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Which drive do I get rid of?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 6:55 pm
by 88keyz
I currently have 3 DVD-RW drives, LG 4167B (DL13 firmware), NEC 3520A (3.07 bitsetting firmware by Liggy) and Pioneer 110D (crossflashed to 110 8.39 Buffalo firmware) and I am giving one away tomorrow. I was wondering which drive the forum members think I should give away. Any thoughts?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 10:34 pm
by Scour
Hello!

I would say, give away the NEC :)

It´s the oldest of this 3, i guess

PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:01 pm
by TCAS
I would go for LG since there isn't that much community f/w support for it.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 18, 2006 11:13 pm
by Justin42
I'd say the NEC for its age. It's a solid burner but rapidly becoming obsolete.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:08 am
by dolphinius_rex
I also think the NEC. The Pioneer should be able to handle anything you'd want the NEC for, and the LG will round things out for overall media compatability.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:25 am
by 88keyz
The NEC seems to be fighting a losing battle here. A question about the write quality of the NEC vs. Pioneer. The Pioneer seems to have taken a bit of a beating for its write quality (though I must admit I was very impressed with the burn I did of a +R TY 8x disc earlier today) and media compatability (only writes at 8x on some of my "burns for friends" 16x CMC media) where as the NEC drive has never been accused of being a bad or marginal writer, does Pioneer have a good history with its firmware support to correct such problems or is this writer going the way of the dodo because the DVR-111 is available now? The use of quality media isn't really an issue for me as I usually genuine TY, RICOHJPN or Maxell MIJ media (almost always +R). Overall write quality does matter though because I'll use cheaper stuff from CMC or RITEK for burning stuff for friends. Bitsetting is a must but all 3 drives support that with their current firmwares and both the NEC and the Pioneer will do quality scanning. Keep those opinions and reasons coming, I really want to hear what you have to say.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:45 am
by dolphinius_rex
The LG will probably do better on 16x media that isn't based on Japanese technology, which is why I said it would round things off nicely for media compatability. The problem with the LG is that it tends to create burns with very high jitter. But if you're friends give you lower end media, then what do they expect?

As for quality testing, both the Pioneer and the NEC suffer from the same flaws in this regard, and I wouldn't consider either one of them a viable solution. Rather, I would recommend running transfer rate tests on the LG drive at full speed. The NEC is too picky a reader for this, although the Pioneer could also be used for transfer rate tests I suppose.

PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:21 pm
by Gabe
Replace the NEC, my opinion

PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:49 am
by vinnie97
Justin42 wrote:I'd say the NEC for its age. It's a solid burner but rapidly becoming obsolete.

I'm still using my even more obsolete 3500...and I will until it dies or won't burn to anymore media. ;)

PostPosted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:40 pm
by Justin42
Hey, I still use a Sony DRU500a occasionally! I still say, on GOOD media (i.e., not crap Grade-D media from Taiwan), that was a very underrated burner. Considering it was the first 'dual format' drive, it's scans are still quite good. I still have a (declining) stash of 2x MIJ TDK media for it.

Obsolete isn't bad. :)