In House Review - Verbatim Producer DVD+R/+RW

[Ian]

We've taken a brief look at Verbatim's Producer DVD+RW drive. Based on the Ricoh RW5125A DVD+RW drive, the Producer not only writes at 12x, rewrites at 10x and reads CD's at 32x, it can also write to DVD+RW and DVD+R discs at 2.4x. The Producer also has support for technologies like loss less linking, defect management, background formatting and Just-Link buffer underrun protection.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the Producer and see how it compares to some of the other DVD+RW drives we've looked at. How does Verbatim's DVD writer stack up? You'll have to read the review to find out.

Verbatim Producer DVD+R/+RW

Yes, this is the drive that Office Max has on sale for $199 this week. This is one of the lowest prices I've seen on a DVD+RW drive. I'm sure Office Max is making room for Verbatim's new 4x Producer.

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the Verbatim Producer, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

[aviationwiz]

I have this exact drive and I LOVE IT!

[Ian]

Glad to hear. Anyone have any experience with the NEC version of this drive?

[ku71]

It shows up as _NEC DVD+RW ND-1000A, firmware 1.01

Apparently this drive was never sold by NEC themselves (OEM only) and it's not mentioned on their web site(s).
All the manufacturers had to update their firmware for the new 4x media. There are no updates for the 1000A, so either it is not required or there simply is no support. Either way, I remain sceptical about tech support in the future.

Having said that, I have not had any problems so far. I am using Verbatim +R and +RW and Ritek +R as well as TDK (Ritek) CD-R. All discs have been tested successfully with a Pioneer DVD-106 and a Lite-ON DVD-Rom

EAC says the drive has
accurate stream YES
caching NO
C2 error information YES (but the C2 detection fails so it can't use it)

The tray is noisy and appears a little cheap. My 40x Acer/Benq drive has a much more solid feel to it.

Overall this remains a good deal for $159 (after rebate).

[KuoH]

Mine is the NEC as well. I hope it's as good or better than the Ricoh.

KuoH