Norcent 52x CDRW anyone?

[m0digital]

I saw the deal on the 52x Norcent CDRW at Best buy this week. Does anyone have any experiences with this one? I'm waiting to buy a Liteon 52246, but saw this deal and at $20, its a lot cheaper. I don't do a whole lot of burning. A couple audio CD's here and there. How is the quality of the Norcent? Should I totally forget about it and get the Liteon instead or try this one out?

thanks.

[rdgrimes]

The odds are high that it'll be a Asus or something else. If you want the best read and write quality for your money, get the LiteOn. On the other hand, how good does a $20 burner need to be? LiteOn 52x is $50 shipped at www.newegg.com

[dhc014]

I think that Norcent drives are often BTC's.

[Ian]

Do a search. The Norcent drives have been talked about quite a bit.

[CowboySlim]

Hang on, if you are not sure. Best Buy had the same deal ($20 AMIR) on a Verbatim 52x24x52x about a month. This was a rebadged LiteON. they usually rotate these deals monthly or so. I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up again in two or three weeks.

Slim

[m0digital]

Yea, I want a Liteon or rebadged one. I hope BB or OfficeMax will be rotating through the Liteon's soon.

[CowboySlim]

I haven't seen either put LiteOns, badged as LiteOns, on sale. I don't think that they carry them.

Slim

[m0digital]

I haven't seen either put LiteOns, badged as LiteOns, on sale. I don't think that they carry them.

Slim

Vertabims or cendyne's that are LiteOn's would be great.

[CowboySlim]

Interesting that you mentioned Cendyne. I bought the Verbatim/LiteOn at Best Buy. Then I screwed up with the rebate application as it was different than others. In addition to the UPC/bar code, they also want the serial no. cut out and sent in, which I failed to do. They were nice enough to mail me a note and give me the opportunity to rectify the situation. Return address (different that the original submission)? Cendyne!

One other advantage to a LiteOn/LiteOn as opposed to a Memorex/Verbatim/Cendyne/LiteOn is that LiteOn offers firmware updates more frequently (if the others do at all).

Slim

[BillyG]

I'd stay away from the Norcent drive unless you need a cheap budget drive for another computer or a emergency backup. The 48x12x48x I bought last year was made by Acer/Benq and its performance was average compared to the Lite-On.

As far as rebates I havent had any problems with Buslink - I got my rebate check in about 3 weeks.

[David]

CowboySlim wrote:

One other advantage to a LiteOn/LiteOn as opposed to a Memorex/Verbatim/Cendyne/LiteOn is that LiteOn offers firmware updates more frequently (if the others do at all).

If you purchace a Memorex, Verbatim, Cendyne LiteOn drive you can use the LiteOn firmware instead of waiting on the rebager. That is just what I did with my LiteOn drive a Cendyne LiteOn.

[CowboySlim]

David,

In principle, that's correct. However, I use the bundled Nero and it may not work if the drive is then relabeled as a LiteOn internally. I know through test that the Nero and Retrospect S/W that came with my Yamaha won't access the Memorex LiteOn. I recall that cfitz mentioned that the bundled S/W looked at the s/n. However, the s/n shouldn't change when you reflash a Memorex/Verbatim/Cendyne LiteOn with the LiteOn firmware, so I think it must look at more than the s/n.

OTH, dhc014 has some stuff that can be used to capture the current F/W on a floppy, so that if I can't use my Memorex Nero after the LiteOn flash I can reinstall the original.

cfitz?

Slim

[cfitz]

Slim, I think you may be confusing the Nero serial number with the drive's serial number.

Think of it this way: the software from Ahead contains all the features of the full Nero product, but only certain features are actually activated depending on the Nero serial number you supply. When Nero starts, it looks at the serial number (of Nero, not the drive) and activates features accordingly. In an OEM serial number situation, it determines that it should only work with drives from one particular manufacturer, and it can tell which manufacturer is allowed based on the Nero serial number. Nero then scans the bus, looking for ID strings that match that manufacturer, and allows you to burn just to those drives.

One consequence of this is, as you said, that if you use one of the handy utilities for flashing rebadged LiteOn drives to "true" LiteOn drives, your OEM serial number for Nero won't let you use the transformed drive because the ID string no longer matches.

One way you can get around this is by purchasing a full license from Nero for $19. Another way you can do it is by using a binary editor to modify the LiteOn firmware update file so that it retains the original ID string ("MEMOREX", in your case).

Be sure to check your private messages, Slim. I sent a question about your firmware.

cfitz

[CowboySlim]

cfitz,

Yes, I was confused about where the s/n applied. This makes it much clearer.

Thanks,
Slim