See Also
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by Editors of CDRInfo.com
CDRInfo.com is a British enthusiast website operated by journalists and engineers. The site reviews DVD drives as they become available. Reviews are more objective than most, and the testing is… comprehensive and superbly documented. CDR Info and CDFreaks.com (below) review more drives than any other sources. Products are not ranked, but one of the 15 drives reviewed in 2007 is selected as an Editor's Choice, and one as a Best Buy. The reviews are way too technical for most consumers, but the conclusions are straightforward.
by Editors of CDRLabs.com
by Editors of CDFreaks.com
CDFreaks.com "strives to be recognized as the premier online source for unbiased information relating to digital storage and delivery technologies." Products are reviewed by an international team. CD Freaks… reviews more drives than any other source. Reviews are incredibly long and detailed. However, the site offers neither ratings nor rankings. Most drives are summarized as being good products, but lists of pros and cons are reasonably balanced. The full reviews reveal distinctions that may matter to prospective buyers. CDFreaks is one of the few reviewers to address noise.
by Editors of BCCHardware.com
BCCHardware.com occasionally reviews DVD burners. Reviewers rate products in six subcategories and assign an overall rating. This once prolific reviewer no longer reviews enough drives to have a strong… current frame of reference. Testing is solid and reviews are nicely balanced. BCCHardware has a tendency to focus on certain brands in most product categories. That could be the reviewer's predisposition to like certain brands based on experience or a less than neutral relationship with vendors.
by Katherine Stevenson
Maximum PC's reviews are short, but succinct. They can be superficial at times, but they are very well balanced and cover most of the important considerations. Other reviewers conduct more comprehensive… testing, but results are enhanced by charts showing the performance of competing drives. Ratings can be generous relative to the copy, but cover a satisfactory spectrum. The magazine covers regular and high-definition drives.
by Loyd Case
ExtremeTech likes to focus on extremely expensive high-end products, and in keeping with that approach, the four DVD burners reviewed in the past year are all Blu-ray drives. In spite of that, reviews are… restrained and cautious. In addition, reviews are thoroughly comparative, and most drives are rated. Testing is described and documented well, and results are easy to understand. The only weakness here is the limited number of reviews of current products.
by Contributors to Newegg.com
Newegg is an all-around seller of computer goods that's popular with hobbyist computer builders. At the time of our visit, 41 drives had ten or more reviews. The Asus DRW-2014L1T is the top-rated drive;… three-quarters of buyers rate it excellent, and very few customers are dissatisfied. The LG GGC-H20L gets great user grades; though it can read Blue-ray discs, it can only burn to regular DVD media. Although it only has a four out of five average rating, the Samsung SH-S203N has won one of the site's monthly Customer Choice Awards, which are based on the results of surveys sent to purchasers. Newegg is an excellent place to learn about each drive's relative noisiness/quietness and reliability.
by Robert Maloney
In Hot Hardware's first optical drive review in nearly three years, Robert Maloney tests the Asus DRW-2014L1T, Lite-On LH-20A1H and Plextor PX-810SA. Discussion is well detailed and testing is comprehensive… and extensively documented. The Plextor PX-810SA, despite slightly slower ratings, outperformed the other drives in DVD burning tests, while the Lite-On LH-20A1L held its own in most other tests. The better value tips the balance toward the Lite-On drive in Maloney's eyes. If Hot Hardware had reviewed more DVD burners recently, we'd have rated this review even higher.
by Editors of PC Authority
PC Authority, an Australian computer magazine, reviews only a couple of current burners, including the Lite-On LH-2B1S Blu-ray drive and the older conventional Samsung SH-S182D. The reviews are as… comparative as possible, given the limited frame of reference. Each product reviewed in the past 14 months is unique. Overall and sub-category ratings are credible and helpful. While this is far from a comprehensive, one-stop reviews source, reviews are balanced and refreshingly candid. Australian PC Authority is worth checking if you are specifically interested in one of the reviewed drives.
by Cisco Cheng, Loyd Case
PC Magazine reviews four Blu-ray drives, but two of the reviews come from sister site, ExtremeTech (see above). Cisco Cheng's two in-house reviews are rational and balanced. He explains the full needs for… playing Blu-ray movies in detail. Testing is minimal but comparative. The single ratings are nicely varied, but the small number of reviews and the absence of reviews of any current major-brand drives limits the value of these reviews.
by Shawn Knight
Computer hardware enthusiast website OverClock Intelligence Agency hasn't reviewed another DVD burner in the past 18 months, so this is a single-product review. It lacks comparisons or ratings, but is… otherwise a comprehensive report. All aspects are tested. In particular, noise is addressed in more detail than we found in reviews elsewhere. Shawn Knight makes one significant misstep in commending Lite-On for bundling a Nero Essentials disk. He apparently failed to discover that Nero Essentials is a crippled version of the full program.
by Vincent Chang
HardwareZone.com irregularly reviews optical drives, but the reviews are extraordinarily informative. Testing is very good from a technical standpoint, but we were surprised to find no video testing of high… resolution DVD drives. Other than that oversight, reviews are thoughtful and analytical. Reviews are balanced and considerations such as noise are covered. Each drive is rated. The LG GGC-H20L, Asus BC-1205PT, LG GSA-H62N and Asus DRW-1814BLT are reviewed in 2007.
by Marty Sems, Robert Luhn
Computer Power User regularly reviews DVD burners. The reviews are cursory and uneven. Testing is good, but not as comprehensive as testing by the most thorough reviewers. Three drives are directly compared… in the December issue, and all drives are rated. Ratings span a reasonable spectrum, and identifying the best products is possible. As with most high-end oriented magazines, the focus is on Blu-ray drives. Interestingly, the magazine's two reviewers disagree on the value of a high-res/high-capacity burner.
by Edward Chester
The Pioneer BDC-S02BK plays Blu-ray discs, but does not record them. TrustedReviews does not review any other current DVD burners, but this review makes comparisons with a discontinued first generation… Blu-ray drive. The review is competent and nicely balanced, but lacks sufficient depth. For example, readers would benefit from a comparison between the viewing experience with regular and Blu-ray movies, and the test results need more explanation.
by Mark Kyrnin
Mark Kyrnin, About.com's Guide to Computer Hardware, compiles two charts; one lists his top five IDE burners, the other lists his top five SATA burners. A one paragraph summary objectively and subjectively… describes each drive. Kyrnin says the rankings are "based upon my research and experience," and no testing data is referenced. Kyrnin uniquely believes, "The real differences in the drives are what extra features they may offer." (Note that ConsumerSearch is owned by About.com.)
by Ryan Belonga
After an 18-month absence, CNet.com began reviewing DVD burners again last April. Reviews could be more detailed. For example, while speed is evaluated, other considerations such as noise are ignored. The… benchmark tests include single comparisons; otherwise the reviews are not comparative. Pros and cons are sometimes odd. For example, he commends a drive for coming with Roxio software, a bestselling program that fares very poorly in user reviews (and all other reviewers test with Nero, its chief competitor).
by "Flash"
This odd review attempts to answer the question: Is 20X burning faster than other speeds? The reviewer tests burns speeds of a then new 20X drive against two 18X and four 16X drives. Testing results are… displayed, but the process is not explained, and we don't know if the reviewer only conducted a single test with one type of media. An already discontinued 20X Lite-On drive is a tad faster than its closest runner-up, a 16X drive. The range to burn a DVD is 5:03 to 6:47.
by Patrick Schmid, Achim Roos
by Edited by Melissa Perenson
Melissa Perenson compiles a chart that summarizes the magazine's previous reviews and links to them, but it is badly out of date. The only reviewed drive that might still be available is the recently… discontinued Samsung SH-S182D. Reviews consist of charts showing test results and product information, but almost no narrative. Sentence fragments that list a couple of pros and cons are not very informative.
by Contributors to Amazon.com
Amazon.com is a fine source of user reviews for many products, but not DVD burners. At press time, only three drives have as many as ten reviews. The Asus DRW1814BLBLACK and Lite-On LH-20A1H both have 4.5/5… average ratings. One Asus buyer gave up on getting LightScribe to work. Happy customers appreciate the quietness. One Lite-On buyer got a lemon. Others are thrilled with the value. The Lite-On LH-20A1P186 only has a 3.5/5 average rating, but no consistent pattern of complaints.
by Contributors to TigerDirect.com
Customers of consumer electronics e-tailer TigerDirect.com submit reviews of products they've purchased and used. Very few products have a meaningful number of reviews. Some drives have four reviews with… two that are favorable and two from people who bought lemons. The affordable Lite-On LH-20A1S is clearly the most popular DVD burner with buyers. All are satisfied. The only recurring criticism is noise. Four of six buyers regret buying the HP dvd1040e LightScribe burner for a variety of reasons.
by Editors of ConsumerGuide.com
ConsumerGuide.com hasn't reviewed a DVD burner since February 1, 2007. The reviews of internal and external Samsung drives are less revealing than typical user reviews. The articles include more product… information than evaluation. The articles reveal no test results and no information about how the products were tested. In fact, nothing in reviews goes beyond what consumers could find on the manufacturers' websites.
by Editors of TopTenReviews.com
TopTenReviews.com ranks 14 DVD burners and charts subcategory ratings and features for the top ten. TopTenReviews' presentation will help neither readers nor the site's operators. The top products are the… same ones listed in "External DVD Burner Reviews 2007." Clicking on the Buy Now buttons for these products leads to Amazon.com, which shows these drives are all discontinued. We knew that, because two of those products were already discontinued when we updated this report a year ago. The 2008 date in the title is worse than disingenuous.
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This is our assessment of the review’s relevance, clarity of testing and thoroughness.
Read more about our Ratings Criteria by clicking the link at the top of the page.
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 Samsung SH-S203B/BEBN Dvdrw 20x Samsung Sata Black Dual Layer/nero Software/no Cable Sh-s203b/bebn  from Amazon.com
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 Pioneer BDC-2202B 5x Blu-ray/DVD/CD Combo Drive (Black) from Amazon.com New: $102.34 In Stock.
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