LiteOn 811s vs NEC 2500a

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers
#1

I bought two of them, trying to test out. After several tries I couldn’t decide which one to keep.
The NEC 2500a is supposed to be better, with 8x on both + and -, but the read of DVD-Video is locked. Ripping is slow. Even with the firmware unlocked.

The nec 2500a write TDK 4X DVD+R (Ricon disk) at 6x, the LiteOn write at 8x. They both write memorex DVD-R at 4x(CMG).

One day, my PC, DELL 4600 suddenly lost NEC drive, it was on, and the drive (e:) disappeared, and I have to restart the PC.

The NEC reading has much more problems than LiteOn, I am using DVD Shrink 3.1, the NEC can’t finish reading 3 of the DVDs, with LiteOn, no problem.

How to compare the write quality? The review on the net says NEC 2500a has bettern DVD write quality, how?

I want to keep the LiteOn, however, my settop dvd player can’t read DVD+R, with the 8x DVD-R, the NEC 2500a is supposed better. which one? any help?

#2

On an average, the writing quality of the 2500a is (way) better than the wiriting quality of the 811s. The LiteOn is indeed a better reader (quite a good one actually), faster with ripping and it can do KProbe scans.

Personally, I’d rather have the NEC, as the writing quality is the most important to me.

For a good overview on the quality of these two drives, I’d advice to read our marvelous reviews on both babies here and here.

I moved this thread to the burning hardware forum btw, as I think it belongs there :wink:

#3

Sorry about the cross-post, I am not sure which forum to post.

I don’t have a DVD-ROM, NEC is more picky and slower on the read. In terms of write quality, how much difference?

Maybe I will stick with the NEC.

#4

Originally posted by everest
[B]Sorry about the cross-post, I am not sure which forum to post.

I don’t have a DVD-ROM, NEC is more picky and slower on the read. In terms of write quality, how much difference?

Maybe I will stick with the NEC. [/B]

Don’t be mistaken by the fact that the NEC burns much better than the LiteOn. Don’t get me wrong, the NEC is better but that doesn’t mean that the LiteOn is a bad burner by any means. It generally gets good burn results and I seriously doubt that you’ll ever run into serious trouble with the burn quality of that drive (provided you use at least decent quality media).

With you not having a DVD-ROM drive, I could very well imagine you preferring the LiteOn over the NEC (even though I personally am quite satisfied with the NEC without having a DVD-ROM drive).

Good luck choosing! :bigsmile:

  • EDIT - For write quality difference, check the reviews.
#5

The trick is to buy them both. :slight_smile: Use your Lite-On to kprobe and burn your disks using 2500. I think couple people are doing that here.

#6

Originally posted by simplelife
The trick is to buy them both. :slight_smile: Use your Lite-On to kprobe and burn your disks using 2500. I think couple people are doing that here.

If you have the money to burn, you could consider it. It’s also the main reason why I’m still trying to get my dead 811S back from the eternal DVD-burner hunting fields…:sad: :iagree:

#7

Originally posted by simplelife
The trick is to buy them both. :slight_smile: Use your Lite-On to kprobe and burn your disks using 2500. I think couple people are doing that here.

Yep! Thats what I do now.

#8

Hi all,

Let me ask you some questions:
(the LiteOn write at 8x with Ricoh ), Is that true??
Can LiteOn burn at 8x with Ritek or Arita (Ricoh)??

Ok, When i burn at 8x, what about the quality? Is it good?

Because i have choose, NEC 2500 or LiteON 811s

Thank You

#9

Ive read reviews and the NEC 2500A got awards in 3 reviews ive read, the 811s got a 3 awards as well. I like the features of the liteon, overburning to 99 min, game backups of safedisc, great dvdripping, great audio ripping. although the writing quality kind of sucks, but the 2500A has excellent writing quality and but bad reading, and overburning to 90 min, bad game backups, audio ripping to some extent. Both are really cheap, but the NEC 2500A is on sale for $81 free s/h on newegg, cheaper than the liteon and it supports more media and it records DVD-R media at 8x and DVD-RW at 4x. The liteon doesnt support as much media as the NEC. I am going to be doing lots of DVD copying of movies using dvd x copy platinum, as well as games and audio, but im thinkin of usin my Sony CRX22E1 for the games and audio, So what do you think which drive? NEC or the Liteon, and dont say the damn 812S i read that it sucks. I need a reply FAST, sale ends Beginning of monday

#10

Why does the 812S suck? I have not seen all that much info on that drive, so please let me know :slight_smile:

#11

id really like to know which of the two i announced, the 812, ive read many customer reviews that the wirting quality is worse than the ldw-811s, and that it has problems with certain media, and it doesnt really support the cheap kind, ive also read a russian review that its not as good, and i read a review on envy news that gave it a 95/100, but thats because envy doesnt do thorough testing like cdrlabs, cdrfreaks, and cdrinfo do. they just do some quick tests and done. but from what i have read it sux, maybe its a good drive and the firmware just sux who knows, we will know in time. But also ive read that the bitsetting doesnt work for the 812s, but it does work for the 811s.

#12

@riiaku

812S not worse than the 811S. The only review that I’ve seen that says this is the Japanese review, and I don’t think that they did a good job. In the LiteOn forum, it seems that there are far fewer 812S problems than 811S problems (could be because there are fewer 812S people, but OC-Freak has said that the 812S is better than the 811S–he’s in the process of writing a 812S review right now).

Bitsetting doesn’t work, but we expect to see it in a new firmware soon. A number of people who have really wanted bitsetting have settled for temporarily flashing their 812S to a 851S (and getting pretty good results, too).

As for media support, the 812S supports more media than the 2500A. NEC has been very negligent in adding support for newer media. However, the NEC does have significantly better burn quality with cheap media, and it’s comparable to the LiteOn drives when it comes to decent media. Personally, I like the LiteOn drives a lot (if you can’t tell :)), because I like the side-features, I like how it looks (no, really, I think the LiteOn bezel is cuter), and I never plan on using cheap Princo media (the media that I use, the Ricoh 4x +R, seems to burn better at 8x on the LiteOn drives than on the NEC).

#13

Do you have an NEC2500A? Do you also have the 812s?

if you do tell me how it works, if u dont how can u say that ur ricoh burns better on either. Another thing, the NEC2500A supports “FAR” more media than the 812s, and it burns with top quality on all almost all media, cheap and good, I can back this up with lots of evidence.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDname=NEC+2500A&cdrs=&cdrws=&dvdrs=&dvdrws=&dvdprs=&dvdprws=&dvdrams=&pceide=1&buffer=Any&list=0&orderby=Name&Search=Search

now here is the current list of support that i have found for the ldw812s maybe there is more who knows.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDnameid=230&Search=Search&list=#comments

compare the list, and read the official reviews from cdrinfo and cdfreaks, ive asked all around on dvdrhelp and cdfreaks and every forum i ask for the difference between the 812s and the NEC 2500A they all say NEC, because of write quality is the best, no brainer, but it dont read good. The the 812s is a better reader and has more features but ok writing quality. and supports a lot less media. monday to make my choice so i think im leanin towards the NEC but if someon can support with good reasons and EVIDENCE that the 811s or the 812s is substantially good then ill consider it I like liton for its features of overburning and makin game backups and audio rippin and such but wirtin quality is also important.

#14

I have a 811 and the NEC. The NEC blows my 811 out of the water write quality wise. The only things the 811 does better is read disks and do Kprobe test plus it’s a great quality cd burner.
The LiteOn drive have quality control problems and you might get a excellent one or you’ll probably get a OK one. I don’t have a 812
but it might be a bit better then the lowly 811 I own. If I was only getting one I’d get the NEC, if two, then maybe the 812 to test with and cover the few medias the NEC doesn’t like.
I use a LiteOn 166 to read with so reading for either drive is kinda pointless except for probe tests.

#15

Originally posted by riiaku
[B]Do you have an NEC2500A? Do you also have the 812s?

if you do tell me how it works, if u dont how can u say that ur ricoh burns better on either. Another thing, the NEC2500A supports “FAR” more media than the 812s, and it burns with top quality on all almost all media, cheap and good, I can back this up with lots of evidence.

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDname=NEC+2500A&cdrs=&cdrws=&dvdrs=&dvdrws=&dvdprs=&dvdprws=&dvdrams=&pceide=1&buffer=Any&list=0&orderby=Name&Search=Search

now here is the current list of support that i have found for the ldw812s maybe there is more who knows.
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdwriters.php?DVDnameid=230&Search=Search&list=#comments

compare the list, and read the official reviews from cdrinfo and cdfreaks, ive asked all around on dvdrhelp and cdfreaks and every forum i ask for the difference between the 812s and the NEC 2500A they all say NEC, because of write quality is the best, no brainer, but it dont read good. The the 812s is a better reader and has more features but ok writing quality. and supports a lot less media. monday to make my choice so i think im leanin towards the NEC but if someon can support with good reasons and EVIDENCE that the 811s or the 812s is substantially good then ill consider it I like liton for its features of overburning and makin game backups and audio rippin and such but wirtin quality is also important. [/B]

Support should be interpreted carefully. :slight_smile: As I said, the NEC has better write quality for poor media (that the LiteOn would otherwise gag at), which I’ve never disputed. But as for media support, I still stand by my statement that the 812S supports more. A lot of the new media types (such as the 8x -R under the Memorex brand, with the CMC code) are simply unsupported by the NEC. The NEC does not recognize the media code, it does not allow it to be burned at the full 8x, and it uses a generic write strategy. Whereas the 812S will recognize it, will allow you to use the full 8x, and it will use a non-generic write strategy that was picked specifically for the media. This is all I mean by support. In NEC’s case, it still writes to the media with great quality at 4x using a generic strategy. But this is not “support.” It’s just NEC being a better writer and getting lucky w/ the generic strat on the media. :slight_smile:

#16

You all make it so hard to choose :stuck_out_tongue:

I may end up getting both the 812S and 2500A, bah

#17

In this case, I would get the NEC 2500A. I think write quality should be your biggest concern while choosing a dvd burner. Everything else is second to that.

#18

then why does my friend matts NEC 2500A write the Ritek 4x and 8x and his memorex 4x at 6x, my friend brian gave him a 4x prodisc and it wrote at 8x, not to sound rude but maybe you should get evidence, b4 you make quick judgements. Ive also read on here and other websites with ppl that have the NEC and they say they have 4x media and it writes at 8x, some of them write at 6x, but thats still really good, and the writing quality is way better. The point of a DVD burner is to burn DVDs not read and copy cds, thats a perk. if u want a good reader and cdrw get one, but we are copying DVDs and writin quality is top priority, and it dont matter the writin strategy of the liteon, the fact of the matter is the NEC burns better and it writes high quality and low quality DVDs and i have not found anywhere on the net where there is a list that shows that the 812s supports more media, i did find a list of media for the NEC, and it seems to be far more than the 812s. Plus I gave my friend matt a 8x ritek DVD+R and it wrote just fine. I like liteon, i have a lite on cdwriter and a sony cdwriter and the liteon kicks ass, but in therms of dvd quality it seems to be the NEC wins. but for readin and features no.

#19

Originally posted by riiaku
then why does my friend matts NEC 2500A write the Ritek 4x and 8x and his memorex 4x at 6x, my friend brian gave him a 4x prodisc and it wrote at 8x, not to sound rude but maybe you should get evidence, b4 you make quick judgements. Ive also read on here and other websites with ppl that have the NEC and they say they have 4x media and it writes at 8x, some of them write at 6x, but thats still really good, and the writing quality is way better. The point of a DVD burner is to burn DVDs not read and copy cds, thats a perk. if u want a good reader and cdrw get one, but we are copying DVDs and writin quality is top priority, and it dont matter the writin strategy of the liteon, the fact of the matter is the NEC burns better and it writes high quality and low quality DVDs and i have not found anywhere on the net where there is a list that shows that the 812s supports more media, i did find a list of media for the NEC, and it seems to be far more than the 812s. Plus I gave my friend matt a 8x ritek DVD+R and it wrote just fine. I like liteon, i have a lite on cdwriter and a sony cdwriter and the liteon kicks ass, but in therms of dvd quality it seems to be the NEC wins. but for readin and features no.

Allow me to clarify, because I think you’re misunderstanding me.

  1. I have already admitted that the NEC has better write quality.
  2. I am nitpicking on how NEC has been very bad about releasing new firmwares that support new media that did not exist when the 2500A first came out. The Prodisc and Ritek discs that you mentioned have existed for a looong time and are supported. The new Memorex 8x-certified -R disc (CMCAE1), for example, is not. If you don’t believe me, shell out some money and buy that piece of overpriced Memorex media and see how fast your friend’s NEC can burn it. :slight_smile: One benefit of LiteOn drives is that they actually bother to put out new firmwares to support more and newer media. Whether or not those firmware updates resolve its write quality bugs is a different issue. Anyway, bottom line is, give your friend’s NEC exotic and new media, and it won’t support them as well. Give your friend’s NEC mainstream media that’s been around for a while, and it will support it just fine.
  3. However, NEC’s media support problems are mitigated by Herrie, who has done a great job patching the NEC firmware and supporting the NEC community by doing to the NEC firmware (adding bitsetting, adding more media support, etc.) what the NEC engineers are neglecting to do. So between the fact that most mainstream media is supported anyway and that Herrie is adding support for media that the NEC doesn’t support, I will say that my point is pretty much moot.
  4. The NEC does not officially overspeed like the way you just described. If your friend’s NEC does overspeed burns like that, he’s using hacked firmware, such as those by Herrie.
  5. LiteOn drives can overspeed just as well, if hacked. Have you seen my Ricoh 2.4x discs burned at 8x? Let’s see how the NEC handles that one. :wink:
  6. And if burning quality is indeed your top priority, then I wholeheartedly agree: go with the NEC. But one must note that LiteOn drives are also great drives. Their burn quality problems are with cheap media. If you feed the LiteOn decent or good media, it will burn them almost as well as the NEC does. So if someone doesn’t plan on using cheap media and if that someone also wants a more well-rounded drive, then the LiteOn, I think, is not at all a bad choice. I think that the LiteOn drives are being treated a bit unfairly, because deciding between NEC and LiteOn, I think, is really a matter of how you frame the question and what matters to each person. If a person’s #1 goal is to have the best writing quality, then yes, it’s the NEC (on that note, as I’ve said, when using general mainstream media–i.e., not Princos or other really bad media that you generally buy from shady places online–the write quality difference between the NEC and LiteOn is usually pretty darn small). If, however, the person wants a more well-rounded drive, then the LiteOn is it. And because of the many NEC opinions, I thought that it would only be fair to point out that it’s not as clear-cut, and it all depends on what someone thinks is most important.

*edit: thanks to rdgrimes, I have now seen the 2500A burn a 2.4x Ricoh disc at 8x using Herrie’s FW… :stuck_out_tongue: and that’s one sweet burn…

#20

ive read offficial reviews that this drive can burn 4x media at 8x and 6x read the reviews on www.cdrinfo.com and cdfreaks. and trustedreviews. Ive also read on german review sites that they have burned using the official 1.06 firmware and it burns 4x media at 6x and 8x. if you also read the reviews from newegg and on forums ppl also say the samething WITH The OFFICIAL FIRMWARE. ur liteon drive may copy at 8x 2.4x media but the write quality aint as good, also ive read on a german site that it has burned 2.4x media at 6x and 4x, not 8x but who cares, 6x is still pretty good, and the fact that IT CAN BURN WITH OFFICIAL FIRMWARE AT 8x and 6X is actually quite amazing without sacrificing quality, thats suffice enough to say its better than the liteonl. and the fact that it supports more media. and the margin is actually not small ive read the error comparisons, its pretty big, its just a hell of a lot more convenient if u have a drive that can copy all kinds of DVDR, DVDRW media and not have problems. on top of that its cheaper. The liteon has its strong points, but from what ive read in forums and reviews, it has A LOT of problems compared to that of the NEC, what really pisses me off is that both drives have a lot of the great and bad qualities, The liton is good for reading and features, the NEC is the best at writing, I just wish theyd make a drive that had both strong reading and strong writing, i like liteon dont get me wrong, but its just ive read to many bad things, i was hoping that with their new f/w updates theyd have fixed it and i could buy it, but no go so far. For the classification of “DVD BURNING” the nec wins, convenience, writin quality and support of media, and overspeed. but with reading and featuers no, the liteon wins. I just want a drive thats a mixture of the liteon and the nec thats cheap, but those dont exist. the NUtech DDW081 showed promise, and i bought one, but OMG it has soo many problems, ill tell u that later if ur interested, what the techie told me will blow ur mind.