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Review: NEC ND-7551A |
NEC Germany, was kind enough to send us one of their latest slimline DVD-writer the NEC ND-7551A. This drive supports 8x DVD+R/-R, 5x DVD-RAM, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW writing and 4x DVD+R DL/-R DL writing technology - allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5GB to be written. Additionally this drive also features the LabelFlash™ disc labelling technology.
Company information:
Let us take a look at some of the company information found at the NEC Germany site:
NEC Deutschland GmbH, based in Ismaning near Munich, was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation in 1987.
The product portfolio includes the most modern presentation technology, such as Video, LCD and DLP™ projectors and plasma monitors as well as peripherals such as CD-ROM, DVD drives and floppy disks. Telecommunications products and biometric security solutions round off the product range.
The sales territory covers Central Europe, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as the Benelux countries and Eastern and South East Europe
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1987 |
NEC Deutschland GmbH is founded. NEC offers one of the first 24-pin printers, the legendary P6, which is still used and asked for by many users throughout the world. |
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1988 |
With the LC series, NEC offers the first heavy-duty laser printers for office applications. |
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1989 |
The MultiSync® models 2A, 3D, 4D and 5D are the first monitors with 360° design and digital control technology for easy screen adaptation to individual tasks and user requirements. |
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1991 |
NEC introduces the MultiSync® FG series, offering the first 15" monitor on the market. |
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1992 |
NEC revolutionises the laser printer market with GDI and offers the first GDI laser printer under 1000 marks. GDI is still used in a similar form by many other manufacturers. |
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1993 |
NEC creates a price sensation with the Superscript 3000, a thermosublimation colour printer with photorealistic printing quality. |
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1996 |
NEC develops CromaClear™ technology and sets a new standard for picture quality in 15"- and 17" monitors. The CromaClear™ slot mask combines the advantages of previous hole and aperture grill masks to provide an extremely clear, brilliant and uniformly bright picture. |
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1996 |
NEC, together with Adobe, develops a new generation of laser printers by introducing PrintGear* technology. This page description language, which is similar to Postscript and optimised for office applications, results in previously unheard of printing performance at extremely economical prices. |
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1997 |
NEC is the first manufacturer to mass produce 20" LCD monitors. The LCD 2000 will be offered on the German market in August, again putting NEC well ahead of the competition in innovation. |
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2000 |
On the 1st July this year, the new enterprise NEC-Mitsubishi Electric Visual Systems Corp. (NMV) went operational in Europe and the USA. The joint venture between NEC and Mitsubishi Electric involves the amalgamation of the monitor manufacturing activities and know how of both companies, with the aim of obtaining greater market share through a stronger presence in the market. Since then, NEC Deutschland GmbH focuses exclusively on sales and marketing of hi-res plasmadisplays and projectors, rotating memories and telecommunication products. |
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2001 |
NEC is the first manufacturer to supply the world-wide largest in series 61-inches plasma display with diagonals up to 1.55 meters. |
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Facts & Figures:
NEC Group Structure
NEC Corporation will position its business on "providing integrated solutions (including services) for mission critical systems in open environments" and concentrate further on IT and network integrating solution businesses.
NEC Electronics Corporation which concentrates its management resources on system large-scale integration (LSI) business will strengthen its global competitiveness, expanding its business as a specialist enterprise that empowers its global customers by providing semiconductor solutions for high-end system needs.
Through this new NEC group structure, NEC aims to increase the corporate value of the entire NEC group.
If you are interested in reading more company information, please visit: NEC GERMANY
Drive specifications:
The official listed specification of this drive was found on the NEC Germany website:
What’s inside the box?
On this page we will take a look at the drive and its technology.
Here you can see what was included in the package we received.
- The ND-7551 drive itself
- NEC Writer CD-ROM:
- Documentation for NEC DVD Writer
- Software documentation
- NeroExpress 6.6.1.3 for Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP and 2003 Server
- NeroVision Express 3 & ShowTime 2 for Windows 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP
- 2 FUJIFILM DVD-R 16x Labelflash
Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself:
You can see a sample sticker on top of the drive. A simple and clean design that includes a few logos, a single green coloured LED, an eject button and an emergency eject hole. (We would prefer different LED colours to distinguish between reading and writing operations). The logos located on the left side of the drive tray include a DVD Forum logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+R DL logo, and a CD-RW Ultra Speed logo.
Top
On the top-side of the drive we found one sticker and we can read it was made in China – January 2006.
Back
On the back of the drive we can see a slimline IDE connector which includes all necessary data, audio and power signals.
In order to install the drive in our laptop, we had to use an adapter that was mounted with the previously equipped drive:
We installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero InfoTool:
Our drive came shipped with firmware 1-02 and from the screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt.Rainier and a larger buffer size.
Another shot from Nero Burning ROM:
But let us continue this review and see how it really performs.
On the next page we will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features…………
Test machine:
For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:
- Hardware:
- Laptop: IBM ThinkPad R40
- Processor: Intel Pentium M 1400 MHz
- RAM: 512 MB RAM
- GFX: ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
- Sound: SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
- Hard disk: IBM IC25N040ATMR04-0
- System set-up:
The NEC ND-7551A was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as _NEC DVD_RW ND-7551A. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.
Software:
Windows XP Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:
- Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.1.4
- Nero CD/DVD Speed V4.11
- Nero Info Tool v3.07
- Slysoft CloneCD v5.2.6.1
- Exact Audio Copy v0.95 beta 3
- K-Probe v2.5.2
Features and techniques:
ACTIVE OPC 
NEC uses Active OPC Technology with its optical hardware. Active OPC constantly monitors the sensitivity of the media and adjusts the laser strength to achieve the best possible results. It does this by analyzing the reflection from the media's surface.
Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the NEC ND-7551A:
CD-Recordable:
The NEC ND-7551A uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 11.45x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 9 seconds.
CD-Rewritable:
The NEC ND-7551A uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) writing technology to write at 20X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 16.06x and the total time 6 minutes and 18 seconds.
8X DVD+R/-R Writing speed:
The NEC ND-7551A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 8x. This gives an average write speed of 5.95x and a writing time of 11 minutes 11 seconds.
The NEC ND-7551A uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average write speed of 5.21x and a writing time of 14 minutes and 8 seconds.
4X DVD+R DL writing speed:
The NEC ND-7551A supports 4x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.
The NEC ND-7551A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at 4x. Two zones are used to write DVD+R Double Layer discs at 4x on the first layer. The second layer was only written at 2.4x. The average speed is 3.16x and total writing time is 37:11 minutes.
4X DVD-R DL writing speed:
The NEC ND-7551A supports 4x writing speed on DVD-R DL media.
The NEC ND-7551A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL at 4x. Two zones are used to write DVD-R Double Layer discs at 4x. The average speed is 3.81x and total writing time is 31:18 minutes.
8X DVD+RW writing speed:
The NEC ND-7551A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 5.21x and total writing time is 12:35 minutes. Interesting is the quite uncommon starting speed of 3.4x
6X DVD-RW writing speed:
The NEC ND-7551A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.07x and total writing time is 14:03 minutes.
BookType (Bitsetting):
The NEC ND-7551A supports Bitsetting, and will as default write DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM BookType.
Here is how you can check if your discs are really written with the DVD-ROM BookType:
Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info tab and you should get something like this:
DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM.
Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:
This should say DVD-ROM.
Quality Scans:
The NEC ND-7551A can be used to measure/scan burned discs for their quality via Nero CD-DVD Speed. This can be handy to check and get an impression of which state/condition the burned discs are in. (Quality scans performed on the NEC ND-7551A drive can NOT be compared to scans done with other DVD writers).
Included software:
Now it’s time to look at the included software and to comment if needed. Notice that we may not use the included software in our performance testing part of the review.
The Welcome screen
Installation screen
Nero Express v6.6 OEM:
Very good software package - suitable for beginners as well as for experienced users.
Now that we have finished examining the drive and its writing strategies, it’s time to head on to next page, which is reading performance test…
For these tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:
DVD-ROM : 8x
CD-ROM : 24x
Pressed discs:
For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc that is close to 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:
The NEC ND-7551A reached 25.14x.
CD-Recordable Discs:
The disc we used was a Verbatim 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.
CD-Rewritable discs:
This time we used a Traxdata 8X-24X CD-RW disc.
Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:
We used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it’s about 76 minutes long (76:01:52).
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And as a last test we used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio to our hard drive. According to EAC the NEC drive does not support Caching, which is considered as a plus - while ripping audio. |
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Below is the results produced by EAC:
Burst mode
Secure mode
The drive performed well in burst and slower in secure mode.
Advanced audio – DAE quality test:
Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the “Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature in CD-Speed.
The extracting quality is excellent and it should support everything, except reading the Leadin / Leadout. However the drive was not able to copy on the fly at 12x or 16x.
DVD reading performance:
Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 8X.
DVD – DVD-Video:
For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.
DVD-Video Single Layer
DVD-Video Double Layer
Although CD-Speed says DVD-ROM for the single layer disc, it actually is a pressed video DVD. As we can see the drive reached 5x on DVD-Video Single and Double layer.
DVD – DVD+R/RW:
For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a Traxdata 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data. Below are the results:
DVD+R
DVD+RW
The drive had no problems reaching 8x reading speed on DVD+R/RW. Now let us see how it will perform on DVD-R/RW.
DVD – DVD-R/RW:
For this test we used a Datawrite 8X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4Gb of data. Our test results are found below:
DVD-R
DVD-RW
There are hardly any differences in the speed, compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.
Overall thoughts:
The NEC ND-7551A is a very good reader but limits the read speed on video DVD.
But now it’s time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW discs…
The specifications of the NEC ND-7551A state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 24x and CD-RW at 20x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.
Writing Data CD-R discs:
For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 700Mb using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (24x):
The drive used 6 minutes and 18 seconds to write the disc at 24x.
Write Quality:
We will test CD-R discs from different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used KProbe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On LTR-48125W drive with firmware VS0D and scanned the discs at 48X speed.
A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.
Below are the obtained results:
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Brand: |
Infiniti Samurai Lava Red |
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Manufacturer: |
SKC Co., Ltd. |
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Code: |
97m26s26f |
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Disc Type: |
CD-R |
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Recording Layer: |
Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine) |
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Capacity: |
79:59.73 (703 MB) |
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Certified Speed: |
52x |
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Write Speed: |
24x (CAV) |
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Write Time: |
5m:09s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
11.65 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.0 |
We have already seen better results, but reading this disc should not cause any problems.
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Brand: |
MMORE |
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Manufacturer: |
Moser Baer India Limited |
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Code: |
97m17s06f |
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Disc Type: |
CD-R |
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Recording Layer: |
Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine) |
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Capacity: |
79:59.74 (703MB) |
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Certified Speed: |
1x-52x |
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Write Speed: |
24x (CAV) |
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Write Time: |
5m:09s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
11.29 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.0 |
MMORE media – manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited with an average C1 of 11.29 gives an OK result.
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Brand: |
NewStar Digital |
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Manufacturer: |
Infodisc Technology Co., Ltd. |
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Code: |
97m25s35f |
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Disc Type: |
CD-R |
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Recording Layer: |
Dye Type 5: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine) |
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Capacity: |
79:59.74 (703MB) |
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Certified Speed: |
48x |
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Write Speed: |
16x (Z-CLV) |
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Write Time: |
6m:41s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
06.95 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.09 |
NewStar Digital media made by Infodisc had some C2 errors. Since there are some coloured spots visible on the disc, the drive probably cannot be blamed for this result. The disc was only written at 16x.
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Brand: |
Traxdata |
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Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
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Code: |
97m15s17f |
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Disc Type: |
CD-R |
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Recording Layer: |
Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine) |
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Capacity: |
79:59.70 (703MB) |
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Certified Speed: |
52x |
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Write Speed: |
24x |
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Write Time: |
5m:09s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
5.77 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.0 |
Traxdata media made by RiTEK gave a good result on the ND-7551A although there is a slight increase of C1 errors in the middle of the disc.
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Brand: |
Unbranded Printable |
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Manufacturer: |
Taiyo Yuden Company Limited |
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Code: |
97m24s01f |
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Disc Type: |
CD-R |
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Recording Layer: |
Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO) |
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Capacity: |
79:59.72 (703MB) |
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Certified Speed: |
48x |
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Write Speed: |
24x |
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Write Time: |
5m:11s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
3.87 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.0 |
Media made by Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of 3.87 it goes into the “good quality discs” category.
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Brand: |
Verbatim |
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Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation |
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Code: |
97m34s23f |
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Disc Type: |
CD-R |
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Recording Layer: |
Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO) |
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Capacity: |
79:59.73 (703MB) |
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Certified Speed: |
52x |
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Write Speed: |
24x |
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Write Time: |
5m:09s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
0.94 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.00 |
Verbatim – a well-known brand showed us a C1 average of 0.94 – highly recommended disc for this drive.
Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:
Due to requests from our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media. Settings and testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure.
CD-ReWritable media:
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Brand: |
Emgeton |
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Manufacturer: |
Infodisc |
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Code: |
97m25s31f |
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Disc Type: |
UltraSpeed CD-RW 16-24x |
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Recording Layer: |
Phase Change |
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Capacity: |
79:59.73 |
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Certified Speed: |
24x |
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Write Speed: |
20x (Z-CLV) |
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Write Time: |
6m:18s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
162.90 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.00 |
24x CD-RW media made by Infodisc, we notice increasing C1 errors in the middle and at the end of the disc and due to the C2 errors at the end of the disc we cannot recommend this media.
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Brand: |
Memorex |
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Manufacturer: |
Infodisc Technology Co., Ltd. |
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Code: |
97m25s30f |
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Disc Type: |
High Speed CD-RW 8-12x |
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Recording Layer: |
Phase Change |
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Capacity: |
79:59.73 |
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Certified Speed: |
12x |
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Write Speed: |
10x (Z-CLV) |
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Write Time: |
9m:05s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
5.88 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.00 |
Memorex 12x CD-RW media made by Infodis, the result of this disk is good with the C1 average of 5.88
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Brand: |
Traxdata |
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Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
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Code: |
97m10s00f |
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Disc Type: |
High Speed CD-RW 8-12x |
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Recording Layer: |
Phase Change |
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Capacity: |
79:59.74 |
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Certified Speed: |
12x |
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Write Speed: |
10x (Z-CLV) |
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Write Time: |
9m:09s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
9.37 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
7.37 |
12x CD-RW media made by RiTEK, the KProbe scan shows high C1 and C2 spikes which makes it impossible to recommend this media.
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Brand: |
Traxdata |
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Manufacturer: |
Plasmon |
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Code: |
97m27s12f |
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Disc Type: |
Ultra Speed CD-RW 24x |
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Recording Layer: |
Phase Change |
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Capacity: |
74:41.00 |
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Certified Speed: |
24x |
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Write Speed: |
20x (Z-CLV) |
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Write Time: |
6m:04s |
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C1 Average/Sec: |
178.50 |
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C2 Average/Sec: |
0.0 |
Although the C1 errors are very high at the end of the disc, it should still be readable.
Summary:
The CD-R writing quality is OK, but the CD-RW quality still needs to be improved.
So let us head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance…
The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 8x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.
Write quality:
You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers, so we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In this test we use a Lite-On SHW-1635S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can’t be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings; PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures) set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.
But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:
This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-Video disc (GoldenEye).
This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (The Green Mile). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).
If you read below, you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.
Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):
Random errors:
A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.
Here we see that a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors and that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI errors.
But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything, but if you’re interested, look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher, giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.
According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.
But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:
“If a row of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be “PI-uncorrectable”.”
In theory, an ECC block may in the worst case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:
“In any ECC Block the number of PI-uncorrectable rows should not exceed 4.”
This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1, the maximum error value should not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.
But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF’s.
Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc – but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.
Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.
To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a NEC ND-4551A DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed the reader is that some companies disliked that we used a modified firmware to obtain 16x reading speed. So to please them, we are now using a drive that reads DVD+R/-R media at 16x as default. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.
Easier explanation on how to read the test results.
Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in KProbe reports?
Use this as a guideline for good discs:
PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.
And as always; lower is better 
And look at the reading curve; if it looks clean with no dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.
DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:
In these tests we will be using a Lite-On SOHW-1693S drive with firmware KS0B along with KProbe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4551A with firmware 1-07 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.
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Brand: |
BenQ |
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Manufacturer: |
Daxon Inc. |
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Code: |
DAXON AZ2 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Time: |
16m:12s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
11.97 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.10 |
Good result on this BenQ disc.
|
Brand: |
Datawrite Titanium |
|
Manufacturer: |
Prodisc Technology Inc. |
|
Code: |
Prodisc R03 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x – slowed down to 2.4x after writing about 350 MB |
|
Write Time: |
23m:44s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
66.79 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.03 |
The drive’s AOPC slowed down the burn process to 2.4x which caused the PI to increase. Although PI and PIF are still within the limits, our reading drive had some issues reading the disc.
|
Brand: |
Memorex |
|
Manufacturer: |
CMC Magnetics Corporation |
|
Code: |
CMC MAG E01 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
13m:31s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
1.20 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.03 |
An excellent result on these Memorex discs, produced by CMC magnetics. But this 8x certified disc is only supported at 6x
|
Brand: |
MMORE |
|
Manufacturer: |
Moser Baer India Ltd. |
|
Code: |
MBIPG101 R04 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
13m:29s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
33.54 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.04 |
MMore 8x certified discs made by Moser Baer India were only supported at 6x. We can see a PI max of 553 which is not within the limits anymore. But our reading drive had no problems during the transfer rate test.
|
Brand: |
Swisstec |
|
Manufacturer: |
Plasmon Data Limited |
|
Code: |
Plasmon1 C01 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Time: |
13m:39s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
57.65 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
35.67 |
Plasmon discs are known for not producing the highest quality media. PI and PIF exceed the limits at the end of the disc and our reading drive had an unrecoverable error
|
Brand: |
Traxdata |
|
Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
|
Code: |
Ritek R03 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
13m:31s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
19.28 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.03 |
A good result on these Traxdata discs, produced by RiTEK Corporation.
|
Brand: |
Taiyo Yuden unbranded |
|
Manufacturer: |
Taiyo Yuden Company Limited |
|
Code: |
YUDEN000 T02 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Time: |
11m:14s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
1.52 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.01 |
An excellent result on these Tayio Yuden discs, highly recommended.
|
Brand: |
Verbatim |
|
Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
|
Code: |
MCC 003 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x – slowed down to 2.4x after writing about 4 GB |
|
Write Time: |
14m:31s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
0.89 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.06 |
Another great result on these Verbatim discs made by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. However writing the disc was not supported at its certified speed and the drive had to slow down to 2.4x towards the end of the disc.
|
Brand: |
Verbatim |
|
Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
|
Code: |
MCC 004 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
16x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Time: |
11m:11s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
0.78 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.05 |
An excellent result on these Verbatim discs, highly recommended.
DVD+ReWritable media:
|
Brand: |
Platinum |
|
Manufacturer: |
Ricoh Company Limited |
|
Code: |
RICOHJPN W11 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+RW |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Time: |
16m:01s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
18.48 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
3.91 |
With rising PI and PIF – exceeding the limits – towards the end, we cannot recommend this media. Our reading drive was unable to complete the transfer rate test.
|
Brand: |
Ricoh |
|
Manufacturer: |
RICOH Company Limited |
|
Code: |
RICOHJPN W21 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+RW |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Time: |
12m:35s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
64.59 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.14 |
The result is OK for this Ricoh DVD+RW media.
|
Brand: |
Traxdata |
|
Manufacturer: |
RITEK |
|
Code: |
RITEK 008 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+RW |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
3.4x |
|
Write Time: |
17m:58s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
34.57 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.17 |
A good result on this Traxdata media although the PI could be lower at the beginning. The disc was written with a very uncommon 3.4x writing speed.
|
Brand: |
Verbatim |
|
Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
|
Code: |
MKM A02 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+RW |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Time: |
16m:18s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
1.38 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.24 |
An excellent result on this Verbatim media. Highly recommended disc if you need rewritable media.
To sum it up: So far the NEC ND-7551A writes DVD+R and DVD+RW media with good/OK quality. Let’s find out how the drive will do on DVD-R/RW media.
On the next page you will find the DVD-R/RW writing results...
In these tests we will be using a Lite-On SOHW-1693S drive with firmware KS0B along with KProbe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4551A with firmware 1-07 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.
|
Brand: |
Datawrite Titanium |
|
Manufacturer: |
CMC Magnetics Corporation |
|
Code: |
CMCMAG.AE1 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
14m:22s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
8.45 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.08 |
Datawrite media, with CMC media code and the results are good although the drive was not written at its certified speed.
|
Brand: |
Emgeton |
|
Manufacturer: |
Infodisc Technologo Co., Ltd. |
|
Code: |
INFODISC-R20 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x – slowed down to 4x after writing about 3 GB |
|
Write Time: |
16m:31s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
37.21 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.15 |
The PI slightly exceeds the limit where the disc was written at 8x and our reading device had to slow down during the transfer rate test.
|
Brand: |
Fujifilm Labelflash |
|
Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
|
Code: |
RITEKF1 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
16x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Time: |
14m:38s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
185.70 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.23 |
The drive often exceeds the PI limit of 280 and the reading curve was not as smooth as it should be for a good burn. Unfortunately this media is the only available Labelflash media at the moment but we cannot recommend these discs to be written with the NEC ND-7551A.
|
Brand: |
Memorex |
|
Manufacturer: |
CMC Magnetics Corporation |
|
Code: |
CMCMAG.AF1 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Speed: |
2x |
|
Write Time: |
29m:18s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
273.40 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
10.89 |
This was a very old 4x DVD-R disc. The PI and PIF are not within the limits anymore and our reading drive also had to slow down during the transfer rate test.
|
Brand: |
RiDisc |
|
Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
|
Code: |
RITEKG05 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x – slowed down to 4x after writing about 3.7 GB |
|
Write Time: |
15m:29s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
24.63 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.09 |
This disc made by RiTEK was no written at its certified speed and we would have preferred lower PI at the beginning and at the end of the disc reading back the disc should not cause problems though.
|
Brand: |
Sky Media |
|
Manufacturer: |
Plasmon Data Limited |
|
Code: |
Plasmon1A |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
15m:12s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
251.10 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
51.18 |
Just like on their +R disc, we again have a very questionable result on this Plasmon disc - not recommended.
|
Brand: |
Traxdata |
|
Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
|
Code: |
RITEKG05 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
15m:07s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
6.57 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.09 |
A good result on this media manufactured by RiTEK
|
Brand: |
Taiyo Yuden unbranded |
|
Manufacturer: |
Taiyo Yuden Company Limited |
|
Code: |
TYG02 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Speed: |
8x |
|
Write Time: |
14m:08s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
15.82 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.03 |
We have already seen much better results on this Taiyo Yuden media. You should not get any problems with these however.
DVD-ReWritable media:
|
Brand: |
Traxdata |
|
Manufacturer: |
RITEK |
|
Code: |
RITEKW06 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-RW |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Time: |
17m:13s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
2.64 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.04 |
You can see an excellent result on these discs. Unfortunately only supported at 4x at the moment.
|
Brand: |
Verbatim |
|
Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
|
Code: |
MKM01RW6X01 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-RW |
|
Capacity: |
4483MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Speed: |
6x |
|
Write Time: |
14m:03s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
6.55 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.06 |
A great result on this Verbatim disc and even supported at their certified speed. Highly recommended.
To sum it up: Overall, the write quality could be improved on DVD-R and is much better on DVD-RW media.
Head on to next page and read about DVD+R DL compatibility and write quality...
The NEC ND-7551A supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 4x.
Testing procedure:
We created an ISO Image from a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of 8151 MB. We then wrote this image file using Nero CD Speed. Below are the results:
DVD+R DL:
|
Brand: |
Traxdata |
|
Manufacturer: |
RiTEK Corporation |
|
Code: |
RITEK D01 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R DL |
|
Capacity: |
8103MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
2.4x |
|
Write Speed: |
2.4x |
|
Write Time: |
44m:27s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
25.50 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.72 |
Even though KProbe showed some high PI/PIF spikes at the layer change, the reading curve did not show any problems during the read-back. But there were many PIF spikes throughout the whole disc...
|
Brand: |
Verbatim |
|
Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation |
|
Code: |
MKM 001 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD+R DL |
|
Capacity: |
8103MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
2.4x |
|
Write Speed: |
4x on first - 2.4x on second layer |
|
Write Time: |
37m:07s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
5.69 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.04 |
While the PI increases at the layer break, the average PI is good and the transfer rate test showed no problems either. However we can see these PIF spikes throughout the disc again and the second layer was only written at 2.4x.
DVD-R DL:
As mentioned in the beginning of this page, the NEC ND-7551A supports the DVD-R DL standard at 4x. Again, we used Nero CD Speed to write the DVD Image:
|
Brand: |
Verbatim |
|
Manufacturer: |
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media |
|
Code: |
MKM 01RD30 |
|
Disc Type: |
DVD-R DL |
|
Capacity: |
8103MB |
|
Certified Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Speed: |
4x |
|
Write Time: |
31m:18s |
|
PI-8 errors Average/Sec: |
4.19 |
|
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec: |
0.05 |
An excellent result on this Verbatim disc. Highly recommended media.
Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:
We only have 2 standalone DVD-Players to test the DVD+R DL media (BookType: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (BookType: DVD-R) with:
- Tevion DVD/DivX Player DVD6000
- Yamakawa AVPhile 715
Compatibility results:
|
Drive |
Traxdata |
Verbatim |
Verbatim |
Comments |
|
Tevion DVD6000 |
OK |
OK |
FAILED |
Does not recognize disc |
|
Yamakawa AVPhile 715 |
OK |
OK |
OK |
No problems |
All DVD Standalone devices played both the NEC ND-7551A burned DVD+R DL media. But only one DVD Standalone devices would play the DVD-R DL media.
We would like to mention, that the compatibility issue with standalone DVD Players/Recorders and the DVD-R DL media format is caused by incompatibilities with the standalone devices used in this review, and not the NEC ND-7551A or media format used.
Summary: The writing quality on discs with two layers is good but we would like to have these PIF spikes on DVD+R DL eliminated.
The NEC ND-7551A is a so-called Multi recorder, meaning is also supports the DVD-RAM format.
This drive is one of few drives that also support the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it got differences from the other DVD+R/RW/R DL and DVD-R/RW/R DL discs.
You could see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots, supposedly these spots are used for calibration while writing and reading.
A DVD-RAM’s disc can be formatted in the following formats:
FAT32
UDF 1.02
UDF 1.50
UDF 2.00
UDF 2.01
UDF 2.50
By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done in the “background processes”. Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish – you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any “hangs” or CPU slowdowns.
Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests:
|
Nero CD-DVD Speed: Disc Info |
|
|
Basic Information |
|
|
Disc type: |
DVD-RAM |
|
Manufacturer: |
Matsushita Electric Industrial CO.,LTD. |
|
MID |
M01J3002 |
|
Write speeds: |
2 X - 3 X |
|
Blank Capacity |
4.38 GB |
|
4482 MB |
|
|
4700309504 bytes |
|
|
Extended Information |
|
|
Copyright protection |
CPRM |
|
Raw Data |
|
|
Physical Format Information (00h) |
0000 - 16 0F 04 42 00 03 10 00 00 26 5F 5F 00 00 00 00 - ...B.....&__....
0010 - 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0020 - 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0030 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0040 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0050 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0060 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0070 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0080 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0090 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
00A0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
00B0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
00C0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
00D0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
00E0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
00F0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0100 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0110 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0120 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0130 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0140 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0150 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0160 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0170 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0180 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
0190 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
01A0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
01B0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
01C0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
01D0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
01E0 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - ................
01F0 - 00 00 00 00 52 0A 00 71 2C 2C 2C 6E 2A 2A 2A 1A - ....R..q,,,n***.
0200 - 1A 00 00 11 22 05 02 81 81 05 02 81 81 06 03 00 - ...."...........
0210 - 81 06 03 00 00 0A 0B 0C 0C 0A 0B 0C 0C 09 0A 0B - ................
0220 - 0B 09 0A 0B 0B 4D 61 74 73 75 73 68 69 74 61 20 - .....Matsushita.
0230 - 45 6C 65 63 74 72 69 63 20 49 6E 64 75 73 74 72 - Electric.Industr
0240 - 69 61 6C 20 43 4F 2E 2C 4C 54 44 2E 0D 20 20 20 - ial.CO.,LTD.....
0250 - 20 20 20 20 20 4D 30 31 4A 33 30 30 32 0D 20 20 - .....M01J3002...
0260 - 20 20 20 20 20 01 01 82 00 6A 2C 2C 2C 82 94 96 - .........j,,,...
But now the interesting part – writing and reading DVD-RAM media.
Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x without verification
Let’s try to read back the discs that we wrote:
Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x
As we can see from the picture above, the media was read back at 5x using the Z-CLV technique.
Since we have no equipment to perform any quality measuring tests with the DVD-RAM format it will be skipped, but on the other side it should not be necessary since any DVD-RAM writer shall verify the written data by default itself.
On the next page we will take a look at the test drive’s Labelflash performance.
CD Freaks already has a comprehensive article about Labelflash, so we will not go into detail here.
Labelside:
For this test we used the only Labelflash capable media that is available at the moment.
The label was designed and burned with the Burn Label Nero function in Nero Burning ROM.
Due to Labelflash using an inverted picture, we chose a black background. Although this might look strange on first sight, the preview actually looks better.
The drive needed about 39 minutes to burn the label with the best quality setting:
And this is what the disc finally looks like:
Dataside:
We used the same image as before for burning a label on the data side.
For this test we used a Datawrite Blue 8x DVD-R
This time it took more than 78 minutes to burn the label:
And this is the result:
Before we round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next page…
To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the NEC ND-7551A. These tests are the “Sheep Test” and some special disc tests.
The “Sheep Test”:
For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That’s because the logo of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer’s ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: “Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns”.
No sheep: Can’t backup any Safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
1 Sheep: Can backup Safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
2 Sheep: Can backup Safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.
One of our forum moderators Womble, has written a guide concerning the “Sheep Test” that can be found here.
In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the NEC ND-7551A supports everything.
The NEC ND-7551A supports DAO-RAW recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.
|
Sheep Tests |
Reader: |
|
One Sheep Burner |
Yes |
|
Two Sheep Burner |
Yes |
|
Safedisc v2.90 |
No |
|
Three Sheep Burner |
No |
As we can see from the table the NEC ND-7551A is a “Two Sheep Burner”, but it however failed to write the Safedisc V2.90 and Sheep3 tests.
Overburning:
To test the overburning capabilities of the NEC ND-7551A, we used the over-burning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.
CD-R:
For this test we used an Infiniti Professional Compax 99min/900mb CD-R.
According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn around 93 minutes. Higher values than the one above resulted in an error message.
To test if the NEC ND-7551A is capable to read overburned CD-Rs, we used a 90:51:25 minutes CD-R:
As we can see for the picture above the NEC ND-7551A had no problems reading the 90:51:25 minutes CD-R.
DVD+R/-R:
We also tried to overburn DVD+R/-R media:
According to Nero CD-DVD Speed this function is not supported on DVD+R/-R media by the NEC ND-7551A.
Mini DVD-R/RW discs:
In this section we are going to test if the NEC ND-7551A is capable to write and read mini DVD-R/RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.
The NEC ND-7551A had no problems to write or read the Traxdata Mini DVD-R disc made by RiTek Corporation, the PI however could be a bit lower in the area that was written at 2x. Let us try a Mini DVD-RW disc:
Again, the NEC ND-7551A had no problems to write or read the Traxdata Mini DVD-RW disc and even the KProbe scan shows an excellent result.
Positive:
- Supports DVD±R/+RW/-RW/±R DL writing at 8x/8x/6x/4x
- Supports CD-R/RW writing at 24x/20x
- Supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at 5x
- Good media support and compatibility on DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD±R-DL
- Supports Bitsetting for DVD+R DL (sets auto. BookType to DVD-ROM)
- Supports disc quality scanning
- Can read DVD±R/RW at 8x
- Supports Lableflash direct disc labelling system
- Reads DVD-Video SL/DVD-Video DL at 5x
- “Two sheep” writer
- Supports DAO-RAW writing
- Can overburn CD-Rs (around 92 minutes)
- Very good user community support with several programs and modifications to get the most out of the drive.
- Good retail and software package
- The hardware components are “lead-free”
Negative:
- Does not support Mt. Rainier
- No Bitsetting support (BookType - DVD-ROM) on DVD+R/RW media
- Green LED for both reading and writing
- Room for writing quality improvements on DVD±R/±R DL media
Conclusion:
Before summarizing the most important positive and negative points below, please note that slimline drives are limited in their reading and writing speeds due to their lower rotational speed.
The main positive points: The NEC ND-7551A being a so called “Multi Recorder” and supports recording on currently available media formats (CD-R/CW, DVD+R/+RW/+R DL and DVD-R/-RW/-RAM/-R DL).
The NEC ND-7551A can write most CD-R/RW media with very good quality, and can write those media types at at a fairly high speed. DVD±R/RW writing quality is good with most media.
DVD-RAM is well implemented on the NEC ND-7551A, not only can the drive write at 5x using a Z-CLV writing method. Unfortunately we did not have any 5x DVD-RAM to test this feature. The NEC ND-7551A can also read DVD-RAM media, regardless of the disc’s rated speed at 5x, using a Z-CLV reading method.
During our tests the NEC ND-7551A audio ripping quality was excellent, unfortunately speed is not the fastest, but as good as it gets with a slimline drive.
The NEC ND-7551A also supports Labelflash direct disc labelling and allows images to be burned onto the special label side of the disc as well as any free space on the data side of the disc.
The supplied Nero Express software suite is also very good, with a nice balance of features and ease of use.
This DVD writer is also one of those burners which have very good user community support with several programs and modifications to get “the most out of the drive”. (Be aware, that most of these programs and modifications will VOID the drive’s warranty).
As a last point we would like to mention that this DVD burner are a “lead-free” product, which will meets the recycling standards that came into effect on the 1st of January 2006.
The main negative points: There are not too many negative things to say about the NEC ND-7551A. But we did note a few things we would like to see improved.
Although writing quality with DVD±R media was overall good, the writing quality with some media could be improved.
DVD±R DL writing quality, although within specification could also be improved, as some of our tested media had fairly high PI/PIF errors. DVD-R DL media could also be improved.
We would also like to see Bitsetting for DVD+R/RW media, to set BookType to DVD-ROM, as this would help improve compatibility with older set top players.
We would also like to see a dual coloured LED, with one colour used for read and a different colour used for writing, instead of the present single coloured green LED.
To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “The NEC ND-7551A is a well specified drive with good overall performance”. However, there are areas where the drive could be improved.
You may comment on this review below or in this forum thread.
Thanks to:
Bell Technology spol s.r.o. – Czech Republic for providing the media used in this review.
Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe – The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.
Daxon Technology Inc – Taiwan for providing the BenQ media used in this article.
E-Net Distribution – United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
Medea International – United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.
Plextor SA/NV – Belgium for providing the media used is this article.
Ricoh Europe – For providing the media used in this review.
SVP Communication – The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
