Optorite DD0401 Dual DVD Recorder - Page 1

Optorite proceeds on to 8x dual recording with it's new DD0401 ATAPI burner. The Taiwanese manufacturer has already gained momentum in the optical storage market, with the successful DD0203, released some months ago. Based on the Sanyo chipset, possibly the biggest manufacturer of LSI for DVD recorders, the DD0401 combines impressive specifications at an affordable price. The drive is available in the market for less that $150.

- Features

Optorite DD0401 uses Sanyo's Burn Proof technology to avoid buffer underun problems when recording on CD/DVD media.

The dual burner offers 8x DVD+R, 4x DVD-R/+RW and 2x DVD-R writing and 12x DVD-ROM reading. The drive is also a 40x/24x/40x CD-RW writer.

As with previous Optorite DVD recorders, the DD0401 supports High Density recording for CD-R media. Developed by SANYO Electric Co., Ltd., HD-BURN allows conventional CD-R media (700MB) to double the writing capacity (1.4GB). This is achieved by shortening the minimum pit length to 0.62µm (0.82µm for CD-R), using more efficient modulation and a different error correction sheme (RS- Product code). According to Sanyo, this fills the gap between CD and DVD media, for users who require more than the 700MB offered by CD but where the 4.7GB of DVD is too much.

Optorite also features Sanyo 's "Safe-BP" technology, which stops writing at the point of the recording error, and restarts writing while changing the recording speed by monitoring the pickup servo in real time. "Shock BP" developed a drive which is resistant to "shock" as a development target function.

- Specifications

Of course, the most awaited feature of the new Optorite DD0401 is the supported writing speeds. The new drive offers 8x DVD+R (Z-CLV) recording, and DVD+RW at 4x CLV. DVD-R media can be burned at 4x CLV and DVD-RW at 2x CLV.

Writing under HD-BURN can be achieved at 24x maximum. The HD-BURN discs can be read at 78x max, considering the increased density of the recorded data.

The maximum CD writing speed for CD-R is 40x CAV and 24x P-CAV, when using Ultra Speed CD-RW media. Reading of CD-ROM can be done at 40x CAV maximum. The drive is also a fast DVD reader with 12x CAV for DVD-ROM single layer and 8x for DVD±R/RW and dual layer DVD-ROM.

Optorite chose a 2MB buffer to obtain safe recordings at 8x. The drive also supports RAW DAO 96 writing (CD).

The drive uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. For our tests, we set the region code to 2 (Europe).

- Retail package

The retail package includes the Optorite DD0401 ATAPI drive, a quick installation guide, an audio cable and mounting screws.

The attached software is Nero Burning Rom v5.5 for CD/DVD authoring, InCD for packet writing and Cyberlink PowerDVD player. Sonic MyDVD is also included in the retail package.

- The drive

The drive's front panel has a few design features which differ from the stock standard design we have come to expect. The drive tray door, occupying the upper half of the drive, protrudes and curves outwards slightly at the centre. There are the usual DVD/CD and R/RW markings located on the left, centre and right hand sides of the tray door, with the eject hole on the lower rim and right of centre. The lower half of the drive's front panel, includes the headphone jack and volume control situated on the very left, the power/activity led directly below the eject hole and right of centre, and the next track and stop/eject buttons on the right. Both buttons are round with the stop/eject being slightly larger.

The rear panel has the standard layout proceeding from left to right - analogue and digital audio outputs (SPDIF), master/slave select, 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 photos. The Optorite DD0401's mainboard (based on the Sanyo LC897490 chipset) and drive mechanics have been designed by Optorite, which was not the case with their previous model, the DD0203. Click on photo of the mainboard below for a higher resolution image:

- Installation

When connected to our test PC with Windows XP operating system, the drive was identified as "OPTORITE DVD RW DD0401". All tests were done with firmware revision v1.20E.

The following pages include the test results of the Optorite drive along with two other DVD burners, the Philips DVDR824P and the Plextor PX-708A, for comparison.