My Sony's DVD laser quite recognizing DVDs. Luckily I had 1 week left on my warranty. :)
I use my Sony to rip, write, and play DVDs. I rip 7 or 9 DVDs a week and write around 10 DVD-Rs a week also.
My other ROM is just a Liteon 52x CD-RW.

My question is, should I replace my CD-RW with a DVD-ROM or a CD-RW/DVD combo drive for ripping?

I could use the more expensive Sony for doing its main job, (writing DVD-Rs), and using a CD-RW/DVD drive for ripping.

What do you think about spreading the work load between 2 ROMs to possibly extending the drives life?

I'm thinking of getting the Liteon combo drive.

Thanks for any input.

Pac

How about a Lite-On LTD-163 DVD-Rom. I've gotten rip speeds as high as 12x on some DVD's.:cool: I think the new one is LTD-165 but I don't believe there is a difference, but I could be wrong. The Lite-On XJ-HD166S 16x DVD-ROM I've seen some bad reviews and I have no complaints with the 163.
In the US the Lite-On LTD-163 as cheap as $25. (http://www.pricewatch.com/2/212/1387-1.htm)
Great drive and at that price I would rather replace that then my DVD burner.:hdspin: :round: :hdspin:

Heard much about the LTC-48161H?

yeah i reckon a seprate dvd-rom drive is the way to go and preferably don't burn cd's with your dvd-rw either
a) the burn speeds for cdr's are much higher on a dedicated cd burner
b) they cost very little nowadays
c) the less you load on you dvd-rw laser the better
d) rip speeds for a dedicated or combo dvd-rom drive for pressed dvd's are as Notahacker points out way better than on a burner that is limited normally to read speeds of 4x to prevent a dvd+/-r being read at too fast a speed.

Liteon 165/166 are from all accounts on this forum the best value dvdrom drives- they can also read dvd-ram which is a bonus especially if you have panasonic standalone writer.

Unless you have multiple hard drives you should be able to accomodate 3 drives, and even now i think a separate dvdrom cd-rw work out as cheap as a combo drive and you have the added safety of each drive only doing the thing it was bought solely to do (if that makes sense)

Yup, I had a 105 as my only drive and it burned out within 8 months (I'm sure the hacked firmware didn't help either). Anyways I picked up a Lite-On LTD-165 to do all of my reading now. You can pick up a LTD-166 for under $40 if you know where to look which is much cheaper than a Sony DVD Burner. Definitely get a Lite-On to do your reading for you.

Thanks guys :)

The Lite-On XJ-HD166S 16x DVD-ROM I've seen some bad reviews and I have no complaints with the 163.
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I have seen very few bad reviews on the 166.It is a better performer than the 163,which is not a bad drive either.

I also have a Liteon dvd/cdrw combo drive,I think it is the 48161H,works great.I paid $50 shipped for it.I would rather have 2 hard drives than 3 optical drives.With a combo drive there is no need to have 3 optical drives.

I'm by no means a pro, but I just received my XJ-HD166S yesterday, and I shattered a disk by 10 pm.

Not letting it get me down - am replacing it with a NEC ND-2500A. Better off, I'm pretty sure. Not even worth argueing over who's reponsible. What do I need a replacement of the same thing for?

So you are trading a DVD-ROM drive for a DVD Writer?

Pack'nHeat~

i've only just caught up with the posts.
i recently did exactly what you're contemplating, replaced an old cdrw with a liteon 48161 cdrw/dvdrom combo drive to reduce wear on my pioneer 106 dvdrw. found the new liteon to be excellent, do all my music/data cds on it, will rip anything and faster than the 106. got it for £40 at a computer fair in the uk.

I changed my cd unit to a Panasonic LF D521 cause it can use dvdram so now I can do all formats.