Drives > 16x (CD) / 4x (DVD) Drives

Advantages: High DVD/CD compatibility after firmware update, it's Pioneer need another reason?
Disadvantages: Before flash update the drive sucks, 4 speed is dated now

...it has served me well. Pioneer is a well known and respected name in the world of electronic entertainment, not as big as Sony but they can hold their own. The drive itself is very plain on the front and is light grey instead of the classic beige colour of PCs. Although it's simple, it isn't ugly or boring to look at at all, a very nice drive to have seen on your PC. This is a DVD-RW drive so it is only compatible with DVD-R and DVD-RW media, not ...
...However, the big wigs at Pioneer released a firmware upgrade for this drive and software upgrade for the Instant CD/DVD v6.5 application, and after a quick upgrade it becomes super compatible with almost all types of DVD-R media thrown at it. Be it Verbatim, Bulkpaq, Packard Bell, Philips, etc, it works with all of them and reads them great afterwards. The firmware upgrade will update the firmware to version 1.33, both the firmware and the program ... Read review

Advantages: Reads both -R and +R
Disadvantages: you need to flash upgrade

...is waiting. Check the NEC site for firmware upgrades, the newer ones flash the drive from within windows and this allows you to use a vast array of media brands (you flash at your own risk, if it fails NEC will not fix the drive for you, but saying that, I have had no problems to date). I tend to stick to blanks using the "ritek" dye, which are not expensive, but have never failed me, regardless of what data I was writing. This drive is great for ...
...home DVD players do not like a disk with 1000+ tracks on it, although they play and backup on my PC so I tend to limit music to about a hundred tracks or so. If you are going to backup your DVD film collection, beware, this may well be illegal in the UK, but DVD's, like CD's, are not bomb proof, so when I legaly purchase a DVD film, I make a backup copy which I use on a day to day basis, and put the oringinal away for the future (very usefull if ... Read review

Advantages: Reliable, Quiet, Easy to use
Disadvantages: Not good with poor quality CD media, slow by todays standards

...great. Unfortunately there are no Pioneer firmware upgrades for dual layer or faster writing speeds. The write performance is fine for a 4x drive I am very happy with the unit. I used this drive with Nero 6 and after some minor tweaking managed to get it to overburn normal CD's. 4 stars overall, 5 stars for better media compatibility and new firmware. For an early drive its a great piece of kit. ... Read review

Advantages: Affordable, works well, cutting-edge home consumer product.
Disadvantages: Firmware updates somewhat confusing, software lacking.

...originally purchased to replace the HP CDRW in a HP Pavilion XL946 that belonged to the business of a friend of mine's (is that proper English? Heck if I know! ;-), a computer that I recently inherited and am enjoying greatly. The drive was originally used under WinME, and is currently being used under Win2K Pro SP4. It works great, I have NO complaints about it sofar. The included software is not what I'm used to, it takes a little to get to know ...
...or DVD burner before. ArcSoft's Showbiz DVD makes it very easy to author DVDs and VCDs, although the interface is too simplistic and menu-driven for my taste. I prefer using either Roxio EZ-CD Creator 5 Platinum or Nero Burning ROM 6, which gives a lot more options. CyberLink PowerDVD is an excellent software-based DVD player that works without hiccups. VERITAS' RecordNOW and Simple Backup software packages make it easy to back up and store your ... Read review

Advantages: cheap, reliable
Disadvantages: DVD- only

First thing to note is that whilst this drive will read both DVD-R and DVD+R it will only record to DVD-R or DVD-RW. However, I don;t find this a problem. If you want to have multi-format capability then you will pay a lot more. If all you want is a decent cheap DVD writer then this will suit. Easy to install. Just stick in the spare drive slot and plug in IDE and power cables. Windows XP finds and configures no problem. My version came with Nero ...
...DVDs great. Super performance. Can write to DVD-Rs at 4x. However, can be a bit picky on media. I found it likes the decent media like Ritek but is not so keen on Bulkpaq or cheaper disks. One great thing though is that it NEVER seems to make coasters. If it doesnt like the media it just burns at 1x speed rather than try to burn faster and failing. This is great news for those of us who hate wasting blanks !!! All in all great DVD writer ideal ... Read review