Help Me Decide, NEC 3520A OR Pioneer DVR-108

[the_hater]

Hi
Im about to buy a new burner to replace/complement my old Sony DRU500a.

I can't decide between the NEC 3520A OR Pioneer DVR-108.

If seen alot of good posts about both, but not really anything about pro's or con's compared to the other.

Since i will be using this to rip occasionally also, i would prefer one that doesnt have a low locked ripping speed (unless it can be unlocked by firmware)

Any opinions or fanboys welcome.

[SLICK RICK]

Either one is a great choice. As you already know you will hear good things about both of them.

[Bodyslide]

108 is great, do a search and you will find alot of people like them both.

[sssax2003]

Why not get the Pioneer 108? You can convert it to a Piodata 108DX to support Bitsetting for DVD+R. Or buy the Piodata 108DX which has the same hardware as the Pioneer 108, but automatically does DVD+R as DVD-Rom...

[the_hater]

Thats a good suggestion and i will look into it.

I was just looking at the regular 108 since its 75 buck at newegg and i have to order some other stuff from there anyway.

(Did anyone notice the Logitech diNovo desktop is down to $145? Ive been wanting one of these for a while but the original $250 was to much for me)

Why not get the Pioneer 108? You can convert it to a Piodata 108DX to support Bitsetting for DVD+R. Or buy the Piodata 108DX which has the same hardware as the Pioneer 108, but automatically does DVD+R as DVD-Rom...

[HatchetMan]

Why not get the Pioneer 108? You can convert it to a Piodata 108DX to support Bitsetting for DVD+R. Or buy the Piodata 108DX which has the same hardware as the Pioneer 108, but automatically does DVD+R as DVD-Rom...

Where the heck do you get that fw from? Have you personally experimented with it or have a good link? thx
*EDIT* nevermind - http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=31969

[lenti_75]

don't matter, both are the BEST.

if you want bitsetting, go for Nec, even though, piodata fw as 108 support it.

[Quantum]

Right now the Pioneer DVR-108 will likely give you the best out of the box write quality. The NEC 3520 is relatively new (not to be confused with the 3500) and the hackers have just started messing around with its write strategies.

[the_hater]

FYI
Right now i think im going to grab the NEC. I read on cdrfreaks that the chipset supports -R DL, and there will be a flash available when the media is.

My only questions, is the rip speed locked at 2X? And if so has there been firmware for previous NEC drives that unlocked it to a 12X speed?

-Hater

[Bodyslide]

Here's a link to the firmware for the NEC. You might can email for more info.

http://www.micheldeboer.nl/firmware/

[sync]

FYI
Right now i think im going to grab the NEC. I read on cdrfreaks that the chipset supports -R DL, and there will be a flash available when the media is.

My only questions, is the rip speed locked at 2X? And if so has there been firmware for previous NEC drives that unlocked it to a 12X speed?

-Hater

My 3520 arrived from NewEgg today. It rips at 12X out of the box. That was testing DVDR. I don't know if a dual-layer will rip that fast.

[sync]

According to Bodyslide's link, there is hacked firmware to remove riplock. So I don't understand why mine is ripping at that speed.

[sync]

I just found out riplock only applies to DVD-ROM.

[Epicurus8a]

FYI: Pioneer will be releasing their -R DL burner (DVR 109) sometime this month. There are some other posts with the specs. I'm waiting for this one.



Press Release October 3, 2003

Pioneer Corporation

Pioneer Develops DVD-R Dual-layer Recording Technology
Realizing the recording capacity of up to 8.5GBytes on one side

October 3, 2003, Tokyo, Japan - Pioneer Corporation has announced today that the company developed the DVD-R dual-layer recording technology. It means that the technological foundation has almost been established to commercialize DVD-R discs, where data up to 8.5GBytes can be recorded on one side.

The new dual-layer recording technology, adopting the dye-recording-film layer method, has realized a 9.34% jitter with a 17.3% reflection rate on the first layer (L0) of a disc, and an 8.08% jitter with a 19.5% reflection rate for the second layer (L1). This shows almost the same performance as that for dual-layer DVD-ROM discs. It means that DVD-R discs supporting this technology can be played back on most existing DVD players, and DVD recorders supporting this technology will be developed easily.

In the rapidly growing DVD recorder market, there has been a strong need from users for longer hours, yet high picture quality DVD disc recording. Pioneer's new technology will allow the users to record programs of up to about 4 hours in the SP mode, or programs of up to about 12 hours in the EP mode with DVD recorders.

The company intends to make a proposal of this technology as a new disc format to the DVD Forum after further improvement in performance.