Hi. I've been very satisfied with my Lite-On 4012485s CD-RW and Lite-On LTD 163 DVD-Rom drives; no problems whatsoever. Recently, I've gotten the bug for a DVD burner. Without question, the Pioneer seems to be the main choice (A05 or A06), and there certainly are many good reasons for that. But even though I'd never heard of Lite-On before doing a little research, after the research I found that Lite-On CD-R/RW burners have a very good reputation, especially among some very experienced folks, both with regard to quality and value.
You can find lots of threads all around stating things like: "My Lite-On CD burner is the least finicky burner I've ever had. That thing will burn just about anything. Haven't had a coaster since....Can't remember when".
Now, I realize it doesn't necessarily follow that a company that makes a great CD-R/RW burner will make a great DVD burner. So that's why I decided to ask. I saw the 400D at newegg for $239. Anybody know of good/bad stories related to that product? (I did notice in the specs that the Lite-On DVD burner has an 8MB buffer. Having read through a lot of the DVD burner threads already, it made me wonder if the Lite-On wasn't actually a re-badged Sony. In that case, the question has already been answered. But I wouldn't assume that it was a rebadged Sony just based on the buffer size alone.
But since there can't be that many different actual manufacturers of DVD burners out there, I thought it was more than a coincidence.)