Burning


Click to enlarge.


Above is an 8X DVD+R burn with some MMC media (CD Speed reports CLV instead of Z-CLV). Notice that the strategy is very similar to Plextor's; the burn starts at 6X and then adjusts to 8X Z-CLV. However, it looks apparent that there are some stability issues at that speed, since we see several stop gaps in the burn. Perhaps we are seeing the 4X Nexperia PNX7850 chipset showing its incapability to run out of spec.

Below are the CD-R, CD+RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW speed tests. We used DVD/CD Speed with the same configuration as the previous test.

Label Rating Average Write Length Mode
Ritek 97m31s01f (Cyanine AZO) 52X CDR 23.48X 74:43.00 P-CAV
Imation 52X CDR 29.32X 74:43.00 P-CAV
Mitsubishi 97m23s24f 24X CDRW 9.95X 74:43.00 CLV
RICOHJPN R00-01 (Imation) 4X DVD+R 7.72X 4.38GB Z-CLV
FujiFilm 2.4X DVD+R 2.36X 4.38GB P-CAV
YUDEN000T01 4X DVD+R 3.91X 4.38GB P-CAV
MCC 002 4X DVD+R 7.62X 4.38GB Z-CLV
Ricoh RICOHJPN 2.4X DVD+RW 2.37X 4.38GB CLV
PHILIPS 041 4X DVD+RW 3.92X 4.38GB P-CAV
RICOHJPR01 4X DVD+R 7.63X 4.38GB Z-CLV


Compatibility on the drive was a little sporadic. Some of our Ricoh based FujiFilm, which is rated for 4X, only trickled out of the burner at 2.4X. Fortunately, this was the only media that wouldn't burn as advertised. We are not 100% sure why this happened.

Bit setting does not seem possible with this drive, which is a shame. Most drives based on Ricoh design are capable of bit setting the book mode to other formats. We have heard conflicting results claiming that this particular drive does; although with Nero, it seemed not possible. Using BenQ's bit setting tool was not supported by the drive.

Testing the drive Final Thoughts
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  • edbiegler - Thursday, April 1, 2004 - link

    Just bought one tonight. $99 at Computer Sonics in Seattle (Southcenter) The sales guy said the new firmware WILL support -R and +R at 8X. I haven't been home to try yet, but why would he fib. I'm running an AMD Athalon 650 w/ Win XP. Will keep you posted on success (or failure)

    Ed
  • edbiegler - Thursday, April 1, 2004 - link

  • KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, October 28, 2003 - link

    Thanks for the info Murse.

    Here is some updated information concerning Ricoh Disks.


    Media Information
    Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
    Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
    Format Capacity Not Formatted
    Free Blocks 405405696
    Free Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
    Book Type DVD+R
    Media Type DVD+R
    Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 8.0x 11080KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 6.0x 8310KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
    Linear Density Blank Disc
    Track Density Unknown
    Number of Layers 1

    This was a Ricoh Labeled 4X that I pulled out of Best Buy yesterday. I have put the benchmark on the website.

    Kristopher
  • Murse - Monday, October 27, 2003 - link

    Nu Tech bitsetting utility available. No word yet on if it works. It was supplied by QSI in Taiwan.

    http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=13245
  • Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link

    The only place I could find the MCC 002 media was at Amazon.com. Was $58.99 for a 20 pack. Almost twice the price as the Memorex!

    Could someone post links to 4X media that is a good and is resonably priced?
  • Anonymous User - Friday, October 24, 2003 - link

    livewarehouse has this drive for $139 including 3 day shipping >>


    http://store.yahoo.com/livewarehouse/dvnt33460.htm...
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    For everyone above, I copied the wrong DiskInfo for the MMC disk. It should be:

    Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
    Media code/Manufacturer ID MCC 002
    Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
    Book Type DVD+R
    Media Type DVD+R
    Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 8.0x 11080KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
    Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
    Data area starting sector 30000h
    Data area end sector 23053Fh
    Linear Density 0.267um/bit
    Track Density 0.74um/track
    Number of Layers 1


    Cheers,

    Kristopher
  • Murse - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    Nevermind...just copy and paste the link from #15 and it will take you to the right price. Their site is kind of screwy, after adding it to my cart, I had to hit "update" to get it to stay in there.
  • Murse - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    I ordered one from unitedmicro and it's waiting for me at home now. To get the $139 ($132 + 7 ship) you have to go through pricewatch. Their site lists it as $145 + ship. Navigate to DVD-ROM from the pricewatch home page, then search for "DDW 081" and the listing for unitedmicro should come up. Then navigate to unitedmicro through pricewatch. WARNING: Their resellerrating is very bad, but they are $20 cheaper than everywhere else, so I took a chance. They shipped it pretty quickly (although not the same day as ordered), but I haven't inspected the package yet. Good luck.
  • Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link

    There is some contradictory information on the Nu Tech website as to the CD-RW speed of the DDW-081. The specs for the DDW-081(http://www.nuniverse.com/1_english/3_products/01_i... state the CD-RW speed is 10X. However, Nu Tech's news release on the DDW-081 ( http://www.nuniverse.com/1_english/2_new/01_01_new... states "The DDW-081 supports 8X DVD+Write/4X DVD+ReWrite 16X DVD-ROM/40X CD-Write/24X CD-ReWrite/48X CD-ROM." Furthermore, the Philips refernence literature mentioned above (http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/acrobat/lite... states the CD-RW speed is also 24x. If the drive at present only supports CD-RW at 10x, I'm wondering if a future firmware update will upgrade it to 24x?

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