i actually have this drive.
well i am selling it on ebay, since well i got a better deal on a 4x dvd+R/+rw liteon and i never use the dying - standard anyways.
i have had this and the 1100a DVD+R version so i'd say its a very good drive. every DVD i've made has been readable on every set top i've tried (i only use DVD+rs though , i dont think its worth the hassle of hunting down good dvd-r media since all DVD+R media runs at its rated speed for only a dime or so more).
Anyways, the only drawbacks are , well if you arel ike me and only run one drive. is the dvd rewrite is slower than some competing drives at 2.4x compared to liteon's 4x and the CD-R is slower than even the optorite's 24x at only 16x (the 4x dvd+R/+rw liteon i got on newegg refurb for $71 is well... 4x dvd+rw and 40x cdr).
also the optowrite can burn to those HD disks too. the NEC i'd say and you can see in reviews seems to be very good at burning dvds though, on many types of media. so if you just intend to burn +r and -r disks at 4x this is excellent