CDRLabs.com

or how about NEC 3500 + Verb 16x ?

haha , I've looked at alot of reviews, but with the new firmwares cycling all the time, in your experience, which combo will give the best write quality at 16x?

Just another person hoping for some 16x goodness

theturtle

The BenQ DW1620 with Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs. Actually the BenQ DW1620 with Ritek 16x DVD+Rs is also good. The NEC is ok.

Ritek's? I'm surprised you'd say that, From what i've been reading Ritek 16x's are junk.

theturtle

My NEC ND-3500A writes TY, 8x, DVD+R at 16x.

Slim

The error rates are pretty low with Verbatim 16x +R media on the NEC 3500 (PI sum 8 max was around 30 when I tried)

CowboySlim wrote:My NEC ND-3500A writes TY, 8x, DVD+R at 16x.

Slim

Great!
I have 100 Fuji's (8X TY) bought on sale; can't wait to burn again when I get the Mad Dog version today; sold my 8X several months ago and didn't really burn anything since June.

I need to start reviewing firmware options...

To the best of my recollection, these 2 discs were burned with stock firmware. Both burned at 16x in the NEC-3500:

Thanks rdgrimes!

I was planning to use stock firmware.
I am going use binflasher to flash NEC fw 2.18 to my Mad Dog drive.
I am also going to look into ways to permanently flash it into a NEC, if possible.

So even stock firmware can burn MCC and TY 4X media at 16X?

TY T02 is 8x media, not 4x.
Personally, I would not buy a drive based on it's 16x performance with these 2 media types, as they are all very good with these discs. There are other more important consideratiions.

theturtle wrote:Ritek's? I'm surprised you'd say that, From what i've been reading Ritek 16x's are junk.

theturtle

The BenQ DW1620 burned them ok.

rdgrimes wrote:TY T02 is 8x media, not 4x.
Personally, I would not buy a drive based on it's 16x performance with these 2 media types, as they are all very good with these discs. There are other more important consideratiions.

I fully agree!
I already bought the drive yesterday, based on price ($44 after rebate, including tax) and performance reviews and the NEC name.

What other considerations are you referring to rdgrimes?
Price is important, but of secondary importance to me. Quality is of much more importance to me. Not that I'm saying I'm going to dish out twice as much cash for a drive if another does the same thing as a lower priced one. Meaning saving a few bucks on a rebadge or the like is a bad idea imo, buy a retail drive.

Well, if all the main burners will burn the best media well at 16x, then most every other consideration is more important. Things like bitsetting, retail package, or whatever is important to you. To me, the most important thing is a drive's ability to burn cheaper media well, and -R as well as +R. That narrows the field considerably.

So your saying buy a retail BenQ with OEM fw Bitsetting suppot?

I think you just sold me hehe

the Benq is not so good with -R, but that's not a big issue for most people. The NEC is still my 1st choice, but the Benq certainly wins the prize for speed and +R burning, plus error reporting.

The Benq is not faster at 16x than the LG at 12x...

From theturtle:

Meaning saving a few bucks on a rebadge or the like is a bad idea imo, buy a retail drive.

and

So your saying buy a retail BenQ with OEM fw Bitsetting suppot?

I'm have trouble with parsing these, so please excuse me if my responses don't seem to be all that responsive. Furthermore, I may be mistaken in some of my opinions. If so, others will correct me.

First quote: Rebadge and retail are not true alternatives. For example, one can buy a retail Lite-On DVD-RW that says Lite-On or one can buy a drive that says Sony or Memorex, both of each are sold as retail rebadged Lite-Ons. You won't save money on either of these rebadges, both generally cost more that their Lite-On cousin.

Second quote: I don't get this one at all, anyway, here goes. OEM fw support does not "come with" a retail BenQ in the context that such support is not in the box. One may obtain FW updates from whoever is on the box or other enthusiast sites such as: http://dhc014.rpc1.org/. One possible disadvantage in rebadges is that they don't usually pass through all the FW updates that the "real" OEM issues. AFAIK, booktyping/bitsetting allows burned DVDs to be played in older DVD players that can't otherwise read these DVDs. I don't think that my NEC ND-3500A supports booktyping/bitsetting, however, it doesn't matter to me as my DVD players are less than two years old and can play my movies "fair use" copied onto DVD+R media.

Lastly, about OEM version versus retail:
If you don't have screws, a cable and software; don't want to bother with obtaining software elsewhere; will be content with any bundled software then buy a retail package.
If you have screws, a cable and software or don't mind getting them elsewhere and want to save a few bucks, buy OEM.
Further note: my NEC ND-3500A, purchased as an OEM version, did come bundled with a "lite" version of Nero (i.e., Nero Express).

Slim

One other thing:
Check the warranty when comparing OEM to retail.

My retail MadDog has a 2 year warranty; I know most people here don;t keep drives that long, but just something to keep in mind when comparing drives with shorter warranties.

VEFF wrote:One other thing:
Check the warranty when comparing OEM to retail.

My retail MadDog has a 2 year warranty; I know most people here don;t keep drives that long, but just something to keep in mind when comparing drives with shorter warranties.

In a retail vs. OEM trade-off. I don't think that length is significant. If you buy retail, you have a manufacturer warranty. If you buy OEM, I think that you are just stuck.

Slim

I may be mistaken, but i'm pretty sure i've read there's bitsetting support in the stock FW from Benq. thats what i was referring to.

theturtle

Yes, the test report herein affirms that for DVD+.

Slim

theturtle wrote:I may be mistaken, but i'm pretty sure i've read there's bitsetting support in the stock FW from Benq. thats what i was referring to.

theturtle

In the 1600 series it's automatically set on all DVD+R/RW/9 media, but in the earlier models you have to do it via additional software.