NEC 3520A or LG 4163B

[steve2713]

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.

I agree, it's a slow but awesome reader (the 5112). I've got about 5 DVD-ROM drives in addition to my burners and none of them does as good of a job as the Toshiba in reading poor discs. It's a mediocre burner at best, though. Basically it only burns excellent media with decent results, my NEC can do good burns with cheapo discs like MUST001 and Longten that the Toshiba cannot even do a complete burn with. But I can't complain, my Toshiba was FREE after rebate , it's been able to completely read a few discs that none of my other drivs could quite complete.

[samijubal]

I thought I got a deal at $9, free is even better.

[jdizzy40]

The best burner is the one that works for you. For me money is not the object, but not everyone is in my situation either. Lets keep to the facts. Any writer (DVD) that needs a hack firmware is not what I would consider good. If it can't handle the media and that includes that cheap crap you like to buy straight out of the box, its crap. At last count over 36% of the DVD Drives by NEC have been returned due to bad flashing of the firmware. So give this topic a rest. You people are the same types I met in high school that kept trying to beat me in drag races against my 69 GTO in high school. They thought if a 650 Holley made them go faster then an 850 Holley would make them go even faster. Problem was they forgot about the bottom half of the motor, we are talking about a little old optical drive here folks, not an F-16 fighter.

[chas0039]

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.

Have you made your decision yet? If not, yet me know as I have just added an LG 4163B and I will have a first hand impression after the weekend.

[samijubal]

Hope it's better than the 4120B. The first one lasted 16 burns and died. In 3 weeks of having the second one 3 people had trouble with the discs. It used to choke on RAM discs frequently, discs that the Toshiba will read. That was the drive I sent back after sending you those S04s and seeing the NEC scans. If it hadn't been for those scans I might still have the inferior drive, many thanks for enlightening me to the NEC.

[chas0039]

Hope it's better than the 4120B. The first one lasted 16 burns and died. In 3 weeks of having the second one 3 people had trouble with the discs. It used to choke on RAM discs frequently, discs that the Toshiba will read. That was the drive I sent back after sending you those S04s and seeing the NEC scans. If it hadn't been for those scans I might still have the inferior drive, many thanks for enlightening me to the NEC.

Glad to have been of value. I hope they have improved as well. Most of the 16X current generation of drives are clearly better (except Liteon). I appreciate your input; this hobby would be impossible without you guys.

[Noahtuck]

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.

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!

Where in the hell do people come up with some of this shite!!!!

I have owned several diff. brands of DVD burners, purchased a NEC ND-3520A about a month ago, i have scans posted, & burned Prodisc +R I.J. printable & Ritek Ridata -R I.J. printable that my LITE-ON SOHW-812S was making coasters out of!!!! (yet my LITE-ON always burns perfect with any other media) and the NEC burned them with some of the best scans i have ever seen!!!!! Even burned 8X rated disc's at 16X and the scan's were the same as when i burned them at 8X.

WITH STOCK FIRMWARE!!!!!!!!!! did ya catch that ???
Stock, IE:

right out of the box!

:P
Have a little knowlege about something before slamming it

And as far as this statement goes,

Plus there's a riplock on the burner which requires a hacked firmware so it can rip as fast as other burners.

LS stated an answer to this perfectly in another thread, https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=260977

Use a DVD-ROM and not a burner to rip discs.

Most burners have limits on the reader lasers in order to preserve the drive's lifespan. If you use the burner to read, you kill it twice as fast. Waste of money. You can hack a drive, but it's pretty stupid. If you have lots of discs to rip, buy a ROM. If you don't have that many, then learn some patience and walk away from the computer for 20-30 minutes, so it can do it's thing.

So why burn up your burner before it's time ??
I have very RARELY used any of my burner's to rip from, have a dedicated Toshiba SD-M1712 dvd-rom for just ripping, it read's dvd-ram, get's all the way to 14X (it is speed & region hacked) on ripping speeds and i almost bought another BRAND NEW one for a back up off of e-bay, it went for a whole $10.00
Actually, i feel pretty stupid for not buying it and just keeping it on a shelf for if/when i needed it

[Captain315]

I now have the NEC 3500 and the 3520. Speaking for myself and personal experience, unless something drastic happens, I will be using NEC from now on. Great burners!

[chas0039]

I now have the NEC 3500 and the 3520. Speaking for myself and personal experience, unless something drastic happens, I will be using NEC from now on. Great burners!

And the winner is???? Come on, give us some comparative scans :P .

[noki]

Use a DVD-ROM and not a burner to rip discs.

Most burners have limits on the reader lasers in order to preserve the drive's lifespan. If you use the burner to read, you kill it twice as fast.

probably wise advice, but my situation is that I only have room internally for only 1 optical drive in on my main system.

I've had my NEC 1300 for about 1.5 years. must have ripped at least 700 dvds/cds. burned about 1,000 discs from my rips. used factory firmware for most of it's life. then Herrie's. sorry I waited so late to flash the original. with Herrie's rip speed increased over 500% in some case, and can burn inexpensive media (which I won't buy again).

Still reading (not the best though...Lite_On reader on other system superior) and burning fine.

may sound weird, but even if you reduce the life of the burner by half cuz you use it to rip...SO WHAT!! by the time it dies you will probably pay a fourth of what you paid for the original drive to get a replacement. and that replacement MIGHT even be a great upgrade in features (at least for me!).

BTW I paid $129 for the 1300...a great price at the time. Same with a 2x CD Burner that does not even burn CDRWs I bought years and years that still works (paid a rock-bottom price of $199 for it). bought a new CD burner just for the heck of it a year ago (52x24x40) for ...$9.99 AR.

so rip and burn with abandon...you might end up paying $10 for a replacement burner when it finally dies.

Just my 2 cents.

[chas0039]

Well, I am amazed. I just got my LG 4163B installed and I burned a few for comparison and I almost have to eat my words. Even though I never said it publically I always knocked the LG drives and kidded with myself thst the buyers wouldn't touch them if they knew that LG stood for Lucky Goldstar. That can't be a REAL company with a name like that. Well just look below at the scans from two media. One set is burned on the NEC 3500 and the second on the LG 4163, both with stock firmware and both with the same burn speed. I have never seen a PIF error TOTAL in the single digits before!

NEC


LG


NEC


LG

[samijubal]

The drives are manufactered by Goldstar, but the design is a partenership between Hitachi and Goldstar. Probably more Hitachi than Goldstar on design.

[mstone321]

A note on LG Bitsetting. I have a LG4120B and I don't believe it
supports +RW bitsetting, although +R does work (latest LG firmware and using 'Crypt for burning.

[chas0039]

A note on LG Bitsetting. I have a LG4120B and I don't believe it
supports +RW bitsetting, although +R does work (latest LG firmware and using 'Crypt for burning.

The 4163B does not support +RW bitsetting either, only +R.