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.

• Pressed CD - Seek Times, CDR Media - Seek Times,
• Pressed Single Layer DVD-ROM - Seek Times, Pressed PTP Dual Layer DVD-ROM - Seek Times

Nero CD-DVD Speed Graphs

• CD Pressed / CD-R / US-RW
• DVD Pressed SL / DVD Pressed DL / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R / DVD+RW