NEC ND 3500AG (A=AG?) confusion 8x or 16x DVDR?

[Hux]

Sorry if this sounds abit odd but Im just a little bit confused by all this markings. Just got my old LG 4x DVDRW replaced by this NEC one due to defect hardware after 1 year and I have no idea what exactly I have here.

I read the reviews which said this is infact a 16x DVDRW with 4x Dual Layer + support.

But I just installed the latest Nero Burining Rom and it doesnt give me the possibility to burn with 16x speed but only with 8x DVD+/-. It says it has DVD+ R DL on front part of the writer so I guess im pretty close to this version. This means Dual layer or?

On the back of the writer it says its a ND 3500 "A" but nero reports it as AG.

It uses 2.18 firmware. If its infact a 16x writer why it wont let me just select the 16x speed to see if it really supports it?

[Ian]

It uses 2.18 firmware. If its infact a 16x writer why it wont let me just select the 16x speed to see if it really supports it?

It's probably the media you're using. Try something that the drive can write to at 16x.

[Hux]

The media is really only rated as 4x and another as 8x. But I can select 8x speed on the Disk rated for 4x and only 8x on the one rated for 8x speed. Dont have any disk which are pure 16x though.

Why I ask this is because I read the review by CDrlabs and they said you can write 16x on disk market for 8x speeds. So its abit wired not to be able to select 16x if I should be not?

[Ian]

Why I ask this is because I read the review by CDrlabs and they said you can write 16x on disk market for 8x speeds. So its abit wired not to be able to select 16x if I should be not?

Yes.. you can do that with some media, but not all.

[Hux]

ok thx will buy a 16xDVD today then to see if it really works.

[alexnoe]

Maxell 8x DVD-R:

[Hux]

I have noticed that the small buffer keeps droping to 7% around 5 times per DVD. Is this bad? Writing at 8x on Swisstec DVD-R 8x.
I have run the speed test and it was a smooth line tough on one. And on another it just dropped at around 98% once.

[RJW]

Swisstec = Sky and that's media that doesn't have the best support (specially from Japanese manfacturers.) So you actually should expect not higher then a 8x speed. The 8x speed can allready be lucky since with older drives from NEC it took a long time befor european media manufacturers were supported officially offcourse you can allways use hacked firmwares.

[Hux]

Also I have a Philips CD-RW80 4-12x

But it doesnt give me the option to wirte with 12x just 10x

If this media isnt good the no media is good for this wirter and its a bunch of garbage.

I recorded now several CDR 52x on 32x speed and the graph is always the same. Little spike at end of the CD. Not that big like on the Swisstec DVDs just a little spike around 2cm down.

[alexnoe]

First, no serious manufacturer of CD-RW discs would ever print "12x" on a cd-rw, because such cd-rws don't exist. Some drives support 12x rewriting on 10x speed cd-rws, that's all.

Use Verbatim 24x or 32x RW media for this drive!

[dodecahedron]

First, no serious manufacturer of CD-RW discs would ever print "12x" on a cd-rw, because such cd-rws don't exist. Some drives support 12x rewriting on 10x speed cd-rws, that's all.

LOL
then Asus is not a serious manufacturer of CD-RW media, since i'm now staring at an Asus 4x-12x CD-RW disc

seriously, it's made by Daxon.

[cfitz]

then Asus is not a serious manufacturer of CD-RW media

Apparently neither are Memorex or TDK:



Okay, maybe you can argue that neither Memorex nor TDK are truly serious manufacturers (or re-branders, to be more accurate), but I guess the real point is that major brands do, in fact, label 12x on CD-RW. Perhaps this practice varies by market and that is why alexnoe hasn't seen such labels.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

Ian, i take alexnoe's wrods to mean that there is no real 12x CD-RW standard, just drives and media that work at this speed (i hope that is indeed what he meant).
is that correct?
no offence alexnoe, just that i've never heard this before and was very surprised to read your words.

i will admit though that i've never seen a Verbatim 12x CD-RW disc, only 10x. and that this did indeed surprise me!

[alexnoe]

cfitz: right, Memorex usually sells CMC and InfoDisc media. While CMC 10x -RWs work on some drives, InfoDisc 24x RWs are totally useless.

dodecahedron: Exactly.

i will admit though that i've never seen a Verbatim 12x CD-RW disc, only 10x. and that this did indeed surprise me!

Exactly, and you'll notice that Verbatim 10x -RWs are written at 12x by some drives, and are far more readable after doing that than a Memorex "12x" CD-RW. Other drives, like Plextor PX71x, don't support 12x at all, but only 4x, 10x and 24x

[dodecahedron]

Plextor PX71x, don't support 12x at all, but only 4x, 10x and 24x

mmm...never noticed that!
though my Plextor PX-W4012TA sure does write those Verbatims at 12x