Compatibility of new DVD burner

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:12 am

I have an old but working NEC ND-1300A 4x DVD+R / 2.4x DVD+RW burner. With the prices of 18x burners at ¢G20 I thought I might buy one. I remember MSP 8 having a CD/DVD burner update a few years ago. Does this mean my new burner might not be compatible? I would be burning DVDs with MSP 8 and DVDWS 2.

Would I also need to upgrade my old Nero 5.5 to work with it for general CD-R/MP3 writing?

Cheers
Darren

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 2:37 pm

You might not need to.
have a look at this firmware update for your DVD drive.
NEC ND-1300A driver update

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 1:46 pm

Thanks
Not quite the response I was expecting, but good anyway. There is nothing wrong with my 4x burner, it works fine burning on 16x DVD+R Infiniti Professional Printable discs (nice DVD prints with my Epson R200 printer). I was just thinking about getting a faster one since they were only ¢G20-25 price.
My questions were whether the new burner would work with Ulead and Nero. If it didn't then I would have to factor extra cost into the equation.
Cheers
Darren

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:31 pm

Yes the faster burners do work BUT you are strongly advised to read this post which deals with issues relating to faster burn speeds. The recommendation is that you burn at 4x or less where possible.

Some discs will only drop down to 6x - in which case you use the lowest speed available.

DVD burning/playback problems

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Sun Apr 29, 2007 3:26 pm

It seems that I might as well stick with what I've got. I just thought that it might have been nice to burn to a DVD+RW a bit quicker for testing purposes. No point in upsetting a working system/process!

Cheers
Darren

Gorf · Post by **Gorf** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 9:44 am

I'm not convinced that burning at a slower speed is more beneficial than at top speed. I favour the latter, and burn at the highest common speed supported by the drive and media.

As long as you use high-quality media and a recommended drive, you should be fine. My personal preference is Ritec or Taiwo Yuden dye and Pioneer recorders, but everyone has their own favourites. I won't touch discs with CMC dye or drives made by Philips.

I'll be re-archiving my wedding DVDs soon - and I'll be burning them at 16X.

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 10:17 am

Gorf wrote:I'm not convinced that burning at a slower speed is more beneficial than at top speed. I favour the latter, and burn at the highest common speed supported by the drive and media.

As long as you use high-quality media and a recommended drive, you should be fine. My personal preference is Ritec or Taiwo Yuden dye and Pioneer recorders, but everyone has their own favourites. I won't touch discs with CMC dye or drives made by Philips.

I'll be re-archiving my wedding DVDs soon - and I'll be burning them at 16X.

Can't agree with you. Slow burning gives a much sharper edge between the 1s and the 0s. I have examined this under a metallurgical microscope and the difference is remarkable. If the dye layer fades a little with time, you will have less latitude for mistaken reading with lost bits.

I agree that media quality is important, especially if you want long life, but I don't believe that the mechanics of the burner play a big role, as there are only 2 or 3 manufacturers in the world. In fact, I think you will find that the Philips one is the same as the Sony one which is the same as the Pioneer one (the electronics are different, though).

I would advise you to archive at the very slowest speed your system will allow.

IronS · Post by **IronS** » Mon Apr 30, 2007 3:27 pm

Check the compatibility list for your DVD burner. This is a list of disc "Manufacturer Name" (Media Brand), "Manufacturer ID" and "Media Type ID".
If you buy DVD discs listed in this table the results are as good as they get.

Also there is software (ao Nero) to check the quality of the disc after burning.

Regards,
Erik