NEC ND1100A DVD+RW Writer

I've owned this drive for about a...

Strengths: works well on 2.4x TDK media

Weakness: extremely high failure rate writing DVDs faster than 2.4x, even with most recent firmware upgrade (1.0b).

I've owned this drive for about a year. I was happy with it at first, but now it's becoming too much of a problem to find media that will write DVDs without a high failure rate. Consequently, after much recent frustration, I'm replacing the NEC 1100 with a Plextor 712a. I would have bought the NEC ND3500 if it weren't for the current Plextor rebate. I have no complaint about NEC; this particular...
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I've owned this drive for about a year. I was happy with it at first, but now it's becoming too much of a problem to find media that will write DVDs without a high failure rate. Consequently, after much recent frustration, I'm replacing the NEC 1100 with a Plextor 712a. I would have bought the NEC ND3500 if it weren't for the current Plextor rebate.

I have no complaint about NEC; this particular drive is just becoming too antiquated.

For the benefit of other or potential owners, this drive only supports the following DVD media for writing (this is from the NEC website). Use other brands and higher speeds at your own risk:

a) DVD-R Media (4x/2x, 4.7GB For General DISC) Mitsubishi (Verbatim), Taiyo-Yuden, PVC, Fuji Film, Ritek
b) DVD-RW Media (2x/1x) JVC, Pioneer, Mitsubishi (Verbatim), TDK
c) DVD+R Media (4x/2.4x) RICOH, Mitsubishi (Verbatim), Taiyo-Yuden, Sony
d) DVD+RW Media (2.4x) RICOH, Mitsubishi (Verbatim), TDK

By Marin Web Works - Jan 9, 2005

I asked for "a" black DVD+R dvd...

Strengths: Can be very quiet at low read speeds, so far reliable & troublefree.

Weakness: Startup time needs to improve.

I asked for "a" black DVD+R dvd writer and this is what I got. No research done so I took a bit of a gamble. Turned out to be an excellent choice. Does it's job well.

Is instantly detected in my bios, so I can set my IDE detection timeout to 0 seconds for faster boot up.

By Paulus13 - Sep 25, 2003

The very competitive price and...

Strengths: Price Quality of writing - even on bulky CDs Silent - when reading CDs

Weakness: Login time too high (14s) Overburn limited to max 30s (!) ie 3 megs on a 700M CD

The very competitive price and good quality product help DVD+R sales grow. For the moment it is difficult to find cheap DVD+R 4x blanks though DVD+R 2,4x are easily to reach. I guess that the price of a blank is nearly the sum of a 6 CDs so why have tones of CDs and not few DVDs with data. Also movies written with this unit showed to be highly compatible with many dvd players.

By DrDR - Jun 5, 2003

i bought this "plus only" writer...

Strengths: this tool does exactly what it claims to do.

Weakness: it is not the right tool for the job and the price differentail incentive for a more appropiate tool is not yet enough to warrant buying anyway.

i bought this "plus only" writer for the then bargin price of 165 from newegg. it burns and reads well and it is very quiet and reliable. It does the job well. Most machines I have tried my burned DVD test +R/W movies play them which is a big help. I would not buy it again could I go back in time but would buy a more expensive drive writing plus and minus or better yet wait a few months. If you...
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i bought this "plus only" writer for the then bargin price of 165 from newegg.
it burns and reads well and it is very quiet and reliable. It does the job well. Most machines I have tried my burned DVD test +R/W movies play them which is a big help. I would not buy it again could I go back in time but would buy a more expensive drive writing plus and minus or better yet wait a few months. If you do buy this cheap NEC drive then first buy say 50 DVD +R disks and say 10 DVD +R/W disks over the net. 4 speed dvd +R are hard to come by in local stores at all ( the local staples only has +R 2.4 in bulk at good prices ) and then there is the price differential. For a box of 5 the local circuit city wants 30 dollars but only 15 dollars for DVD -R. both prices of course are outrageous. But you are forced to store up blank disks.
Only buy this well performing tool that is limited in what jobs it can do if there is a really big price differential.

By Roe5685 - Jun 28, 2003

I installed the unit into a USB...

Strengths: Name Brand, works fine

Weakness: None known

I installed the unit into a USB 2.0 External case. WinXP recognized the drive as an "External Mass Storage Device", and installed the drivers automatically.

My Computer shows the device as a DVD drive with a drive letter.

Nice unit, reads scratched and dirty DVD's that another
DVD ROM drive won't read. Writes fast and accurate

By SEinson - Sep 29, 2003