Drives > Liteon Drives > DVD±RW (+R Double Layer)

Advantages: Fast and Cheap!
Disadvantages: Pathetic Manual & Dies after a few months

...drives I bought my LiteOn SHOW-1633S about 8 months ago. During the first 5 or 6 months, I had no problems - the drive was very fast and stable. All my DVDs and CDs came out perfectly! I used various brands and the drive had no problem reading and writing them. However, the problems all started. I was burning a CD and suddenly it stopped. The drive wouldn't read or write any CDs in any of the operating systems I used, yet it would read the DVDs ...
...one for DVDs the other for CDs. What had happened was that the CD laser had broken, meaning I couldn't use any of my CDs. I promptly got the drive replaced, and the store sent me another. The same happened but with the DVD laser about 3 months later! I wouldn't recommend this drive to anyone, even when it was put through light use it failed. It's worth spending the extra £5 or £10 and getting a better drive! ... Read review

Advantages: Light, slim
Disadvantages: Needs external power :(

...baby is great. The LiteOn SLW-831SX is super slim and compact (about 15cm long, 13 cm wide and 2.5cm deep) due to the fact that it doesn't have a trap that comes out of the drive itself, it just uses a slot that you push the DVD or CD into and it then ejects out. Even though the SLW-831SX is slim it is also quite though and durable so if you're sitting at your table and you knock it off it won't break :) The SLW-831SX uses a USB2 connection that ...
...to worry about not being able to connect it to your computer (the USB2 cable comes with the drive so you don't have to go and buy it too) Now because it uses this USB2 connection is not as fast as say and IDE DVD RW that you would have in your PC but that not much of a problem because your paying for this drive to be external so it can be used anywhere (as long as there's a plug there lol) The drive writes at speeds of 8x (DVD-/+), 2.4x (DVD+R Dual ... Read review

Advantages: easy to install
Disadvantages: I havn't found any yet

...My eye lit on the Liteon SOHW-832S USB DVD r/rw drive. (Pun intended) Well DVD thingies are getting far more common these days and I did not have one. I have the usual CD drive and CD R/RW drives already. I wasn't feeling like a rebuild as I am getting lazy. As this was a USB thingy I thought that I might get it. Cost was £95. Now I do not know if this is expensive for these things or not. But the box did say it would take dual layer and I had read ...
...12. I already have other Liteon products installed on the machine. I can only plead old age. I found that the USB connector had come out of the back of the unit. It took me many minutes to figure that out. Once plugged in, bingo. All up and running ok. One thing I did notice, if you have other media players installed, this sets itself as default. You may want some other system set, real player or something else. I will let you sort that out, I am ... Read review

Advantages: cheap, fast, reliable
Disadvantages: IDE connection

For US $30 (after all discounts), I purchased this 2 of this drive for my desktop pc. Working on the IDE connections, with Windows XP Pro SP2, they work marvelously. Although not shipped with the drive, Nero7, Roxio 6, Alcohol 120% and DVD Shrink are all installed on the system for burning. (The drive did ship with a limited version of Nero6, though). No matter what anyone says, I have never seen a burner burn at its maximum-rated speed. Speed: ...
...at as much as 40X and DVDs as fast as 12X. Translated: I have burnt CDs and DVDs in as little time as 2 and 3 minutes (actual burn time - that is not counting the time it takes to read the source disk, not to mention the 15 minutes it takes DVD Shrink to recode the source DVD). Reliability: I have heard numerous complaints about this drive not lasting very long - crap! My two drives do quite a lot of burning for internet downloads - Windows updates ... Read review

Advantages: "works" with Mac and Windows
Disadvantages: Too many to list.

...work... (using Taiyo Yuden media bought from Microboards authorised retailers) >Manuals... inexistent! After days of bugging their support, a PDF was emailed over... > Support - rude and unhelpful most of the time. Takes days to get anything out of them In short? Stay well clear from this product! ... Read review