Hi:

Am sure most of you are tired of seeing questions similar to this one -- but I need some help

Trying to decide on a 8x burner and narrowed it to
(1) NEC 2500A
(2) LiteOn 812S

My concerns:

I know the 812S is upgradeable to DL and Herrie is working on making NEC upgradeable too.

How much importance should I give to Dual Layer right now ?
I mean since the media is not out there yet ... and also the media is really expensive...
should I just look at the 2 writers with only what we have today ??

--> I like kProbe, but I keep hearing that the NEC's write quality is really good --
I don't plan to use junk media ( atleast not knowingly ! )

I might use -R mostly as I have another really old "-R" only burner ...... but that's not a limiting case - if +R is better, I'll dump the old burner

Is there an opinion on this ?

Oh well -- give me anything that might help me make up my mind

Thanks

although there is a way to upgrade the 812 to dual layer with fw i dont think there will be any official firmware from Liteon to do this..if someone hacks it then thats a different story. I highly doubt the 2500 will be able to burn dual layer..but who knows..at this stage if i were you I wouldnt bother with if a drive will support dual layer this early in the game..dual layer is something im not seeing as being affordable and practical to burn with till end of this year at earliest.

as far as quality goes id say from having both drives the 2500 is better.

Jamos:

Thanks -- so let me ask you this ...

I remember reading here that the 2500 has problems burning -R ( esp Ritek G04 )
Has this been fixed with Herrie's FW update ??

Do you think that not having the set of LiteOn tools ( I will have only one burner ) would be a problem if I go with the 2500 ??

Last question -- you say the 2500 is better quality -- did you have any specific issue with LiteOn and does the 2500 consistently have better quality ( for eg with the same media and same burn speed ? ) Thanks