I/O Magic 8x Internal DVD+/-RW Drive (IDVDRW8D)

Rating:
Summary: Really really horrible product
Review: IOMAGIC is not a listed supported DVD burner on the Pinnacle Systems (www.pinnaclesys.com) website (this drive comes with Pinnacle software). No wonder, I have wasted 3 DVDs and precious hours trying to coax the software to create one successful DVD from this drive! I have had the same problems are others in this forum - drive not recognized, burner software troubles etc....

Please do not buy this drive if you value your time and money!!

Rating:
Summary: Not Possible
Review: One question:
How can the reviewer from Michigan say that he has had this drive for a yr. when 8x burners have not been out that long ?

Rating:
Summary: Great DVD Drive
Review: The problems most people encountered with this drive are caused
by the fact that some people purchase a better quality drive than
others, even though they come from an identical retail box.

This is because I/O Magic repackages and resells Optorite DVD
Drives (DD0401, DD0405). Recently they started reselling BTC
drives. Optorite drives are higher quality than BTC, so check the
back of the box at what drive you are purchasing.


Another reason is a great variance in the quality of DVD media
available on the market.

These are the only certified high speed media for this drive as
of this writing (Fall 04):

YUDEN000T01
RICOHJPNR01
MCC 002
CMC MAG F01

The above media are sold under brand names:
Memorex 4x, TDK 4x, Maxell 4x, and Sony 4x, and Verbatim 4x.

There are no 8x speed DVD blanks available. However, Memorex
DVD+R 4x and SONY DVD+R 4x could be spinned faster than 4x,
close to 10Mb/s.

Even with a correct media you would still need to flash the drive
to enable higher speeds. After the flashing the drive works
great, flawless operation and not a single failure using any of
several types of media.

Rating:
Summary: unacceptable support
Review: The purpose of this review is to inform customers of the poor service provided by I/O Magic. I had bought a problematic DVD drive. A technician suggested I acquire an RMA but subsequent attempts to do so were unsuccessful. After a couple of months of no replies, I decided to simply buy a new drive from another manufacturer which got rave reviews.

Rating:
Summary: concur unacceptable support & stay away !!!!
Review: Tried this drive with Window 98 SE. Problems with the drive's( http://www.iomagic.com/) interface to windows 98 SE operating system included Pinnacle software http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ shipped with the drive no support to speak of here either with Studio Version 8 16.1 MB "patch?" and Hollywood FX. Could not get the tutorials to work with drive even after download of 48MB "patch". 15+ minutes on phone, leave a message. Sent an email, no response 36 hours later (business days) Live chat option under support, no responce after several hours.

Rating:
Summary: After upgrade unit worked flawlessly
Review: Unit now works flawlessly and read and burns disk without problem after upgrading the firmware on the drive. Pinicle software did not see the drive until I went to BTC.COM and downloaded the liveupgrade utility which sent the software from version 0.54 to 1.59. Now it burns at 8X without problems. Given the cost of burning software can be more than this bundle I am very happy.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but having problems
Review: When I put a DVD+R in the drive it takes forever to load and it hangs up and i have to keep starting the computer again. Packet Writing works only on DVD+RW and DVD+R it can't read the last session that is read and it reads as a Blank Disc.