detail information

Writing Data CD-R/RW discs:

The NEC 3540A is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW discs at 32x. Ultraspeed+ 32x CD-RW writing is a newly introduced feature for this NEC DVD Writer.

The NEC 3540A (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R's at 48x. This gives an average writing speed of 36.65x and a writing time of 2 minutes and 46 seconds.

The NEC 3540A uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW at 32x. The average speed is 29.58x. The total writing time is 3 minutes and 7 seconds.

In this first look article we did not include any quality scans on the CD-R/RW discs. You will need to wait for the complete review to view those tests.

DVD-Writing performance:

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD+R9 DL at 8x, DVD-R DL at 6x, DVD+R/-R at 16x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x.

DVD+R at 16x:

The NEC 3540A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.82x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 53 seconds.

The NEC 3540A also supports Disc Quality Testing via Nero CD-DVD Speed. We have included some quality scans for your reference.
Important: Quality scans performed on the NEC 3540A drive can NOT be compared to scans done with other DVD writers, such as LiteOn DVD drives. Nero CD-DVD Speed uses a default value of 8 ECC when scanning with the NEC 3540A. We recommend that you do not form any conclusions on the disc/writing quality based on these scans alone.

Above shows the results from a Nero CD/DVD-speed quality scan on the Verbatim 16x DVD+R, we can see that the disc got a quality score of 95.

DVD+RW at 8x:

The NEC 3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 8.00x and total writing time is 7 minutes and 18 seconds.

The Mitsubishi 8x DVD+RW achieved a quality score of 92 according to CD-DVD Speed.

DVD-R at 16x:

The NEC 3540A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.78x, and a writing time of 5 minutes and 54 seconds.

This Verbatim 16x DVD-R achieved a quality score of 53 due to a solitary, elevated PIF spike that was reported by the 3540A.

DVD-RW at 6x:

The NEC 3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.79x and total writing time is 10 minutes and 38 seconds.

This RiDATA 6x DVD-RW achieved a quality score of 94.

DVD+R9 DL at 8x:

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R9 DL at 8x. Three zones are used to write DVD+R Double Layer discs at 8x. The average speed is 6.54x and total writing time is 18 minutes and 31 seconds.  Impressive DVD+R DL writing times!

The NEC 3540A does not read the resulting disc very well, as far as PIE and PIF are concerned. The good news is that real world test results show that this disc plays back perfectly on our Philips DVP-642 standalone player.

DVD-R9 DL at 6x:

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R9 DL at 6x. Two zones are used to write DVD-R Dual Layer discs at 6x. The average speed is 5.65x and total writing time is 20:42 minutes.

The NEC 3540A had some trouble reading the resulting DVD-R DL disc and slowed down to 3x CAV when reading the second layer. The good news is that this entire DVD Video disc played back perfectly on our Philips DVP-642 standalone player.

Let's head on over to the last page to read our final thoughts…