DVD writer's what the current state of play?

[nimbles]

Hi guys- just been having a bit of a nightmare with my trusty 105, it's giving me internal target failures left right and centre when burning at 1x (g04's and now prodisc s3) have marginally better luck at 2x but the first disc in the prodisc pack i got as a replacement for some dud dvd-rw's (now wondering if it wasn't the drive's fault that the rw's turned out dud) gave a target failure on 2x so tried 4x and it burned ok only to be unreadable in the 105 but not in the crappy lg dvd-rom drive i have.

Trying the next disc in the batch as we speak- sounds like its doing better (2x- the buffer isn't varuing as wildly either)

anyway tried with stomp as well and getting errors too although can't say for sure if its the same thing stomp's error reporting is a bit vague.

anyway basically think the 105's on its last legs- unless one of guys know of anything i can do to prolong its life- uninstalled/reinstalled it in xp and its seemed to behaving a little better- i'm not too miffed- i've had it for almost a year and i bought it second hand, and am probably in the 300-400's low compared to some of you guys- but its paid for itself several times over plus i flashed the firmware to 2x4all as well so i'm probably to blame.

anyway onto my question- i've not really been keeping abreast of the burner news- 8x is out, 16x on the horizon and dual layer to come at the end of this year as i understand it. seen 107's at blank discshop for £70- (have no real interest in buying 8x media so i could probably survive with a 106 if they were still around) are pioneer's still the best writers, and if so should i hold off on a drive till the next wave of writers are out? e.g. the 108's and equivalents?

Thanks in advance guys :t_up:

[Jesterrace]

Yes Pioneers are still the best writers for the money. The 106 really can't be had anymore and if you could find it, you would only be saving 5 pounds at most. Even if you aren't burning at 8x it is still better to get the more up to date unit. Yes there are dual-layered writers coming out in the next couple of months but unless you want to spend 3-4 pounds a disc, then it wouldn't be worth holding out for one. I would say that they will be a great deal about a year after they come out. Another thing to consider is that whenever new technology comes out there are almost always firmware/media issues to be sorted out. So my advice would be to get the 107 and hold on to that until the dual-layered burners/media are reasonably priced. If nothing else you will certainly be able to get 70 pounds worth out of your 107 during the course of the next year. ;)

[nimbles]

Thanks Jesterrace, yeah wasn't sure how far away the next gen writers were.

Just a blankdiscshop specific question, i remember there being a bit of an issure with svp selling a batch of 107's (i think, may have been 106's) that were really oem 107's meant for the medion systems, and therefore couldn't be flashed with the official firmware (i doubt i'll be messing with illegal firmware this time) they still lurking around

was just looking on ebuyer and there's a cheap sony (dwu-18a)- anyone know if its any good- think if remember right its the the dru-5** series that had the great rep?

[steve54]

get a 107 m8,u wont be dissapointed.current price at around 70 quid.not had one bad write with mine yet,whatever discs have been thrown at it.


steve54

[Jesterrace]

Thanks Jesterrace, yeah wasn't sure how far away the next gen writers were.

Just a blankdiscshop specific question, i remember there being a bit of an issure with svp selling a batch of 107's (i think, may have been 106's) that were really oem 107's meant for the medion systems, and therefore couldn't be flashed with the official firmware (i doubt i'll be messing with illegal firmware this time) they still lurking around

was just looking on ebuyer and there's a cheap sony (dwu-18a)- anyone know if its any good- think if remember right its the the dru-5** series that had the great rep?
I don't recommend the OEM Sonys because you will run into similar issues with the firmware as it isn't quite compatible with the firmware for the retail models. I did hear something about the firmware issues with the drives (Pioneer) from SVP but not really sure on the details. To my knowledge your best bet would be to go with the 107D model in partcular.

[PhilEnfield]

There was a thread about this on one of the other forums (cant remember which), but Steve from SVP replied to the question and said it only referred to a batch of Black Facia 107's, sold in the early days and he confirmed that the current drives were Pioneer & not Medions.

HTH

[nimbles]

Thanks for clearing that up Phil.

I'm gonna wait till this 105 finally konks out- then off to spv for a 107

[PhilEnfield]

NP m8

[geobon]

Yep like PhilEnfield states above, it was just the black 107's that were medion but theres a firmware update on the SVP site to flash those drives to true pioneers.

[aaronjon]

i thought the 107d was an 84 with a f/ware flash to an 88, the 107XL being a true out of the box 88.