NEC 3520A or LG 4163B

[impie]

Hello,

I'm been doing alot of reading about these two Writer's and I'm not sure which one to buy. Some say the NEC only writes on good quality media but in some other reviews it says it works just fine. So i'm a little confused.

Can someone please explain to me what this means - Does not support DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+RW media?

I'd appreciate any help, thank you.

[steve2713]

I'd suggest the NEC from the great luck myself and others have had with their NEC burners. I've never heard of anyone saying that NEC drives had issues with cheap media. Actually it's just the opposite, NEC drives are well known to do great with even the cheapest of media. My NEC 1300 and 2500 drives usually burn cheapo media with good results that both my Benq and Toshiba cannot even do a complete burn on, even though they handle high quality media just fine.

Your second question simply means that you cannot bitset a DVD+RW to have standalone DVD players see it as a DVD-ROM (pressed disc). The advantage of doing so means that many players that would reject +RW media will play the -ROM bitset disc fine. I'm almost certain the NEC will do the +RW bitsetting to -ROM, both of my older NEC models can. If it cannot do it with the stock firmware, I know there's FWs available to enable it.

[samijubal]

Definitely NEC, I had 3 different people have problems with LG burned discs and I only owned the thing about 3 weeks. I've been using the NEC for months, haven't had any problems yet.

[impie]

OK thanks NEC looks like its getting the nod.

[chas0039]

Newegg has them on sale this week, $58 delivered. They will even give you a 100 stack of R03s at $21 after rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=27-152-035&DEPA=1

[impie]

I live in austrlia.

[steve2713]

I live in australia.

Speaking of which, I'm curious, what's a good price on the NEC over there? I'd be curious to know if you guys are getting gouged badly in prices vs. the U.S.

[impie]

I can get one for around $130AU

[impie]

By the way I could get the LG 4163B for $90AU

[steve2713]

Not TOO bad, that's around $100 US dollars for the NEC. I'd still definitely pay the extra for the NEC, mine are both great .

[chas0039]

At least you can get NEC, some users can't

[impie]

Thanks again.

[GangstaMo]

Go with the NEC,from experience,if u dont mess around with them
they will burn anything, fawk it works better than my Cdwriter....

[zanos]

NEC requires hacked firmware in order to work well. Without it, it's practically garbage because it will have trouble reading certain media and some may not even burn at the rated speed. Plus there's a riplock on the burner which requires a hacked firmware so it can rip as fast as other burners. That is if the hacked firmware works like it's supposed to. If for some reason it doesn't work and this is a good possibility then you may do more harm than good and you void the warranty. What's the point of paying good money for a burner that only works to it's full capability only when it's been hacked? Be smart and buy one that works right out of the box!

[tubetek]

Howdy All-
@zanos: Here's another vote for the NEC with the following caveats...
The "Hacked" firmware you disparage is in fact the reason I bought this drive in the first place. When you have literally thousands of testers in the real world giving feedback on your code, dont'cha think the results should be better than the "factory"??
I've been in computers for 20+ years and can remember when the "Phoenix BIOS was "Hacked" firmware; it quickly became the industry standard because it was better than IBM's factory BIOS.
That said, if you are not reasonably computer savvy or have no desire to more than scratch the surface of this fascinating hobby, I would probably suggest that you get a Pioneer '09 or'08 in the full retail package; all you need in one box. But if you're the kind of guy that puts headers and a big carb on your hotrod.....
Hope this helps
TomT

[Captain315]

Thanks for the headsup on the $58 Newegg offer. Reading this thread, I just ordered me another NEC 3520. I have a 3500 and it works GREAT and is a much better reader than my Plextor 708A. This new one will replace it. I highly recommend the NEC burners.

[zanos]

Howdy All-
@zanos: Here's another vote for the NEC with the following caveats...
The "Hacked" firmware you disparage is in fact the reason I bought this drive in the first place. When you have literally thousands of testers in the real world giving feedback on your code, dont'cha think the results should be better than the "factory"??
I've been in computers for 20+ years and can remember when the "Phoenix BIOS was "Hacked" firmware; it quickly became the industry standard because it was better than IBM's factory BIOS.
That said, if you are not reasonably computer savvy or have no desire to more than scratch the surface of this fascinating hobby, I would probably suggest that you get a Pioneer '09 or'08 in the full retail package; all you need in one box. But if you're the kind of guy that puts headers and a big carb on your hotrod.....
Hope this helps
TomT

Hey if that's how you buy burners that's your business. Impie wanted information and I gave him the straight facts on the NEC. Buying a burner with the promise that it will do what other similiarly priced burners are already capable of WITHOUT hacked firmware is just not smart no matter how you want to look at it. The hacked firmware doesn't make the NEC perform miracles. It just makes it on par with alot other similiarly priced burners and that's only if it works which it's not guaranteed to.

Impie, the LG is one of the top burners out. It can even read and write dvdram among other things. For the price, I think about $63 this is the better bet.

[tubetek]

Howdy All @zanos-

Fact 1: NO DVD burner on the market magically supports all past, current and future media; firmware upgrades are a fact of life. That said, NEC SUCKS in the firmware update department; hence the active "hacking"

Fact 2: Please don't gather by my suggestions any animosity towards LG drives. There are currently 3 LGs running happily on the peninsula I call home.

Fact 3: NEC errs on the side of caution in their write strategies for certain media (generally cheap) and that is why some cheap media won't burn at rated speed with factory formware.

Different perspectives are always cool...
TomT

[lenti_75]

NEc is the best drive and you know WHY ??? because of HACKED firmware.

obviously you don't know anything about this hobby, I suggest you to quit if you say that FACTORY vs HACKED is better....do some research.

I still have a 2yrs 1100 with hacked firm, and I can BITSET, RIP, BURN, READ, any type of media id, do that with a factory one....they always add sometihng, that because is "better".......not to mention the region lock.....



8) :P

[chas0039]

My NEC 3500 is the drive of choice because of the high quality of the burns from factory firmware. I had enough of messing with my Liteon firmwares, only to have the sucker suddenly shift around and start to burn badly. My Pioneer 107D looked OK until compared to the 3500. While hacked firmware is an important facit of drive ownership for features missing from the factory, it is not as important for new drives as it was in the infancy of the hobby.

A new drive today should not need major firmware upgrades to deliver a good burn at rated speeds on good media.

[samijubal]

I use the NEC 3500 every day, I've burned over 1500 discs with the factory firmware, it has yet to make a coaster. You don't need hacked firmware to use the drive.

[schematic2]

I wouldn't be scared of the LG. I have a 4040, 4160 and 4163 and several LG CD burners. I've installed over 20 4163 at work. (still no problems) NO coasters, no errors. They have burnt everything I've thrown at them. I can't (don't) believe all the coasters and problems blaimed on burners are the burners faults. Most of them are likely media and poor system hardware...
GSA-4163b are $89 CAN here. Thats like $75 American. Bitsetting is enabled from factory. You won't find more for your money...not around here anyway

[steve2713]

NEC requires hacked firmware in order to work well. Without it, it's practically garbage because it will have trouble reading certain media and some may not even burn at the rated speed. Plus there's a riplock on the burner which requires a hacked firmware so it can rip as fast as other burners. That is if the hacked firmware works like it's supposed to. If for some reason it doesn't work and this is a good possibility then you may do more harm than good and you void the warranty. What's the point of paying good money for a burner that only works to it's full capability only when it's been hacked? Be smart and buy one that works right out of the box!

NEC drives work VERY WELL without using hacked firmware. WITH hacked firmware, they are arguably the BEST drives on the market, regardless of price. They can easily be reverted back to their original firmware anyway, so there's really little risk to changing to another firmware.

Buying a burner with the promise that it will do what other similiarly priced burners are already capable of WITHOUT hacked firmware is just not smart no matter how you want to look at it. The hacked firmware doesn't make the NEC perform miracles. It just makes it on par with alot other similiarly priced burners and that's only if it works which it's not guaranteed to.

Spoken by someone that has an OPTORITE listed as their burner and has probably never even owned a NEC burner. NEC owners can speak from firsthand experience that they are nothing short of outstanding burners. They are not 'on par' with other drives in their price range, they are much better burners than most in their price range. There's an OBVIOUS reason why NEC burners are so popular, they're great burners. They don't get to be as popular as they are by only being 'on par' with similarly priced burners.

[hech54]

I love my old LG4040B.....
I'd buy another LG in a heartbeat.

[broadway]

I have the NEC now and I owned an LG before I broke it.
Never had a problem burning or reading DVDs on either.
Always used the good media though.

[zanos]

[quote="steve2713"]

NEC drives work VERY WELL without using hacked firmware. WITH hacked firmware, they are arguably the BEST drives on the market, regardless of price. They can easily be reverted back to their original firmware anyway, so there's really little risk to changing to another firmware.

Really? If they work SO well why chance using hacked firmware? The problem is they don't work well. Which is why hacked firmware was created in the first place. Why would I even need to explain that? That should be an obvious no brainer. Exactly what makes them the best? Because they can now read and write media that most any other drive already could or they rip dvds as fast as other drives now?

Spoken by someone that has an OPTORITE listed as their burner and has probably never even owned a NEC burner. NEC owners can speak from firsthand experience that they are nothing short of outstanding burners. They are not 'on par' with other drives in their price range, they are much better burners than most in their price range. There's an OBVIOUS reason why NEC burners are so popular, they're great burners. They don't get to be as popular as they are by only being 'on par' with similarly priced burners.

Again you don't give a single reason why it's better than other drives. You just say it. What other burners have you owned? I had an NEC several months ago with hacked firmware and it was garbage with or without it. I've had a pioneer, liteon and optowrite and guess what they all work like they're supposed to without any hacked firmware. Yeah the NEC probably works well for alot of ppl but you take your chances. The fact still remains that you need the hacked firmware for you to use it the way you want it to, bottom line.

[budz]

zanos wrote

NEC drives work VERY WELL without using hacked firmware. WITH hacked firmware, they are arguably the BEST drives on the market, regardless of price. They can easily be reverted back to their original firmware anyway, so there's really little risk to changing to another firmware.

Really? If they work SO well why chance using hacked firmware? The problem is they don't work well. Which is why hacked firmware was created in the first place. Why would I even need to explain that? That should be an obvious no brainer. Exactly what makes them the best? Because they can now read and write media that most any other drive already could or they rip dvds as fast as other drives now?

Spoken by someone that has an OPTORITE listed as their burner and has probably never even owned a NEC burner. NEC owners can speak from firsthand experience that they are nothing short of outstanding burners. They are not 'on par' with other drives in their price range, they are much better burners than most in their price range. There's an OBVIOUS reason why NEC burners are so popular, they're great burners. They don't get to be as popular as they are by only being 'on par' with similarly priced burners.

Again you don't give a single reason why it's better than other drives. You just say it. What other burners have you owned? I had an NEC several months ago with hacked firmware and it was garbage with or without it. I've had a pioneer, liteon and optowrite and guess what they all work like they're supposed to without any hacked firmware. Yeah the NEC probably works well for alot of ppl but you take your chances. The fact still remains that you need the hacked firmware for you to use it the way you want it to, bottom line.

Whoas! Calm down now.... I don't own a NEC drive but I can say that reasons have already been given to you by others on this forum site. Perhaps the NEC drive didn't work for you but for others they did and the response has been overwhelming I must say. Reason for hacked firmware is because the manufacturers of the dvd burners such as NEC lack official firmware. Bottom line is whatever works for the individual is all that matters and that goes for any other brand of dvd burner. In my opinion there are too many variables when it comes to burning dvds. What may have not worked for you may work for others.

[chas0039]

We all form strong opinions based on our personal experience and resent data that may attack our personal concept of what we then believe. That is the psychology of mankind. The value of these forums is the ability to measure other's experience on a very large scale. If we take every comment with which we disagree personally, we miss the benefits.

[steve2713]

I used my NEC 1300 for several months with its stock firmware and it burned extremely well. The only reason I really went to a hacked firmware was to burn cheap generic media at faster than its rated speed, and later on I updated it again to enable bitsetting. My 2500, it actually was a 2100 at the start of its life, hacked firmware allowed it to become a 2500 and also enabled the other advantages of the hacked 1300 firmware, overspeeding media and bitsetting. I used the stock 2100 and 2500 firmware and the burn quality was excellent, but for me it's a 'no brainer' NOT to use hacked firmware, it allows cheapo media to be burned at faster speeds and improved the burn quality of some cheapo stuff like AN31, Longten, and MUST001 discs. You can always revert back to the original FW if for some strange reason you'd actually want to.

I currently own 2 NEC burners as well as a Benq 822 and a Toshiba. Both the NEC drives put the Toshiba to shame. The Benq is similar to the NEC drives in +R burn quality most of the time, but it does poorly with cheaper media and -R media in comparison to the NEC burners, and it also doesn't have the overspeeding capabilities that the NEC drives have. I used to have a LG burner, the -RAM abilities were nice, but the burn quality was not even close to the burn quality of my NEC drives. My Dad is currently using it, mostly for -RAM backups.

I now also have a Pioneer 420 DVD Recorder, which contains a 107. It burns consistent DECENT burns, but the error levels of the discs are consistently much higher than my NEC burns, the error levels typically 3-5 times as high as the same media on my NEC burners. It's consistent, but it's been consistently average.

If you did own a NEC and you claim it was garbage, that leaves two possibilities: you're full of it or it was defective. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you had a defective drive.

[samijubal]

The Toshiba is a great reader anyway. I've never used it to burn, but it reads RAM discs that the LG choked on, it even reads discs that the NEC chokes on sometimes. Not bad for $9.