Fed up with my 811s, time to try a NEC or go with the 832s?

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers LiteOn / PLDS / Sony Writer
#1

Hello everyone,

I have been posting recently in the kprobe area after discovering the reason for my movie copies skipping were horrendous PI/PO results. After trying numerous media, firmware and writing strategies, I am ready to give up on this drive. The question is what drive to go for next? My main uses are data backups and movie backups. I have narrowed down my choices to the NEC2510 or the Lite-on 832s. I am a bit hesitant on getting burned by Lite-on again (I used to be a die-hard fan until my 811s) or going with seemingly popular and inexpensive NEC2510. Any input on which drive or encouragement to stick with Lite-on and try the 832s?

Thanks for your time,
Tom

#2

Liteon has come quite a way since the 811S but it is still picky with media. If you just want burn quality, then the NEC will burn most media, albeit a tad slower. The Liteon still has many advantages; fast writing, excellent reading ability, great at copying, excellent CD read/write, patchability and a really cool forum. :bigsmile:

I’d buy the 812S and put the saved money towards some good RICOHJPNR01 media. But that’s just me… :wink:

#3

Hey Codeking,

Thanks for the post and for all the help you have given us in the Lite-on forum. That (and Omnipatcher :^) are two of the main reasons I want to stick with Lite-on. The community support for lite-on problems and firmware is unparalled.

Cheers,
Tom

#4

When I found it time to replace my 411S, for much the same reasons as you, I had the same dilemma NEC or give LiteOn another go, I’m sorry to say that I gave LiteOn another go.

I purchased an 812S which is the same hardware as 832S and yes it is a lot better burner than the old 411S but that wouldn’t be hard (my 411S worked really well for 8 months using mid of the range media and several firmware upgrades) but I’m not overly impressed with the quality of the 812S burns.

I was going to buy the NEC but the 812S was on special and a bargain or so I thought at the time, if I had that moment over again I would purchase the NEC. My next drive will be an NEC unless LiteOn make a miracle discovery and all of a sudden start making super reliable drives that you don’t have to hack to try to get it to burn correctly.

Now this is only my opinion and I’m sure there are plenty out there that will disagree and I’m also sure there are quite a few that will agree (hey debro). :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m looking forward to the new NEC 3500, sounds to good to be true.

#5

No offence, but I think you would be disappointed with the stock firmware for the NEC as well. If it wasn’t for Herrie’s efforts, the NEC would rank fairly low on my list of drives…

#6

I’d partially agree to that.

While the NEC drive has great write quality with the stock firmware, the media support is fairly lacking. Thanks to Herrie’s efforts, the NEC ND-2xxx drives are worlds better than they were when shipped by NEC. Great write quality and faster burns and more media supported.

That said, I’m a happy ND-2500A owner. And I also own a Sony DW-U18A (OEM Lite-On SOHW-812S) which, thanks to the “code” dudes and their OmniPatcher, is currently sporting the Lite-On SOHW-832S firmware.

I use the NEC for the majority of my writing, but like having the Sony drive as a backup (or if I need to get a burn done real quick). And having a Lite-On drive certainly is nice for the Kprobe/CDSpeed Disc Scan Quality testing.

#7

Hi,

Just to share my experience with my recent liteon832 purchase, I feel that if you are going to get liteon drives, stick with inexpensive +r Media, I can assure you that it gives an extremely low PI/PIF error ratings… The media that I’m using is a Ritek Excellent! 4x +R media, I’ll try to post the kprobe results soon, for most of the burns @4x, the PO error has not exceeded more then 9 for me (Scanned a total of 5 discs) and the average PIF is only 0.68 ~ 0.8.

Oh I forgot to mention that the +r disc I bought cost $1.20 AUD each and if you are using other drives/patched firmware, It can be easily burned at 8x (I’ve not tested it yet as I’m using the V0A firmware which does not allow 8x burning for 4x media)

#8

Yes the Ritek Excellent media is returning excellent results and is well priced. But this does not mean that Liteon writers will work with all inexpensive media, in fact the reverse. The Ritek Excellent media is the Liteon’s favourite RICOHJPNR01…

#9

I once had a LiteOn LDW-811s and a Sohw-812s and had similar problems with it. After that, I bought a NEC ND-2500a which is a fine drive so far :smiley: . But I agree:

Without Herrie’s excellent support, I would not be satisfied with this drive.

If I could turn back time, I would buy a Pioneer DVD writer. Pioneer updates the firmware quite frequently and the quality is great. The unofficial community at www.rpc1.org is also very good - Nil hacks the firmware and unlocks all writing speeds. Only disadvantage: Bitsetting is not supported for single layer DVD+Rs / DVD+RWs :Z .

#10

I’m in the same boat, I’m fed up with my 411s/811s, it just burns way to many coasters and I just picked up a spindle of ritek dvd-r and it’s hasn’t burnt a single good disc yet. Totally fed up and from what I see the newer liteon drives aren’t much better. So now gotta decide whether to go for a pioneer 108 or the new nec3500a. Liteon just haven’t got their shit together in the dvd game and approach the awesome write quality they had with their cd burners.

#11

Provided that +R discs are acceptable to you, my vote would be to seriously consider the BenQ 822 (see the BenQ forum in here for more details). It uses the Philips chipset, it’s cheap, has walking OPC for continuous optimal burn control, and it burns most 4X +R discs at 8X BETTER than a LiteOn 451 at 4X. The BenQ 822 starts burning at 6X and switches to 8X at about 11% so it quickly burns most of the disc at 8X. And unlike the liteon, there are no spikes at the speed switching point.

I recently purchased a LiteOn 812 for a friend and was SHOCKED at how BAD the write quality was. My 451@832 was FAR SUPERIOR in terms of burn quality (thanks to the codeGuys), so if you think that the newer liteons are better - think again! We ended up replacing my friend’s Liteon 812 with the BenQ 822.

That said, the BenQ definitely has some issues with -R discs. Movies that I dumped on -R media would NOT play on my Philips 642 player, even though KProbe gave gave them top marks for burn quality. Since they played back fine in the computer, I have to believe that the BenQ produces some kind of -R formatting error that the Philips player is intollerant of. The same -R discs recorded on the LiteOn 451 played perfectly on the Philips 642 player.

#12

I agree with you Code, not all inexpensive media work well with the liteon, my mistake there, I really meant the Ritek Exellent media is rather well priced and of a good quality to use.

It sucks on those G04 -R :sad: some can’t even be burned at 4x

#13

hi i now have a 811S and a 832S and a nec 2510 + more

but for the 811S (its now green by the way :slight_smile: ) still works ok but i have no +dvd`s so left it off for now
the 832S not used it or flashed it in eny way yet

now for the NEC put Herrie’s patched 2.16 firmware and its been ok so far :slight_smile:

next drive will be a new Pioneer

by the way 40/100 for a dvd drive is way good when i got my first dvdrw it was over 500

as ever sc00terx

#14

I posted somewhere showing how Lite-On changed bundle media in their DVD writers. RICOHJPNR01 was the very first.

The best thing about Lite-On is, I have always thought, this forum. It used to be the lower cost at the time of Lite-On 8x CD writers that were much cheaper than 8x CD writers from Matsushita, Teac, Plextor, LG, and many othres.

#15

Well I’ve done it, I decided to buy a pioneer 108, It was a toss up between that and the new nec, from early reports the pioneer appears a little better in write quality which is what I’m mainly concerned with, plus we all know nec support isn’t the best so going pioneer I’m confident pioneer will look after me in the future with official firmware updates for new media, plus the pioneer is readily available in australia. Ordered it from auspcmarket for $198A. Look forward to recieving and finally retiring my liteon.

#16

Lets us know how you go with your new burner. :iagree:

#17

Really? I only saw one review and the Pioneer DVR-108 (an OEM product, forgot whose name was actually on the package) had pretty crappy write quality. Not to mention that the 16x burning was for like the last 200 MB only which made it slower than other 12x writers.

#18

Well from what I’ve seen, ie feedback from other users on forums, the pioneer looks stellar.

http://forums.speedlabs.org/index.php/topic,640.0

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=28550&sid=8dc8590080e7b0cca8fe5f898227ecf5

As for the whole 16xCAV, well it’s been found out that write quality with CAV isn’t as good as CLV, after having coaster nightmares with my liteon I’m only after quality burns, if it means having burns 30s-1min slower so be it. Plus the 108 is available here and now and they have a history of good support so I feel I’ve made a good choice. Plus I’m sure when proper 16x media is available the shifting of the zones will occur earlier with later firmwares, which means quicker burn times without any loss in burn quality. I will post impressions and results when I get the unit.

#19

I would take Pioneer 108.
I saw tests @ 8X on Taiyo Yuden and it was perfect. I am sure that with good quality 16X certified media the @16X write will be OK too.
And 4X DVD+R9 writing is quite useful (30 min. burning time)