NEC-3520a DVD burner on sale now! (hot for early adopters)

[BurntCpu]

Originally posted by: erick
I know I am probably opening a can of worms but, is there any reason to pay more for the Plextor 716A. Best Buy has the 716A on sale for 116.99 - 30 MIR = 86.99 and Newegg has the 716SA on sale today for 136.99.

Plex who? lol

 

[BurntCpu]

Originally posted by: BubbleSparkxx
whoa - just received my order from .com - ordered a nec 3500 on 1/5 with free 2nd day fedex for 69.99, and they auto upgraded me to a 3520. HOTTNESS.

I've a 3520 saved in my cart @ zipzoomfly 'till friday cant beat free 2nd day.
hope I don't tick off the newegg fanatics

 

[Alex08]

well im not ticked off. I just ordered from newegg. The best thing is that no matter what shipping I choose from newegg, it comes next day. it's nice living a couple miles away. however it sucks paying CA tax.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Heinrich
And I haven't even used the dual layer feature yet on my 3500

LOL, ya really. The DL disks are so expensive.

 

[beer]

Would anyone argue that this *isn't* the best buy for the buck there is out there right now?

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: beer
Would anyone argue that this *isn't* the best buy for the buck there is out there right now?

I would. Benq 1620 for $67.65, shipped!!!

Benefits over NEC:
1) Automatically bitsets DVD+R/RW/DL to DVD-ROM which DRAMATICALLY improves readability on standalone players.
2) Supports a lot of overspeeding of media in the AUTHORIZED firmware.
3) Firmware updates from BENQ occur often and have been better with every release.
4) Support for the BENQ 1620 in Nero CD/DVD Speed so you can analyze your burns using the BENQ drive.
5) BENQ QSCAN utility allows you to scan your media before you burn to determine best burning speed.
6) Comes wih Sonic RecordNow 7.2, one of the few packages to CORRECTLY do DL burns.
7) Absolutely quiet drive. Red LED flashes when burning, green LED shows you that there is a DVD/CD in the drive.
8) An AMAZING reader (can't stress this enough). There's tons of reports of people being able to take damaged discs that wouldn't read in any other drive and be able to extract the data from them flawlessly.

Those reasons make the Benq the best value.

EDIT: BTW, the black drive (also with the same software) is the same price at the same site.

 

[straubs]

Originally posted by: sumrtym

Originally posted by: beer
Would anyone argue that this *isn't* the best buy for the buck there is out there right now?

I would. Benq 1620 for $67.65, shipped!!!

Benefits over NEC:
1) Automatically bitsets DVD+R/RW/DL to DVD-ROM which DRAMATICALLY improves readability on standalone players.
2) Supports a lot of overspeeding of media in the AUTHORIZED firmware.
3) Firmware updates from BENQ occur often and have been better with every release.
4) Support for the BENQ 1620 in Nero CD/DVD Speed so you can analyze your burns using the BENQ drive.
5) BENQ QSCAN utility allows you to scan your media before you burn to determine best burning speed.
6) Comes wih Sonic RecordNow 7.2, one of the few packages to CORRECTLY do DL burns.
7) Absolutely quiet drive. Red LED flashes when burning, green LED shows you that there is a DVD/CD in the drive.
8) An AMAZING reader (can't stress this enough). There's tons of reports of people being able to take damaged discs that wouldn't read in any other drive and be able to extract the data from them flawlessly.

Those reasons make the Benq the best value.

EDIT: BTW, the black drive (also with the same software) is the same price at the same site.

I don't know... Your post comes across to me as BenQ fanboi/owner pride. (no offence intended)
I am NO EXPERT by any mean, but

1- Seems to be done by the NEC as well, and if not it's fixed with a simple flash.
2- Doesn't really matter cuz one of the reasons to flash firmware is to remove Riplock (forced 2x read of "stamped" dvd discs)
3- Doesn't matter when people are releasing higher quality underground firmware than the manufacturer's anyway.
4- Is a good point.
5- I couldn't care about with the amount of information on sites such as this, cdrfreaks,etc.
6- Don't care, but nice free addition.
7- Dont care.
8- good point, but the NEC isn't known as a bad reader either.

Now please correct me if I am way off, which I may be!

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: straubs
[I don't know... Your post comes across to me as BenQ fanboi/owner pride. (no offence intended)
I am NO EXPERT by any mean, but

1- Seems to be done by the NEC as well, and if not it's fixed with a simple flash.
2- Doesn't really matter cuz one of the reasons to flash firmware is to remove Riplock (forced 2x read of "stamped" dvd discs)
3- Doesn't matter when people are releasing higher quality underground firmware than the manufacturer's anyway.
4- Is a good point.
5- I couldn't care about with the amount of information on sites such as this, cdrfreaks,etc.
6- Don't care, but nice free addition.
7- Dont care.
8- good point, but the NEC isn't known as a bad reader either.

Now please correct me if I am way off, which I may be!

Bought one recently, yes, to replace a Sony DRU-510a. And those are the reasons I went with the Benq over any other DL drive after researching which drive to get, not after-the-fact-fanboyism.

1. Official NEC branded firmware generally only supports DVD-ROM bitsetting for DVD+R DL discs. For single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW bitsetting, you will need to flash to an OEM firmware (such as an HP or Mad Dog fw) or a modified firmware with bitsetting support added in.
2. Point regarding riplock. For the Benq, there is no current option for firmware to remove riplock (there's no hacked firmwares period). With Benq doing such a good job on firmware and supporting good quality overspeeding of media, there hasn't been any need. Besides, removing riplock may degrade how great a reader it is as well.
3. Underground firmware vs. well supported (and more importantly) warrantied firmware from Benq.
4. Thanks. If you can't test your data, you don't know how good a writer it really is.
5. You should. There's tremendous quality variation between even the same type of dye from different manufacturers or from spindle to spindle (or for that matter, IN a spindle). Just because your drive supports that 4x media at 8x doesn't mean it should be burnt at 8x (I ran into this doing a qscan on some ricohjpnr01 discs I have). Burner will do them at 8x, but qscan shows that for quality, they really are MUCH better at 4x. Sometimes you get some that don't suffer at 8x vs. 4x. Wasn't the case fot he spindle I have though looking at the first 3 discs.
6. Free is good.
7. Don't care you don't care. Some people like silent drives over a loud whirrrrrrrrrr....
8. Not bad, no, but Benq is better.



BTW, the DDW-163 drive at Newegg is a rebranded Benq 1620 with RecordNow as well. It's currently selling for $61.99 shipped. This can be crossflashed to full retail benq firmware. It uses the OEM firmware, but there is no difference between the two, just how the drive shows up in device manager. As I recall, the original question I was responding to was "best buy for the buck".

 

[moonsite]

I bought a BenQ 1620. Your point about that drive able to read damage DVD is not all true. It couldn't read one DVD I have, ofcourse the NEC couldn't read it either. But I could read it with my DVD/CDRW combo drive in my Compaq laptop.

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: moonsite
I bought a BenQ 1620. Your point about that drive able to read damage DVD is not all true. It couldn't read one DVD I have, ofcourse the NEC couldn't read it either. But I could read it with my DVD/CDRW combo drive in my Compaq laptop.

One experience with a VERY bad disc....

There's many more postings about this and people's experiences reading unreadable discs (audio and otherwise) in that forum.

 

[BubbleSparkxx]

I did a bit of research prior to choosing the NEC - my last drive was a lite-on 812s, which i was about to put thru a wall. I chose the 3500 series based off the general consensus that this is a mature unit with a ton of machines rolled out, and a fairly well defined knowledge base. Granted, I have zero experience with BenQ, I would nevertheless lean toward the NEC unit due to its overwhelming support.

That being said, I've burned over 20 dvds already and not one coaster. This drive appears solid as a rock.

 

[beer]

Originally posted by: BubbleSparkxx
I did a bit of research prior to choosing the NEC - my last drive was a lite-on 812s, which i was about to put thru a wall. I chose the 3500 series based off the general consensus that this is a mature unit with a ton of machines rolled out, and a fairly well defined knowledge base. Granted, I have zero experience with BenQ, I would nevertheless lean toward the NEC unit due to its overwhelming support.

That being said, I've burned over 20 dvds already and not one coaster. This drive appears solid as a rock.

Dude, my current drive is an Optorite. Talk about a BAD purchase

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: BubbleSparkxx
That being said, I've burned over 20 dvds already and not one coaster. This drive appears solid as a rock.

The 3500 is a good drive, don't get me wrong. However, "not one coaster" is not a very good measure of the quality of burns.

Unfortunately, you can't do a quality scan with the 3500, and DVD-ROM drives are notoriously bad choices with which to do DVD scans.

If you still had the Lite-on installed, you could use k-probe to scan your burns to see the quality of burns (a testiment to the media, and the burner, to measure how good it is).

I do this with my Benq 1620 using Nero CD/DVD Speed Quality Test (Benq 1620 is a supported drive) and am VERY happy with the results (no PO's, low PIE, and single digit PIF).

 

[BubbleSparkxx]

Originally posted by: sumrtym

The 3500 is a good drive, don't get me wrong. However, "not one coaster" is not a very good measure of the quality of burns.

Unfortunately, you can't do a quality scan with the 3500, and DVD-ROM drives are notoriously bad choices with which to do DVD scans.

If you still had the Lite-on installed, you could use k-probe to scan your burns to see the quality of burns (a testiment to the media, and the burner, to measure how good it is).

good idea just to keep the liteon to run k-probe. I will go ahead and set it up on my other machine instead of putting the 812s into cold storage.

 

[INXSible]

Originally posted by: sumrtym

Originally posted by: BubbleSparkxx
That being said, I've burned over 20 dvds already and not one coaster. This drive appears solid as a rock.

The 3500 is a good drive, don't get me wrong. However, "not one coaster" is not a very good measure of the quality of burns.

Unfortunately, you can't do a quality scan with the 3500, and DVD-ROM drives are notoriously bad choices with which to do DVD scans.

If you still had the Lite-on installed, you could use k-probe to scan your burns to see the quality of burns (a testiment to the media, and the burner, to measure how good it is).

I do this with my Benq 1620 using Nero CD/DVD Speed Quality Test (Benq 1620 is a supported drive) and am VERY happy with the results (no PO's, low PIE, and single digit PIF).

Is Firmware v. B7P9 the latest one for Benq's 1620?

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: INXSible

Is Firmware v. B7P9 the latest one for Benq's 1620?

Nope, we're already on to a new one, B7T9. Changed write strategies for DVD+/-R media, and improved writing to RICOH DL media.

 

[Cucoo]

Originally posted by: sumrtym

Originally posted by: INXSible

Is Firmware v. B7P9 the latest one for Benq's 1620?

Nope, we're already on to a new one, B7T9. Changed write strategies for DVD+/-R media, and improved writing to RICOH DL media.

Sound like a Benq's employee.

 

[simo]

8x +/- DL 3530 should be around in a few months, that even beats the 5-6x of Plextor's 716

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11201

If you have a 3500a, I would not bother getting a 3520, also it doesn't look good for upgrading the 3520 to a 3530.....

 

[ginfest]

Originally posted by: simo
8x +/- DL 3530 should be around in a few months, that even beats the 5-6x of Plextor's 716

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11201

If you have a 3500a, I would not bother getting a 3520, also it doesn't look good for upgrading the 3520 to a 3530.....

Damn, wait or keep plodding along with my Pioneer 4x -R?
Every time I decide to u/g a better drive is announced.
Well maybe the Plex 716 at BB, got a $30 gc and with the rebate it'll cost me less than the 3520.
Decisions, decisions


Mike G

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: simo
8x +/- DL 3530 should be around in a few months, that even beats the 5-6x of Plextor's 716

Because there's SOOOOO much available DL media at even 2.4x that we're worried about 8x....

 

[Baked]

9 of 10 people who buy DVD burners, or CD burners for that matter, don't know what a quality scan is, and don't care for it as long as the CD/DVD burned plays on their DVD player. So all your BenQ burns the better quality DVDs than NEC points means nothing. Want to help push BenQ's sales? Buy them and give them away.

 

[straubs]

Originally posted by: sumrtym

Originally posted by: simo
8x +/- DL 3530 should be around in a few months, that even beats the 5-6x of Plextor's 716

Because there's SOOOOO much available DL media at even 2.4x that we're worried about 8x....

Exactly. I don't expect to buy an DL media for a loooong time with the way the prices are. I didn't even buy a DVD burner until single layer media was unter 50 cents a disc.

 

[Bozo Galora]

speaking of cdfreaks, today they now say that the new LG 16X is their fav DVD burner - no more BenQ - lol

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/172

 

[straubs]

Originally posted by: Baked
9 of 10 people who buy DVD burners, or CD burners for that matter, don't know what a quality scan is, and don't care for it as long as the CD/DVD burned plays on their DVD player. So all your BenQ burns the better quality DVDs than NEC points means nothing. Want to help push BenQ's sales? Buy them and give them away.

:disgust:

That is probably true, but what's your point?

999 out of 1000 people aren't on AT or cdfreaks having discussions in this kind of detail. In fact, 999 out of 1000 probably couldn't even tell you the BRAND of their burner if they do have one.

The best thing about the net is sharing information like this. Why should I trust a manufacturer or third party review any more than sumrtym? I'd even argue that quite often sole individuals will give you better, more accurate information any other source you can find. No one is paying them, and consumers are more likely to share flaws in products.

And even if he IS a salesman (which I very very much doubt, I mean c'mon...), that doesn't mean any of his information is incorrect.

If he wants to say why the BenQ is better, and can do it w/o flaming, then more power to him.

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: straubs

Originally posted by: Baked
9 of 10 people who buy DVD burners, or CD burners for that matter, don't know what a quality scan is, and don't care for it as long as the CD/DVD burned plays on their DVD player. So all your BenQ burns the better quality DVDs than NEC points means nothing. Want to help push BenQ's sales? Buy them and give them away.

:disgust:

That is probably true, but what's your point?

999 out of 1000 people aren't on AT or cdfreaks having discussions in this kind of detail. In fact, 999 out of 1000 probably couldn't even tell you the BRAND of their burner if they do have one.

The best thing about the net is sharing information like this. Why should I trust a manufacturer or third party review any more than sumrtym? I'd even argue that quite often sole individuals will give you better, more accurate information any other source you can find. No one is paying them, and consumers are more likely to share flaws in products.

And even if he IS a salesman (which I very very much doubt, I mean c'mon...), that doesn't mean any of his information is incorrect.

If he wants to say why the BenQ is better, and can do it w/o flaming, then more power to him.

Appreciate that straubs.

Errors get worse as the media ages with CD/DVD burns. Having a good quality burn to begin with prolongs media llfe. Kind of like shopping for cars....you don't have to worry about quality, features, and reviews if you don't want to, as long as you get from point A to B, right?



BTW, Baked, better go to this deal thread. There's a few people on there you probably want to accuse of working for Plextor. :laugh: