The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 DVD writer review has been published and can be found HERE.
As many of you already know, the Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 writer is identical in hardware to the NEC ND-3500A.

Please use this thread for constructive criticism, general comments and any other thoughts that you may have on the review.
Additional tests can also be requested, which will be looked into when time permits.
Thanks!

UPDATE: This review has been updated and the drive has now been awarded CDFreaks' Safe Buy Award.
The update and issuance of the award is due to: additional media tests that we performed after the review was published, additional comparisons to competing drives on the market and a reanalysis of the features and performance.
Compared to the first version of the article, you'll notice changes and additions on the DVD-R/RW Writing performance page and the Final Summary and Conclusion page.

Great job!

Great review Wes. And yes, I think we all know now; "3500" is a great drive.

Is it common in US with 2 years warranty on DVDRW drives? Asking this because I never seen this before.

Keep up the good work.

A 2 year warranty is not very common.
Mad Dog definitely adds additional incentive with the lengthy 2 year warranty.

I very much liked the review and learned a lot about which media to use.

All I missed was a comparison with the stock ND-3500AG, but I realize that's probably asking for too much.

The FIRMWARE is provided to MadDog from NEC. It's exactly the same except that the MadDog can BitSet and the standard NEC 3500AG can't...

The reason you won't see that is that nec drives here are not boxed (so to speak) any NEC drive you see will be an oem bare drive unless whoever sells it adds software. So there wouldn't be a standard software bundle/stuff to test it with.

Wes -- GOOD JOB ON THE REVIEW!

Nice work on the review Wes
a very enjoyable read.

Yup, good job Wes, nice writing style, fun to read. I have a 3500 as you know and of course many of us do so it's fun to see all the 3500 based drives and how they compare to each other, especially with all the "improved" firmwares around to do just about any combo.

Thanks Wes, I saw the Mad Dog DVD RW's on sale for "Black Friday" at great prices but knew nothing about them.

Question, though, those negatives that you wrote about, are they common to all the NEC 3500 ag drives, or is it a problem that Mad Dog "built-in" with the firmware? I guess what I'm asking is, if you used a different firmware (if possible) would those negatives go away?

I have not kept up with the NEC drives because I have been happy with my Litey CD RW drives and was looking into getting one of their DVD RW drives, however, they seem to still trying to catch up in the DVD RW realm. I have heard bits and pieces of satisfied users of NEC drives (I understand the NEC drives can burn to DVD media that the Litey's have trouble with at least that's what I have seen reported).

The media support is slightly different between the various firmwares (NEC, Mad Dog, IOData, TDK).
What in particular are you wondering about?

Just one thing I noticed in your review.... you said that 2.FA improved over 2.F8 and 2.F9 using MCC003... but the only difference between 2.FA and 2.F9 is in corrected Ritek D01 support that was accidentaly been removed in 2.F9...

That is why I wrote "Mad Dog claims" the only difference was added RITEKD01 support. In reality, I also saw the improvement with MCC003 discs. Thanks for being observant

They are right... I checked the difference between those 2 firmwares a while a go with a hex editor... and the only difference are the write speed flags for RITEK D01.. and changed release date, version, etc. .. only the things that doesn't really matter.. Are you sure the MCC003 are trully better.. maybe you should test with 2.F9 once again ?

Hmmm interesting, with 2.F9 in real world results I burned 2 coasters with MCC003. I must've had a couple of bad discs.
2.FA burned a nice disc.
Thanks for checking the code.
MCC003 section has been edited.

Congrat. on your 3,000 post =)

Wes,

I was referring to the 5x DVD read speed as well as the compatibility problems with media. In addition, you mentioned that it is only a "one sheep" burner. Is this in reference to burning CD-R's, as I am used to the term being applied, or is there a sheep rating for DVD R's as well?

As far as the upgraded Mad Dog firmware, does it eliminate many of the compatibility problems with the 16x and 8x DVD media? Does it also get rid of the 5x DVD read limitation?

Thanks for a great review.

The 5X CAV CSS DVD-Video read limitation is present on EVERY type of 3500A stock firmwares. They do not plan to eliminate this according to communications that I have received. (even though I requested it).

Sheep test applies to CD copy protections mainly.

No it (2.FA) doesn't eliminate any problems that are detailed in the review. Hopefully the next firmware will (but I don't have it yet).

Glad you liked it.

So are firmwares cross compatible? Could I use 3500 firmware on my maddog or could someone else use maddog firmware on a 3500?

Buy.com has this for $59.99 after $30 rebate. Not sure if it is worth it, or should all of these NEC/MadDog's drop a lot within a few more weeks. Just wondering with the 3520 due soon. I can not tell if the $30 rebate is only good at Buy.com.

Review updated, see the first post in this thread.

Wes, may I call you that, I'm not sure I have earned the right??? YOU ARREETHE MAN!!!!! I feel you have personally helped me in many respects. I had a drive that was supoest to be a 3500 but it wasn't (unlike other rebadges I have seen( ok so I dont know shit) , label and what the drive identifies itself as is a mad dog, not an nec). I know from your review that it is an nec and thanks for answering my question about cross using firmwares (you can use oem or rebadged firmwares safelely). You tested cmcmag af1 (I have had 2/3 of a fifty pack sitting on the shelf for a year cause my liteon wouldnt burn it for shit!!! So I know in advance that this drive can burn it, I test it and you are right, I can finally use up this shit media Way thanks for the heads up
http://www.pbase.com/richardh/image/37303425
Here is one of my better scans of af1 burned on my liteon
http://www.pbase.com/richardh/image/37268741
Having just bought this drive, you have told me everything I wanted to know about it (I know reviews are usally for people looking to buy, but after buying and then reading it, it is of major value to all new mad dog owners). Like everyone else has said, "Thanks for the review, well done". You are THE MAN, so thanks for helping us (and thanks for helping me!!!!).
I should probably add that the af1 50 pack cost me about 50$ (a year ago) so 30$ worth of media didn't go to waste ( I know a year later its only 5$ worth of media but I paid 50$ for the pack!!!).

Wesociety, very nice and informative review!

As a side note, maybe consider adding updates to reviews on an "addendums and updates" page. This would create a history on the reviewed device and allow readers to clearly see the changes and level of support and improvements provided by the manufacturer.

A bit of irony, in your review you observed and stated:
It seems much of the modded firmwares are basing custom strategies on MCC02RG20 write strategies...

Thanks for the review, was thinking about buying a 3500 but your review
has convinced me the BenQ 1620 might be better. (I use CMC MAG AE1 a lot)