Nu-Tech 6x, 8x +R 4x +RW writers

[StudeBarc]

Folks,

These drives are appearing in Oz. Any more info on Nu-Tech or Nu-Universe would be good.....Ebay listings:

6x - http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2758221330&category=3754
8x - http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2758221336&category=3754

I can tell you those prices are cheap...!!!!!

Website (seems a little behind!) : http://www.nuniverse.com/layout/1_english/index.html

Fun times on pricing/speed etc all coming now!!!!!

Regards
Studebarc

[-jsl-]

http://www.nuniverse.com/ is a better link.

From the about page:
"Nu Technology Inc. is founded in May of 2003 by Quanta Computer (one of the best Notebook IT groups worldwide) and Quanta Storage Inc. Located in the center of the Silicon Valley; we are an optical storage drive manufacturer. Our company is proud to produce a full range of both internal and external, Half-Height and Slim optical storage products. Some of our internal and external optical products include IDE CD/DVD ROM, CD re-writer, CDRW plus DVD combo drive, and DVD writers."

QSI is a quite big Taiwanese manufacturer of optical notebook drives (OEM). Obviously QSI has now started selling retail drives under the Nu Tech brand. More information is posted here.

[tompika]

[StudeBarc]

Thanks jsl and Tompika,

Certainly interesting times at the moment.

Would like to see if these drives support bit-setting.

Time will tell.

Regards
Studebarc

[Gil T Pleasure]

http://www.cdr-info.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=4213

[murse]

Some more info on this drive has been posted here:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=12956&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=50&s...cd4d57e51d7080

[StudeBarc]

Murse,

Thanks for the link to further discussions. The bit-setting availability interests me greatly, as do real world results on DVD-Video and data applications. Would appreciate you posting your further findings on DDW-081 here.

Regards
Studebarc

[murse]

Some more news on Nu Tech:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=84599#84599

[triphop]

Also available at www.softwareandstuff.com:


http://www.softwareandstuff.com/DRV10294.html
http://www.softwareandstuff.com/DRV10295.html

For the 6x and 8x versions.

I havent used these drive and make no representation about them.

[RAAGAAman]

Studebarc wrote:

Certainly interesting times at the moment.

Would like to see if these drives support bit-setting.

I just tested the DDW-081 and it does write the "DVD-ROM" bookcode to DVD+R and DVD+RW disks. I have not found a utility that will change it back to the DVD+R and +RW values.
Also, I was able to write a MCC 4X+R media at 8X. It wrote at 6X on the first 20 minutes and the rest of the disk at 8X. The write quality looks good except for the last part of the disk near the edge. I will try to get a Kprobe image if someone wants to look at it.

RG

[StudeBarc]

RAAGAAman,

Thanks for the report. Could you do a DVDInfoPro reading on the burned disc and post the result...ie to see the ROM bit-set. Was there any utility that was used to set the defaults? By the sounds of your observations ...not.

very interested in what you can report. Thanks again for the effort.

PS I think you mean 6x for 20 seconds, then 8x for the rest?

Regards
Studebarc

[tompika]

I will try to get a Kprobe image if someone wants to look at it.

I do, I do.
We also need a drive info, a media info and a bitsetting info made by DVDInfoPRO
Thanks

PS I think you mean 6x for 20 seconds, then 8x for the rest?

I think he meant the first 20 minutes of the movie...

[RAAGAAman]

ie to see the ROM bit-set. Was there any utility that was used to set the defaults? By the sounds of your observations ...not.

No there is no utility. The drive is already set to "DVD-ROM" for both disk types.

PS I think you mean 6x for 20 seconds, then 8x for the rest?

Oops. Yep I meant 20min. I will try to post a CDspeed graph tomorrow.

RG

[murse]

This thread has some speed tests and kprobe for this drive:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=12956&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=50

[tompika]

Thanks for the link, murse, thats what I needed.
Very promising...8xburning on 4xmedia with ROM booktype.
Slimline 8xburner...

(Dual-layer writing is coming too... )

[RAAGAAman]

Slimline 8xburner...

Whoa nelly. I was never to impressed by their slim Combo drives.
Example: Their 24X combo does not hit max write speed until about 72 minutes on the disk. Why bother.



RG.

[kirpen]

So has anyone tried the new drive? How doe it work as far as backups go?

[RAAGAAman]

Here is the CDSpeed result. You can see the drive switches to 8X pretty early in the disk.



RG

[RAAGAAman]

Here is the Kprobe analysis of the same disk. Note the write quality gets iffy around the OD of the disk.



RG

[murse]

I'm a n00b at this, but could the write quality be affected by the use of 4x media at 8x speeds? Also, what do the drop-outs in CD-Speed indicate?

[RAAGAAman]

Just my opinion, Using 4X media at 8X is a very good possibility but the problem might be caused by a bad write strategy at the OD(Outer Diameter). The drive has to adjust for disk tilt which probably needs work. Disks are not perfectly flat and you are rotating at ~3900RPMs which causes more unbalance at the OD. I would only write at 6X with this drive until the problem could be fixed.
The break in the write strategy is normal. Cdspeed calls it Partial Cav writing but it really looks like partial CLV writing.

RG

[murse]

www.anandtech.com should be posting a review of this drive in the next couple of days. I think this will be the first one.

[StudeBarc]

RG,

Yes the OD strategies require some fine-tuning judging by that. Mind you i've seen far worse K graphs that in a DVD-Video sense function correctly. Verby media (MCC 4x +R) as in the linked threads show quite a good flat PI/PO graph so perhaps that media is the 4x +R choice for this drive at the moment. Firmware improvements will see better results....no doubt.

Keep the test results etc coming, much appreciated. Looking like a pretty good drive at the moment.

Default to ROM, 8x Z-CLV, Good CD-R/RW speeds....hmmmm

Regards
Studebarc

KProbe on 411s with FS05.... very interesting......

[murse]

Review is up on Anandtech:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=1909

I ordered one and I should get it in a couple of days. It looks like the drive has potential if Nu Tech is consistent with any necessary firmware upgrades


*** AT has posted the firmware and calibration utility at the end of the article for those that need it ***

[Anthony2816]

Has any end user tested the max CDRW burning speed on these drives? Nu's website has changed it to say they only burn at 10x speed, but many merchants are still advertising them at 24x. Did they originally burn faster than 10x? Or was it an error from the start?

Same thing with the DVD read speed. Most merchants advertise 16x, but Nu now says 12x.

[RAAGAAman]

I only got 10X with MCC USCDRW(16X -24X) media(see image) and 10X with HSCDRW. Have not got a chance to check CD-R yet.




RG

[murse]

Has anyone tested the transfer rate for a non-recordable DVD? I tried this with a single layer DVD movie of 4.2GB. The drive would only spin up to 1.69x and stayed there for the entire test. Am I doing something wrong?

[murse]

I've been corresponding with a QSI tech in Taiwan about the Nu Tech drives. My last e-mail asked if there was a QSI utility for controlling bitsetting with these drives. I included the BenQ utility to give him an idea what I was talking about.

Well, to my surprise, I received an e-mail this morning with a QSI utility attached. He said it would work with firmware BX03 and above. I'm at work and have been unable to test it, but if someone wants it, I will forward it along. It is not yet on the Nu Tech site, so it may need to get hosted somewhere as well.

BTW, has anyone done any transfer rate testing? I asked about it in the post above...any info would be appreciated.

[unloaded]

Its listed here for $139 free shipping:
http://store.yahoo.com/livewarehouse/dvnt33460.html

They also have an OptoRite dual format 8x for $189, it seems to say it does DVD-R at 8x too?
http://store.yahoo.com/livewarehouse/s10dd8xdvdud.html

peace.
unloaded
[/u]

[StudeBarc]

murse,

Bit-set utility from Nu-Tech site. I downloaded and ran the program and it sees my drives. Obviously it won't work with them but at any rate:



http://www.nuniverse.com/1_english/3_products/01_ide.php?pID=3#

Click on "software" disc icon to open download window.

Coming along very nicely these units.

Regards
Studebarc