Looking for DVD combo drive

... that does not have a tray that feels like flimsy plastic crap. Does anyone do one? Such mech info seems extremely difficult to find. I'm looking for the kind of 'quality' mechanism found on high end CD players (but obviously I also need DVD functionality).

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere
Loading thread data ...

With a target price of 30$, you only get platic crap. You can always bring one to your local mechanic and have it remade from whatever material.

Rene

Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

The target price is

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

Reply to
Ian Stirling

I'm not talking about complete CD/DVD players, but drives. You know - the ones people put in computers to read/write DVD/CDs. Typical price for crap - $30. What quality ones exist?

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

I don't know of any, since in this business there just one phrase : "It has to be cheap."

Why not spend 150$ on your local mechanic to have the drawer milled from aluminum ? Then anodize with a flash color and you're there ?

Rene

Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

I paid hundreds of dollars for my first 5.25" floppy drive, in 1984, and by then the price had dropped considerably. I paid something like $80 for my first 3.5" floppy drive, it was only single-sided, in 1989. My first hard drive, in late 1993, was hundreds of dollars.

When you're paying that kind of money, you can expect things to stand up well. But when you have to squeeze costs in order to reach a price level that consumers demand, then of course things get flimsy. Yes, some of cost reduction is due to a greater market, and some to higher integration, but mechanical parts are often a means of cutting costs. People want cheap, but on the other hand they aren't expecting to repair things. They'll pay thirty dollars for a drive, and then not worry when they have to replace it, for another thirty dollars. They know it would cost more to have it repaired.

Keep the price high, and that limits who will buy. But it gives far more leeway for good construction, and when people are paying good money for something, they are more willing to spend a percentage of that money to keep the item running.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Black

Because it would take us too long.

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

The thing is, high quality drives *are* used in top end AV equipment. I'd just like to know what they are and who makes them.

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

Hello Dirk,

You could start by contacting the major players in the rugged PC market such as those mentioned here:

formatting link

Just don't expect to get away with a few hundred bucks. It's a small market and thus expensive.

Regards, Joerg

formatting link

Reply to
Joerg

What do you mean by quality? Looking it was made by the soviet union, weighing a tone, and with a lifespan of two weeks, or made with a quality plastics and having a lifespan greater than your computer?

$30 will buy you a quality drive unless you pay $29 to the middleman.

Great examples are from NEC, toshiba, plextor, LG, Lite-on, mitsumi, ASUS, pioneer,Aopen,optorite. Even sony makes OK drives.

For example, an ASUS CB-5216A can be had for $31.99. It will easily outlast your PC.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

Even ignoring the time, replacing the plastic with aluminum will not increase it's reliability. It'll lower it actually.

Reply to
AZ Nomad

It's going into audio equipment. So it has, at least, to look like a top of the range audio CD player. And trust me on this one - the trays on such systems *aren't* shaky, rattling bits of flimsy plastic.

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

Tell you what - next time you have a few minutes and are passing a store that sells quality audio stuff drop in and ask to see a CD player costing in excess of $1000. Look at the CD player tray. Compare it to the average PC. That will give you an idea of what I'm looking for.

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

[snip]

Probably the same folks that make the $30 units for PCs. The piece you see is just the disk tray and is custom made to the specs of the A/V equipment manufacturer. The innards are probably standard and don't differ much from the generic PC units.

Like someone else suggested, have a machinist mill a tray out of aluminum, finish it to your specifications and fit it to a PC drive.

--
Paul Hovnanian     mailto:Paul@Hovnanian.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Plextor used to be well regarded, don't know the current situation but they still seem to cost twice as much as everyone else!

--

John Devereux
Reply to
John Devereux

They are specially made for the device. They are an important part of the 'look and feel' and thus can cost a lot of money.

Now that kind of requirement does not exist for the mass market - it would actually be against the purpose to use a mass market device, no matter how good it is.

Maybe you can get by using a slot-in drive. My slot-in DVD makes a lot of noise - check if that is a problem with what you select.

High end audio drives are also slow. Maybe a slower motor or changed gear can make a different impression too.

Thomas

Reply to
Zak

We may go for a slot loader, probably Plextor 716AL. Any problems with that method compared to trays?

Dirk

Reply to
Dirk Bruere

Audiophools buy Monster Cables and they're fairly well built too. I do wish laptop optical drives were a little less flimsy though.

--
  Keith
Reply to
Keith

There are these credit card sized CDs. They don't work in a plextor with a casette.

Rene

Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.