ND-3520

[coeng73]

Just got my NEC ND-3520 today (just the bare drive from zipzoomfly.com). Its replacing my HP dvd200e.

After I installed it, Win XP recognized it I guess and installed the driver it needed. But when I go to Nero Burning ROM 5.5.10.56 OEM it only gives me the option to burn a CD, not a DVD. Why is this?

I then went to NECs website to see if any driver/firmware/software downloads existed for the ND-3520 and found none. The where files however for the ND-3500.

What procedure/program would I use to burn double layer? I've never done it or seen it done before.

[jyn999]

I don't think the NEC 3520 is supported by Nero v5.5.10. You should check the Nero web site (AHEAD.DE), find out what version will support the 3520, and upgrade to that version. You might have to pay for the upgrade since you have an OEM version.

[jaxxboss]

v5.5.10 ???????????? HELLO Mcfly!! Is anyone home, hellooooooooooo

[coeng73]

jaxboss, I don't understand what you are getting at.

Do I have any other alternative to which application I can use to enable me to burn DVDs (including dual layer) on my ND-3520?

[Richard_G]

Just had the same thing. Nero 5.5 is too old to recognise the 3520 and there are no further updates being done for it. DVDDecrypter works with it and Windows XP drag and drop works too. If you want to use Nero you'll have to do as I just have and upgrade to Nero 6.

Nero 6 will do dual layer.

[coeng73]

Thanks Richard_G. I'm going to upgrade to Nero 6.

By the way...what difference is there (if any) in the procedure from authoring/burning a dual layer disc?

Will I no longer have to use DVD Shrink? Actually come to think of it, I think I will still have to. I just can't stand DVD menus. It takes so long to start watching a movie because of all the extra unnecessary crap. I just want to be able to press play after putting a disc in and start watching the movie.

[coeng73]

Another question about the ND-3520. It's a 16X burner. I only have 8x DVD+Rs. What happens if I try to burn at 16X?

I guess to put it another way...why does media have a speed associated with it? Shouldn't it be a function of the burner?

[Richard_G]

Due to the fact that I pay £5.99 (about $11) for 25 decent quality 8x DVD-R disks and would have to pay £3.99 EACH for DL disks, I haven't tried any yet! Nero 6 looks similar to 5.5, the only difference is that the bar along the bottom is much longer as it now goes up to 9000 MB instead of 5000. Burning appears to be just the same.

I agree about still needing DVD Shrink, I can't stand all the copyright notices, warnings about not copying, menus, trailers and all the other crap that gets put on disks. Most of the ones I've backed up need very little or no compression once I've got them down to the movie only. I suppose any that still do need compression, won't when DL media gets down to a price that makes it viable to use.

Unless you flash the firmware, the drive will only write 8x media at 8x, 16x isn't available as an option to choose. It reads the data on the disk to see what it has been designed to do. Why? Damned if I know!

[steve2713]

DVD Decrypter, DECRYPTER DECRYPTER DECRYPTER :P

I find DVD Decrypter to do the best job of burning discs (ISO images only), but specifically if you are burning Dual Layer I've read several people say that that is going to be your best bet for getting a compatible disc (if you are making a backup of a pressed disc anyway, not sure if it is any better at authored discs).

[Richard_G]

Why does everybody assume that the only thing a DVD writer is used for is burning copies of DVD video disks? Yes, you can burn an iso image with Decrypter but it's no bloody good at all if you want to burn a data CD or backup part of your hard drive to DVD!

and while I'm in the mood, why jaxxboss, have a go at someone for using an older version of software? I only stopped using Nero 5.5 two weeks ago when I bought the 3520 and found it wasn't recognised. Nero 6 doesn't appear to do anything with this burner that 5.5 couldn't do with my old one. The extra features are from the burner, the software only supports them.

Presumably, you're one of these people that must have the latest version of everything and then posts that Windows doesn't work since you loaded SP2, your video doesn't work since you updated the drivers, you've flashed your bios and now can't enable DMA, etc. If it ain't broke, why fix it. If Nero 5.5 does everything you want of it, why update it? If your graphics work, why update the drivers?

Update something if what you have doesn't work properly or if the latest version gives you a feature you need that the earlier one doesn't, but don't update for the sake of it (unless you like the idea of giving the majority of your disposable income to software companies!).

Rant over.....

Richard

(Running Win XP Pro SP1, Office 2000, Publisher 98, Autoroute 2002, MediastudioPro 6.5, Quicken 2001, ATI MMC 8.9, etc. Only DVDShrink, is the latest version!!!)

[ViRaL1]

Presumably, you're one of these people that must have the latest version of everything and then posts that Windows doesn't work since you loaded SP2, your video doesn't work since you updated the drivers, you've flashed your bios and now can't enable DMA, etc. If it ain't broke, why fix it. If Nero 5.5 does everything you want of it, why update it? If your graphics work, why update the drivers?

Update something if what you have doesn't work properly or if the latest version gives you a feature you need that the earlier one doesn't, but don't update for the sake of it (unless you like the idea of giving the majority of your disposable income to software companies!).

Rant over.....

Richard

Wasn't the original complaint that something DIDN'T work as it should with the older version?

[Richard_G]

Yes it was. As I said in the second paragraph you quoted "Update something if what you have doesn't work properly or if the latest version gives you a feature you need that the earlier one doesn't". I was forced to update to Nero 6 because 5.5 doesn't support my new 3520 burner, but if it had, I would have stuck with 5.5. It did everything I wanted it to do. So on top of the cost of the burner, there was the cost of the later software.

I find it odd, and asking for trouble, when people keep updating software, and particularly drivers, simply because a newer version has been released. Graphics card drivers seem the worst but if you look at the revision history you usually find that the writers have corrected bugs that only showed up when playing a certain game or only at certain resolutions. If you never play that game or use that resolution, why change it? The latest bios release for my motherboard updates it so that it recognises AMD Sempron processors. As I don't have a Sempron (or any desire to fit one) and it is working perfectly well at the moment, what would be the point in updating it? I used to have Windows auto update turned on and every so often, it would update itself. Then it started to crash randomly. Nothing else had changed so I uninstalled the updates. The crashes immediately stopped.

It wasn't broke in the first place so why would I want to try and fix it?

[sonicboy]

I've also purchased this drive today, but i have a question about it.
Does it support bitsetting? The nd-3500 does, so I guess this drive supports it too. But with the program dvdbitsetter2.1.13 it says that my drive is not supported.
Or have I done something wrong? I'm quite new into dvd-recording so I need a little help to set my bitsetting.

greetings

[Richard_G]

Yes it does everything the 3500 did and more. Probably your copy of DVDBitsetter isn't new enough to recognise the drive. You'll have to see if there are any updates for it.

[noki]

still using v5.5.10.42 with my NEC; flawless.

[OldeMan]

I think you need hacked firmware on the 3520 to get dvd-rom bitsetting. I'm using Liggy and Dee's firmware on mine.