TDK 882N

Review Pages

1. Introduction - Retail Package
2. Transfer Rate Reading Tests
3. CD Error Correction Tests
4. DVD Error Correction Tests
5. Protected Disc Tests
6. DAE Tests
7. Protected AudioCDs
8. CD Recording Tests
9. Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests
10. Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 Error Measurements
11. DVD Recording Tests
12. KProbe/PlexTools Scans - Page 1
13. KProbe/PlexTools Scans - Page 2
14. DVD+R DL - Page 1
15. DVD+R DL - Page 2
16. BookType Setting / Firmware Version changes
17. Conclusion

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