NU DVDRW DDW-081

[Rodfuji68]

Recieved my NU DVDRW DDW-081 today
$139 dollars shipped to my door

The drive came bundled with:
Firmware bx03 preinstalled
sonic mydvd studio
and 2 pieces of media 1-4x +rw and 1-4x +r
When I first took the drive out of the box there was a single screw floating around in the bag with the drive, Upon further inspection I found a screw was missing from the bottom of the drive needless to say this didn't make a very good impression on me, never the less I replaced the screw and installed the drive then booted my computer up, windows xp reconized the drive right away. The drive reconized every piece of media I put in it in less than 10 seconds also the tray opened and closed quietly and smoothly

Packaged Media
NU TECHNEW DVD+RW
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID PHILIPS 041
Format Capacity Not Formatted
Free Blocks 405405696
Free Capacity 4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type DVD+RW
Media Type DVD+RW
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.4x 3324KBps
BG Format Status Not Formatted
Linear Density Blank Disc
Track Density Unknown
Number of Layers 1
Complete Media Code
01 02 00 00 92 0F 04 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 50 48 49 4C 49 50 53 00 30 .......PHILIPS.0
34 31 00 39 23 00 9F 7C 5C 02 28 00 9A 7E 70 02 41.9#..|\.(..~p.
28 00 A0 7B 68 02 28 04 04 20 E0 00 F0 00 00 00 (..{h.(.. ......

Media Information After Burn
Disc Regions are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Manufacturer ID PHILIPS 041
Format Type UDF 1.02
Volume Name MALIBUS_MOST_WANTED
Application id
Implementation id UDF Toshiba DVD Video
Recording Date/Time (mm/dd/yyyy) 7/10/2003 11:17:27
Format Capacity 3.77GB(4.04GB)
Book Type DVD-ROM
Media Type DVD+RW
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
BG Format Status Suspended
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 1E21DFh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1

Using the nu booktype setting utility v1.1
Set Booktype to dvd-rom
Burnt with nero 6
I tried to burn iso with dvddecryptor but it did not reconize the media
Total burn time 12:57 4X including lead in and lead out NO PROBLEMS
Disk will not play in any of my standalones but plays perfectly fine
on my computer. Don't know if its the media or if I actually did somthing
wrong. I will erase and try again to see if I get different results.

Packaged Media
Verbatium DataLife DVD+R
Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID MCC 002
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
Complete Media Code
01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 4D 43 43 00 00 00 00 00 30 .......MCC.....0
30 32 00 38 23 54 37 13 02 4A 71 02 90 66 16 16 02.8#T7..Jq..f..
0B 0B 0A 0A 01 1C 1E 0B 0C 12 12 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Media Information After Burn
Disc Regions are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Manufacturer ID MCC 002
Format Type UDF 1.02
Volume Name THE_IN_LAWS
Application id
Implementation id AHEAD Nero
Recording Date/Time (mm/dd/yyyy) 10/31/2003 20:47:16
Format Capacity 4.14GB(4.44GB)
Book Type DVD-ROM
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 21187Fh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1

Using the nu booktype setting utility v1.1
Set Booktype to dvd-rom
Burnt with nero 6
Total burn time 7:37 8X including lead in and lead out NO PROBLEMS
Disk Plays perfectly fine in all of my standalones and my pc except an old Fisher s1000 dvd player but this player dosn't play andthing but originals

I also purchased some TDK 4x +r media to try with the drive
20 pack $29 dollars at Target.


Purchased Media
TDK DVD+R
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

Media Information After Burn
Disc Regions are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
Media code/Manufacturer ID RICOHJPNR01
Format Type UDF 1.02
Volume Name MALIBUMOSTWANTED
Application id
Implementation id AHEAD Nero
Recording Date/Time (mm/dd/yyyy) 10/31/2003 22:57:24
Format Capacity 3.77GB(4.04GB)
Book Type DVD-ROM
Media Type DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Data area starting sector 30000h
Data area end sector 1E21CFh
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1

Using the nu booktype setting utility v1.1
Set Booktype to dvd-rom
Burnt with nero 6
Total burn time 7:07 8X including lead in and lead out NO PROBLEMS
Disk Plays perfectly fine in all of my standalones and my pc except an old Fisher s1000 dvd player but this player dosn't play andthing but originals. Later I will try to burn just a region 1 dvd to see if this will help with this player since some players dont like region free disks if it dont work then no big deal.

In all the test burns the buffer level never dropped below 85% and usually hovered between 93 and 96% all the while I was surfing the net!
system P4 1.6ghz 512mb ddr

Overall this is an excelent value for the money and if the rumors
of a dual format firmware come to be then this will be an unbeatable
value "KEEPING FINGERS CROSSED"

Rodney

[Anthony2816]

You made me feel good, as I have one of these en route. Did you happen to try out the CDRW burning speed? The specs originally said 24x (and many places still advertise it as such), but they were later changed to 10x. What did your box and manual claim?

[Vanderlow]

Thanks for the review. Keep us informed on any other impressions.

[Rodfuji68]

I forgot to post the complete media code for the TDK media That I had used.
00000000 01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
00000020 30 31 02 38 23 54 37 09 00 3C 67 00 AC 62 16 18 01.8#T7..<g..b..
00000030 0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

As far as specs onthe box go the only thing listed is 8xdvd+r and 4x+rw
The manual itself is sparse at best. There are 12 pages total and three are dedicated to quick install 1 in english and 2 in chinese the other 9 pages are dedicated to the sonic software. There are no specs in the manual whatsoever

I have burnt several cheap 48x khypermedia cdrs at 40x with one failed burn on the leadout. the rest were all good. I think the falure was my fault from muti-tasking.

As far as cd-rw goes, I only had two disks available, they were both 4x and thats the only option nero would let me select.
I also ripped several dvds with the drive
Daul layer pressed had a maximum read rate of 2.8x and average read rate of 2.3x
Single layered pressed and single layered burnt had a maximum read rate of 12.8x and average read rate of 8.7x

Nothing I did could I get any of the burns to work in that old Fisher I spoke of, I was kind of hoping with the bitsetting and the reflective qualities of the disks would enable me to trick it into thinking it was a pressed dvd but its not happening oh well no big deal. Also I tried several times to get the dvd+rw that came with the burner to work with my other players but thats not happening either. It must be the media since I am able to get DVD-RW media to work with all my players sans the fisher.
Over all I am more than satisfied with this purchase.
Lets just all hope they keep up with the firmware updates
and add the -r/-rw capabilities like they aludded they were going to do
Rodney

[Vanderlow]

Why is the read speed on dual layer DVD so slow..2.8x? How much rip time is that?

[Rodfuji68]

Why is the read speed on dual layer DVD so slow..2.8x? How much rip time is that?

Im not sure but I believe its because of the css and macrovision protection. The other two disks I ripped had no protection at all.
2.8x is not that bad Rip time I believe was about 1/2 hour give or take a few minutes, most dvd/rws are limited to 2x, my pioneer A05 couldn't even hit 2x until I installed a hacked firmware now it averages around 8x and max about 10x

EDIT: I should clarify these are actually RIP times not READ times

[Vanderlow]

If you want to try this analysis tool it might also show you're C1/C2 errors on you're DVDs. I think it will work on non-Lite-on burners. I'd be interested how clean you're burns are. Its called Kprobe. One person did it on a 081 and showed some errors on the outer edge of one of their DVD burns.
Just download kprobe.zip. I use it to analyze my Lite-on CD burner.

http://upload.cdfreaks.com/Kprobe/

[StudeBarc]

Rodfuji69 & Vanderlow,

Have run a TDK 4x +R with the DDW-081 and the following K-Probe scan. Outer edge jumps up in PI/PO issues but basically as a DVD-Video it plays fine. Full 4.3 gig burn took 8mins 30 secs. RICOHJPNR01 media looks fine at 8x on these units.



Read in Lite-On 411s at 4x max read speed. Scale for PI/PO is set at 60.

Media Code for TDK 4x +R

08 02 00 00 00 02 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 25 D9 CF .............%..
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
30 31 02 38 23 54 37 09 00 3C 67 00 AC 62 16 18 01.8#T7..<g..b..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Bit-setting utility inside DVDInfoPro and stand alone bit-set from nu work perfectly with the drive.

Regards
Studebarc

[Vanderlow]

So the question is is a Kprobe scan accurate on a burner that's not a Lite-on. Thanks for the scan, saw the same outer edge issues on another scan.

[StudeBarc]

Vanderlow,

K-Probe will ONLY function with Lite-On drives. In my example I have used a Lite-on LDW 411s as the reading drive for K-Probe. Any other drives won't run K-Probe.

Regards
Studebarc

[Rodfuji68]

I only have The NU and a Pio drive installed. I removed my liteon dvdrom to install the NU dirve so I can't get Kprobe to work.
I did do some test with Dvd InfoPro though.
All disks were rated 4x written a 8x speed
the Verbatim disks had 0 read errors and the 2 Tdk disks had quite a few errors towards the end of the test. The errors started with aprox .02GB left to read on the disks.
All three disk function perfectly as a dvds with no pixelisation,skipping,or pausing from begining to end in all of my stand alones and my computers dvdrom drives.
Verbatim 4x mcc 002

TDK 4X RICOHJPNR01

TDK 4X RICOHJPNR01

[Vanderlow]

Rodfuji68 scan - so the blue part doesn't mean anything?

[Rodfuji68]

No the blue part is not part of the read
I edited my last post with more captures

[StudeBarc]

Rodfuji68,

I can concur with the results you've seen so far. The Verbatim 4x (MCC 02) discs seem to give a slightly better result via error scans etc. They both will run fine in any players I have tested with, especially after setting to ROM. All in all i'm pretty happy with results from the unit.

Can't wait for the possible dual firmware......

Regards
Studebarc.

[Anthony2816]

Is there a way to force the Nu to attempt to burn faster than the media indicates? I have some Fujifilm DVD+RW disks, and when I burn them with Nero, 2.4x is the only speed option available. Any way to override this?

[Vanderlow]

AnyDVD has some kind of "speed control" over your drive. Not sure what that is, but you can download an evaluation copy for free.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html

[Vanderlow]

I double posted. Don't see a delete post button.

[Rodfuji68]

Have you checked your medias info with dvdinfo pro to see what the Available Write Descriptors are? If 2.4x is the only Available Write Descriptor then there is no way other than a firmware upgrade to override it. And for that to happen the media would have to be proven to be stable at faster speeds and they prob. would have to pay a fee to NU/QSI to open up fatser write descriptors in there firmware for that particular disk, or hope that someone hacks the firmware. Thats what happen with my pioneer ao5. It would not write Ritek G03's @ 2x since it is only certified @ 1X and even though it was stable @ 2x Pioneer didn't add an 2x write descriptor for it, I am assuming because Ritek didn't pay but I am only speculating on this. It may have been added later but I dont know since I was able to get a hold of a hacked firmware for it and never had problems with it so I stuck with it.
I know you can burn some 4X +R's @ 8X with this drive but I haven't heard of anyone able to burn 2.4X RW media @ 4X. I dont know if its even posible at this point with ANY MEDIA and the current firmware realese

[StudeBarc]

Guys,

The "recognised" media and speeds list is reproduced below ( taken from nu site). Unrecognised media is treated at default burn speed minimum of 2.4x.

Manufacturer Media Type Media Speed DDW-061 DDW-081

Rated 061 081
BEALL DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
BEALL DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
CMC DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
CMC DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
DAXON DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
DAXON DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Leaddata DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
MBI DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Mitsubishi DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Mitsubishi DVD+R 4X 6X 8X *******
Mitsubishi DVD+R 8X 6X 8X
NANYA DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Prodisc DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Prodisc DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Prodisc DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Ricoh DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Ricoh DVD+R 4X 6X 8X *******
Ritek DVD+R 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Ritek DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Sony DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Taiyo Yuden DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Taiyo Yuden DVD+R 4X 4X 4X
Taiyo Yuden DVD+R 8X 6X 8X
CMC DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
CMC DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X
DAXON DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
DAXON DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X
Infodisc DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Infodisc DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
MBI DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Mitsubishi DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Mitsubishi DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X
Philips DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Philips DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X
Prodisc DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Prodisc DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Ricoh DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Ricoh DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X
Ritek DVD+RW 2.4X 2.4X 2.4X
Ritek DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X
Sony DVD+RW 4X 4X 4X

****** 4x discs @ 8x burning

Thus far I have burned on the DDW-081 (BX03 firmware) the following media with no problems at all:

1) 2.4x generic (Pink) sold as Ritek Pink discs in US.

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
30 30 01 38 23 54 37 0C 00 50 6C 00 C8 66 16 18 00.8#T7..Pl..f..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 2.4x Nero 6.0.0.23 (set as ROM), result flawless in all 4 players I have.

2) 2.4x Arita disc

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
30 30 01 38 23 54 37 0C 00 50 6C 00 C8 66 16 18 00.8#T7..Pl..f..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 2.4x Nero 6.0.0.23 (set as ROM), result flawless in all 4 players

3) 2.4x "Digital Plus" disc

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 43 4D 43 20 4D 41 47 00 52 .......CMC MAG.R
30 31 00 38 23 54 37 0A 02 78 6E 02 C8 63 16 16 01.8#T7..xn..c..
0B 0B 0A 0A 01 1C 1E 0B 0C 12 12 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 2.4x Nero 6.0.0.23 (set as ROM), result flawless.

4) BeAll 4x +R (blank silver top)

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 42 65 41 6C 6C 30 30 30 50 .......BeAll000P
34 30 00 38 23 54 37 09 00 3C 67 00 9C 67 18 19 40.8#T7..<g..g..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1A 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 4x Nero 6.0.0.23 (set as ROM), result flawless.

5) TDK 4x +R (Jewel case)

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
30 31 02 38 23 54 37 09 00 3C 67 00 AC 62 16 18 01.8#T7..<g..b..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 8x Nero 6.0.0.23 (set as ROM), result flawless.

6) Generic 4x +R (blank silver top)

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 52 49 43 4F 48 4A 50 4E 52 .......RICOHJPNR
30 31 02 38 23 54 37 09 00 3C 67 00 AC 62 16 18 01.8#T7..<g..b..
0B 0B 0A 0B 01 19 1B 0B 0B 0E 0F 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 8x Nero (as ROM), result flawless.

7) Verbatim 4x +R (Jewel case)

01 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 01 4D 43 43 00 00 00 00 00 30 .......MCC.....0
30 32 00 38 23 54 37 13 02 4A 71 02 90 66 16 16 02.8#T7..Jq..f..
0B 0B 0A 0A 01 1C 1E 0B 0C 12 12 01 00 00 00 00 ................

Burned at 8x Nero (set as ROM), result flawless.

As stated above the discs have been set to ROM by using DVDInfoPro to set default written Book-type.

Very happy with the unit to date. DVD ripping and CD burning are not tested on this unit as I use a separate drive for that purpose.

Regards
Studebarc

[-jsl-]

Please add your results to the media list too.

[Rodfuji68]

There is an updated firmware for the ddw-081
BX06 it is at the nu-global site
you can get it here
http://www.nu-global.com/1_english/3_products/01_ide_support.php?pID=3&cID=1#

It looks like it adds support for 8x burning on quite of few 4x disk
sadly no support for -r/rw disk yet