by goldzone on Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:29 pm
Just got my OptoRite DD0401 last night. Since there are not many hands-on experience on the web (I could find very few links), I'm posting what I've learned so far.
Got it from AccuPC for $151. AccuPC is a good site. It's not the cheapest but more reliable. I plan to use it with my notebook, so I got a Plumax enclosure from DealSonic. 1394 and USB2.
The notebook is P4 2GHz, 1G and 40G (UDMA33). I'm using 1394 through the Oxford chipset on the enclosure. I'm putting these info here in case some people want to argue about hardware speed limitations.
The DD0401 looks nice (I got the black one which costs $3 more). Works perfectly with the enclosure under Windows Server 2003. I applied the latest 120E firmware without any problem under W2K3. There have been some discussions about how to apply the firmware under Windows. Just extract the zip from from OptoRite in one folder then run the exe - that's it. No sys file copying business. I don't really need the firmware. I flashed the drive just for the heck of it. At least I proved it's harmless.
Nero reports the drive supports everything but DVD-RAM and Mount Rainier. Media tested so far:
(1) Memorex 4x DVD+RW: 4x achieved and disc runs fine.
(2) Memorex 4x DVD+R (32025571, 25pk spindle): 8x achieved and disc runs fine on any reading device available to me, including my family room DVD player. A full single layer movie DVD were created in less than 8 minutes without any problem. It's actaully faster than my 8x CD-RW burning speed on my CD-RW drive. The lead-in and lead-out takes much less time.
(3) CompUSA 2x DVD-R (15 pk spindle): 2x achieved and disc runs fine.
(4) Staples 2x DVD-R (10 pk spindle): Power Calibration Error. This was a surprise but in plain English, the the burner doesn't like the media quality. In my memory, that's manufactured by CMC. This is not a big deal because I won't buy a 8x DVD burner just to write low quality 2x DVD-Rs.
So in general the drive is a very good one. 4 full movies done without any problem except the Staples DVD-R issue. I'd like to recommend it to everyone. I know some may have doubts in OptoRite as a vendor, some may want to wait untill next April for the dual layer. But I'll say, hey it's just 150 bucks including shipping, it's 8 minute per DVD written smoothly, how bad can it be?
BTW, I use Nero 6.0.0.19. Once the drive (1394) was plugged in, the "New" dialog box will have a drop-down on the left-top corner for you to select "CD", "DVD" or "HD-Burn".
My next mission is to try the HD-Burn tonight. If you are interested in the result, please reply and say so, otherwise this is it.
Last edited by
goldzone on Wed Dec 03, 2003 11:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you for sharing your experiences so far. And yes, please let us know how the HD-Burn works out for you.
