Anyone Interested In A NEC 6500A & 8790S Review

I ordered one of these things Sunday and it should be in my hands this afternoon - FEDEX ground shipping from NewEgg.

If there is interest, I will spend the time to write a review, if there is not, I'll use the time for other purposes.

Feal free to provide topics/items that you would like included in the review and I will try my best to address them.

Moderator: Please reposition this post wherever you think is most appropiate as I am at a loss for the "best" place. Just let me know where it was moved so I can find it. Thanks.

I just received the drive. I will have to wait afew minutes for it to warm up to room temperature. It is currently "frozen".

General Observations

The drive was a "snap" to install. Fits like a glove.

The "drawer" appears to be less rigid that that of the Toshiba (4x+- Drive - 6372 I think) that I am replacing. The drive makes less noise and "rumbles" much less than the Toshiba. It does; however, "whine" a bit as it switches speed and such. The drive runs much cooler than the Toshiba, IMHO.

The drive DOES NOT appear to like the RITEK/RIDATA DVD media. Both the 8x + and - media are capped to 4x. I need to do some more testing as it also appears as if the 8x DVD+ may be actually be capped at 2.4x. Having said that, the other media that I have had an oppurtunity to use appears to work well at 4x. The very cheap Sonic media (MUST001 ID) 1x-4x media that costs $23 per hundred which usually skips a bit when played burned perfectly and played with very one skip so far (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly copied using DVD Shrink to ISO and NERO to burn and verify the ISO to DVD). I will need to burn a few more copies (and play them) to insure that this initial observation is not a fluke.

I have ordered some Verbatim media, including some DL DVD+R to see if the drive will be able to write to these without problems (Expensive, but I have a real need for 1 8.5 GB Disk). I also need to test my external Pioneer-108 for the DL usability. Verbatim is expensive!!! I wanted to order some DVD-R's; however, I misordered and got more DVD+R's that I intended (Oh well).

My old Toshiba attained the rated 4x recording speed infrequently and when it did, some of the finished product was not of good quality. Most of the time the burn speed was either 1x or 2x even though the burn program indicated that the speed was 4x.

Well now - off to do some more testing. Will keep you posted.

I don't have that drive, so it will be hard to provide a comparison. The drive that I am replacing is the Toshiba R-6372 (I think) -- memory is the first thing to go. So far, I'm not really impressed as it doesn't like RITEK/RIDATA media and I'm one of their "fanboys".

Today it's a warm 24F. Real "heat spell" considering the last week or so. I'll put it though the paces for the media that I have and let you all know.

If "Down Under" descibes Austrialia, does "Over Above" describe Omaha? Always wondered about that.

Fried,

I think that you are: "Over Down Under, and To The Side of Up".

Nothing really wrong with the Toshiba other than it really doesn't have the speed that I wanted. Looks like the NEC may not either; however, the jury's still out on that. As you might know or not know, I cut a lot of DVD's. It's just too bad that I don't make it a side business. Now, it's mostly for family and friends and the cost for them is just the media (I'm free as far as they are concerned). Anyway, more of a hobby for me and keeps my mind off of my "real job".

I did look at the Pioneer A14 (I think that was the model); however, it did not impress me and appeared to be a lessor value.

-20C, Now that's cold enough to "freeze a fart".

Update: The Firmware is version 2.22

I just tried an Imation and it did burn at 8x -- eventually. Started at 8x, then gradually went to 2x, then to 4x, then to 6x and finally to 8x.

I used Roxio Version 6.0 Platinum for the ISO burn to DVD.

DVDInfo-Pro shows the media ID as: MCC 02RG20

This was the DVD Dash R media.

just tried an Imation and it did burn at 8x. Started at 8x, then gradually went to 2x, then to 4x, then to 6x and finally to 8x.

I used Roxio Version 6.0 Platinum for the ISO burn to DVD. It shows the requested and actual write speeds.

DVDInfo-Pro shows the media ID as: RICHOHJPNRR02

This was the DVD Plus R media. End result is that it burned a bit faster than the Dash R media.

Actually this is a normal behavior. It's really not a true 8x.

Memorex DVD Dash R will not be tested. It will only work at 4x. Mdia ID is RITEKG05. To bad that I spent $8.00 for 5 DVD's that could have been bought for less than $2.50.

Memorex DVD Plus R will not be tested. It will only work at 6x. Media ID is CMC MAGE01. Memorex, may not be worth purchasing - especially for this drive.

I'll try to get some different media on Friday - time permitting and continue the test then.

For the Pioneer 108 - here are the results:
Writes at 6x from 1 - 10% of the disc
Writes at 8x from 11 - 44% of the disc
Writes at 9.9/10.2x from 45% - 95% of the disc
Writes at 8x from 96% - end of disc
There is a very noticable pause before it goes to the 10x and when it downclocks to 8x speeds. The device down cycles all the way to 0x and then rapidly goes to the new speed.

Burn finished in 7 Minutes and 44 Seconds.

OK, I did test it. I wanted to see how long it took. 13:08 for the 6x. I missed the "swap point" from 2x to 6x. It swapped to 6x at 53% and varied in speed between 6.9 and 6.3x.

TDK 8x DVD-R writes at 6x. Media ID is TTG02.

I also updated the firmware to version 2.23. Upgrade did not change any of the previous results.

Also the 6500A is a bit slow for mounting the discs.

Just for Grins and Giggles, I thought that I'd record the same thing on my External Pioneer 108 (16x rated burner) connected via IEEE1394. Much faster:

Writes at 6x from 1 - 10% of the disc
Writes at 8x from 11 - 47% of the disc
Writes at 10.2/10.4x from 48% - end of disc
There is a very noticable pause before it goes to the 10x speed. The device down cycles all the way to 0x and then rapidly goes to the 10x speed.

Burn finished in 7 Minutes and 16 Seconds.

This TDK is a keeper for the exteral burner - IMHO.

Now, let's see what the Sony's do.

Sony 8x DVD+R writes at 8x. Media ID is D11.

Writes at 2.5x from 1 - 12% of the disc
Writes at 4.1x from 13 - 43% of the disc
Writes at 6.2x from 44 - 87% of the disc
Writes at 8.3x from 88 - end of the disc.

Copied ISO from the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly that was "shrunk" to 4.36GB (4.68GB) size (almost a full DVD which is 4.38GB).

I uses DVD Decriptor to accomplish the ISO writes.

For the Pioneer 108 - here are the results:
Writes at 6x from 1 - 10% of the disc
Writes at 8x from 11 - 44% of the disc
Writes at 10.0/10.3x from 45% - end of disc
There is a very noticable pause before it goes to the 10x speed. The device down cycles all the way to 0x and then rapidly goes to the 10x speed. This pause is less than half the time that was encountered on the TDK DVD-R.

Burn finished in 7 Minutes and 29 Seconds. The burn was quicker than the TDK; however the finilization process took longer for the DVD+R.

This SONY is a keeper for the exteral burner - IMHO.