In House Review - Nu Tech DDW-081 8x DVD+R/RW

[Ian]

Today, we bring you an in depth look at Nu Tech's new 8x DVD+R/RW drive, the DDW-081. While affordably priced, the DDW-081 delivers 8x DVD+R and 4x DVD+RW writing speeds as well as a maximum DVD read speed of 12x. Needless to say, Nu Tech hasn't stopped there. The DDW-081 also offers 40x CD reading and writing speeds, 10x rewriting speeds and features like Seamless Link buffer underrun protection.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the DDW-081 and see how it compares to some of the DVD writers from the competition. Is the DDW-081 the best bang for your buck? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=208]
Nu Tech DDW-081 8x DVD+R/RW[/url]

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the Nu Tech DDW-081, please post them in the forum using the link provided below.

[Ian]

Couple of things Nu Tech told me..

1. Support for DVD-R/RW writing is still being worked on.

2. Support for Mt. Rainier is coming by the end of December.

3. No, they are not planning on increasing the CD/DVD read speeds or the rewriting speed

[RJW]

K-probe's PO has been proven to be PIF by different sources.
So it may be 4 maximum. So the MCC disc burned at 4x is okay !
Cdfreaks have claimed that right in the review. Now their 32 PO max claim because of 8x ECC is still incorrect.
Yes you actually have to meassure twice at this point !

[WetWilly]

Nice review of a drive that people are (or should be) interested in. A couple of typos that threw me for a sec:

1) Under the "CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.0.0.19 and DLA 4.03:" section it says "Lite-On's new drive started writing at about 18x ..." - I presume Lite-On should be Nu Tech

2) Under the "DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.0.0.19 and DLA 4.03:" section it says "To test the DVD writing performance of AOpen's new DVD+RW drive" - AOpen should also be Nu Tech

One question about the DVD-R/RW support - considering the licensing "issues" with the Lite-On 401-to-411 conversion, has Nu Tech indicated whether any -R/RW upgrades will be free for the DDW-081/061?

[Ian]

Thanks for the typo's.. my proofreader was busy last night.

Good question about the licensing issues. I really don't know. I really don't think Nu Tech has thought that far ahead yet. They're still seeing if its really possible.

[OC-Freak]

K-probe's PO has been proven to be PIF by different sources.
So it may be 4 maximum. So the MCC disc burned at 4x is okay !
Cdfreaks have claimed that right in the review. Now their 32 PO max claim because of 8x ECC is still incorrect.
Yes you actually have to meassure twice at this point !

Yes it may be 4 maximum when scanning at 1X with ECC sum set to 1. But with ECC sum set to 8 the output from K-Probe can't be compared to the standard.

And thus we can only know that if it's higher than 32(4 x it's for sure outside the standards, but anything from 5-32 PO (actually PIF's) may be outside the standards as we do not know if any of the 8 blocks exceeds the standards.....

So to make results comparable to the standards you need to make 2 different scans.....

1 for PI with ECC set to 8 to compare to the 280 errors per 8 blocks standard.
1 for PO(actually PIF) with ECC set to 1 to compare to the max 4 errors per block standard.

[skeleton breath]

so do you recomend this over all 4x DVD burners out now?

[WetWilly]

As someone who's sitting on the fence 'til after Christmas, IMHO this burner is high up on my list at the moment. If you don't need -R/RW write support, this drive is a contender because of 1) the booktype change utility and 2) you can "upgrade" the 6x DDW-061 to the 8x DDW-081.

Bottom line - as of today you can get a decent 8x DVD+R/RW drive for $115 shipped. Can't ignore that.

[NUT ek]

Nice Review Ian....and Itotally agree that it has to be the best bang for buck owt there...as my experiences have also shown the ripping factor of DVD's is very slow but it makes it up in other areas.

Keep up the good work

[gregdep]

What does this new firmware do?
bx06?

http://www.nu-global.com/1_english/4_su ... .php?sID=2

[aviationwiz]

What does this new firmware do?
bx06?

http://www.nu-global.com/1_english/4_su ... .php?sID=2

See this thread: http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=13802