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NEC vs. Sony DVD Burner

post #1 of 32
7/12/05 at 8:28pm
Thread Starter 
Hello everyone. I've had my XPS-2 for about a week and I just used the DVD Burner, it's a Sony, for the first time yesterday. I was incredibly surprised that it took 20+ minutes to burn a 4 gig DVD, when it took my 9300 with NEC DVD burner only 10 minutes. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is this something I should be concerned about, as I'm not crazy about burning at 2.3X speed.
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post #2 of 32
7/12/05 at 8:33pm
Silly question but did you use the same media ?
Was the Nec drive burning the media at it's "rated" speed ?
IE: 4x DVD R+ burnt at 4x and not 6x or 8x..
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post #3 of 32
7/12/05 at 8:46pm
Thread Starter 
Actually, you might be on to something. Back when I used my 9300, I used Memorex 8X DVD+R while now I'm using Dynex 8X DVD+R (courtesy of Best Buy's $19.99 sale a few weeks ago).

I never used the Memorex media on the XPS, so I can't tell if it's just a difference in media.
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post #4 of 32
7/12/05 at 9:03pm
You will find lots of threads about this topic.
In a nutshell.
The SONY SUCKS.
Call Dell and tell them you want a NEC ONE
That is what i did.
Mine was defective anyway.
But also you should be aware that both these drives have issues with certain media.
For instance i have 100s of RITEK 8x dvd media and it wont write 8x to them.
So far im sticking to FUJI AND VERBATIM and both of these brands will give you 8x speed which is pretty quick for such a small drive.
As for read speed on dvds it sucks.
4X MAX
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post #5 of 32
7/12/05 at 9:07pm
Try this out
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post #6 of 32
7/12/05 at 9:10pm

Sony DVD = Rebadged LiteOn

This is true, right? The Sony's just a rebadged LiteOn?

If so, you might consider looking on LiteOn's website--they tend to be great at updating the firmware on their burners, often for increased compatability with media. Sometimes for speed too.
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post #7 of 32
7/12/05 at 9:14pm
Thread Starter 
^^^Did you have the same problem?

And the problem could be the media, but I don't have any way of verifying it.
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post #8 of 32
7/12/05 at 9:52pm

new firmware = better media compatibility

The Sony DVD is (taken from http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....eon+dvd+laptop):
----
Sony DW-R56A, Sony DW-D56A
- slimtype laptop drive
- rebadged LiteOn slim-2S drives
- for more information, consult the LiteOn and LiteOn-Sony alliance DVD-writer overview
- you can use LiteOn tools/firmwares/etc. for this drive
----


This is a "OEM Liteon SOSW-852S" -> rebadged D56A

The firmware for this:
Here.
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post #9 of 32
7/12/05 at 9:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SprintSlash
Crap.

I just saw SprintSlash's post--he's linking to Dell's just released (TODAY!) new firmware for the Sony DVD drive. This is more or less what I wrote in my last post--this is Dell's rebadged LiteOn firmware update.
LiteOn almost exclusively updates firmware for better compatibility with media and higher performance.


UPDATE:
Taken from Dell's website--
Quote:
Criticality
Recommended
Dell recommends applying this update during your next scheduled update cycle. The update contains feature enhancements or changes that will help keep your system software current and compatible with other system modules (firmware, BIOS, drivers and software).

Additional Information
No information available.

Important Information
This is a Windows Based Firmware Flash Utility.

Administrative rights may be required on your system for this utility to work

Fixes and Enhancements
This firmware improves the Sony DW-D56A Slim 8X DVD+/-RW drive's media readability capabilities.

The firmware also allows the drive to write to the latest dual layer DVD+R media.
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post #10 of 32
7/13/05 at 3:38pm
bumpity bump
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post #11 of 32
7/13/05 at 6:49pm
Okay, I updated the firmware. I'll try it out, but I never had problems with it before, so I don't know what to look for, really--look for continued no problems?

By the way, the program updated my firmware from PD3 to PD7, or 4 revisions!
Dell must have really dropped the ball on keeping the Sony up to date, until now.
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post #12 of 32
7/13/05 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by thorndt
This is true, right? The Sony's just a rebadged LiteOn?

If so, you might consider looking on LiteOn's website--they tend to be great at updating the firmware on their burners, often for increased compatability with media. Sometimes for speed too.
Yep, I got a Sony and it borke within the first two weeks of having my XPS, I requested to get a NEC and it works great.
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post #13 of 32
7/13/05 at 7:52pm
You could try what I did. First, identify your DVDR media with this program (DVD Identifier):

http://www.cdfreaks.com/software/104

Then, download OmniPatcher at

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=97590

This program allows you to manually edit firmware files of the drive. Load a firmware file and find your dvd media in Omnipatcher, then check the 8x box. Then save the settings as a new .bin file.

Then, you can use this program,

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=83294

to flash the .bin file you created to your drive. I did that and it solved my problems. My drive would only burn at 4x before and now burns at 8x on the media i have.
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post #14 of 32
7/14/05 at 12:59am
I have a sony in both of my xps2s and they work fine. have burned well over 400 dvds now.
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post #15 of 32
7/14/05 at 1:25am
Glad I have the NEC
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post #16 of 32
7/14/05 at 1:38am
As I understand it, BOTH the Sony and NEC have their problems; it's just that the Sony has been (up til now) less compatible with media than the NEC. Now with the new firmware, hopefully the Sony's as good or better than the NEC...

In the desktop world, I've always had very good results with LiteOn's; better than any others I've ever used, except Plextor.
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post #17 of 32
7/14/05 at 9:22pm
Zero problem with Sony here.
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post #18 of 32
7/15/05 at 12:00am
Thread Starter 
I tried the Burner with Fuji DVD+R and it did the operation in 10 minutes. Also, the Sony seems to be a little quieter than the NEC Burner I have in my 9300 (it makes all these Transformer sounds) and is able to read scratched discs better (which happens a lot when renting through Netflix).

Haven't had a chance to try the update though. Appreciate all the assists though.
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post #19 of 32
7/15/05 at 4:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gk128
Glad I have the NEC

Same here
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post #20 of 32
7/26/05 at 3:31am
I have tried both the Sony and NEC in my XPS2. I have flashed both with the latest firmware from Dell. My informal testing/comparison of burning times of two different 8X DVD-R media brands (Fujifilm and TDK) is inconclusive. Sony seems to favor TDK (max at 6.35X) than Fujifilm (max at 4.35X). The NEC favors the Fujifilm than the TDK by almost the same margin.
However, my read tests (ripping DVDs using DVDShrink) using 4 different DVD movies favors the Sony (up to 50% faster.)
The NEC appears to be more silent than the Sony. But the Sony isn't really that much louder.
Both are smooth at their top speeds. Both do not cause the laptop to vibrate/buzz.
The NEC appears to be more sensitive to scratches as it's unable to read some of my scratched DVDs.
The layer change caused my DVDShrink to crash when ripping Lord of the Rings using the NEC. The Sony experienced no such problems.
My XPS originally came with the Sony. I have asked Dell Tech Support to send me the NEC because my Sony initially couldn't read my Win XP MCE 2005 OS reinstallation DVD but eventually fixed it by flashing the firmware.
At this point, I'm still undecided which one to keep. Based on my personal experience, I'm more inclined to keep the Sony and send the NEC back because of the faster Sony read speeds and higher reliability when reading scratched DVDs. However, there appears to be more happy NEC owners than Sony owners in this forum.
I still have a few more days to keep both for more testing. I'll try some other brands of media and also +R/RW DL and update this post.
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