Korean Job Discussion Forums

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

You can buy one of these in America for under $100 these days, but as with everything else electronic, I'm assuming one will cost much more here. Anyone buy one recently? What did you pay?

SuperHero · Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Superhero Hideout

I was window shopping about 3 weeks ago and 140,000 will get you a top end model.

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

bourquetheman · Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Suwon

Got a Sony external burner just last week, does dual layer burning if desired and reads at 16X (older model read at 8X) and burns at 4x. Cash at Yongsan can get it for 245 000 won, although a saw one for 135 000 won made by Liteon (who the heck are they?) so I went with the Sony. I actually ended up buying it online (wife did actually) and got it for 260 000 won with 10 Sony DVD r disks, and got it three months payment, no interest.

Anyway I'm happy and just finished burning my sixth ps2 game I downloaded, which in effect would have cost me 60 000 won right there at yongsan (10 000 won a game) so it WILL pay for itself in the long run.

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Thanks for the info. I plan to get one so I can burn games for an Xbox my girlfriend is buying.

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Liteon is a Korean brand, I believe. Actually, they sell a lot of units to other companies in the USA who slap their name on it. I think "Pacific Digital" is a company that actually sell LiteOn products.

You can find them at Staples and places like that in the states.

Their DVD burners rate quite well, actually, and are cheap.

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Right. Sony is always overpriced because of their endless marketing expenses.

bourquetheman · Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Suwon

That's true as this is the first sony product I've ever bought to be honest with you. Having said that though, it is good quality and I like the fact that it came with Nero Suite which so far has burned every game successfully. Even my wife (who loves to save money) was adament about spending a little more, in fact I was ready to by the liteon one but she changed my mind!

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

It's definately all about the software! Worth it to spend a bit more for a great software package.

But just for now... hold off on any internal (not sure about external) 2.4 DL Sony drive. They're having some big problems and not selling well. Creating a lot of EXPENSIVE coasters.

Give them a while to fix it with the next model.

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

How on earth did I pick up an internal DVD re-writer for about 70,000 won in the UK? It writes at 40x (CD) / 8x (DVD-R) / 12x (DVD+R) / 2.4x (DVD+R DL) / 4x (DVD��RW) plus it came with the Nero suite and a DVD creation/video editing tool called Sonic MyDVD.

I thought I was getting a bargain at the time, but reading this thread now it just seems ridiculous. Installed it last night and burnt my first data DVD with no probs- OptoRite brand, is it going to blow up and burn all my clothes or something?

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Internal is always cheaper than external, James. That's why. I think I will go with the generic. I already have Nero Suit with all the extras (DVD encoding etc), which took about 3 minutes to download off E-donkey...however, I find it noble that you guys are paying for legit software. I just can't bring myself to buy software anymore when it's so damn easy to get for free. I know that's bad...but ....(heart wrenching excuse goes here)

Speaking of Nero...I love the vcd/dvd encoding that allows you to make any video play on your DVD player. You can even make your own menu screens and chapters.

shawner88 · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

In case anyone is following this thread with interest, I stopped off at Yongsan tonight and ended up buying a 16x (regular external drives were only 4x or 8x) Liteon internal DVD-RW drive (70,000 won) and a sleek silver Nudian (50,000) external case for it (I had no idea you could do this until tonight). At the same small shop I also got a package of 25 SK made DVD-R disks for just 12,000 (that's incredibly cheap - Walmart charges 15,000 for just 10.) That was after a bit of negotiation though. He started at 140,000 for everything and I acted not interested for a bit. He came down immediately. Really nice guy, too, unlike a lot of those aggressive jerks. He even put everthing together for me.

So basically, for 132,000 won I got a sharp looking, fast DVD external burner and 25 DVD-R disks. That's a pretty good deal. If you want to buy this set like me, make sure you find the Nudian brushed metal case. The other cases are big, plastic, and ugly.

On a side note, I don't think the speed of the drive really matters that much because the cheap disks are only 4xs speed - but still nice to have it for when the price of faster disks comes down.

By the way, don't go shopping in Yongsan on a weekday. The place was dead and I got hounded every moment I even made eye-contact with anyone. Really uncomfortable experience.

Finally, guess what! The Liteon comes with the complete, legit, Nero Suit software (with the DVD encoder plugins) and PowerDVD . I guess I did buy the software now!

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Hey, that's a good time to shop and get better deals... they're more desperate.

Good to hear you got a nice deal. I'm not a fan of DVD-R disks, because my burner is only 2.4 with DVD-R disks.

I've switched all of my disks over to SONY now. Finding too many errors developing on the cheaper REX ones I bought. I bought 100 SONY disks in the states before coming here. Staples had them on sale for $17 for a 50 pack! Not a bad price!