Resolved yet? NEC drives not reading RW disks burned on the same drive

I've been trying to decide between buying a Lite-On 812, LG4082 or NEC 2510.

The drive, for boring off-topic reasons, will be the only DVD drive in the case. This will be a one DVD drive system.

I've done a search on CDFreaks for "NEC read problems", read through most of the 104 or so hits, and have read a number of reviews of both the 2500 and 2510. I'm aware of the problems that NEC drives appear to have with reading slightly damaged media, something that the reviews and some posters have reported. I'm also aware that the NEC drives have excellent write characteristics.

I have no need to read any pressed DVD disks. I'll be using the drive to write the occasional DVDR disk for storing data. The main use will be burning DVDRW disks for data transfer and system backup.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the issue of NEC drives occasionally not being able to read disks that had been burned on the very same drive. I've read a few posts complaining about that issue. As you can imagine, it would be a problem if, in a system having only the 2510 drive in it, the 2510 weren't able to read a backup DVDRW disk that it had previously burned.

Has that issue been resolved? Was it due to defective drives that were RMA'd and returned or did it only occur on particular brands of media? Has the problem been fixed with new firmware or is the issue still open?

If you already have a 2510, in your experience, would you choose to make it the only DVD drive in your system?

I'm not sure anyone knows answers to your question, I'm afraid (except the last one).

I'm also worried about this as I bought 2510A for my wife's work computer (she does back up of her graphics files a lot) and she only has one drive in her Mac.

It needs to perform flawlessly for both read and write for both cd-r and dvd-r/dvd+r.

However, I'm still in the beginning stages of my testing of 2510A and can only conclude that so far my particular unit of 2510A with official 2.16 firmware has had no problems burning or reading Maxell 4x DVD-R (MXL RG02, Made in Japan) or Plextor 4x DVD+R (Yuden000T01, Made in Japan) discs.

As testing this takes some time and I only burn useful backups, it'll still take me a couple of weeks to get any sort of useful idea about general read ability of this unit.

I'll keep you posted though.

cheers,
halcyon

PS I've had my Nec lock up once and I could not eject the disc either via software command nor with the eject button. The disc inside remained readable and Explorer was responsive, I just couldn't eject the drive. No other drives have behaved like that in my system.

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to your results.

I was thinking about posting another message with a more direct header, something along the lines of "Would you choose a NEC 2510 as the only DVD drive in a system?", but I was worried that I might offend the readers who had already read the original post in this thread.

I've seen many recommendations for Lite-On drives as the only DVD drive in a system, because of their excellent ability to read disks. But since I hardly ever do that, the decision is a bit narrower. I'd be doing many writes, hopefully very few reads (since I'd only be reading a disk because I needed to access a backup disk), so the superior writing ability of the NEC is very attractive to me. But if the NEC were truly a terrible reader, that would be a problem.

NEC as readers is acknowledged as not being the best DVD readers in the world but, they are widely regarded as being one of the best, if not the best writers.
Personally I have had no problems with the ND-2510a reading any type of disc but I installed a Lite-On SOHD-167T reader as DVD-ROMS will always rip a DVD faster than any writer.

If you can accommodate another drive in your system this is regarded as being a good solution and prices these days’ means they don’t break the bank if you purchase one. I bought mine from e-buyer in the UK for £13

Quote Dee-27

>If you can accommodate another drive in your system this is regarded as being a good solution

Yes, that would be the best solution. Unfortunately, the case I have is full. I'll be removing an old Asus E608 DVD-ROM drive to install the DVD writer.

I thought about a new case and a new DVD-ROM drive (I don't think the Asus is able to read DVD RW disks) but the cost of a case, power supply and DVD-ROM drive would be about the same as the DVD writer, effectively doubling the cost. I also didn't relish the thought of moving the motherboard and all the innards of the PC to another case. ;->

@ weblurker -- there is always the usb external solution if absolutely needed

@Halcyon -- i have had that same thing happen with almost every optical drive if there is drive letter access software on the system (incd, dla, directcd ect) or if the drive was in use. there is an mmc command which will lock the drive until the correct open command is given. i normally end up rebooting which will allow you to get the disk out but once on a tech call i had a customer whose disc had something strange on it and once inserted the drive would lock and nothing would cause it to open unless you caught it during post and ejected then. once the ide devices enumerated in the bios it was locked again.

Hmmm I wouldn't use the word always...
The next generation of 16X DVD writers will have 16X max DVD read speeds and may be able to read just as good as current DVD-ROM drives...

LOL "always" is a long time innit
Okies, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, how about we substitute the word "always" with usually?