NEC ND 1300

Advantages: Reads both -R and +R
Disadvantages: you need to flash upgrade

...What can I say, most has been said in the previous two reviews. I had the drive as a Christmas present from my children this year (December 2003). At the time, it was about as fast as it gets, faster models are available now and cheaper, but: When they say X8 speed on the newer drives, you are only really saving about 15 mins on a full burn, so are you in a rush? I set mine to record when I go to bed, and turn off the monitor, in the morning my disk is waiting. Check the NEC site for firmware upgrades, the newer ones flash the drive from within windows and this allows you to use a vast array of media brands (you flash at your own risk, if it fails NEC will not fix the drive for you, but saying that, I have had no problems to date). I tend to stick to blanks using the "ritek" dye, which are not expensive, but have never failed... Read review

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Advantages: Reads practically everything. Writes to TWO formats (+RW and -RW)
Disadvantages: None so far, but disk costs make it more important not to waste any

...news is that, unlike Betamax and VHS tapes, at least these things are all the same shape, so that, given a sufficiently versatile machine, it should be possible to read/play them all, even if you can only record one of them. NEC ND-1300A And this is where I FINALLY get to the point. I’ve just bought a NEC ND-1300a DVD Re-Writer to put in my latest reincarnation of my PC. Not only can it read all the existing formats of DVD, but unlike the vast majority of its peers, it can actually write to TWO of them, not the more normal one. There is one other maker producing a similar machine at time of writing, Sony, but this is in such heavy demand that it is on very long delivery and/or higher priced. At £220 for the retail version, complete with recording software bundle, the NEC doesn’t actually, when bought from www.dabs.com, cost... Read review

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Advantages: multi-format DVD writing (+R and -R)
Disadvantages: can be fussy - according to other people if you use cheap media (I don't!)

...My recent work commitments have had a couple of interesting effects on my computer - 1) I have finally shelled out for TRADOS (a Translation Memory software package) and 2) I have bought a DVD burner - to cope with the increased volume of data that is currently being processed for jobs. I used to imagine that a 700Mb blank CD took quite a lot of filling, but with the reams of product catalogues, handbooks and the like that I have been processing in recent months, the stack of CDs that was building up in my collection was starting to take up alarming amounts of space - just as 100Mb ZIP disks had done before CD burners came around. I must admit that I decided to buy the NEC 1300A based on a fine op by BNibbles and a host of ones on Ciao Germany – yep using the system for what it is really there for! Silbermond1981 and Docdoom both... Read review

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