WHICH ONE TO GET: NEC 1300A or OPTORITE DD0203

[BlizZ]

I have narrowed it down to one of these 2 DVD burners. The NEC 1300A or the Optorite DD0203. I've read that the NEC is great with the "hacked" firmware, but I'm not really comfortable risking killing a brand new drive, not to mention losing any potential warranty support. I've seen some people trashing the Optorite but I've also seen a few singing it's praises, plus the reviews I read here and here. I don't really plan on using the HD-Burn feature but I suppose it's nice to have. I noticed that the Optorite has a larger underrun buffer (8mb) as opposed to the 2mb of the NEC 1300A. Plus it comes in a retail box with software/etc... But I am still not sure. Another problem is media support. With either one of these drives, if I were to go to Best Buy and buy a spindle of, say, Fuji 2x DVD-R discs, would it work on either? I've checked the compatability charts and didn't see any mention of some of the retail brands. The reviews I've read on the Optorite note that it has good compatibility, but I've read that the NEC is very picky (at least without the hacked firmware). I have an Apex AD500 that has played everything I've thrown at it so far, including CDR's what I think are DVD-R's (they may be DVD+R's, though)... It's VERY important that my player will be able to read what I burn.
It seems like the Optorite gives more bang for the buck, but if it can't live up to it's "on-paper" specs, then maybe I'd go with the more familiar name of NEC. If anyone here can help me decide, I'd appreciate it.
Also, if there are any other reputable sites selling these besides newegg.com with BLACK BEZELS I'd be interested to know the link if the price is cheaper. Thanks.

[sumibas]

i would go with NEC rather. they are good and Relaiable as far as i have read on the internet.

[Poppa_Meth]

I agree go with the NEC. I've seen far too many stories about screwups with the Optorite drives.

[ellandry]

I just bought my DD0203 from www.accupc.com for $154 free ship and will get it Thursday. I will post my story after I have tried it over the weekend

[b1r0i1a5n]

I have the Optorite and it has worked perfectly for me. All I wanted it for was to make DVDs I could watch in my standalone player and that's what it has done perfectly so far, but I have heard good things about the NEC, which would have been my second choice because the price was just as low.

[BlizZ]

I decided to go with the Optorite DD0203 because I really wanted a retail package, plus it has a larger cache. I too want it mainly to watch on my standalone players. I will post a report when I get it and once its installed. Thanks for all your help!

[mickle]

I can only say that I have just bought a NEC 1300a and have updated the firmware to 1.6 and it works like a dream.

[freestyler]

NEC ownz all 8) I have an Apex AD-500W and it reads everything I throw at it, burned on Princos, Verbatims, Taiyo Yudens, Maxell DVD+Rs and burns VCDs nicely as well

[Jensendk]

Hi

I got the NEC drive retail. Its included Nero, Arcsoft, Sonic MyDVD and a few other titles. The bundle is pretty goodfor a newbie, even thou I stick to Videofactory when it comes to video editing.

the drive works fine, not a single flaw right now. No patched software, I use verbatim, as thet are cheap enough with me.

Highly recommendable

[Multiscan]

Actually I own both drives. I purchased NEC 1300A first(OEM version) first. Than I noticed that NEC drive is pretty picky for media. I want to use cheap media to lower cost to backup my dvd collection, but I have no luck with NEC drive yet. I heard DupEZ media work with theNEC though.
Because I didn't want to damage NEC drive with hacked firm ware, I purchased DD0203. DD0203 is less picky than the NEC and replaying on stand_alone machine is better. With same media, the NEC make more flaws on copied movie.
If you are going to use hacked firm ware with NEC, then buy NEC.
If you do not want to take risk, then buy DD0203.

Good luck.

[Dubber]

Actually I own both drives. I purchased NEC 1300A first(OEM version) first. Than I noticed that NEC drive is pretty picky for media. I want to use cheap media to lower cost to backup my dvd collection...

Wow, you must have VERY large DVD collection to justify buying another drive in order to save on cheaper media

[Multiscan]

Yes. My hobby is collecting rare movies and any movies. My collection is approximately 2400.
Sounds crazy, isn't it?[/list][/quote]

[Bob W]

NEC.

[dap]

Optorite! Just got mine today and will install it tomorrow.

[ellandry]

ok installation of DD0203 was a breeze. Updated firmware to 2.16 but man they need to rewrite that flasher program, I got an I/O error warning and a few others before it flashed LOL scary. I have burned one dvd-5 using dvddecrypter and it works great in my stand alone. I also burned a dvd-9 to one disk using the dvddecrypter ----> InstantCopy and it looks great as well. Only coaster I have so far is when I used dvdxcopy express 3.0 to copy the same dvd-9 disk. My stand alone chomps on it for about a minute and then says no disc, dvd-rom on computer cant read it either.


PS is it worth installing the software that came with the retail package?

[Holden]

I've had the Optorite for a month or two now. I'm happy with it.

It has burned no-name DVD-R's (no printing at all on the DVD), CompUSA DVD-R's, HP DVD+R's, and HP DVD+RW (many times over on the same disc).

I've only made two coasters and both were my fault (invalid .img file because of FAT32 limits and an oversized .img (4.8gb)).

The eject button feels wierd, (it doesn't really move), but it works and you get used to it.

I get around 2.5x burning to DVD+RW and about 2x burning to DVD-R (DVD's rated for 1x only). I upgraded firmware successfully. Yes, the upgrade process spits out some scary messages, but works anyway.

Everything has played in my Philips DVD player, but it supposedly plays anything (and is living up to that reputation!).

Software included? Not too bad. Arcsoft Showbiz does a good job stitching together MPEG2 files and producing a single, DVD-legal MPEG2 file. Sonic MyDVD works OK for authoring. You can create motion menus with music and either burn to DVD or create DVD structured folders for image creation.

I haven't used the software enough to be fully aware of them, but they're not useless.

Also included was B's clips and B's recorder, which I don't use because when I run them my computer crashes (conflict between different software trying to "own" the optical drives. I don't know.).

Greg

[spiderman2k1]

As a Pioneer own I would like to get a AO6 but I have heard nothing but good about MEC and 1300 if cheepper then the AO6. I think NEC and Pioneer are both very good and the only to compnaies I would buy for duel burner's. Sony DRU500 suck's