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Date:	Wed, 3 Sep 2003 20:26:10 PDT7
From:	Sheridan George <s-geo@usa.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: CD-R/RW Upgrade Plans

Content Type: text/plain

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Gary Granat wrote:

>=====================================================
>If you are responding to someone asking for help who
>may not be a member of this list, be sure to use the
>REPLY TO ALL feature of your email program.
>=====================================================
>
>I am planning to upgrade my system (Warp 4) to include a CD-R/RW drive. I am
>all IDE so my plan is to go the IDE route on this upgrade and plan to use RSJ.
>I have a couple of questions:
>
>1) I'm considering a Sony CRX220A drive. Can anyone suggest reasons why this
>is not a good option. If so, alternate suggestions will be appreciated. Keep
>in mind that I'm living in the hinterlands and can't run down to the nearest
>Fry's for hardware.
>
>2) I seem to recall from past posts that using RSJ with an IDE drive is
>something less than straight forward. Is there a "cookbook" available to
>assist? If not, some pointers from those of you who have already done this
>task would also be appreciated.
>
Gary, perhaps this will help. It just came in on the OS/2 hardware
list. Sheridan

Hi Erik!

On Tue, 2 Sep 2003 22:14:20 +0200, Erik P. Olsen wrote:

>Does anybody have experience with some of these burners, does RSJ
support them,
>which firmware release is needed, etc?
>Make: Model:
>Sony DRU-510A
>Lite-On LDW-401S
>Plextor PX-708A
>
>I have particularly heard that the Sony burner is very bad.
>Any comment is highly appreciated.

I think I'll buy a NEC ND-1300A when my vacation ends (in two weeks),
but I'm also considering the LG (look at the end of this eMail).
The NEC ND-1300A is a DVD-R/-RW and DVD+R/+RW Burner. The first versions
were not very good, but with the latest firmware this a very good and
cheap DVD burner (costs here in germany ~150,- EUR - Amazon sells it for
~170,- EUR).
One thing that was annoying in the past, is that NEC needs ages to
release newer firmwares, to support more blank DVD from different vendors.
With the latest firmware most vendors are supported, and there are
always unofficial firmware available on the internet, that add support
of other blank
DVD vendors.

Specs: http://www.necd.de/productdetail.php/id/672
Overview optical storage (german):
http://www.necd.de/softwareoverview2.php?id=215
Tested DVD banks: http://www.necd.de/software/1050_Medialist_ND-1300A.pdf
Latest Firmware (1.07 - same as 1.06 except the changed installer
(106=DOS Installer; 1.07=Windows Installer):
http://www.necd.de/software/1147_Firmware_ND-1300A_WIN107.zip

The NEC NA-1300A is also available from other companies.
A clone comes from Iomega as DVDRW4216IND-A (the firmware is not very
good - said the german c't magazine), Traxdata RW1300 (same firmware as
the NEC original), Freecom FX-10 (external; WARNING: the previous FX-10
modells had a ND-1000A and ND1100A build into the case - so read the
description really carefully - NEC original).

Here the results from the c't tests 16'2003 and 18'2003 (NEC ND-1300A
and Sony DRU-510A):
==============================================================================
Vendor+Model NEC ND-1300
Sony DRU-510A
Firmware 1.05 1.0c
DVD+R Burning speed / Quality ++ / +
+ / +
DVD-R Burning speed / Quality ++ / ++
+ / -
DVD+ and -RW Burning speed / Packet Writing ++ / ++
++ / +
Burning speed CD-R/CD-RW - / - o / o
Reading pressed / Burned DVDs - / - -
- / -
Reading CD-ROM / Audio-CD + / -
o / -
Error correction DVD / CD - / -
o / -
Noise development Video-DVD / CD + / o
+ / +
=============================================================================
++ = very good; - = good; o = average; - = bad; - - = very bad
All tests were done with Verbatim blanks (4x speed).
The quality results where checked at Audiodev (http://www.audiodev.com -
Malmö, Sweden)

The NEC ND-1100A is a DVD+R/+RW only.
The NEC ND-1100A is also available as Plextor PX-504A, Traxdata RW 1100A
and Mitsumi DW-7801TE.

Next to NEC's ND-1300A the new LG GSA-4040B looks very nice. It's a
DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW and DVD-RAM (type 2 --> can be removed from the
DVD-RAM Caddy) burner. If you want to store something for a longer time,
go for DVD-RAM and the LG burner.

Here the results from the c't tests 18'2003 (LG GSA-4040B):
==============================================================================
Vendor+Model LG GSA-4040B
Firmware A104
DVD+R Burning speed / Quality ++ / -
DVD-R Burning speed / Quality ++ / ++
DVD+ and -RW Burning speed / Packet Writing o / - -
Burning speed CD-R/CD-RW o / o
Reading pressed / Burned DVDs + / ++
Reading CD-ROM / Audio-CD o / -
Error correction DVD / CD + / o
Noise development Video-DVD / CD + / ++
=============================================================================
++ = very good; - = good; o = average; - = bad; - - = very bad
All tests were done with Verbatim blanks (4x speed).
The quality results where checked at Audiodev (http://www.audiodev.com -
Malmö, Sweden)

The bad quality with the DVD+R could be a result of the Verbatim blanks
if the Firmware of the drive is not optimzed to work with these blanks.
Other blanks could produce a better result. But the Verbatim blanks
produced good results on other drives.

Ok, I hope this helped a little bit.
I can't say anything to the compatibility with RSJ or cdrecord-pro-dvd.
RSJ has only this list online and it does not show all working drives:
http://www.rsj.de/stage/en/cdwriter/techos2.asp

Kind Regards,
Juergen Ulbts (Germany)

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