Media compatibility issue with writer

[luminosius]

Hi !

I'm a newbie in this DVD writer area. I'm thinking of getting one of the following drives:

NEC1300A (~$200 CAN)
Pioneer A06 (~$300 CAN)
Sony U10A (~$300 CAN)

I've read that the NEC drive needs new firmwares to support new DVD medias and brands, as well as "hacked" firmware because it doesn't support some cheapo media like Princo.

Are all DVD writers like that? With media-locks implemented? Or is it only the NEC? As I said, I'm a newbie, so I find this kind of strange. They didn't have this issue with CDR.... I'd hate to get an NEC and found out that once NEC stops releasing new firmware, I'd be unable to use new medias with the drive. Or is it the same with all drives on the market?

If anyone can give me some suggestions as to whether the Pioneer/Sony is worth their price tags over the NEC, or which one is the best, I'd appreciate it too. I'm probably going to use it for DVD and PS2 backups.

Thanks in advance!

[luminosius]

Oh, and anyone know anything about the stability of the U10A? I heard you need to flash it to 500A to support new firmware because Sony doesn't release any for U10A, right? Anyone has problems with that? I was reading in dvdrhelp.com and some people were complaining that things didn't go right after the hack.

Thanks again!

[Raz0rX]

Sony U10A is an OEM product, so that means Sony won't release firmware directly to end-users. I read from another forum that Sony has stopped making new firmware for the 500a.

I have owned an NEC 1300 (before the new firmware 1.06 came out), it doesn't write any Princo disc at all. I have burn some Optodiscs @ 2x, but the result wasn't good. Lots of read errors.

I now own a Pioneer 106, quite happy with it. I now mainly use 4x Princo white top. Burn quality is very good when use with this burner.

As Jase mentioned from another thread, NEC has a better support for + media and Pioneer has a better tolerent system.

[jase]

Thanks

Having said that, from what I am seeing the Pioneer may well be more tolerant with +R media as well, strange as that may sound.

I've been playing around with some obscure +R discs and a few +- writers (Optorite, NEC, Sony, Pioneer) on behalf of a reseller in the UK. There are some obscure manufacturers based in Taiwan and elsewhere such as "Media IDO" whose media seems to work better on the Pioneer, writing at 4x where the Sony and Optorite only allow 2.4 and the NEC spits the discs out.

This seems to be repeated for some Prodisc and some illegal-lead in media I've been playing with.

The Pioneer isn't perfect, but something in the hardware or firmware seems to be allowing it to be significantly more tolerant. Unsurprising then that TEAC decided to go with Pioneer for their line of writers.

Oh, and the old theory that +R discs are more compatible with standalones, regardless of media quality has been shown in tests to be complete rubbish. Bad +R media performs just as badly as bad -R media.