NEC ND-1100A DVD+R...Good or Junk?

[vice86]

I just picked up the Cendyne 4X DVD+R from Staples for 229.99 - 50.00 rebate for a 179.99 total. Haven't burned anything yet but wondered if anyone heard anything about the NEC ND-1100A that the Cendyne actually is.

[orbital517]

The NEC 1100A drive is complete JUNK in my opinion. That is the drive that originally came with my brand new Dell 8250 that I got 3 months ago. Not only did it ruin many of my +RW disks, but it couldn't read many of my blank CD-R disks. I even upgraded to the newest firmware that was supposedly going to "fix" all of the problems that I was having, but guess what.....................it didn't fix anything!!!!

STAY AWAY from the NEC 1100A. If you can still return it, do it right away. for the same amount of money, I would recommend the TDK Indi420 or maybe the Pioneer 105

[CubDukat]

From what I've read, the TDK drive is nothing more than a repackaged version of the ND-1110A.

I've also read that the Dell version seems to have some issues that aren't related to the NEC-branded version.

I certainly hope that this drive isn't as bad as it's been said, as it's going to be my DVD burner. That is, unless the under-$200 DVD+-R/RW drive from Lite-On materializes (and I doubt it will, seeing as it's just a rebadged Sony drive)

[vice86]

It already gives me an error in DVD Decryptor (see my error post)

I'm about to try burning a DVD+R disk now...let's see how that goes.

[sjc160]

True, the NEC ND-1100a that Dell offers did have some problems in the past. I Ruined about 6 DVD+RW discs in it. But after the firmware upgrade it works fantastic. The problem I and many others had was this. You could burn to the disc but not reuse it to burn over the previous data or erase it, so it was acting just like a write once DVD+R disc instead.
As I said I have no problems at all now. I can overwrite the contents and erase for as many times as the media is good for rewrites, which I am told is about a 1,000 times. If the drive came form Dell I would recomend downloading and flashing the drive with the new firmware which is version 10GE if it is not already done.

Note: From my understanding,(which I may be wrong) with DVD+RW Drives and DVD+RW Discs you can just burn over previous data and the disc gets formatted in the background but with DVD-RW you have to erase them before you can use them again. This is what I like about them. It is much faster. Also-many people say that DVD-R/-RW is more compatible, I am not so sure about that. I can get DVD+RW and DVD+R to play on my Panasonic, (which in the manual states it can not play them),Pioneer and Fisher.

[Bob W]

I have the NEC 1100A and it works just as good as my Sony DRU-500ax or my Pioneer 105.

[vice86]

SUCCESS...2 DVDs burned on "OPTIMUM" brand DVD+R dvds..i watched some of movie 1 and then went thru the chapters...hopefully they are fine the hole way through.

If I have success like this throughout then I'll be happy.

[BlizzofOZ]

Thanks to Bob W's earlier suggestion, I too have bought the NEC 1100A and have had no problems!!!

I did a lot of research and only found that the people who had problems with this drive where Dell owners.

For the money, you can't go wrong.

PS: I also have burnt on those Optimum DVD, which I got from Staples. I asked on this forum about the brand and found out that are, I believe, made by K-Hypermedia.

[vice86]

Yeah..Optimum are supposedly KHypermdia disks...but you have some people say KHyper is crap whle other have good success with KHyper disks...so you never know till you try.

[Bob W]

Yeah..Optimum are supposedly KHypermdia disks...but you have some people say KHyper is crap whle other have good success with KHyper disks...so you never know till you try.

That's true and I have tried a bunch of media. The only problems I ran into was a lot of 15 verbatim DVD+R discs that were only usable for recording 4GB or less (bad media near the edge of the disc), and I bought 5 Apple 4x discs at CompUSA and not one of them would finish a burn without errors.

[nanz1]

I have this sa me drive and have had one problem, and that has been with erasing dvd+rw of any brand. It will go thru the process on Record Now DX and when you check the dvd+rw it tells you it has 1.99g of space. That is when I run it thru the full erasing process several times. I have the 1.A0 firmware version. I saw the same problem on the Dell site with this drive. Theu have a firmware upgrade there to solve this but its for operating systems Windows 2000 and Windows XP. My OS is ME, scared to find out what may happen if I try it. Any suggestions or any other firmware for that problem and my OS?

[Rito]

I recently installed a NEC ND-1100A When I open My Computer with no media in the drive, it comes up as DVD/CD-RW Drive. When I insert media (blank DVD+R Disc), in the My Computer widow the drive changes to a CD Drive. When I examine the properties of the drive it indicates it is a CD drive with no free space on the media.



I don’t seem to be able to use the DVD R capabilities of this drive.



Where can I find the firmware upgrade? Any suggestions you might have for me would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks

[Alnath]

That is normal for the drive, regarding not being able to use its DVD abilitys have you tried?

[andkiich]

this is my first and only DVD burner, and so far it has worked flawlessly. I've used Fuji, Verbatim, Philips, and Memorex DVD+R, DVD-ON and fuji DVD+RW, and about a dozen CD-R types with none being rejected and working on all my stand alones.

Mine came in the DVD Producer + package for $200. One of the best $200 I've ever spent.