NU DDW-081/082 DVD±R/RW

OC-Freak

March 16, 2004

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

Brand:

Verbatim
Data Life Plus

Manufacturer:

Taiyo
Yuden

Code:

TYG01

Disc
Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified
Speed:

Write
Speed:

Write
Time:

14m:23s

PI-8
errors Average/Sec:

27.068

PI-8
uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.016

The result
with these TY discs is good enough, so we have no problems recommending these
discs.

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India (but with Mitsubishi dye and ADIP)
Code:	MCC01RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.898
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.060

Also some
highly recommended discs for use with this drive.

Brand:	Dysan
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMCMAG.AF1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4X
Write Speed:	4X
Write Time:	15m:8s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.600
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.014

The result
with these Memorex DVD-R discs manufactured by CMC Magnetics is very good, but
notice that the quality of CMC Magnetics manufactured discs varies from brand to
brand and batch to batch, so discs from other batches may not work as good as
this.

Brand:	Datasafe
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG04
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.457
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.012

Also some
highly recommended discs and you should not have any problems with these either.
But notice that the quality of Ritek discs also varies from batch to
batch.

Brand:	Maxell
Manufacturer:	Maxell
Code:	MXL RG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.222
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.028

Another good
result, as expected from these good and rather expensive discs. Highly
recommended.

Brand:	Princo
Manufacturer:	Princo
Code:	PRINCO
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	410.741
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	22.518

We did try
some different Princo discs and got about the same results every time. It was a
surprise to see that the disc was actually readable, but Princo varies much in
quality and is not a brand that we would recommend.

Brand:	MMORE
Manufacturer:	Optodisc
Code:	OPTODISCK001
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	111.501
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.024

Notice: This
disc type is not on NU’s supported media list.
The overall amount of errors
is a bit higher than we prefer, and the reading curve shows some reading
problems at the end.

Brand:	Unbranded, sold as AZO 4X Certified.
Manufacturer:	Unknown
Code:	VDSPMSAB01 / VDSPSAB01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:22s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	195.331
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.141

Notice: This
disc type is not on NU’s supported media list.
The drive did surprisingly
well with these very low quality discs, but still far from good enough to be
recommended.

Brand:	O1ne
Manufacturer:	Lead Data.
Code:	LEADDATA01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	725.238
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	98.852

Notice: This
disc type is not on NU’s supported media list.
Surprise 1: Wow, that K-Probe
result is not good. Surprise 2: Wow, the disc is still readable. We feel that
the K-Probe scan and the reading curve do not completely agree this time as we
expected the disc to be completely unreadable. But after all it seem like NU
have a job to do on improving the firmware.

Brand:	Fortis
Manufacturer:	Digital Storage Technology
Code:	Dvsn
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	642.620
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	274.792

Notice: This
disc type is not on NU’s supported media list.
The result was not too
surprising, as this is a very low quality disc type. Stay away from
these.

Brand:	Xeed / Mitsui MAM-E
Manufacturer:	Mitsui
Code:	MCI4XG01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:7s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	921.546
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	106.150

Notice: This
disc type is not on NU’s supported media list.
Another very low quality disc
type and another case where the K-Probe result and the reading curve disagrees,
we expected the disc to be completely unreadable after having seen the K-Probe
result but to our surprise it was completely readable. But you should still stay
away from these discs.

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	BeALL
Code:	BeAllG40001
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	207.782
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.301

Notice: This
disc type is not on NU’s supported media list.
Disappointing to such a bad
result from these good quality discs, but after all it was not bad enough to
cause any reading problems. More firmware improvements are needed.

Again we
present a table with various media to see if all media types are supported at
certified speed.

DVD-R Brand	Manufacturer	Media code	Certified Write Speed	Supported Write Speed
PRINCO	PRINCO	PRINCO	4x	4x*
Fortis	Gigastorage	GSC001	4x	4x
That’s write	Unknown	VANGUARD	4x	4x
Unbranded	Yi Jhan	Yi Jhan 001	4x	4x
Unbranded	Gigastorage	GSC002	4x	4x
Datawrite red v2	Infosmart	INFOSMART01	4x	4x
Datawrite red v2	Unknown	AN31	4x	4x
UL-Tran media	Onidtech	ONIDTECH	4x	4x
Unbranded	Unknown	AML	4x	4x
Unbranded	Unknown	AN30	4x	4x
Unbranded	Pioneer (fake!)	PVCR001002	4x	4x
Unbranded	Unknown	AN32	4x	4x
Unbranded	Unknown	(No code)	4x	4x
Unbranded	Unknown	LONGTEN 001	4x	4x

*This is a
very problematic Princo disc type that few writers are able to recognize and
write successfully.

As we could
see the media support is very good and all disc types were supported at
certified speed.

But since we
have promised to get back to a DVD-R writing problem, here it is. There seems to
be a problem with writing the lead in correctly with DVD-R discs, and to
demonstrate this we include two images below:

This is a ritekG04 DVD-R disc written with the NU
DDW-082

This is a ritekG04 DVD-R disc written with a Pioneer DVR-106D (just
an example ‘“ most other drives writes discs identical to the
pioneer).

A few other
drives (Lite-On LDW-411S with the earlier firmwares is one example) that have
had problems with DVD-R discs not being playable in some drives wrote discs
looking identical to the NU DDW-082 written DVD-R disc.

And sure
enough, some drives like Toshiba SD-M1612 DVD-ROM and Pioneer DVR-106D
DVD-Writer do not recognize the DVD-R discs written by the NU DDW-082, so they
have to fix that problem soon. But the dual format firmware is not yet in final
stage and still under development, so we think and hope this problem will be
fixed soon.

Overall thoughts: The writing quality on DVD+R
discs is some of the best we have seen so it seems like the running OPC
technology works as it should. The writing quality on most supported DVD-R media
is also very good, but for the media that is not supported the quality is rather
low. But we think this will be fixed in future firmware versions. They should
also fix the DVD-R compatibility problem mentioned above.

Notice: The
dual format firmware is not yet in final stage, and most of the DVD-R problems
we had will hopefully be fixed in the final version that’s expected to be
released in April.

This
concludes our DVD-writing tests, so head on to next page and read about the RW
and packet writing performance of this
drive…