The specifications of this drive tell us that is should write DVD-R discs at 4x and DVD+R discs at 8X speed. In this part we will measure the write time for various types of DVD-/+R discs. We do also focus on write quality and media compatibility.
DVD-Writing performance:
In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD-R and DVD+R discs. We used Nero burning Rom to set up a new UDF/ISO compilation containing 4482Mb of data, and started the write process. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.
DVD+R
DVD-R
From these screenshots we could see that the NU DDW-082 wrote the DVD+R in 8 minutes and 2 seconds, and the DVD-R in 14 minutes and 25 seconds. How this compares to other drives may bee seen in the table below:
| Write DVD data discs ADVERTISEMENT
| DVD+R | DVD-R |
| Memorex Dual-X | 14m 06s | 14m 49s |
| LG GSA-4040B | 14m 44s | 14m 56s |
| Lite-On LDW-411S | 14m 39s | 15m 06s |
| Mediagear / BTC | 14m 40s | 14m 48s |
| Plextor PX-708A | 8m 01s | 14m 57s |
| NEC ND-2500A @ 8x | 9m 34s | 9m 30s |
| NEC ND-2500A @ 4x | 14m 21s | 14m 23s |
| Lite-On LDW-811S | 8m 43s | 15m 07s |
| Pioneer DVR-107D @ 8x | 8m 45s | 8m 27s |
| Pioneer DVR-107D @ 4x | 15m 22s | 15m 09s |
| NU DDW-082 | 8m 02s | 14m 26s |
The NU DDW-082 is very fast at 8x DVD-Writing and is only beaten by the Plextor PX-708A by a second. It’s also very fast at DVD-R writing compared to other 4x writers.
Write quality:
You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers. So we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On, in this test we use a Lite-On LDW-411S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can’t be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings; PI/PO (Parity Inner/Parity Outer) Sum: 8 ECC, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Since ECC sum is set to 8 we will now call the errors PI-8 and PO-8 errors.
But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players is more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:
This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-ROM disc (Baldurs Gate DVD-ROM).
This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk
(Indiana Jones and the last crusade). Notice that only the first layer is
scanned.
If you read below you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.
Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):
Random errors:
A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.
Here we see what a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors. And that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI errors.
But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything but if interested look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.
According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.
But what are the PO errors that K-Probe reports? Actually the PO errors that K-Probe reports is the Parity Inner uncorrectable errors, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner uncorrectable errors. So how is a Parity Inner uncorrectable error defined? Here are what ECMA 337 states:
‘If a row of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be ‘PI-uncorrectable”.”
In theory an ECC block may in the worst case have 208 PI uncorrectable errors since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI uncorrectable errors allowed on a good disc:
‘- In any ECC Block the number of PI-uncorrectable rows should not exceed 4.”
This is where K-Probe gives us problems as for PI errors it have to be set to a PI/PO sum of 8 ECC blocks to show results that compares to the standard, but for PI uncorrectable errors (Called PO in K-Probe) the PI/PO sum have to be set to a sum of 1 ECC block.
A guideline is to calculate the Parity Inner Uncorrectable errors to 8 ECC sum, which is max 32 (4 x 8) Parity Inner uncorrectable errors, but now we can’t be sure if one of the 8 ECC blocks exceeds the specifications. But if the result exceeds 32 PI uncorrectable errors we know that at least one block have more than 4 PI uncorrectable errors.
But what makes a disc unreadable? A PO uncorrectable error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the PO uncorrectable errors.
Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc ‘“ but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.
And another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking to much time.
To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a JLMS XJ-HD165H DVD-ROM that seems to be pretty easy affected by the quality of a written disc.
Easier explanation on how to read the test results.
Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in Kprobe reports?
Use this as a guideline for good discs:
PI(Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
PO(Parity Outer): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 32 PO-8 (actually PI uncorrectable) errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 32.
And as always; lower is better 
And look at the reading curve, a slight slowdown at the end is probably nothing to worry about, but huge bumps and slowdowns are not good.
DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:
| Brand: | SKS Claudia |
| Manufacturer: | Ritek |
| Code: | RITEK R03 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 8x |
| Write Speed: | 8x |
| Write Time: | 8m:14s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 86.533 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.396 |
The NU DDW-082 had some strange problems with this disc type, we tried some different discs but it was more or less the same problems every time. But our reading test did not show any slowdowns at all tough. Room for improvements.
| Brand: | Verbatim DataLifePlus |
| Manufacturer: | Mitsubishi (Real Mitsubishi discs fromSingapore ) |
| Code: | MCC 003 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 8x |
| Write Speed: | 8x |
| Write Time: | 8m:03s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 7.112 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.027 |
A very good result and these discs should not cause you any trouble at all.
| Brand: | Plextor |
| Manufacturer: | Taiyo Yuden |
| Code: | YUDEN000T01 (second Revision) |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 8x |
| Write Time: | 8m:1s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 0.429 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.003 |
Impressive! Do we have to say more? Highly recommended.
| Brand: | Verbatim Data Life Plus (included with the drive) |
| Manufacturer: | Mitsubishi (Real Mitsubishi disc from Singapore ) |
| Code: | MCC 002 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 8x |
| Write Time: | 8m:3s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 1.411 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.022 |
We decided to try the disc included with the drive, and as we could see the result is perfect ‘“ even better than with the 8x certified Mitsubishi discs.
| Brand: | Arita |
| Manufacturer: | Ricoh (by Ritek) |
| Code: | RICOHJPNR01 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 8x |
| Write Time: | 8m:00s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 0.586 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.028 |
Way to go NU!! The writing quality with these discs is simply impressive at 8x. Highly recommended
| Brand: | Memorex |
| Manufacturer: | CMC Magnetics |
| Code: | CMC.MAG.F01 (revision 000) |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 8x |
| Write Time: | 8m:5s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 1.679 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.265 |
Another outstanding result, nice to see how well these discs works at 8x.
| Brand: | BenQ |
| Manufacturer: | Daxon |
| Code: | DAXON.AZ1 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 4x |
| Write Time: | 14m:48s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 12.624 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.052 |
No problems here either, also discs that we could recommend without problems.
| Brand: | BulkpaQ Generation 4 |
| Manufacturer: | Unknown |
| Code: | MEDIA ID001 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 4x |
| Write Time: | 14m:49s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 45.439 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.137 |
These discs are known to be low quality, but the result is still acceptable. But these discs are not among our first picks.
| Brand: | BeALL |
| Manufacturer: | BeALL |
| Code: | BeAll000P40 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 4x |
| Write Time: | 14m:48s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 57.610 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.210 |
The result with this disc type was not as good as we hoped, but still more than good enough to not give any problems.
| Brand: | Green Disc |
| Manufacturer: | Opto Disc |
| Code: | OPTODISCOR4 |
| Disc Type: | DVD+R |
| Capacity: | 4483MB |
| Certified Speed: | 4x |
| Write Speed: | 4x |
| Write Time: | 14m:46s |
| PI-8 errors Average/Sec: | 17.383 |
| PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec: | 0.235 |
The NU DDW-082 did not have any problems with these discs. Highly recommended.
To see if rather unknown media types are supported at certified speed we include the following table:
| DVD+R | Manufacturer | Media code | Certified | Supported |
| Sky | Unknown | AML 002 | 8x | 8x |
| Fortis | Nanya | NANYA.RJB | 4x | 4x |
| Unbranded | Unknown | PITSEXP 002 | 4x | 4x |
| Unbranded | Unknown | AML 001 | 4x | 4x |
| Unbranded | Unknown | IS01001 | 4x | 4x |
| Unbranded | Unknown | VDSPMSAB001 | 4x | 4x |
| Unbranded | Unknown | 001 | 4x | 4x |
And as we could see there are no problems with media compatibility at all.
Head on to next page and read about DVD-R compatibility and write quality…
