1. Introduction - Retail Package
TDK 882N Recorder -
Page 1
TDK
is a well known manufacturer of optical storage media and optical storage drives.
Their latest product is the TDK 882N. This drive supports both +R/RW and -R/RW
media, along with DVD+R9 media, increasing storage capacity to ~8.4GB per disc.
The TDK 882N uses NEC's "high resolution writing strategy" and
NEC's "Active Optimized Power Control" (Active OPC) to further
improve writing quality and performance.
- Features
The drive provides 8X +R/RW and 8X -R/RW writing speed, and 2.4X Double Layer writing speed. It also provides 4X writing speed with -RW and +RW discs. It can read at 12X max DVD-ROM discs and 40X max CD-ROM discs. As a CD recorder, it can record at 32X max when CD-R discs are used, and 16X max with CD-RW discs. This drive does not support DVD-RAM media.
- Specifications
| Drive |
TDK 882N |
| Media |
DVD |
CD |
| Transfer Rate Read |
5...12x CAV (max 16200 kb/s) |
17...40x CAV (2550-6000 kb/s) |
| Transfer Rate Write |
DVD-R 8x Z-CLV (max 11040 kb/s) |
CD-R 32x ZCLV (max 4800 kb/s) |
| DVD-RW 4x CLV (5520 kb/s) |
| DVD+R 8x Z-CLV (max 11040 kb/s) |
CD-RW 16x CLV (max 2400 kb/s) |
| DVD+RW 4x CLV (5520 kb/s) |
| DVD+R9 2.4X CLV (3300 KByte/s) |
| Access Time |
140ms |
120ms |
| DVD-Video Extraction Speed |
5X max CAV |
| Digital Audio Extraction Speed |
32X max CAV |
| Mechanism |
motorized Tray load mechanism for horizonal and vertical use |
| Interface |
IDE / ATAPI |
| Burst Transfer Rate |
PIO mode 4 / Ultra DMA 33 |
| Cashe Memory |
2MB |
| Audio |
headphone jack and volume control at front plus digital-out and line-out at the back (MPC compatible) |
| Media/Modes supported |
DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-Video, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-Audio, CD Extra, CD Text, CD-IReady, CD-Bridge, Photo-CD, VideoCD, Hybrid CD |
| Writing methods |
CD: |
DAO(disc at once), SAO(session at once), TAO(track at once) with zero gap, Packet Writing |
| DVD: |
DAO (disc at once), Incremental recording, Multi-border for DVD-R/RW, Multi-Session for DVD+R/RW |
| Compatibility |
MPC Level 3, MultiRead, PC2001 |
| Weight |
1.08kgr |
| Dimensions |
148.2mm x 42mm x 190mm |
The drive does not support Mount Rainier and it uses the well known RPC II
region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times.
Below are the drive's main specs as given by NeroInfoTool, VSO Inspector and
DVDInfoPro:
- The drive
The
European retail package includes an installation guide, quick install poster
and technical support manual. The installation guide and the manual are also
included on a CD disc in Acrobat Reader (.pdf) format. TDK also offers On-Site
collect and return service under warranty for all EU countries and Switzerland.
The
TDK 882N comes with Nero 6, the all-in-one complete suite of CD and DVD authoring
tools for data management and disc creation. It includes Nero Express 6, Nero
InCD 4, Nero Vision Express 2, Nero Back IT Up, Nero Wave Editor 2, Nero Recode2
and Nero ShowTime.
An IDE cable, audio cable and mounting screws are also included.
The drive's front panel is black in color. On the loading tray we
can see the TDK logo, the drive's model number, DVD R/RW logo, RW DVD+ReWritable
logo
and High Speed Compact disc Rewritable logo. We can also
see the power led, the emergency eject hole and the eject button.
On the rear panel you can find the analogue and digital audio
outputs (SPDIF), the IDE master/slave/cs select pins, the IDE connector
and the power input.
Removing the screws and opening the drive's cover voids the drive's warranty.
For reference reasons, we post the following pictures. Click on the photos
for
an enlarged view.
You can clearly see that the drive reveals a
NEC ND-2510A under the casing. It uses the same chipset as the NEC ND-2500A/2510A,
namely the D63630 chipset.
The following picture shows the laser lens holder/calibration system of the
TDK 882N which is exactly the same as NEC's ND-2500A/2510A lens. Clicking on
the image will open a higher resolution photo.
- Installation
The device was connected to our test PC and was identified
as "TDK DVDRW882N " under
WinXP.
We received the drive with firmware version 2.35. During our writing performance
tests, TDK released a newer firmware version, 2.36. We flashed the drive with
the updated firmware, but we should mention that reading performance
was not changed when the new firmware was applied. On the other hand, writing
performance
was slightly changed, and the results we present are with the updated 2.36
firmware. Differences in firmware versions will be discussed later
on in this review.
We will be comparing the drive with the SONY DRU-700A since both drives have similar specifications.
- Testing software
In order to perform our tests we used:
- Nero CD-DVD Speed v3.12
- CDVD Benchmark v1.21
- ExactAudioCopy v0.9 beta5
- Nero Info Tool v2.27
- KProbe v2.2.3 (Reader: LiteOn LDW-811S firmware vHS0Q, LiteOn SOHD-167T firmware 9S13, LiteOn XJ-HD165H firmware CH11, and LiteOn LTD-163 firmware GH5S, Reading speed 8X CAV)
- PlexTools v2.16 (Reader: Plextor PX-712A firmware v1.01, Reading speed 8X CLV for CD-R)
- DVDInfoPro v3.13
- Nero Burning Rom v6.3.1.20
- DVD Decrypter 3.2.3.0
- CopyToDVD 3.0.19.33
2. Transfer Rate Reading Tests
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 2
Transfer Rate Reading Tests
- CD Format
The TDK 882N supports up to 40X reading speed. Below are the transfer rate
graphs, along with the comparison with the Sony DRU-700A drive:
Speed differences between the two drives are negligible. In general,
the TDK was slightly slower than Sony's drive.
Only with Ultra Speed CDRW media was
the TDK
drive faster, but here too,
no real differences in speed.
- DVD Format
The Sony DRU-700A was faster with pressed single layer media.
The TDK 882N gave speed values which more closely matched the Plextor
PX-708A.
The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially
with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the
beginning of each layer, progressing towards the outer range, for each layer.
Sony's drive was again faster than the 882N.
The graph shown above indicates the reading performance of
the TDK 882N with OTP dual layer media. The first layer of an OTP dual layer
DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we
tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second
layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer
part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks and progreeses
towards the inner part of the disc. The average reading speed was 5.41X with
a smallest
value of 2.87X and a highest value of 7.21X. Exactly the same performance was
reported by the NEC ND-2510A.
As shown above, the Sony DRU-700A continues to be slightly faster than the
TDK 882N even with DVD-R/-RW/+R/+RW media.
There is a big ripping speed difference. We know that NEC's official firmware
for the ND series includes rip lock. This means that the drive can achieve
higher speeds, but the firmware prevents it from ripping higher than an upper
limit of 5.2~5.5X. This explains this difference shown above. It
seems that
TDK's official firmware includes this speed barrier.
Nero CD-DVD Speed Graphs
3. CD Error Correction Tests
TDK 882N Recorder -
Page 3
CD Error Correction Tests
In the following tests we check the drive's behavior when reading
scratched / defective audio discs. The test discs used were the ABEX series
from ALMEDIO.
- ABEX TCD-721R
|
Errors
total
|
Num:
3081750
|
|
Errors
(Loudness) dB(A)
|
Num: 130518 |
Avg:
-74.0 dB(A) |
Max:
-35.6 dB(A) |
|
Error
Muting Samples
|
Num: 9341 |
Avg:
1.0 Samples |
Max: 40 Samples |
|
Skips
Samples
|
Num: 0 |
Avg:
0.0 Samples |
Max:
0 Samples |
Total Test Result |
69.9 points (out of 100.0 maximum) |
|
C2 Accuracy |
99.9 % |
The performance with this disc is both good and bad. The total error count
was very high, but the maximum error loudness level at -35.6dB
is quite low and there were no skipped samples. The final score of
69.9 is about average.
- ABEX TCD-726
|
Errors total
|
Num:
394070
|
|
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
|
Num: 23464 |
Avg:
-77.7 dB(A) |
Max:
-25.1 dB(A) |
|
Error Muting Samples
|
Num: 1292 |
Avg:
7.7 Samples |
Max:
2946 Samples |
|
Skips Samples
|
Num: 2 |
Avg:
6.0 Samples |
Max: 6 Samples |
Total Test Result |
71.6 points (out of 100.0 maximum) |
C2 Accuracy |
99.8 % |
The Abex TCD-726 test disc is much easier for drives in general to read. However,
the TDK 882N performed rather poorly here and the score of
71.6 is very low for this disc.
- CD-Check Audio Test Disc
The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction
/ Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination
with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce
it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively
more difficult tests. These tracks are referred to as Check Level-1 through
Check Level-5.
The
tracks are reproduced through a software multimedia player (i.e.
Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone
is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher
the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction
of the tested drive.
|
Error Level
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
|
|
5/5
|
5/5
|
3/5
|
0/5
|
0/5
|
The drive successfully passed only the first two out of the five check levels
for this test. Once again the drive had poor performance. On average,
most drives will pass up to level 3, a good drive can read the 4th
level, while all but the best drives have difficulties
reading the 5th level.
- Summary
Generally we can say that the CD error correction of the TDK 882N is sub
par, something that hopefully will be fixed with newer firmware updates...
4. DVD Error Correction Tests
TDK 882N Recorder -
Page 4
DVD Error Correction Tests
In the following tests we examined the DVD reading capabilities of the TDK 882N drive with scratched / defective DVD media. For the tests we used CDVD Benchmark and Nero CDSpeed . The reference test media comes from ALMEDIO.
- Single Layer media
ABEX TDR-821
This is a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM with a 4.7GB capacity, and its surface has an artificial scratch of dimensions varying from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.
The following transfer rate picture comes from the CDVD Benchmark v1.21 transfer rate test.
The drive can read DVD media up to 12X speed. The scratched
area did not affect the reading process. The disc was read accurately, the
resulting graph is very clean and no read
errors were
reported.
This performance indicates high error correction capabilities with this type
of disc.
ABEX TDR-825
This is also a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM of a 4.7GB capacity. The data structure of the disc is exactly the same as that of the TDR-821, with the difference that there are no scratches on it but defective areas of dimensions ranging from 0.5 to 1.1 mm.
There are also fingerprints sized between 65 and 75 micrometers.
As before, the TDK 882N had no problems reading the test disc. A continuous
line was produced giving no errors during the reading process. The disc was
read as if there were no defective areas at all.
- Dual Layer media
ABEX TDR-841
This is an 8.5GB dual layer, single sided DVD-ROM disc with artificial scratches of dimensions ranging from 0.4 to 3.0mm, on both layers
. 
As seen above, the drive had problems reading this test disc. The red blob
indicates that there were read errors during the reading process. However,
the test was completed. It should be noted that when the NEC ND-2510A drive
was
tested,
the drive could
not even complete the test, giving too many read errors, and the disc was unreadable.
ABEX TDR-845
The disc is a single sided, dual layer DVD-ROM disc of a capacity of 8.5GB. The only difference between the TDR-845 and the TDR-841 is that the first includes defected areas and fingerprints. The dimensions of the defected areas range from 0.5 to 1.1 mm and the fingerprints are sized from 65 to 75 micro meters.
This is better. A relatively clean graph and best of all, no errors.
ABEX TDV-541
The TDV-541 is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc, with a capacity of 8.5GB.The disc is based upon the TDV-540 series which is designed for inspection and adjustment of DVD-VIDEO players. The discs check the layer switch operation from layer 0 to layer 1 and also include test pictures and test signals for DVD sound files.
The current TDV-541 checks also the error correcting capabilities of the
drive and includes scratches ranging from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.
As with the NEC drive, so too the TDK 882N was unable to to read this
test disc. According to this reading behavior, the drive can be described
as a
bad reader. It started to read at 1.91X, lowered the reading speed for an instance,
and stopped reading right after the end of the first layer at a speed of 4.25X
with a highest speed of 4.49X.
ABEX TDV-545
The TDV-545 disc is based on the TDV-540 series. It is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc with a capacity of 8.5GB.
The TDV-545 includes artificial black dots on the data surface, sized from
0.4 to 1.0 mm. It has also 65 - 75 micrometer fingerprints.
The TDK 882N started to read at 1.91X as before, and reached a highest speed
of 4.58X. Because of the rip lock feature which was discussed earlier, the
reading speed was not as high as other 8X DVD recorders, but we were happy
to see that
no
read
errors were produced.
5. Protected Disc Tests
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 5
Protected Disc Tests
- Reading Tests
To create the image of the various protected titles to the hard disk, we used Alcohol 120% software and the appropriate settings, according to the protection type of the inserted discs. Below you can see the duration of each process as well as the transfer rate in each case.
Game Title |
Protection Scheme |
Duration |
Reading speed |
PSX "NBA Jam Extreme" |
Lybcrypt |
01:06 min |
1349 sectors/sec |
Serious Sam The Second Encounter v1.07 |
SafeDisc v.2.60.052 |
33:18 min |
167.8 sectors/sec |
VRally II |
SecuROM v.2 |
3:02 min |
1868 sectors/sec |
The TDK 882N performed great with the PSX disc (Lybcrypt) producing a high
reading speed. During SecuROM v2 ripping, the drive was slightly slower than
the DRU-700A.
With SafeDisc v2 ripping, Sony's drive was a lot faster than TDK's drive.
However, all discs were read successfully, regardless
of the ripping speed.
- Writing Tests
The TDK 882N supports the DAO-RAW writing mode. For checking the drive's
EFM correction status, we used 5 different game titles with different SafeDisc
2 versions having the latest software patches installed. After making the images
of the various titles onto the hard disk, we burned them (maximum speed) with
the latest version of Alcohol 120%. Two different discs were created for each
title; one with the "Bypass EFM error" enabled and one more with
the function disabled.
- Fifa 2004 - Safe Disc v3.1x
- The Sims Superstar - Safe Disc v2.9x
- The Sims Unleashed - Safe Disc v2.8x
- Serious Sam Second Encounter - Safe Disc v2.51.021
- Max Payne - Safe Disc v2.51.020
The table below shows the results of the attempted backups and whether they worked (game installed / played normally), or not.
Drive |
Fifa 2004
SD v3.1 |
Sims Superstar SD v2.9 |
Sims Unleashed SD v2.8 |
Serious Sam-Second Encounter
SD v2.51.051 |
Max Payne
SD v2.51.020 |
EFM OFF |
EFM ON |
EFM OFF |
EFM ON |
EFM OFF |
EFM ON |
EFM OFF |
EFM ON |
EFM OFF |
EFM ON |
Toshiba
SD-M1502 |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Creative CD5233E |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
TDK 882N |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Like NEC's ND series drives, the TDK 882N doesn't produce working backups
with the newest v2.8x, v2.9x and v3.1x builds. Partially working backups were
produced for SafeDisc v2.51.051 & v2.51.020.
6. DAE Tests
TDK 882N Recorder -
Page 6
DAE Tests
- Pressed and CDR AudioCD results
The TDK 882N supports up to 40X CAV DAE speed. The following results were
reported when using Exact Audio Copy.
The TDK 882N was slower than the Sony DRU-700A with both Pressed CD and
CDR media. TDK's drive can report C2 errors, but caching is not supported.
Future firmware updates might improve the average DAE speed of the drive.
Remember that the NEC ND-2500A and ND-2510A reported similar average DAE speeds.
- Advanced DAE Quality
Good recorders can achieve a perfect quality score of 100, but the TDK 882N
achieved a score of 94.4, which is acceptable but not perfect and is even lower
than the NEC drive's score. Sony's drive was again faster than the 882N. The
drive cannot read Leadin data or Leadout data, but it can read CD Text and
Subchannel
data. The reported average speed was 24.25X.
- Ripping 90mins AudioCDs
The drive can read/rip flawlessly 90min Audio CDs at an average speed of
23.26X (33.21X max speed). Reading speed was automatically reduced near
the end of the reading process, after the 77min mark up to the 89th min, but
the drive read the disc without errors. Similar behavior to the ND-2510A.
- Ripping 99mins AudioCDs
The TDK 882N could not even recognize the 99min Audio CD we used for this
test. The time length was wrong and the reading process could not start.
It should be noted that 99min Audio CDs were also a problem for the ND-2500A
and ND-2510A drives, so this kind of behavior was more or less expected.
7. Protected AudioCDs
TDK 882N Recorder -
Page 7
Protected AudioCDs
For the test procedure we used three audio discs with different audio copy protections. The ripping process on all protected Audio discs was carried out with Exact Audio Copy v0.9beta5.
The tested protected Audio discs were:
- Sony's Key2Audio from "Celine Dion - New Day Has Come"
- Cactus Data Shield 200 from "Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island"
The Cactus Data Shield 200, contains artificial errors that are not easily bypassed by the reader, while the Key2Audio contains a second session, causing problems for readers when trying to read the Table Of Contents (TOC).
The tested tasks are:
- Recognition of the inserted disc (Yes/No).
- Ripping all wavs (with EAC's Burst Mode) to the hard disk with copy&compare function.
- Listening to the produced wavs for any click/skips.
The drive recognized up to the 12th Audio track of the CDS200 disc,
and with the "Retrieve Native TOC" option removed the 13th Data
track also recognized.
The test results are shown in the following table:
|
Key2Audio |
CDS200 |
NEC ND-2510A |
Ripping process completed, EAC reports no problems, Read&Test CRC comparison successful for all tracks |
Ripping process completed, EAC reports no problems, Read&Test CRC comparison not the same for all tracks |
Key2Audio CDs can be ripped 100% accurately with the
TDK 882N. EAC did not report any timing problems and Read&Test CRC check
comparison was the same for corresponding tracks. The drive could not
rip 100% accurately CD200 discs since Read&Test CRC check comparison
was not the same for corresponding
tracks.
- Cactus Data Shield 200.0.4 - 3.0 build 16a (Aiko Katsukino - The Love Letter)
This is a "special" CDS200 build, since it doesn't contain any artificial errors during the ripping process. Most problems occur when trying to write the ripped wav files, since the produced CD-R disc contains C2 and CU errors! This "problem" is rumored to be connected with specific chipset weaknesses.
We ripped the disc contents with EAC and burned the wav file produced from the Cactus Data Shield 200.0.4 - 3.0 build 16a disc with the latest Nero version as AudioCD+CD-Text. The burned media was checked for C1/C2 errors and for BETA/Jitter errors with PlexTools software using Plextor PX-712SA (firmware v1.04) and LiteOn LDW-811S (firmware vHS0Q).
|
CDS 200.0.4 - 3.0 build 16a |
TDK 882N |
Reading performed without any errors, writing produces only two C2 errors. |
- C1C2 Error rate from PleXWriter PX-712SA (8X CLV reading speed)
- BETA/Jitter Error rate from PleXWriter PX-712SA
The C1/C2 error graph shows that the drive managed to produce a 100% error
free disc.
We then tried to extract all wav files with the Plextor PX-712SA and PlexTool DAE Error Correction 5th Level enabled:
No errors were reported after extracting all files. The drive can backup the
disc 100% accurately.
8. CD Recording Tests
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 8
CD Recording Tests
- CD-R Format
The drive supports 4X, 8X, 16X (CLV), 20X, 24X and 32X (Zone-CLV) writing speeds.
According to Nero CDSpeed, the drive reached the maximum 32X speed. The test started at 16X and finished at 32.05X having an average speed of 27.36X.
- CD-R Recording Times
We created an 80min data compilation with Nero Burning Rom and recorded it on a 700MB disc. The NEC drive returned a time of 3:29 minutes, with 32x writing speed selected, which is a very good time (for 32x).
The writing performance varies depending on the inserted media. Below
is a chart demonstrating all recording times with various media.
The best performance came with SKC 80min 52X media at 3:28mins. The
highest recording time came with Verbatim and Traxdata 80min 52X media
at 3:31mins.
- Other features
TDK 882N supports overburning, writing up to 90min and can read/write CD-Text.
Unfortunately, the drive is not capable of overburning up to
99min, giving the following error.
- CD-RW Format
The TDK 882N supports 4X, 8X and 16X rewriting speeds, with Ultra Speed Rewritable Media
(US-RW).
Below you can see the Nero CD-DVD Speed writing simulation test with blank 24x US-RW media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.
We also used Nero Burning Rom in order to burn a data disc with 24x US-RW media from MC. The data compilation we burned had a size of 651 MB and the duration of the recording process was 5:05 minutes.
- CD-RW Mount Rainier
The TDK 882N does not support the Mount Rainier feature.
9. Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 9
Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests
On this page we present the 3T Pit & Land Jitter graphs when
using various media burned at 40X CAV writing speed.
- 3T Pit results
Excellent performance by the TDK 882N at this point. The highest 3T Pit jitter
reached was 29nsec, which is far below the Red Book limit (35nsec). Best results
were achieved
with SKC 52X CD-R media. The 882N looks to be a great quality recorder,
just as the ND-2510A was.
- 3T Land results
Again, the average 3T Land results were also low. The maximum 3T Land Jitter
reached 32nsec with Maxell 48X media and TY 48X CD-R media produced the best
results. Excellent performance from the TDK 882N.
Since CD writing strategies were not changed with the firmware this drive
uses, these results were to be expected. According to all the above graphs,
the 882N drive produced great results with various media. It should be noted
that all
discs were recorded at maximum supported speed.
10. Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 Error Measurements
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 10
Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 Error Measurements
We measured the C1 / C2 error rate on the recorded discs we burned at the
various supported writing speeds. The software we used is PleXTools Professional
v2.16, and in particular the built-in Q-Check utility. The reader was the
Plextor PX-712SA (firmware v1.04).
TraxData 80min 52X @ 32X
TY 80min 48X @ 32X
Maxell 80min 48X @ 32X
Verbatim 80min 52X @ 32X
SKC 80min 52X @ 32X
- Summary
The graphs show that TDK's drive is a good quality recorder. There are some
C2 errors reported with certain media. Traxdata media reported the worst performance,
an issue that TDK should consider in their next firmware release. It should
be noted that all discs were recorded at the maximum speed supported by the
recorder.
11. DVD Recording Tests
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 11
DVD Recording Tests
- Writing Performance
The TDK 882N supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum
supported speed for DVD±R is 8X Z-CLV and 4X CLV
for DVD±RW media. Nero Burning Rom reported speeds are shown below.
Since there is no major differences between the NEC ND-2510A firmware and
TDK's firmware, the media support list is not changed. Please check the
ND-2510A review for which media is supported at specific speeds.
By using Nero CD-DVD Speed with DVD-R and DVD+R media, we are able to see the 8X Z-CLV recording technology being used by the recorder.
The drive's writing performance was the same for both formats. The recorder started to write at 4.13X and reached a highest value of 8.28X, with an average speed of 6.79X.
- Burning Tests
We burned 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media. We used the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc.
The drive completed the fastest successful burn at 8X in 9:18mins with
TDK 8X media. It should be noted that Traxdata and CMC Magnetics 8X media was
recorded at 4X.
Disc Label |
Disc Information |
Max Allowed Writing Speed |
Total Recording Time (mins) |
Traxdata 4X @ 8X |
RITEKG05 |
4X |
13:56 |
CMC 8X @ 4X |
CMC MAG.AE1 |
4X |
13:58 |
TDK 8X |
TTG02 |
8X |
9:18 |
TY 8X |
TYG02 |
8X |
9:21 |
VERBATIM 8X |
MCC 02RG20 |
8X |
9:21 |
Intenso 8X |
FUJIFILM03 |
8X |
9:27 |
With DVD+R media, best recording time came with Waitec
8X media with 9:13mins. It should be noted that Optodisc,
BeALL and BenQ 8X media was recorded at 4X.
Disc Label |
Disc Information |
Max Allowed Writing Speed |
Total Recording Time (mins) |
Optodisc 8X@4X |
OPTODISC OR8 |
4X |
13:50 |
BeALL 8X@4X |
BeALL000 P80 |
4X |
13:49 |
BenQ 8X @4X |
DAXON AZ2 |
4X |
13:53 |
TDK 8X |
RICOHJPN R02 |
8X |
9:18 |
TY 8X |
YUDEN000 T02 |
8X |
9:15 |
Traxdata 8X |
RITEK R03 |
8X |
9:16 |
Philips 8X |
PHILIPS C08 |
8X |
9:15 |
Waitec 8X |
CMC MAG E01 |
8X |
9:13 |
Intenso 8X |
PRODISC R03 |
8X |
9:18 |
CMC 8X |
CMC MAG E01 |
8X |
9:18 |
VERBATIM 8X |
MCC 003 |
8X |
9:16 |
- DVD Overburning Tests
Using Nero CD-DVD Speed, we tested if the TDK 882N can overburn using DVD+R
and DVD-R media. Unfortunately, the drive does not support overburning, giving
the following error with all inserted media.
- DVD+MRW Tests
The TDK drive doesn't support the Mount Rainier
feature.
12. KProbe/PlexTools Scans - Page 1
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 12
KProbe/PlexTools Scans - Page 1
In the following screenshots you can see the PI/PIF scans for the DVD-R media
we burned with the TDK 882N. The software we used for all measurements is
KProbe v2.2.3, and the reader is the LiteOn LDW-811S with "HS0Q patched" firmware,
being able to read DVD±R/RW media up to 8X CAV. All scans have been
performed at 8X with PI/PIF Sum8. Note that LiteOn drives cannot report PO
but PIF errors, despite what KProbe reports. In addition, all discs have been
scanned with PX-712SA v1.04 using PlexTools v2.16 for comparison levels.
Comparing the KProbe/PlexTools scans we can see major differences in the reported
PI/PIF error rates. The main explanation is that we have two different readers,
with different pickup/chipset combinations, scanning at different reading speeds
(8X CAV for KProbe, 2X CLV for PlexTools). It's interesting to see the disc
scanned at low & high speed, since when the error rate increases at a specific
disc region, it should appear in both scans...else it would be, perhaps,
a reading glitch of the tested reader.
Note: PI/PIF errors only give us a quick look at the error rate of the burned media. Those scans should be taken not as the absolute criteria of the burning quality but as an indication level.
- CMC Magnetics 8X DVD-R @ 4X
- Summary
The PI/PIF scans show that the TDK 882N performed well with the used DVD-R
media, except for Traxdata 8X media. It seems that all NEC based drives
need to improve their performance with Ritek media. It should be noted that
TDK
media reported a read error under Plextools.
- Appendix
Disc Label |
Disc Information |
Max Allowed Writing Speed |
Total Recording Time (mins) |
Traxdata 4X @ 8X |
RITEKG05 |
4X |
13:56 |
CMC 8X @ 4X |
CMC MAG.AE1 |
4X |
13:58 |
TDK 8X |
TTG02 |
8X |
9:18 |
TY 8X |
TYG02 |
8X |
9:21 |
VERBATIM 8X |
MCC 02RG20 |
8X |
9:21 |
Intenso 8X |
FUJIFILM03 |
8X |
9:27 |
13. KProbe/PlexTools Scans - Page 2
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 13
KProbe/PlexTools Scans - Page 2
In the following screenshots you can see the PI/PIF scans for the DVD-R media
we burned with the TDK 882N. The software we used for all measurements is KProbe
v2.2.3, and the reader is the LiteOn LDW-811S with "HS0Q patched" firmware,
being able to read DVD±R/RW media up to 8X CAV. All scans have been
performed at 8X with PI/PIF Sum8. Note that LiteOn drives cannot report PO
but PIF errors, despite what KProbe reports. In addition, all discs have been
scanned with PX-712SA v1.04 using PlexTools v2.16 for comparison levels.
Comparing the KProbe/PlexTools scans we can see major differences in the reported
PI/PIF error rates. The main explanation is that we have two different readers,
with different pickup/chipset combinations, scanning at different reading speeds
(8X CAV for KProbe, 2X CLV for PlexTools). It's interesting to see the disc
scanned at low & high speed, since when the error rate increases at a specific
disc region, it should appear in both scans...else it would be, perhaps, a
reading glitch of the tested reader.
Note: PI/PIF errors only give us a quick look at the error
rate of the burned media. Those scans should be taken not as the absolute criteria
of the burning quality but as an indication level.
- Summary
The TDK 882N reported very good performance with DVD-R media. Low PI/PIF error
levels were noticed, with some small exceptions, while offering compatibility
with the majority of the media we used.
- Appendix
Disc Label |
Disc Information |
Max Allowed Writing Speed |
Total Recording Time (mins) |
Optodisc 8X@4X |
OPTODISC OR8 |
4X |
13:50 |
BeALL 8X@4X |
BeALL000 P80 |
4X |
13:49 |
BenQ 8X @4X |
DAXON AZ2 |
4X |
13:53 |
TDK 8X |
RICOHJPN R02 |
8X |
9:18 |
TY 8X |
YUDEN000 T02 |
8X |
9:15 |
Traxdata 8X |
RITEK R03 |
8X |
9:16 |
Philips 8X |
PHILIPS C08 |
8X |
9:15 |
Waitec 8X |
CMC MAG E01 |
8X |
9:13 |
Intenso 8X |
PRODISC R03 |
8X |
9:18 |
CMC 8X |
CMC MAG E01 |
8X |
9:18 |
VERBATIM 8X |
MCC 003 |
8X |
9:16 |
14. DVD+R DL - Page 1
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 14
DVD+R DL - Page 1
- Writing Tests
We burned some DVD+R DL discs with DVD-Video content. The source disc was "Gladiator Movie - Special Edition" disc1 with a total size of 6.86GB. First we transferred the movie to the hard disc with DVD Decrypter as ISO format (single file). The following picture shows the media code of the Double Layer disc we used.
There is a small bug introduced with all NEC based DL drives. The TDK firmware
has the same bug. You can see that the drive identifies the disc as if there
is only one layer. However, disc capacity and recording speed are correct.
We then used Nero CDSpeed, and again the disc was recognised as Single Layer media.
However, disc capacity, media type and book type seems to be correct.
We also tried to use a Ritek D01 Double Layer disc, to investigate the compatibility
of the drive. Unfortunately, the drive could not even start the burning proccess
with this type of disc. The media code and the supported writing speed are
shown below. You will notice that only 1X writing speed is supported, making
recording
impossible.
Afterwards, we used CopyToDVD v3.0.0.16. The friendly wizard prompts us to choose from among the main tasks:
The software prompts us to select Video_TS/ISO image folder. We chose the "GLADIATOR.ISO" image
and we selected the TDK 882N burner.
After pressing "OK", the burning procedure started, without any
unexpected delays. It should be noted that the Booktype setting could not be
changed. The writing process was finished after 37:17 minutes.
The average speed was 2.38X as reported by CopyToDVD. The recorded
disc was in DVD+R9 format.
For comparison reasons, we post some burning results from other DL writers, which all burned the same content ("Gladiator Movie - Special Edition" disc1), using CopyToDVD software:
Drive |
Time (mins) |
TDK 882N |
37:17 |
LaCie d2 DL |
37:17 |
LG GSA-4120B |
38:08 |
NEC 2510A |
37:17 |
BenQ DW1600A DL |
40:16 |
BenQ DW830A |
39:14 |
LiteON SOHW-832S DVD+R DL BookType |
38:33 |
LiteON SOHW-832S DVD-ROM BookType |
38:36 |
SONY DRU-700A |
|
The TDK 882N, LaCie d2 DL and NEC ND-2510A were the fastest drives that support
2.4X DL writing speed.
15. DVD+R DL - Page 2
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 15
DVD+R DL - Page 2
- Writing Quality
In order to test the TDK 882N DVD+R DL writing quality, we did not use
our usual readers (LiteOn LDW-811S/Plextor PX-712A) but instead the LiteOn
SOHD-167T with firmware
9S13.
Using KProbe v2.2.3, we got a rather good scan, indicating again, good quality
performance from the drive with the DL media recorded. Notice that the disc
is not read at 3~8 CAV, but at 2.5X~5X CAV (DVD+R DL media).
Using the Plextor PX-712SA and PlexTools, we were able to scan the DVD+R DL media:
The reported PI error rate was far lower than the 280 limit and no PO failures
were reported, giving again an image of a very good quality burned disc. The
TDK drive continues to produce very good quality burns.
- Compatibility
We were happy to see that the drive sets DVD-ROM booktype by default for DVD+R9
discs.
For our compatibility tests, we used the burned DVD+R DL discs with DVD-Video content ("Gladiator Movie - Special Edition" Disc1) and PowerDVD v5.0. The disc was also checked with several stand-alone DVD players.
We moved from beginning to end and around the layer change to ensure that
the movie can be playback without any glitches or skips. The results are shown
below:
Device |
Firmware |
DVD-ROM Booktype |
LiteOn SOHW-812S |
vUSOJ |
Playback is perfect |
LiteOn LDW-811S |
vHS0Q |
Disc size recognized under CDSpeed but not disc contents under Windows |
Plextor PX-712A |
v1.01 |
Playback is perfect |
Plextor PX-712SA |
v1.02 |
Playback is perfect |
NEC 2510A |
v2.15 |
Playback is perfect |
NEC 2500A |
v1.07 |
Playback is perfect |
LiteOn LTD-163D |
vGH5S |
Playback is perfect |
LiteOn LTD-165H |
vCH11 |
Playback is perfect |
|
v1012 |
Playback is perfect |
LG DV8600 |
- |
Playback is perfect |
|
- |
Playback is perfect |
Sony DVP - NS730P |
- |
Playback is perfect |
Sony DVP - PQ2 |
- |
Playback is perfect |
Waitec DVD-X4 |
- |
Disc recognized, playback is jerky |
Waitec Vision-HR |
- |
Disc recognized, playback is jerky |
Sony DVP - NS730P |
- |
Playback is perfect |
16. BookType Setting / Firmware Version changes
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 16
BookType Setting / Firmware Version changes
We used the latest version of Nero Burning Rom and tried to change the booktype setting of a DVD+R disc.
We also tried the latest DVDInfoPro 3.13 to investigate the booktype setting support. We can see that the software uses the NEC booktype utility, since this is indeed a NEC OEM drive. The drive was set to DVD+R DL booktype.
Then we successfully changed the default booktype setting to DVD-ROM.
We were happy to see that TDK supports booktype setting changes.
For the above tests we mostly used firmware version 2.36. However, since most
in-users are interested in knowing firmware changes, we present in the following
table the writing strategy changes between 2.35 and 2.36 firmware versions.
TDK 882N Recorder |
Firmware Versions |
Writing Strategies Versions |
2.35: |
CD-R version |
1.15 |
CD-RW version |
1.14 |
DVD-R version |
1.28f |
DVD-RW version |
1.26t |
DVD+R version |
1.31f |
DVD+RW version |
1.24 |
DVD+R9 (DL) version |
1.13f |
2.36: |
CD-R version |
1.15 |
CD-RW version |
1.14 |
DVD-R version |
1.34f |
DVD-RW version |
1.27f |
DVD+R version |
1.34f |
DVD+RW version |
1.25f |
DVD+R9 (DL) version |
1.15f |
17. Conclusion
TDK 882N Recorder - Page 17
Conclusion
After the big success of NEC's ND drive series, TDK uses NEC's OEM products
to release this Double Layer recorder. The TDK 882N showed weak performance
in the reading tests. The CD/DVD error correction needs improvement, and the
drive cannot make SafeDisc 2.60+ backups and cannot recognize 99mins discs.
However, writing quality is the main advantage of this drive. Following
on NEC's footsteps, the recorder has excellent writing quality, making it one
of the best DVD writers available. The writing performance with Double Layer
media from Verbatim was very good although the drive didn't recognize
Ritek's DL media, something that future firmware updates are expected to fix.
The drive offers the option to change the Booktype of DVD+R DL media to DVD-ROM, increasing compatibility with DVD players, since it supports Booktype Setting for +R/+RW media.
If you need a good quality writer, but you don't care much about reading performance, you might want to consider the TDK 882N recorder.
- The Good
- Excellent CD writing quality with low Jitter values
- Very good DVD writing quality
- Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
- Supports audio protected discs
- Supports booktype setting for +R/+RW media
- The Bad
- Low CD/DVD error correction ability
- RITEK DL media doesn't supported with 2.35 and 2.36 firmware
- Mount Rainier is not supported
- Cannot read or rip 99min Audio CD's
- Cannot create working backups of SafeDisc protected games over v2.60
- DAE speed only up to 32X
- Like To be fixed
- Faster ripping CSS DVD-Video performance
- More supported media for 8X/Double Layer