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NEC ND-3520A - Modified vs. stock firmware
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Posted by Jan S.
Posted on 30/01/05 17:36
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 Facts - Modified firmware
 KProbe explained
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Conclusion

Positive (Dee's modified firmware):

  • Burns specific media at higher speed
  • Burns specific media with better quality
  • The firmware is often updated
  • AUTO Bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 DL media
  • RPC1
  • Removed read/rip lock on DVD-Video
  • Unsupported media can be supported in modified firmware

 

Negative (Dee's modified firmware):

  • voids the guarantee
  • Only the best quality media is likely to get good results
  • Removing RIPLOCK will make the drive noisier when playing back a pressed DVD-VIDEO on your PC

 

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points: The modified firmware burns specific media at higher speed and better quality. Another positive point is the auto DVD-ROM bit setting on DVD+R/R9 DL media. Also the RPC1 patch making the drive 'zone-free" together with the unlocked read/rip lock on DVD-Video media. And as a last the point and one of the most important one - Unsupported Media can be easily implanted into the modified firmware.

The main negative points: The main negative point is, by using/flashing the modified firmware into the NEC ND-3520A it will void the guarantee. Meaning you will lose your 'moral" right to RMA the drive if it should break or be damaged during a flash process or other usage caused by the modified firmware. Another negative point is, only the best quality media is likely to get good quality results. Meaning - on 'crap" or 'bad" quality media, there will be hardly anything to gain on quality issues. And as a last point - by removing the RIPLOCK the drive will become noisy during any DVD-Video playbacks.

Dee-27's own thoughts: It's clear to see which firmware burns media the fastest, the modified firmware burning media much faster where a speedup has been implemented. Quality is another issue, from the K-Probe PI/PIF scans and CD-DVD Speed Transfer Tests, some of the media burned with the modified firmware is nearly as good as the STOCK firmware, on a few the modified firmware has managed better quality, but in most cases the STOCK firmware has the edge on quality, showing fewer errors on a burned media.

 

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

 

Thanks to:

Liggy - for his ND-3520A patching tool and Binflash firmware flasher/dumper, and his knowledge on how to patch NEC firmware on the ND35xx series drives.
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Reactions on this item
Posted by BoSkin on Sunday 30 January 2005 23:41
"...in most cases the STOCK firmware has the edge on quality, showing fewer errors on a burned media."

To me, this is the most important thing,
in other words this is what counts, not, let's say, the like 0,37% write speed gain and kinda "saved" 7-8 seconds.
Mostly, I have something else to do when burning stuff.
:g
Posted by Mender on Thursday 03 February 2005 00:50
An excellent comparison article. This is the sort of information I like to see:)
Posted by Zim33 on Saturday 12 February 2005 05:21
Great info, but I'd also like to see data READ capability compared, too.
Posted by J37HR0 on Thursday 17 February 2005 01:27
Thank you so much for this comparison. I really liked the side by side comparisons.

Excellent Job.
Posted by danbo on Saturday 19 February 2005 05:55
"...in most cases the STOCK firmware has the edge on quality, showing fewer errors on a burned media." "To me, this is the most important thing, "

Some of us actually CARE about bitsetting!
:d
Posted by RaHzElChO on Friday 10 June 2005 16:53
:B
Posted by Skeleton (guest) on Friday 20 April 2007 09:46
my nec3520a works excelent now. i tried burning dvd-r at 16x and it works excelent. before i had problems. i tried for the first time to write one image of 7.5 gb on one dvd+r dl verbatim. on read test it did not make it. sugestions? :r
Posted by jvkersbergen (guest) on Sunday 21 September 2008 21:58
gaarne downloden voor 3520A1.04
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