cheap, others not so chep.
I tried to write to a DVD-RW, but the writing failed for some reason. On the disc, I could see written areas and some areas which were not written. So I tried to erase the disc and that was it. I was not able to read or even write any DVD afterwards. I guess there are seperate laser units for CD and DVD and the one for DVD got damaged somehow.
One day later I returned my drive to the dealer and exchanged it for a new drive. (This drive caused the same BIOS message for my IDE-cable, but I expected it somehow, although there was a little hope...)
I tried writing to different DVD-Media, but none of them could be read till the end without getting errors - either across the whole disc or at least for the last 10-50% (tested with Nero CD/DVD-Speed). Few of those discs could be read in the writer, but none of them in any other DVD-ROM or my standalone DVD-Player. No matter which media I used or which speed I selected. I've burned at least 10 coasters without even one successful burn. I certainly tried upgrading my firmware to 0038 or 0039 (0040 wasn't out at this point) but that didn't help either. I got a little angry about the wasted DVDs, which cost me a good amount of money and very much time. So I returned the drive and fortunately got my money back - at least for the drive.
Your support might be OK, but on your websites the DVD-Burners only appeared in a short press release and in the firmware update page. That was all. While some of that has changed now, on the tech support page, DVD-Writers still aren't mentioned. (except for "other products") That doesn't look like an overwhelming support for those drives. Maybe you can give a hint to your webmaster.
I would not have minded some coasters, because they were really cheap discs (optodisck001), but I would have expected that at least Verbatim (MCC) or Fuji (Tayio Yuden) media would be written without problems.
Even the supplied DVD+RW disc from RiData could be written exactly once. After erasing and rewriting the disc, it was full of errors. I would not call this rewritable

That was not what I expected for my money.
I didn't have many problems with DVD+R media, but if the drive claims to be able to write to other media as well, then I want to be able to do that without getting lots of errors.

It might be possible that I grabbed exactly those two drives out of at least 100 they had in the store, but 2 out of 2 drives I bought is 100% for me, considering the time needed even for driving to the store and back. (3 * 30 km) So I must ask you, if you would recommend a drive which doesn't work for you?

And before I forget asking about it: When will the DRW1008 be released and are there chances, it will once be able to write 8x to DVD-R?

23-10-2003	#12 (permalink)
Liggy CD Freaks System Admin Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Monkey Island Posts: 5,191	Hello Marco, although I already returned my drive, I'd like to answer to your comments. My negative opinion about this drive is due to my experiences I had with it. I bought the drive for 169 Euro. A good price for what the drive offered at that time. I immediately installed the drive, started my PC and found a BIOS message, saying that I have no 80pin-IDE-cable installed, which is absolutely false and the message dissapeared immediatle, after I disconnected the drive. Strange, but not too bad, since the transfer rates were not that high, I would run into problems with that. Because the shop where I bought this drive didn't have many different media and I didn't know, what my standalone DVD-Player ist capable of (unfortunately only DVD-R ), I bought one Platinum DVD+R and one DVD-R. (which were not very cheap there, although they are relatively low priced) I wrote to the DVD-R and the disc could be read. Happy about that, I bought some different media. Some cheap, others not so chep. I tried to write to a DVD-RW, but the writing failed for some reason. On the disc, I could see written areas and some areas which were not written. So I tried to erase the disc and that was it. I was not able to read or even write any DVD afterwards. I guess there are seperate laser units for CD and DVD and the one for DVD got damaged somehow. One day later I returned my drive to the dealer and exchanged it for a new drive. (This drive caused the same BIOS message for my IDE-cable, but I expected it somehow, although there was a little hope...) I tried writing to different DVD-Media, but none of them could be read till the end without getting errors - either across the whole disc or at least for the last 10-50% (tested with Nero CD/DVD-Speed). Few of those discs could be read in the writer, but none of them in any other DVD-ROM or my standalone DVD-Player. No matter which media I used or which speed I selected. I've burned at least 10 coasters without even one successful burn. I certainly tried upgrading my firmware to 0038 or 0039 (0040 wasn't out at this point) but that didn't help either. I got a little angry about the wasted DVDs, which cost me a good amount of money and very much time. So I returned the drive and fortunately got my money back - at least for the drive. Your support might be OK, but on your websites the DVD-Burners only appeared in a short press release and in the firmware update page. That was all. While some of that has changed now, on the tech support page, DVD-Writers still aren't mentioned. (except for "other products") That doesn't look like an overwhelming support for those drives. Maybe you can give a hint to your webmaster. I would not have minded some coasters, because they were really cheap discs (optodisck001), but I would have expected that at least Verbatim (MCC) or Fuji (Tayio Yuden) media would be written without problems. Even the supplied DVD+RW disc from RiData could be written exactly once. After erasing and rewriting the disc, it was full of errors. I would not call this rewritable That was not what I expected for my money. I didn't have many problems with DVD+R media, but if the drive claims to be able to write to other media as well, then I want to be able to do that without getting lots of errors. It might be possible that I grabbed exactly those two drives out of at least 100 they had in the store, but 2 out of 2 drives I bought is 100% for me, considering the time needed even for driving to the store and back. (3 * 30 km) So I must ask you, if you would recommend a drive which doesn't work for you? And before I forget asking about it: When will the DRW1008 be released and are there chances, it will once be able to write 8x to DVD-R?