CDRLabs.com

I did miss it, sorry.

That's ok. I thought you probably did

What did you think of the review so far? Which one looks better to you so far?

Thank you

ClayBuster wrote:Why not just buy one of the cheap OEM copies from ebay make sure you get NERO 6 SUITE-3 though? OR if you already have an older version just buy the upgrade from Nero.com and not worry about it.

This is a pretty good deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 46492&rd=1

This was listed as Nero NERO ULTRA EDITION FULL 6.3. Any idea if this is the OEM or retail version? I've always been leery of software on e-bay.

I mentioned this on an earlier thread. I think Pioneer paniced and forced this drive out the door, evidenced by lackluster firmware. I've always been led to believe that in the past Pioneer came out of the gate strong. I remember waiting for the 107 for two months, and then being glad I didn't wait. They are becoming increasingly less reliable coming off the blocks. I don't want to wait for 3 to 4 months for the drive to do what it should've done after the first FW upgrade. I am aware that all of the manufacturers are guilty of this to some degree, I just hold Pioneer up to a higher standard.

Where the hell is Plextor? "!2X,..........BLAH,BLAH,BLAH". "16X media is not available, and too expensive....BLAH, BLAH, BLAH". How about a 16X drive w\ 8X Dbl layer..........by Christmas for $145. If you charge twice as much I expect twice as much! I guess I'll never see a prodigy like the 708A again.

Sorry, I forgot my meds before posting. I'm all better now.

hydrogen wrote:Vanderlow,

Thanks for posting the link, but did you check my post? I posted that link already. You might have missed it.

Shimman,

I wouldn't go by one review. How if cdrinfo got a bad or not final drive. A new firmware came out that they didn't get to test. I would wait to reserve judgement on the drive when we see some more reviews.

Did you see the review comparing the 3500 to the 108d that I posted a link too? The Pioneer didn't do too bad. I'm sure it will keep getting better with new firmware releases.

For some reason, I feel that the reviewer plays flavor over the Pioneer.... I mean, when it is close (say one has better time, one has better burn etc), he would choose the Pioneer.

Well, why not get both then?

The edge seems to be to the Pioneer, but a firmware upgrade could change the story.

I called newegg once I saw the versions that included software were posted after my drive shipped. They only include Roxio, not Nero. So no big loss

Just got my NEC 3500AG today. So far as far as extraction using DVDDecrypter, my Pioneer A108 with the 1.10 firmware is a shade faster 5.1x vs 4.5X for the 3500. I'm just starting to compare the write performance of each.

Regardless of reviews that has been posted, physically, my impression is the Pioneer seems to be more solidly built. It;s tray is defintely heavier than the NEC and overall length and weight is greater than NEC.

I guess I'll know how the write performance compares in a few hours.

One other thing, I bought two of each of these drives and the quality of both Pioneers are very similar. I got them a few days earlier than the NECs abd both are working properly.

I'm having problems writing anything on one of the 3500As. Don't really know if this is representative of the NEC quaility but one of my 2510a dies just after a few weeks of usage.

Performance aside, I like the built quality of the Pioneer much better. Anyway that was juts my two cents.

Pioneer will probably have more frequent firmware updates as well to improve the read/write performance of the drive.

MB

Anyone seen the ND3500 for sale in Silver yet?

I agree with MadBurner. Pioneer releases a lot of firmwares which is a good thing. I think Nec has released only 2 firmwares for their 2500a drive compared to Pioneer releasing 6 firmwares for the 107d.

Nec doesn't really release firmware very often. I like Pioneer because of the firmware releases. That shows they are dedicated to their drives.

Since I love my Pioneer 107d, I think I would stick with Pioneer.

I'm really don't want to buy a drive that hardly never gets any new firmwares. I'm talking about official firmware and not hacks. I don't want to void my warranty. I'm only going by the past on this. The 2500a compared to the 107d. The future could change for Nec. They may start releasing more.

So, far there have already been 2 firmware releases for the Pioneer 108d compared to 0 for the Nec 3500a. So, far history is repeating itself.

I don't know, but I couldn't get the Ricohjpn01 to show anything but a blank page, but it came up now, is it newly added? anyway, the pio won this round.

http://flashman.rpc1.org/Pioneer-NEC_09.htm

If you want to see burn quality scans done with a more reliable reading drive than the Nu, I'm posting some HERE

Frankly, I would not draw any conclusions based on scans from a Nu-082, but that's just my low opinion of that drive.