NEC ND-3540A DVD Burner

The NEC ND-3540A supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 8x/6x. Let us first take a look at the media’s we will use:

Let’s find the manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use DVD Identifier 4.01:

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Unique Disc Identifier: [DVD+R-DL:MKM-001-000]
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Disc & BookType :       [DVD+R DL] – [DVD+R DL]
Manufacturer Name :      [Mitsubishi Kagaku Media]
Manufacturer ID :        [MKM]
Media Type ID :          [001]
Product Revision :       [Not Specified]
Blank Disc Capacity :    [4,173,824 Sectors = 8,152.0MB = 7.96GB (8.55GB)]
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** INFO : Hex Dump Of ‘Media Code’-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding ‘Media Code’-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 11h (Method 1) – ADIP Information
0000 : e1 0f 32 10 00 03 00 00  00 fc ff ff 00 22 d7 ff   ..2……….”..
0010 : 00 00 00 4d 4b 4d 00 00  00 00 00 30 30 31 00 40   …MKM…..001.@
0020 : 25 25 37 0c 02 2f 63 02  2f 63 21 23 0d 0e 14 14   %7../c./c!#….
0030 : 02 01 01 10 00 21 23 0d  0e 14 14 02 01 01 10 00   …..!#………
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[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
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This media is manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.

Manufacturer and media information:

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Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL : RITEK-D01-001]
————————————————————————-
Disc & BookType :       [DVD+R DL] – [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name :      [Ritek Corp.]
Manufacturer ID :        [RITEK]
Media Type ID :          [D01]
Product Revision :       [001]
Blank Disc Capacity :    [4,173,824 Sectors = 8,152.0MB = 7.96GB (8.55GB)]
————————————————————————-
** INFO : Hex Dump Of ‘Media Code’-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding ‘Media Code’-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 11h (Method 1) – ADIP Information
0000 : e1 0f 32 10 00 03 00 00  00 fc ff ff 00 22 d7 ff   ..2……….”..
0010 : 00 00 00 52 49 54 45 4b  00 00 00 44 30 31 01 40   …RITEK…D01.@
0020 : 25 25 37 00 00 28 64 00  28 64 19 1b 0b 0b 0e 0f   %7..(d.(d……
0030 : 01 00 00 00 00 19 1b 0b  0b 0e 0f 01 00 00 00 00   …………….
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[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
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The media is made by Ritek (Made in Taiwan).  Thanks to Conrexx Technology B.V. (The Netherlands) for sending us this media.

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Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL : RICOHJPN-D00-001]
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Disc & BookType :       [DVD+R DL] – [DVD-ROM]
Manufacturer Name :      [Ricoh Co. Ltd.]
Manufacturer ID :        [RICOHJPN]
Media Type ID :          [D00]
Product Revision :       [001]
Blank Disc Capacity :    [4,173,824 Sectors = 8.55 GB (7.96 GB)]
————————————————————————-
** INFO : Hex Dump Of ‘Media Code’-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding ‘Media Code’-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 11h (Method 1) – ADIP Information
0000 : e1 0f 32 10 00 03 00 00  00 fc ff ff 00 22 d7 ff   ..2……….”..
0010 : 00 00 00 52 49 43 4f 48  4a 50 4e 44 30 30 01 40   …RICOHJPND00.@
0020 : 25 25 37 11 00 34 64 00  34 64 20 21 0c 0d 12 12   %7..4d.4d !….
0030 : 02 01 01 10 00 20 21 0c  0d 12 12 02 00 00 00 00   ….. !………
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[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
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The media is made by Ricoh Co. Ltd. (Made in Taiwan).  Thanks to Ricoh Europe (Germany) for sending us this media.

Testing procedure: We created an ISO Image of the largest DVD-Video disc we had (Nemo, 7.91 GB (8.495.888.384 bytes)) using DVD-Decrypter. Then we wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 6. Below are the results:

Ricoh Media

Nero reported ‘could not perform end of Disc-at-once, so we tried another disc:

Ricoh Media

Nero reported the same error again.

Traxdata media

Nero reported the same error on the Traxdata media too.

Verbatim media

The burn was successfully on the Verbatim media.

Let us take a look at the K-Probe result:

The reported errors in KProbe are probably due to the disk not being closed in the ‘Disc-at-once” operation.

Again, the reported errors in KProbe are probably due to the disk not being closed in the ‘Disc-at-once” operation.

The result is excellent, considering this 2.4x certified media was written at 8x. Now it’s time to take a look at some reading tests with various DVD-Writers.

First we will try to read the discs back in the NEC ND-3540A:

Ricoh Media

Traxdata media

Verbatim Media

As we could see, the NEC ND-3540A had no problems reading the disc. Let us try some other drives to read the Double Layer discs:

Ricoh Media

Traxdata media

Verbatim Media

The Plextor DVDR PX-712A had no problems reading the medias. Let’s compare the NEC ND-3540A with other DL capable drives.

*1 Verbatim DVD+R DL
*2 Traxdata DVD+R DL
*3 Ricoh DVD+R DL

DVD-R DL:

As mentioned in the beginning of this page, the NEC ND-3540A supports the DVD-R DL standard at 6x. Let us first take a look at the media we will use:

Let’s find the manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use DVD Identifier 4.01:

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Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R-DL:MKM 01RD30  ]
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Disc & BookType :       [DVD-R DL] – [DVD-R]
Manufacturer Name :      [Mitsubishi Kagaku Media]
Manufacturer ID :        [MKM 01RD30  ]
Blank Disc Capacity :    [4,171,712 Sectors = 8.54 GB (7.96 GB)]
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** INFO : Hex Dump Of ‘Media Code’-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding ‘Media Code’-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 0Eh – Pre-Recorded Information In Lead-In
0000 : 01 02 91 fd d1 0a 60 00  02 00 00 00 33 70 00 00   ……`…..3p..
0010 : 03 4d 4b 4d 20 30 31 00  04 52 44 33 30 20 20 00   .MKM 01..RD30  .
0020 : 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  06 0e 1e 37 3d 33 21 00   ………..7=3!.
0030 : 07 50 1f 29 13 ab b5 00  08 88 80 00 00 00 00 00   .P.)…………
0040 : 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  0a 0c 26 2b 33 37 1a 0e   ……….&+37..
0050 : 0b 50 1f 27 05 8b b5 00  0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   .P.’…………
0060 : 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  0e 0e 32 41 45 37 2b 00   ……….2AE7+.
0070 : 0f 50 27 31 19 aa b5 00  10 88 80 00 00 00 00 00   .P’1…………
0080 : 11 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  12 0e 3d 39 3f 33 24 0e   ……….=9?3$.
0090 : 13 50 25 2d 0d ba b5 00  14 00 04 00 04 00 04 00   .P%-…………
00a0 : 15 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                            ……..       
** INFO : Hex Dump Of ‘Control Data Zone’-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding ‘CDZ’-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 10h – Physical Format Information Of Control Data Zone
0000 : 26 0f 32 10 00 03 00 00  00 fc c8 ff 00 22 ef 5f   &.2……….”._
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[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
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This media is manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for sending us this media.

Again, we used Nero Burning Rom 6 to write the DVD Image:

The NEC ND-3540 used 20 minutes and 44 seconds to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL 4x media at 6x. Let us see how the quality is:

The KProbe result is excellent; let us see how the read-back curves are:

Excellent read-back curves.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

We only have 3 standalone DVD-Players available and 1 standalone DVD+R/W recorder to test the DVD+R DL medias (BookType: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (BookType: DVD-R):

• Aiwa DVD Player XD-DV370
• Medion DVD/Div-X Player MD7457
• Red Star DVD-Player 230G
• Mustek R100A DVD+R/W Recorder

Compatibility results: 

All DVD Standalone devices played the NEC ND-3540A burned DVD+R DL medias. But only one DVD Standalone devices would play the NEC ND-3540A burned DVD-R DL media

Summary: Very good quality on DVD+R DL/-R DL and DVD standalone compatibility results, for the DVD+R DL media.

Before we round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next page…