Nu Tech DDW-081: More DVD+R madness
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 22, 2003 10:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Construction
We were immediately impressed with the amount and quality of the software bundled with the drive. Nu Tech bundled almost the entire Sonic suite, including MyDVD, CinePlayer, SimpleBackup and RecordNow (with Sonic DLA). One 4X DVD+RW was also included.
As mentioned in previous reviews, we tend to favor Ahead's Nero with DVD/CDR combo drives, simply because of Nero's established name in the CDR sector. RecordNow is capable of just about as many CDR features as Nero, although we still feel a little disappointed. However, for DVD burning, Sonic MyDVD is a fairly strong suite.
Documentation with the drive was a little light, with only a quick installation guide of 11 pages (virtually all of which were related to installing and using Sonic products). One thing that slightly bothered us was the lack of documentation that listed exact specifications for the drive. Later, it was revealed to us that the 3rd revision firmware (BX03) upgrades the drive calibration to 40X CDR speeds, so the absence of bundled specifications was most likely because the drive's capabilities were not fully programmed at the time of production.
Click to enlarge.
We have yet to see many DVDR drives with a lot of style, so the DDW-081's Spartan white finish and hard edges were no surprise to us. The industry standard play and eject buttons were oriented on the right, with headphone jacks and volume control on the left. The LED interface is also fairly straightforward — a blinking green LED denotes loading, solid LED for reading, and solid red for writing. We were a little dissatisfied that the intensity of this red/green LED is not very bright, and even in a dark environment, it can be a little hard to see.
Click to enlarge.
The DDW-081 did not come with any intake or exhaust holes. You may recall that most drives at least have some exhaust ventilation, and even in the case of Pioneer's 107/106 drives, there are intakes in the front of the unit as well. In our opinion, less places for dust to get in the drive is probably better.
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Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
United Micro has it for $139 shipped.http://www.unitedmicro.com/partw.cgi?DWNT006++5
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
#11: My apologies, I did use DiskInfo Pro.Here is what DIP says AFTER I burned the media.
YUDEN Disks labeled Plextor
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID YUDEN000T01
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
RICOH Disks labeled Imation
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
MMC Disks labeled Verbatim
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+R
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 23053Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1
Another Ricoh Disk labeled FujiFilm
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR00
Format Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD-ROM
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 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
There are two things I'd like to point out. The first being DiskInfoPro identified the MCC disk as 8X before it was burned. Furthermore, the FujiFilm disk was identified as 4X on the box, and 4X in DiskInfoPro before it was burned.
#12: Thank you for the updated link. The PDF I recieved was straight from QSI and I was unaware there was an update on the chipset.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Yes... MMC 02 is capable of 8x with that drive. That's why your utility is saying that. However, that doesn't mean that Verbatim/Mitsu. actually rates it at that speed.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
One more thing, in the review you claim that the PNX7850 chipset does not support 8x speed. Not true, it does: http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/acrobat/lite...It was only early versions that didn't support 8x. The PDF you link to is for the complete reference design where the Philips OPU 66.20 limits the speed to 4x (I assume QSI uses a different PUH).
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Then Diskinfo is wrong because MCC 002 (as in Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. and not MMC) DVD+R media are only certified for 4x speed. Use DVDInfoPro or DVDIndentifier instead for checking the media.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Thanks Christopher :)for the linksAnonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
#1: We did not have a verbatim disk included. We have a 4X DVD+RW instead. Remember, we had a review sample so ours might have been slightly different. We had to upgrade from QSI firmware just to bring ours to spec with the retail drives.#2: DiskInfo, kind of a neat utlity, claimed the MMC 02 disk is capable of 4X and 8X.
I uploaded the firmware for anyone who wants to download it. Its on the last page of the article.
Cheers,
Kristopher
Murse - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
You can also take a look at this thread:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...
They sell it at Newegg, Excaliberpc, Atacom, Unitedmicro, Zipzoomfly...to name a few.
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
Check this thread there are a few sites mentioned..http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=12956...
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
If anybody knows where you can buy one, please post a link. Thank you.