Winter HolidaysTop 5 IDE DVD Burnersby Mark Kyrnin 7/12/07 - In seemed like DVD speeds reached their peak with 16x drives, but more and more companies are offering 18x and even 20x drives now. Even with these max speed differences, recording times can vary greatly. The real differences in the drives are what extra features they may offer. With all this in mind, here is the selection of the best DVD burners currently available based upon my research and experience. This list only covers drives that use the IDE interface.
When it comes to pure speed of recording DVD media, the Lite-On LH-20A1H offers the current highest recording speeds of 20x for the DVD+R and DVD-R media types. Be warned that these speeds are not reached with all DVD media, but when it does it certainly is the fastest available. It is no slouch when it comes to other media and features. It supports DVD-RAM and LightScribe media in addition to these fast recording speeds.
HP used to be a major player in the storage market, but they have scaled back their product lines. They continue to create DVD burners but limit the number of products they have on the market. The dvd1040i is their latest burner and it has some surprisingly fast performance for those with the IDE interface. Since this is HP who had a major hand in the development of LightScribe, the drive also supports burning labels directly to compatible media.
Samsung has become one of the biggest suppliers of optical drives to computer manufacturers. The SH-182M offers up 18x DVD+/-R recording speeds with select media as well as LightScribe media labeling. Access times are very strong compared to other drives but it is not as consistent when it comes to performance between the different media format. It does offer some of the best CD recording speeds available on the market though.
LG Electronics may not have been the first to reach the 20x recording speed, but that didn't stop them from upgrading their product lines and introducing the GSA-H55NB. This drive bumps up their maximum recording speeds up to the 20x speeds. Access times are a bit better than other 20x drives on the market, but the LG drive falls sligthly behind in the overall time to complete a DVD burner. The drive does not support LightScribe media. NEC's optical storage division was merged into Sony's to create the new Sony NEC Optiarc product lines. The AD-7170A is really just the rebadging of the original NEC 7170A drive and not a new design. The drive may not be as feature rich as some of the others on the list, but they make up for it with a fairly low price. 18x recording speeds are available with select media for both DVD-R and DVD+R. DVD-RAM is supported by the drive but it does lack LightScribe media support. | 
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