NEC ND-1300A vs Pioneer DVR-A06/106D

[Timberland]

Im debating on which one to buy. I've heard great things about both drives. So Im not quite sure which one to pick. I have about $140 to invest in a burner. I was gonna go with the nec drive which is a little cheaper but I dont understand the whole thing about flashing and whatnot. Also the pioneer is a little more expensive but I have heard its a better bang for the money. Which drive do you think I should go with guys?

[snafu099]

My first burner was Pioneer 105 @ $250+ us. Since have boutht two nec 1300a's one for self and one for gift ($105-us). Have flased firmware for Pioneer but not nec.

My advice? Buy the Nec (cheaper) because it does all the other does and you will replace it soon enough as speeds increase and media price falls.

This is based on my experience and that I have not read negitive post about Nec 1300a

[Kerry56]

I have the NEC and it has worked flawlessly for me. I'm using Herrie's modified firmware---it will give a little better compatibility with -R media and slightly faster ripping speed than the stock firmware. Flashing firmware is no harder than flashing the bios on a motherboard, and Herrie even provides a version that will work under Windows.

The Pioneer is reported to give higher quality burns (have no idea how anyone measures that definatively) and is reported to be more compatible with inexpensive media than the NEC. Either will work well for you.

[Spinout113]

I would say definently go with the Pioneer, because the NEC does have some problems (not everybody has them, but some do and it just pisses people off). Also, take a look at the Lite-On 411s. It is really cheap and pretty good quality.

[rgtaa]

For the little bit difference in price I went with the Pioneer ... it just makes me feel alittle more comfortable going with Tom's Hardware Review of the burners and the guys on this forum.
I briefly had the nec 1300a and it gave me no problems ... but I bought and keep the Pioneer after doing my research on the web.
I bought the Nec1300a from staples a week before Black Friday after seeing advance heads-up of price going to 89 dollars ... but on Friday ... I didn't want to deal with all the coupons I had to mail in ... (179 dollars with a ton of coupons) ...so went with pioneer a06 for 129 dollars and no coupons from Newegg.

[FulciLives]

I have a NEC ND-1300A and it has always worked fine for me.

It came with firmware 1.04 which I updated to 1.08 using the flash utility that came with the OFFICIAL 1.08 firmware. No problem.

Firmware version 1.09 was just released and again it flashed from 1.08 to 1.09 no problems. Again I used the OFFICIAL 1.09 firmware.

Has worked well with the MADE IN JAPAN DVD-R discs by TDK, MAXELL and FUJI. Recently bought some SONY DVD-R discs on sale at STAPLES and again they worked great.

It pays (I think with any DVD burner) to buy really good media.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ccbadd]

If you plan on using popular off the shelf media (Memorex, Maxell, Fugi, Imation) than you will get no benifits from the Pioneer, however, if you want to use cheap media, than I would get the Pioneer. I have the NEC 1300a and a Pioneer 105 (not the 106 but close) and don't use the Pioneer anymore.

[spiderman2k1]

Pioneer AO6 $139.00 with $30.99 dollar mail in rebate retail box

http://www.shopharmony.com/product.asp?i=PIODVRA06

[Kdiddy]

No probs out of my NEC as of yet. 97 bucks via pricewatch, so no rebates to deal with, and came with 1.08 firmware alrady installed.

[Coopervid]

I have a Pioneer DVR-105 and a NEC-1300A.

PIO advantages - good burns, also with cheap media

NEC advantages - a little cheaper than a Pioneer
- booksetting feature via Herrie's fw from today
NEC disadvantages- doesn't like cheap / cheapest media

So - if go for decent media and have a picky DVD player: NEC 1300A

- burn cheapest media as good as possible and you own a very recent standalone DVD-Player and do not care for any playability reasons with other players: Pioneer DVR-105 /106

Good luck!

Vid

[Coopervid]

I forgot - The Pioneer has better CD rip / copy capabilities. I just ran in this problem with an audio CD from Europe that I wanted to play today. No chance with my DVD-ROM's. Then distorted rip with the NEC. Perfect rip with the Pioneer-105.

Just my $0.02 if that is important to you.

Vid