The maximum writing speed for DVD media is almost at its peak and it is not likely to go much faster than 16x speed due to the limitations in the rotational speed of the media which will easily shatter if it rotates any faster. So drive manufacturers are now looking into different features to enhance their products.
NEC announced the ND-4551A Labelflash™ drive with the additional support for DVD-RAM disc burning

Quote:-
"Labelflash™ delivers high image quality, in 256 different shades. The labelling process can take as little as seven minutes, depending on the resolution selected. Both the top side and the data side of the disc can be labelled.
To burn images on the top of the disc requires specialised media. Labelflash™ discs have a special top coating, 0.6 millimetre-thick, which ensures the image will not fade. However using Labelflash™ you can burn images on to the data side of any standard disc, in an area not already written with data."

I was anxious to try out this new technology which is in direct competition with the Lightscribe Technology & I was able to obtain a sample drive before Christmas unfortunately there was no Labelflash™ supporting software. I checked around and could not find any software readily available there were reports that it would not be available until February.
The software to support Labelflash™ is integrated into a special Nero OEM version 6.6.1.3 and was not originally shipped with the bare drives., although an email from NEC claimed otherwise

Quote:-
"Thank you for taken the time to write us yesterday. We fully understand your irritations and regret that you have gotten a wrong information. NEC Deutschland has delivered the NEC DVD bulk drives which support LabelFlash with the necessary software to burn Labelflash™ disks to its dealers. The software is already available with the drives and you don't have to wait until February."

My supplier has a different story with this message that was on on their web site before Christmas

Quote:-
"Please Note: NEC do not yet include any software for writing to Labelflash™ discs. Customers are required to find an alternative solution"

Their technical staff tried hard before Christmas to acquire the software and were promised by NEC that they would have it the week between Christmas & New Year. Although the Technical Staff were not at work until this week I received a copy of the Nero OEM software on New Years Eve and my thanks go to them for putting themselves out for me and other disappointed Labelflashers.

The software on the CD included Nero Express 6 but insisted on removing my existing Nero 6 first before installing. after the install I had lost Nero Burning Rom, my LG Lightscribe software and only had Nero Express. I then had to reinstall the Nero OEM LG Lightscribe software followed by the latest Nero 6.6.0.18 upgrade to get all my Nero functionality back & then reinstall the 6.6.13 OEM Labelflash™ software again finally giving me both Lightscribe & Labelflash with the full Nero Burning Rom

I have since found out the reason for this is that when the Nero 6.6.1.3 NEC software is installed it only installs the Nero Express version because the bungled OEM serial number is for Nero Express and started with "1A20" and to use the full Nero Ultra Edition the original serial number (which has now been removed from the registry)
must be used, this serial number begins with "1A23" you must of course own the full Nero Ultra Edition to use it and can upgrade from the Nero Site

It has been reported by some users that the current version of Nero 7 will support Labelflash, but from my experience it will allow writing to the burn side of the disc but you are in fear of overprinting the data area and thus rendering your disc unusable.
Using Nero 6.6.1.3 NEC with Labelflash limits the printable area to the unused portion of the disc and prohibits printing over the data area.



Eventually I got it up and running but in the absence of Labelflash™ media I burnt a few test graphics to the underside of some blank DVD discs. The time taken to inscribe the full disc with graphics was about 45 minutes at best quality but even this was poor and not up to my expectations. Upon examining the inscribed images I realised that the black areas had not been inscribed and the best contrast was in the white area I did some further inscriptions but this time I made the images negative and the results came out much better.

These are the images and their negatives I used to produce this DVD






This DVD was burnt from an ISO of a 8mm demo disc and then the Labelflash™ software used to produce the graphics around the outside. The software automatically selected the burn area within the unused space on the disc and allowed more than enough margins around it, the burn time was about 30 minutes at highest quality.



These discs are RiDisc Xtreme 16x DVD-R with the dark Purple Ritek dye which I found to give the best contrast in my images
According to the software the burn time to inscribe the full area of the disc at highest quality is 46 mins but this can be customised and can take anywhere from less than 10 minutes to 156 minutes. I doubt if a seven minute inscription would be of any use on the burn side.
So far I have been unable to obtain any Labelflash™ media to print onto the label side of the disc but expect to add to this review as soon as I obtain some

This drive is now part of my Test Lab and will be used in future media reviews so watch out for the burning results

I have received several email requests for me to supply the LabelFlash software which should have been supplied with the NEC drive
Labelflash software can only be supplied by NEC and should have been supplied with the bare drive according to NEC

Here are Two official statements I received from NEC
This first one was
Received before Christmas

Thank you for taken the time to write us yesterday.
We fully understand your irritations and regret that you have gotten a wrong information. NEC Deutschland has delivered the NEC DVD bulk drives which support LabelFlash with the necessary software to burn LabelFlash disks to its dealers.
The software is already available with the drives and you don`t have to wait until February.

And this second reply received 12 Jan after their Christmas break

The labelflash (retail-) burners which are distributed directly by NEC Germany contain a bundled software CD included also labelflash function.
A short "howto" manual can be found here: http://www.de.nec.de/productoverview.php/id/1340 (It is linked from this page and I actually found it HERE)

If you not receive any software CD when buying burner, you should contact immediate your dealer or suplier.
The standalone versions of Nero will become shortly an update to make labelflash possible. For further (release)questions pls. contact the customer support of Nero: http://www.de.nec.de/productoverview.php/id/1340

Added:  Monday, January 02, 2006
Reviewer:  Flash

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