Nec ND-2500A DVD±RW recorder - Page 4

DVD reading tests

- Single Layer DVD-ROM (Click for CDSpeed results)

In the DVD single layer reading test, both drives performed well with the Pioneer drive being slightly faster. The NEC drive however, did not manage to reach the 12x final speed, falling just short at 11.93x.

The NEC drive's seek times were good, being faster than those of the Pioneer, especially in the full seek time where the NEC drive's time was almost half that of the Pioneer.

- Dual Layer PTP DVD-ROM (Click for CDSpeed results)

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting the read process from the inner tracks on the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, and progressing outwards towards to the outer tracks for each layer.

In this test the NEC drive was a little on the slow side comapred to the Pioneer, managing a final speed of 7.28x as opposed to 8.46x for the Pioneer.

For both drives the seek times were slightly up in comparison with the single layer DVD, as is to be expected. However, the Pioneer drive once again had a poor showing with the full seek time. NEC's was much better at 213ms.

- Dual Layer OTP DVD-ROM

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located at the outer tracks of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks inwards towards the inner tracks of the disc.

As can been seen from these screenshots, the drive returned similar speeds with the OTP dual layer DVD test disc as it did with the PTP disc. The seek times are also very close if only slightly higher.

- DVD Ripping Tests

We measured the DVD-Video ripping speed for the NEC ND-2500A using the latest version of DVD Decrypter. The DVD Video title is the "Matrix" pressed DVD-Video.

It's not one of the fastest ripping speeds, especially when we consider that some drives have managed speeds above 9000kbs, but at 5125kb/s it is an acceptable tranfer rate. The Pioneer drive was slightly faster at 5816kb/s.

- DVD Recordable / Rewritable reading Tests

The chart below shows the Nero CDSpeed average reading speed results with the following media:

• 8x DVD+R
• 4x DVD+RW

• 4x DVD-R
• 4x DVD-RW

The NEC drive is very consistent in its average speeds shown in the graphs above, with DVD±R and DVD±RW media. The range was from a minimum of 5.89x with DVD-RW up to a maximum of 5.91x with DVD+RW media. However, while it is reported as being an 8x reader, none of the final speeds in each instance above managed to reach 8x.