Optical Drives - Product Reviews

Anemotion - (October 01, 2004) I decided to purchase the pioneer dvr108 oem version mainly because I heard and read of it's high compatablity in burning and that was the most important factor in my purchase. I ordered some ritek g04/g05 for there well known good price and high compatablity. I used the 1.14 firmware the software that I used was nero burning rom 6 that came with my old cdrw drive. Using ritek brand g04 I was able to burn them at 8x speed for 4x discs and they read fine. Also the g05s rated at 8x were able to burn at 12x! this is very quick (4x is around 15mins) To make all the burning speed available you can also flash it with a optional firmware. This is of course done at ur own risk. Mine wor

rogersoles - (September 21, 2004) GREAT value and GREAT performer. I purchased a Sony 18A a few months ago and it's a good drive; but the new NEC drive has better specs (twice the speed) and costs about the same (a little more -- but not much). I've burned a few DVD-R, DVD+R, and DVD+RWs on the drive (various speeds), and one DVD+R DL (at $13.00 each I have to have something really valuable to do it) -- and it worked in every case. Perhaps there are better drives -- but there certainly aren't any better value ones... Indeed, I like it so much I ordered another one. This drive gets a thumbs up -- the only thing that might be an issue is firmware maintenance for newer dye substrates (but that will be some

bethereornot - (December 02, 2004) I have copied every movie I have in my collection and It dosen't even seem to be working this burner. I have used several other brands and none compare to this 16x or my 8x plextor. I never bought there products before because the price was to high. But after using to many disc with the memorex brand dvd burner. I figured I would save money if this burner would just copy like it is supposed to do and it shure does that 100 times better then the memorex or the sony.

ptweiler77 - (10/10/2009) I bought this refurb, so I wasn't really expecting software and I know nothing about the bundled software. I am running this drive on a Vista 64 Pentium dual-core 4 GB of RAM. I have a Asus EAH3450 graphics card with HDMI out to my 42 inch LCD HDTV. Using Arcsoft Totalmedia Theater 3 in Windows Media Center it works perfect. This drive plays everything with no problems- DVD, Blu Ray, HD DVD. I haven't tried burning DVD or CD or using the lightscribe feature yet, but I'm sure it will work.

TomSnodgrass - (05/11/2009) This blue ray player appears to work fine. I was disappointed in the following: 1) It did not come with power or signal cables. The cables cost me $3.00. 2) The only hardware it came with for install was 4 screws. My HP pavilion requires screws with a special head. I haven't found these yet. 3) When I install my pavilion has a cover over both of the CD drives and a button that's supposed to align with the button on the drive door. When I installed drive in the top slot they aligned fine; but when I got the cables and installed my old drive back into the top slot and this new drive into the open bottom slot the buttons don't align. I guess I'll swap them when I have a chance. Would I buy this Blu-Ray player again? Yes, it was a good price and it works as required.

curly9702 - (01/16/2009) Purchased this to replace a Sony, and I also used to have three different Pioneer models. This is by far the best DVD burner I have used. It cost less than $59 and after a year of use, I still do not have a single coaster. Unlike some burners, I do not have to worry about buying a specific DVD brand for this burner, it burns all of them pretty fast (16x or above). BTW, the firmware is still the same since I bought it (no upgrade).