Yamaha stops producing CD-R drivers

[Gurm]

I'm from Planet USA... where the Plextor is $150 and the Liteon is $50.

- Gurm

[MultimediaMan]

LOL!!!

[Liquid Snake]

Originally posted by Gurm
I would. Lite-on is 1/3 the price of Plextor. I can buy 2 drives, and have a spare... and be able to beat more copy protections. That's my issue really - Plextor is good, no question. But Lite-on rips better, burns better, and beats more protections than any other drive.

- Gurm

I'm going to replace my Plextor 8/4/32A soon. I don't care much about copy protections (I do make backup copies of my games, but if it's too difficult I don't bother and just make sure no one else touches my originals), but what do you mean by "rips better, burns better"? Speed is not that important (5 minutes for a CD is fine) but I'm more concerned about accuracy.

[Wombat]

Just remember that Plextor drives aren't what they were. They're still good, but they're not putting the premium effort into them anymore. I've heard reasonable rumors that they're just using OEMed drivers now.

[SuRGV]

I still love my Yamaha 16x10x40 SCSI RW even though it sounds louder than everything else in my case when it starts to spin! Like Boeing 777 taking off..really.

[William]

Originally posted by Wombat
Just remember that Plextor drives aren't what they were. They're still good, but they're not putting the premium effort into them anymore. I've heard reasonable rumors that they're just using OEMed drivers now.

I'm quite confident that Plextor are still making their own drives.

[Gurm]

Plextor is still making their own drives.

As for "rips better, burns better", I'm referring to music/video. A lite-on cd drive (not burner, but dvd drive or cd drive) can rip audio or video at 32x. Most drives are lucky to hit 8x with any accuracy.

TDK makes good drives for ripping. Their CD burners are guaranteed to extract at their full rated speed. Plextors do as well, but only if you use the included Plextor ripping utility (not entirely sure what this utility DOES, exactly... but I don't trust proprietary software).

- Gurm

[dZeus]

Originally posted by thop <cut>
Also Plextor was the only company that gave two years warranty on their drives before it became mandatory in germany.
<cut>

although it's 'mandatory', I'm sure that all manufacturers will say you to GFY when you want to RMA one of their 1-year-warranty products (i.e. 90% of all computer hardware). So either this 2-year-warranty law will ruin all retailers if customers will force them to give 2 years warranty when the manufacturer only gives 1, or the manufacturers will change their warranty periods in the EU to 2 years, or the law will be changed to 1 year.

Until one of those options has 'occured', you probably still have 1 year warranty.

[William]

Originally posted by Gurm


TDK makes good drives for ripping. Their CD burners are guaranteed to extract at their full rated speed. Plextors do as well, but only if you use the included Plextor ripping utility (not entirely sure what this utility DOES, exactly... but I don't trust proprietary software).

- Gurm

TDK's reputation is built on air, and not even hot air at that. Their drives are [deleted].

http://www.arrowkey.com/cgi-bin/drivedisplay.cgi?drive=TDK%20CDRW401240X-20030106.163928&generic=1

They have played the rebadge game with Plextors to get good reputations; notably the send Plex out to reviewers, then shipped Sanyos/Ricohs. Without changing the ID strings either. And don't get me started on their "superior DAE". I would not touch a TDK drive unless you can avoid it.

If you want good DAE; buy a Plexwriter 1210S. If you want the best ever writer; look for a factory recalibrated Yamaha CDR100.

That's what I like about the CD industry, there are some absolutes.

[thop]

Originally posted by dZeus
Until one of those options has 'occured', you probably still have 1 year warranty.

A law is a law It doesn't matter what retailers or manufacturers think about it.

[dZeus]

so I guess you don't mind starting a lawsuit over, say, a 65 euro CD writer if it brakes down between 1-2 years after purchase date?

[Nowhere]

You don't have to. Usually retailers are afraid of consequences/dealing with consumer rights spokesmen, and even if they don't, it's the public office who's starting the lawsuit against them, not you.
That is the way of dealing with such things in Europe (well...at least in Poland ;P, but historically and geographically we're also in Europe, in UE soon maybe...)

[thop]

I don't know about the legal consequences for the retailer, as i'm not really a friend of lawsuits. The problem will solve itself even without a lawsuit as the retailer will quickly loose its customers.

[Sasq]

Or more to the point, retailers will quickly go out of business or start charging way more for hardware. - if the suppliers aren't willing to increase to a 2 year warranty

Dan

[KvHagedorn]

That law should really apply to manufacturers, not retailers.

We had a change from Mitsubishi not long ago.. there is NO warranty from the manufacturer on any Mitsubishi VCR. Instead, they give the retailer a 1 or 2% discount (which they say is the failure rate) and tell him to just eat it if one comes back broken. They also provide no repair manuals to service people. Welcome to the disposable society, gentlemen.