NEC 3520a & Aopen 1648/aap Pro – Question

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers NEC / Optiarc Writer
#1

Specs: NEC 3520a – F/W Beta 3
Aopen 1648/aap Pro – F/W 1.01

Notes: bought Aopen for a source drive so I did not need to be at the computer to change out discs for the NEC.

Question: When copying, which drives should I use as the source drive? For A) commercial DVDs and B) self made DVD+Rs.

Problem: NEC recognizes DVD+R as auto set DVD-ROMS (thanks to firmware gods) So NEC reads these fast. However, the Aopen does not read the same disc as fast.

So my guess is for A) use aopen as source, as why I got it. But for B) use Aopen? Is it a trade off of being slower and not being at the computer to trade out discs?

So I guess the real question is: Why is the Aopen not reading my DVD+Rs (DVD-ROMs) as fast as the NEC? Or I think the Aopen might not be detecting the DVD+Rs as a DVD-ROM?

Any thoughts on the matter?

#2

The reason the NEC with modified firmware reads them so quickly is riplock has been removed from the firmware.

#3

That might not be quite right. I was curious about this so I did some testing on my 3500 and my Aopen. I found that the Aopen would rip either a -R or a + R at the same speed. It started at 4X, topped out at 10.8X and took about 7 minutes. These discs were full. I then checked the rip with my NEC and found it started at 7.7X and topped out at 16.6X with a time of 5 minutes. To check against another burner, I tried my Liteon and found it was about the same as the AOpen. My NEC has factory firmware so apparently they only riplock pressed discs. My Aopen is the non-pro model. also with factory firmware. The +R disc is not bitset.

It may be different for the 3520, but I think you have uncovered something most of us here were unaware of. I, as did most people, bought the AOpen for its DL ripping where it beats anything, hacked firmware or otherwise. I was aware of its slightly slower burned disc reading but this was never any slower than any other drive I had seen, up until now. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. The occasional ± rip I do will now be in the NEC.