NEC ND-6500A - Page 23

Conclusion

You can see many similarities between the ND-6500A and the previous ND-2510A model. Of course, the ND-6500A model is mainly targeted for notebook users, while the ND-2510A is intended to be used with desktop PCs. Another difference is CD writing speed, with the ND-6500A being slower than the ND-2510A. Although the ND-6500A does not support the fastest available speeds on the market, it is the fastest available for slim drives.

Laptop users need an all-in-one drive to be used as a reader and as a burner at the same time. This means that more attention should be given to CD/DVD error correction and CD/DVD media burning quality, and less to speed. NEC appears to follow this line of thinking, reducing writing speed and increasing burning quality for both CD and DVD media.

The ND-6500A performed extremely well in our DVD error correction tests, but CD error correction could be further improved. DAE speed is rather low, it cannot make SafeDisc 2.60+ backups and cannot recognize 99 minute discs.

With double layer media, the drive's burning quality remains high, but the default booktype setting is set to DVD+R DL. Of course this bit-setting can be changed with several utilities already in use with former NEC ND models.

In general, the drive can be described in a few words as a good but slow reader, and a good quality (but again slow) burner. However, as already stated in this review, speed is not as important as quality for a drive of this kind.

- The Good

• Very good DVD error correction capabilities
• Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
• Supports audio protected discs
• Very good CD writing quality at 24X with low Jitter values
• Very good Single Layer DVD writing quality
• Very good writing quality with Double Layer media
• Can read/rip 90min Audio CDs
• Can overburn up to 90min CDs

- The Bad

• Poor CD error correction capabilities
• Slow ripping CSS DVD-Video performance
• Slow DAE speed
• Mount Rainier is not supported
• Cannot recognize 99min Audio CD's
• Cannot create working backups with SafeDisc protected games over v2.60
• Cannot overburn DVD recordable media
• Slow CD and DVD writing speed

- Like To be fixed

• Official firmware release to support booktype setting for +R/+RW media
• Better CD error correction capabilities