WARNING - Nu Tech DDW-082 is JUNK!! (IMHO...)

[Boobers]

Hello all,
I just had to post this in the hopes I could save some people the time and money I wasted on this Anandtech's Editors Choice award winning drive.

I've had this drive for a week now and I wish I'd never bought it in the first place. I've burned about 25 DVD-R's with it (all RitekG04's) and none of them will play in my $300 Samsung DVD-HD931 stand-alone DVD player. When I insert a DVD-R it just keeps saying "Loading..." forever and refuses to play them. I've updated the firmware of the Nu Tech to D373 and tried it with bitsetting on and off with no difference.

I've been watching DVD-R's on my Samsung for about a year now and I've never seen a disk the Sammy couldn't play. I have burned over 500 DVD-R's with my LiteOn LDW-400D (actually a Sony) and they all play perfectly in the Sammy, but the same RitekG04's burned with the Nu Tech DDW-082 will not play.

However, the same disks play fine on the computer and even play fine on my old (& cheap!) $60 Apex DVD-660 player.

The Nu Tech drive is quiet and fast, but it also has some additional problems. When I burn a disk with Nero v6.3.1.10 and have it do a verify, after the write the drive ejects the disk, reloads the disk and often fails to initialize the disk properly and reports a read error. Once again, this same disk plays fine in my old Apex player.

I do not like this drive and think the only award it should get is the Anandtech Editors Choice award for the biggest ripoff of the spring. Nu Tech should not boast dual DVD+/-R support because of it's very poor DVD-R compatibility. This is just plain marketing FRAUD! What a piece of junk...

 

[Boobers]

Nobody has any comments? I thought somebody would comment on the fact that Anandtech is recommending a drive that does not fully support DVD-R, as the manufacturer caims...

 

[amdskip]

Send it back if you aren't happy with it or maybe you got a bad drive, it could happen. Try a different media type too.

 

[Duvie]

That is why I am staying away from a lot of the cheapo drives like Nu tech, optorite,etc...The Pioneer models are similar in price and my first pioneer dvr-104 has yet to produce a coaster ro shoot me down in any stand-alone plyer that has been cpable of reading cd-rs...Ofcourse my sons toshiba DVD player I bought back in 1998 doesn't run them but I am not surprised as that is far too old......


I am sticking with good brands here.....I recommend others do the same and avoid the low sticker price of some of these models...I have heard of several problems with optorite, liteons, etc.....One I bought for my buddy and I have been eating my words as we returned it for a pioneer after the POS started having problems 4 weeks in after working flawlessly before....Pioneer has been running great now for 5 months..

 

[TheBDB]

Hmmmm I just bought one but I haven't tried burning a DVD yet. Hopefully you are the exception and not the rule.

 

[Night Blade]

Nope, second one here. Gone through 10-15 -R & 1 +R media, all bad, won't finalize, bios 373.

The only media I got to work on it was the +R that came with the drive, I had a Pioneer 107D before this & no issues at all.

It's all wrapped up & ready to go back to the supplier, if they don't offer a refund for this POS i'm chucking it in front of a 18-wheeler.

 

[deathwalker]

I just bought one of the myself from Newegg....and..I am dissiapointed with it. I flashed it with the new B373 firmware. It seems to handle my Memorex DVD+RW media ok..but i picked up some Sony DVd+RW's on sale and it barfs on itself everytime I put one of those disks in. Not only will it not record on it..the NU-082 won't even detect that there is a DVD in the drive. It should be noted that Sony DVD+RW media is on the Media list that NU published in conjunction with the B373 firmware release...this is not a very impressive Drive and it makes me wonder about the Anandtech testing process's in there reviews.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

For dvd burner, better to stick with nec, lite-on, pioneer or plextor.

You get what you paid for.
Cheapest nutech 8x +/- at newegg is $73.5, nec is $76.99.
Save $3.49, get $349 trouble.

 

[MichaelD]

I bought a LiteOn 851S (their new 8x burner) it was a POS. Wouldn't even READ most of the CDs I put in there; I didn't even bother trying to burn on it.

Returned it and got the NEC2500A. Best DVD burner ever. It's quiet as heck, the drawer is the smoothest and quietest-operating I've ever seen on a CD drive and no coasters.

The only small niggle I have is that the LED doesn't change color (i.e. orange for burning, green for read) but I sure can live with that.

 

[paxnot]

Anandtech must have sold their souls to NuTech because this drive is a piece of crap. I regreted buying it from day one. It only took 3 months to die on me and it was limping all the way to the grave. The Nec DL drive was similarly price and I only hear good things from that drive. This is the last time I blindly follow Anandtech

 

[CeilingHoles]

I agree 100%. The drive is junk, as is NuTech's customer support. I RMA'd it with newegg and I got a Plextor PX-712A instead....this drive has been amazing. and as they say, you get what you pay for..

 

[DaveSimmons]

Agreed on avoiding no-name cheapness. I got a Pioneer 106 back in December and it's been flawless for DVD-R, -RW, CD-R, CD-RW. Both the -R and -RW work great in my Sony DVD player.

When I finally get around to buying a dual-layer (no hurry since I only own a few DVDs that I care about backing up) I'll almost certainly spend extra and get another Pioneer.

 

[jake205]

i got one too off of newegg. I thought it'd be nice (it was about $60 ) and coming from a guy who had a 2000 compaq presario for the past 4 years with an awesome 4x CD burner (kidding) i like it a lot the cds burn real fast and the dvd+rs have been werking ok at sub 4x speeds, but it cant burn ANY dvd-rs but im the type that just doesnt give up and this sort of thing drives me crazy so i burn 25 of them all with different settings and different programs and nothn. i got lucky twice and they worked out and i thought the next one would work too but it never does. I should defintly return and get one of those cheap NECs

 

[txxxx]

Originally posted by: paxnot
Anandtech must have sold their souls to NuTech because this drive is a piece of crap. I regreted buying it from day one. It only took 3 months to die on me and it was limping all the way to the grave. The Nec DL drive was similarly price and I only hear good things from that drive. This is the last time I blindly follow Anandtech

Anandtech reviews have been falling in quality for a while now. I too wouldnt take their word on much nowadaysl

 

[CplusE]

According the the description above, I think the Nu DDW-082 burner should have some compatibility problem, even firmware updating doesn't work, which is really annoying.

 

[zodder]

For dvd burner, better to stick with nec, lite-on, pioneer or plextor

I agree. My Plextor 712A has been flawless.

 

[jpeyton]

NEC is the only brand I'll buy now (best price/performance ratio).