NEC 1100A (interesting behavior on playback) + firmware

[VEFF]

I just got a NEC 1100A DVD burner (sold under CenDyne name).
It came with firmware 1.A0
I found and downloaded 1.A1
Does anyone know what 1.A1 adds, before I flash the drive?

Thanks!

[dhc014]

1. Adds Black Media Support,
2. Support for Business Card sized media,
3. Increased media support, and
4. Write strategy changes

I've heard verifications on the first one.

[VEFF]

I just burned a home movie, and it skips
I am using the same batch of Verbatim DVD+R media that I always use with my DRU-500A.
My colleague has this drive (Dell OEM version) and said his works fine.

I guess I should try updating the firmware.

I did burn another disc first (not a movie) and it works fine.

[VEFF]

I upgraded the firmware.
I then burned the same video again, but it skips in the exact same way and in the exact same so-called "random" spots (on my Sony NS-715P home DVD player, which up until now has played everything I have thrown at it).
That seemed fishy, so I tried playing the same disc (that was skipping around on my Sony) on my Apex, and it plays fine!

The strange thing is that the Sony has played the same media (and evetrything under the sun) a number of times before without problems...

[Kennyshin]

VEFF, you now have 7 40x-52x CD writers and 3 4x DVD writers.

[VEFF]

VEFF, you now have 7 40x-52x CD writers and 3 4x DVD writers.

Yes Kennyshin .
I now have dual DVD burning capability on both PCs...
Most of the drives were at a steep discount off retail, thanks to PM (Price Matches), coupons, instant discount and rebates.
My two PCs are pretty much full (each special MID tower case can hold up to six 5.25" drives thanks to a great case design that I found online).
They currently each have five 5.25" external bays in use.

I just hope the strange playback issue with the new NEC was an authoring issue.
I am going to try a different video and different media this time around.
I wonder if it is the burn method (DAO vs TAO) - meaning my Sony
is pickier than my Apex DVD player or DVD-ROM?

[VEFF]

Well, I burned another home video using the NEC and a Fuji +R disc.
This played fine on the Sony.
Tonight I'll try burning the same home video to a Verbatim +R using the NEC. If that plays fine on the Sony (my main DVD player since it is progressive scan), then I'll know that it was a fluke with the first video.

The strange thing is that the Apex had no problem with the first video.
Maybe the chapter pointers were somehow screwed up?

[VEFF]

VEFF, you now have 7 40x-52x CD writers and 3 4x DVD writers.

I noticed in your sig that you also have the ND-1100A.
How do you like it so far?
I will try a few more burns with it tonight.

I have already decided to keep it (I cut the UPC and serial for my rebate submissions this morning) since it worked fine for a video and for another format of DVD last night.
I just need to double check what was wrong with that one video that played on one +R compatible player and not another.
I will try a different authoring tool...just for this one video.
My colleague has one and uses Verbatim and Fuji, so I am almost certain it was something specific to that one video.

[Kennyshin]

VEFF, you now have 7 40x-52x CD writers and 3 4x DVD writers.

I noticed in your sig that you also have the ND-1100A.
How do you like it so far?
I will try a few more burns with it tonight.

I bought one in January at a Tokyo shop. I didn't go there myself though. I paid 290,000 won, including tax, shipping, and other cost. US$240. ND-1100A's OEM unit price was somewhere between US$90 to US$120 then. I was going to order 1,000 units in Feb-March but it was delayed.

I sold it to a friend for US$90 in early April and he again sold it to me for US$120. He also bought a Pioneer DVR-A05 in Tokyo last year which he together sold to me for a little under US$150.

I've used only several 2.4x and 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media with this drive. It's IO DATA OEM but the difference is mostly the small sticker only. I also used Sony DRU-500A and Toshiba SD-R5002. None of the DVD writers are as fast as Samsung SM-348B/352B and LG GCC-4480B/4520B in reading DVD-R/+R and recording CD-R/CD-RW but that was expected. Only the Sony drive was noisy to me, the others were silent enough, and I had no serious issue with any of the drives I used. The problems were always with the problematic media from several mysterious brand names, usually made by Princo, CMC, Infodisc, Nanya, Gigastorage, etc.

I haven't talked to Ritek since May so I don't know whether they are meeting the explosive market demand now. They were very seriously under capacity in December 2002 and March 2003. The South Korean DVD+R/DVD+RW market was almost non-existent then. Ricoh-related distributors and importers in South Korea almost gave up and looked for other items like Samsung CE products so Ritek was not much interested in the South Korean DVD+R/+RW media market. There were less than 10K + media in the entire country that time, sometimes just a few hundreds since nobody was importing from Ritek or CMC. Here, Minus dominated over 90% DVD recordable market. The situation will change anyway though thanks to Taiyo Yuden and others that have started mass production of 4x DVD+R media.

[VEFF]

Thanks for all the info Kennyshin!

I must admit that I am a bit surprised by all the dual format writers being announced.
It looked a bit like retailers were shifting dramatically toward +RW.


I burned a DIFFERENT video to a Verbatim +R disc with my new NEC and it worked fine.

I think a file was corrupt for the other home video that I had trouble with last night, so when I burned the disc, it went haywire when played on my Sony DVD player.
The strange thing is that the Apex and my DVD-ROM drive played it fine...

Anyway, I am glad it is working fine.