8X Lite On LDW-811S Retail Boxed Dual Format +/- DVD Rewriter
The new 8X DVD+R writer
I have seen it for about £115.00

And the

4X OEM Pioneer 106 DVD writer supporting DVD+R(W) and DVD-R(W)
£84.00

I realise the Pioneer has a very good reputation writing at 4X, but does the Lite On equal it in spec along with a write speed of 8X.

Any help or advice on this would be really appreciated, dont know alot about them and not sure if I am overlooking anything, as I am now looking into getting one very soon.

Cheers

rab

This place has a ton of comments on all makes but those are kinda new:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters

Well keep in mind that the Lite-On only supports 8x writing to DVD+R and still only writes to DVD-R at 4x. Also unless it writes at 8x to 4x DVD+R media, you won't be able to take advantage of the 8x writing speeds for a couple of months as 8x media isn't out yet. DVD-R media is generally a bit cheaper in the UK. (Compare DVD-R Riteks to DVD+R Riteks). The Lite-On is recieving some initial praise but it's still too new to really know how reliable it is. The Pioneer 106 on the other hand is considered by many to be one of the most reliable writers on the market. Also 4x writing=15-16 minutes. 8x writing (if it is true 8x and not CLV) would be about 7-8 minutes. If it is CLV then it would write in about 10 minutes. Also a quality DVD-R disc does seem to be a bit more compatible with DVD Players/Videogame systems than a comparible DVD+R disc. If the Lite-On is anything like my DVD-ROM drive (also made by Lite-On) then I would gladly take the Pioneer. It is pretty fussy about what it reads (some discs don't even have any scratches) and when I pop them into a regular DVD Player each one (that I had problems with on the Lite-On) reads without a hitch. I have actually just bought a replacement since I am sick dealing with the drive being tempermental. BTW if you really want an 8x writer you should wait for the new 107/A07 writer to come out in the next month or two from Pioneer. It will support 8x writing to DVD-R as well as DVD+R.

Thanks jesterrace777 and handyguy, very helpful input, I think you have put me off liteon, I suppose slightly because of what you said about it and the fact the pioneer has such a good reputation.
Much appreciated.

rab

I have bot the Liteon and a pioneer.

The liteon is a great all round drive - it is nice burning CDRs at 40x again

however, it is a bit picky abou tthe media. The Ritek 4x media works great, but some don't work so well.

there might be a firmware upgrade by now though