Nu Tech DDW-081: More DVD+R madness
by Kristopher Kubicki on October 22, 2003 10:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Specifications
Below is a quick overview of specifications on the drive. The Nu Tech website has the specifications listed as well:| Nu Tech DDW-081 | |
| Interface | IDE |
| CD Write Speed | 40X, 32X, 24X (CAV) 16X, 12X, 8X, 4X (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speed | 10X, 8X, 4X (CLV) |
| CD Read Speed | 40X Max (CAV) |
| DVD+R Write Speed | 8X, 4X, 2X (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Rewrite Speed | 4X, 2.4X (CLV) |
| DVD Read Speed | 12X Max (CAV) |
| Supported Modes | DAO / DAO-RAW 16 & 96 TAO SAO / SAO 16 & 96 Packet Write MultiSession |
| Supported Formats | DVD+R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD+RW (random) CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, Mixed Mode, CD Extra Photo CD, CD Text, Bootable CD, UDF |
| Access Time | CD: 120ms DVD: 120ms |
| Buffer | 2MB |
Specifications on the DDW-081 are better than average, considering it only does one format. The 40X CDR speeds were not standard out of the box, so we had to run a utility to upgrade our CD burn speeds from 32X. Fortunately, all new burners should have this already enabled. Furthermore, we felt the CDRW speed is slightly weak, at only 10X. Our DDW-081 supports 8X DVD+R, but as we will see, it cannot write 8X on 4X media like the Plextor 708A. More confusion was thrown into the fray when we noticed that Nu Tech's specifications on their website were not similar over the entire product description. We contacted them to update their webpage, and confirmed with them that the above specifications are in fact the “official” specs.
However, we do like the lower access times on the drive. Many of the drives that we have seen have access times in excess of 180ms, and as we will see in the benchmark, the DDW-081's access times are actually a little bit better, in the 100-110ms range.
Underrun technology is backed by Seamless Link, which is commonly associated with BenQ for some reason. Quite naturally though, it's actually Philips' technology; a component of the Nexperia chipset that QSI/Nu Tech uses in this burner.
At the original time of publication, we had a beta firmware for our drive that still recognized the drive manufacturer as QSI. Two updates later and a separate firmware tool for 40X CDR speed, we were finally up to date with the Nu Tech BX03 firmware. We were a bit surprised that Nu Tech released two firmware updates within a week of each other, especially since the drive itself is only a month old.
Here we can see a few more specifications about the drive. Our first InfoTool capture is using the original firmware shipped to us from Nu Tech. As you can see, the drive is still labeled as QSI and only uses 32X write capabilities.
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25 Comments
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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?