NEC ND-2500 DVD Writer
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The ND-2500 is an internal tray-loading drive that adopts the standard computer grey colouring. As well as support for the CD-ROM standard, this drive can handle both the + and DVD formats. When asked why the DVD RAM format had been omitted, the response of a company representative was that this was due to the licensing cost relating to that particular format.
Along with the standard IDE and power connections, the rear of the unit holds digital and analogue CD output sockets while on the front there are positioned an activity light, headphone jack and a volume wheel. The drives mechanism allows for both horizontal and vertical use.
Installing the drive should not cause any problem. NEC has included a set of retaining screws, dual IDE cable and a MPC audio lead to facilitate this task. If you are inserting the drive to work in conjunction with another DVD/CD drive or on the same port as your hard disk then you will need to change a jumper so that the device is recognised as a slave rather than master. This is a simple operation with a diagram indicating the procedure in the small supplied manual. Adding extra value to the package NEC has bundled various software applications. Copies of Nero 6 SE, InCD, Sonic My DVD Video Studio and Cine Player should satisfy the needs of many users and can be put to work immediately with the DVD +R and DVD +RW disks that complete the package.
The ND-2500 is rated at 12x for DVD and 40x for CD reading while writing is 8x for DVD + or and 32x for CD-R. These write speeds are reduced to half when using appropriate RW media. As a test I transferred 4.22GB of information, consisting of 3,295 files spread over 174 folders, to 4x DVD +RW media. The task took 4 minutes 8 seconds which works out as 17.42MB per second a performance that certainly was impressive.
With its price point of £130, the ND-2500 is well worth considering. An OEM version can be purchased at a cost of £79 for those who do not mind doing without the various extras.
While the software bundled with the ND-2500 is reasonably comprehensive you might like to consider a third-party piece product to enhance the functionality of the DVD writer. This product is DVD X Copy from 321 Studios. The software is available for downloading from 321 Studios website in three different versions. These are Express, Gold and Platinum. At present the company is in the midst of legal action in America regarding the use to which its product can be put. While there are obviously some concerns over piracy here, 321 Studios feel that by digital imprinting each copy made by an individual user it has taken reasonable steps to ensure that end-users do not take advantage of the products ability to create backup copies of legitimately purchased DVDs.
By using the Platinum version of DVD X Copy you have access to features which allow control over the backup (a less emotive word than copy) process. There is a choice of Simple, for a single click operation, or Advanced whereby you can make use of the bells & whistles that include multi-channel audio and episodic burning of those favourite Simpsons cartoons. When necessary you can opt to burn to either + or format with compression turned on or the ability to split the data over a number of disks.
As an added bonus DVD X Copy Platinum includes a copy of DVD X Rescue. This product has been designed to analyse and retrieve data that might otherwise be lost due to wear and tear of the disk. You can access DVD X Rescue from the main menu but this is a one-way route and you have to restart the software in order to return to the main functions of DVD X Copy. Due to the lack of any damaged media I have been unable to test DVD X Rescue.
When looking at this product I considered what it could do rather than the use to which a minority might put it. With this in mind DVD X Copy is an excellent product for backing up valuable CDs. Pricing for the Platinum version is $119.99.
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