NEC has officialy introduced a new 18x DVD burner with Labelflash functionality. The new AD-7173A drive is an all-rounder. It only takes five minutes to burn a one-hour DVD film. It gives the user a free choice between write-once, rewritable and double layer media. Write-once format DVDs (DVD-R and DVD+R) are written to with up to 18x DVD speed, while rewritable (DVD+RW) and double layer DVDs (DVD +R9 and DVD-R DL) are written to with up to 8x speed. DVD-RW formats are written to at a maximum of 6x speed. 12x speed applies for DVD RAMs. As a read drive, the burner delivers 16x DVD, 12x DVD-RAM and 48x CD speed.

The drive also supports innovative Labelflash technology, which simplifies the labelling and creative design of self-burned DVDs. It eliminates the need for complex adhesive labelling systems and considerably enhances the durability of the media because, especially in the case of DVD blanks, the application of a label can make the medium unreadable. Labelflash delivers high image quality because it enables 256 brightness shades. The labelling process takes less than ten minutes. Labelflash can be used for any blanks with a writable Labelflash label side.

NEC will also be marketing a lower cost model without Labelflash?, the AD-7170A, which has the same write and read speeds as the AD-7173A. The ND-5170A DVD burner is an additional model without DVD-RAM and Labelflash. The three PC drives are on sale now.