Ranking menurut http://www.fireburner.com/rankings.htm
Yamaha "Yammy" ****
Yamaha makes great IDE and SCSI recorders. Yamaha has a great web page as
well as technical and developer support. I have been extremely pleased with
the quality of these drives. Yammy drives are perfect for those who like to
burn heavily. Yamaha drives do not support DAO aka "RAW" writing and only
support SAO aka "SEND CUE SHEET". Yamaha may implement DAO aka "RAW"
sometime in the future. I have personally verified this with Yamaha
Developer Support.
Plextor ****
Like the Yamaha recorders, Plextor quality is great. Few people complain
about them. Plextor drives are also perfect for those who like to burn
heavily. The Plextor web site has good content and support seems good.
Plextor Developer Support is excellent. The current production drive models
do not support "RAW" burning in FireBurner.
Mitsumi ***
Mitsumi drives get 3 stars from me. The drives seem pretty stable. This
company had a negative repuation during '99 because they were still selling
TAO drives while everyone else was making DAO/SAO drives. This frustrated a
lot of people. Lately, Mitsumi seems to be doing a lot to improve their
repuation. The new Mitsumi drives support DAO aka "RAW" and from user
comments they seem pretty reliable. I haven't heard anything about product
support so I can not comment. In the past I have not been pleased with
their developer support.
Teac ***
Teac drives are an interesting breed. Teac uses a proprietary command set
which gives me another hoop to jump over when coding support for this drive
in FireBurner. My beef with Teac recorders is that they do not conform to
the Multimedia Command Set (MMC). It seems most new CD-R/W drives support
this command set. Note: Fireburner does not currently support Teac
recorders. I took a lot of flak for only giving them 1 star in the last
version of my rankings:) Honestly, Teac drives seem to be quite popular
with few complaints.
Hewlett-Packard "HP" ***
HP drives seem to be manufactured by Sony or Philips. HP has excellent
developer support and technical support. The HP web page contains a lot of
useful information. HP drives are available in both SCSI and IDE flavors.
The problem with HP drives is that most of their drives do not support
overburning. I have received a lot of e-mail messages complaining about
this. HP drives are inexpensive and great for those just starting out.
Panasonic ***
If I have my facts straight, Panasonic manufacturers these drives but does
not market or support them directly. Most of their recorders seem to
supported and marketed by a company called ACS Compro. Their drives are
decent and inexpensive. Some of their drives do not support RW. I have had
a few negative personal experiences with ACS Compro. My brother had a 7502
drive that failed soon after purchase and we found ourselves in a situation
where no one would reply to our e-mails or phone messages to the the
support answering machine. Finally we got an RMA and it took about a month
to get the drive repaired:)
Ricoh ***
I don't have a lot of experience with Ricoh drives. I hear good comments
and bad comments about these recorders. These drives get a neutral rating
from me. The older ones do not support the MMC. Purchase at your own risk:)
Philips **
Philips gets 2 stars. If I have my facts straight, Philips actually has
made drives for HP like the old HP 71xx and 72xx series. Philips drives
seem to be more popular in Europe than in the USA. From what I have seen
this company does not have a good repuation among CD-R/W enthusiasts.
Apparently Philips has also been the target of a class action lawsuit filed
by some angry customers. I have to give Philips the benefit of the doubt
and say that I have not had tons of experience with their drives and
company. I will tell you one thing, you won't want to pull into your garage
with your girlfriend and try to impress her with one of these:)
Acer **
This is another line of drives that I do not have a lot of experience with.
I hear mostly negative comments about these recorders. I would not want to
own one of these. Purchase at your own risk:)
Sony *
In the CD-R/W community, Sony has a negative image. I personally dislike
their drives. I have received numerous complaints via e-mail about Sony
products. Recently a lot of these complaints have been about their new USB
CD-R. Others have been about older drives and lack of firmare support. I
have received a lot of e-mails complaining that Sony does not put firmware
updates on their web page. Maybe I'm biased and misinformed but I would
avoid these drives. To top it all of, many of Sony's recorders do not
conform to the Multimedia Command Set (MMC).
JVC *
JVC is another recorder maker that gets only 1 star. They have a reputation
for low quality recorders. I would avoid these drives too. JVC drives are
also notorius for not conforming to the MMC command set.
Smart and Friendly
I'm putting SAF down here not because of poor quality but because (if my
understanding is correct) this company does not manufacture their own
recorders. Apparently SAF merely rebadges drives made by other companies.
These drives get a custom firmware with SAF manufacturer and product ID strings
Garind P
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