is cost differential worth it ?

[rkr1958]

By the way, does this writer support Bit Setting?

The NEC drives do not support bitsetting on SL media but do automatically support bitsetting for DL media, same goes for Pioneer. If you want SL bitsetting you'd have to go with a hacked firmware.

If you have a newer DVD player bitsetting is pretty much irrelevent for SL DVD+R, probably the reason NEC and Pioneer don't support it, definitely still needed for DL though.

The device buffer drop is normal on the NEC drives, I have an NEC 3520, it does the same thing, something to do with calibration.
That NEC 3500 is an excellent burner, but older, I'd be sure to have the newest firmware installed.

Thanks. It's good to know that the device buffer dropping down if normal. I have a Toshiba SD2800, which requires bitsetting to play DVD+Rs. I did download and flash to ND-3550A 1.07 BT Firmware which I got from http://liggydee.cdfreaks.com. This firmware allows bitsetting on both DVD+R and DVD+RWs SL. However, I was only able to get the bitsetting on DVD+Rs to work.

rkr1958: I would have recommended you buying the latest PIONEER 112 drive over the NEC drive. Just my 2 big freaking cents!

I bought the ND3500a back last November. I now only three writers, ND3500a, Plextor 712a and a Sony DRU500a.

I think the Plextors are way overpriced

I got my Plextor 712a a couple of years back for around $35 after rebate. This drive replaced a Sony DRU500a, which I'd bought for over $300 when they first came out. I've been extremly happy with my 712a. The quality of the burns with the 712a far outsurpass those from the DRU500a. However, I wanted DL capability and felt that I'd couldn't pass up on the ND3500A for $30. Right now the price for SL is so much cheaper than DL that I'll probably mostly stick with SL even if I changed to the ND3500a.

Based on the results of my scans using Plextools and comments from other posters, PIF and PIE scans, especially on anything other than the drive used to burn the disk, are not valid for comparing burns between two burners. Does anyone have any suggestions how I might analyze and compare the quality of burns between the two drives?

[samijubal]

You'll get better burns on the 3500 at the rated speed than you will at 4x. This has been done over and over a couple of years ago when the drive was popular, slowing the burn actually results in a worse quality burn. There is no reason to burn at 4x. Get the latest firmware and burn at 8x. I've been using the 3500 for 2 1/2 years, it finally made a coaster a few weeks ago for no apparent reason, the first in all that time.

[lordsmurf]

When you duplicate drive to drive, 4x is the preferred speed. So there are legitimate reasons to burn 4x even to this day. Some setups can do 8x, but those can be hit-and-miss.