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Posted by Jan S.
Posted on 09/07/05 21:37
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Introduction
 

 

Review: NEC ND-3540A
Reviewer:
Jan70
Provided by: NEC Germany
Firmware:
1.01
Manufactured: May 2005

NEC Germany, was kind enough to send us their latest DVD-writer the NEC ND-3540A. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R writing, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW and 8x/6x DVD+R DL/-R DL writing technology - allowing Double Layer discs of 8.5GB to be written.

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

1985    

NEC Deutschland GmbH is founded.

         

1986    

NEC brings the first monitor with MultiSync® technology onto the market. It can adapt to different graphic standards automatically and therefore becomes the model for today's multi-frequency monitors.

 

1987

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. 

         

1988 

With the LC series, NEC offers the first heavy-duty laser printers for office applications.

 

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. 

1989

 

1991

NEC introduces the MultiSync® FG series, offering the first 15" monitor on the market. 

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.

         

1993

NEC creates a price sensation with the Superscript 3000, a thermosublimation colour printer with photorealistic printing quality.

         

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.

     

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.

         

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.
      
                                              

         

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.

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.

             

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 what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the drive and its technology.


Front

This sticker looks interesting


Back

Left/Right side


Top

Bottom

Below you will see the contents of the retail box:

  • The internal ND-3540 drive itself
  • NEC Writer CD-ROM:
    • Documentation for NEC DVD Writer
    • Software documentation
    • NeroExpress 6.6 for Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP and 2003 Server
    • NeroVision Express 3 & ShowTime 2 for Windows 98SE, ME, 200 and XP
  • MPC Audio cable
  • Screw set
  • IDE Cable

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

The NEC ND-3540 uses the same bezel that previous NEC DVD Writers have used. A simple and clean design that includes a few logos, a single green coloured LED, an emergency eject hole and an eject button. (We would prefer different LED colours to distinguish between reading and writing operations). The logos located on the right 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 Malaysia - May 2005.


Underside

On the underside of the drive we can see a pattern of holes, which is used for ventilation.

On the back of the drive starting from the left, we can see a digital audio connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

We installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

 

From the screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt. Rainier support and a larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware 1.01.

And another shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

We do not really find anything alarming here, but Mt. Rainier and a larger buffer would have been nice.

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 and the included software…………

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