Max burn setting(problematic)

[chewy]

As a case in point I will use the new NEC 3550 & 4550 burners, the firmware is not mature

and even tho these drives are supposed to be the best NEC has produced since

the venerable 3500, I wouldn't burn any media past 8x. I have taken TYG03(16x dvd-r) and Verbatim

mcc 04(16xdvd+r) and sony yuden T02's(8x dvd+r) and gotten QS of 98-99 at 8x burns. Since I have

modified write strats on the 3550, I can burn the sony's at 12x. The 12 x burns were anywhere from 50-90 QS. All scans performed with benq 1620 and cdspeed @8x. I am sure the QS 50 played well enough but

in the trash it went. Observing 3 batches of TYG(01,02,03) I think the only difference is the mid code,

not the dye or anything else. Crosschecking burns with above media on an LG4163 and the benq 1620

yielded better burns at high speeds(12-16x), but no better at 8x. The LG and Benq would seem to have fully mature firmware. It's a complicated world out there.

Neither the 3550 or 4550(same hardware) are considered adequate scanners. YMMV

Edited January 1, 2006 by chewy

[polopony]

NEC isn't the swiftest with its firmware releases .I have the 3500 and its a great drive and the firmwares for that drive took awhile to be released .Unless there is something drastically wrong with a new drive they wont release firmware for awhile .The media is already maxed out at 16x and the drives are also capable of only 16x so it seems that there wont be any reason to make say 18x dvd blanks so it will be a new technology if they plan/can go past 16x.

[chewy]

From what my scans show from my burns of those three premium medias on 3 different nec 3520,40,50, the lg and benq, they should have stopped at 8x with media and burners. 2-3 minutes burn time

saved for what?

[polopony]

I know what you mean ,I burn most of my stuff at 6X about 10 minutes and all work fine .Things are topping out with conventional dvd burners and media it seems that the manufacturers always have something brewing in the background to keep the prices up,hell I still wont buy Dual Layer discs because I think they are too expensive and the S/L verbs and yudens work so well

[chewy]

We are on the same page with dual layer, and after seeing the best

scans I am hesitant to trust that technology. I can split something

large into 2 sl disks for 1/5 the price of a dl one, and have better quality.