Fall 2004 DVDR Roundup: Dual Layer and 16X DVD+R
by Anand Shimpi & Virginia Lee on November 1, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Write Quality Tests MCC 004
We read the 16X MCC 004 media in our Plextor drive with Q-Tools to check for errors that the various burners may have written. Again, only these drives were able to write to the 16X media properly for the PX712A to read.As we described in our second section, PO errors are the ones to look for when testing certain types of discs with burners. These errors can render a disc unreadable and should be minded if they exist in the double digits or even too often in a small area for them to be corrected. The media written with the four drives that we were able to read with Q-Tools were virtually PO error free.
Shown below are the results for those drives that were capable of writing to MCC 004 16X media successfully.
It is obvious that there were no problems writing readable discs with the Sony, LG, Pioneer, and Nu Tech drives.
PI errors are not as ruthless as PO errors. For example, though Q-Tools has read 404,647 errors on the MCC 004 media written with the 710A, it doesn't mean that the disc is completely bad. Most of these errors were found towards the end of the disc, but data can still be read off that portion of the media.
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The screenshots above show that the DRU-710A has performed a successful write, but the read back on the Sony unit towards the end of the disc was a bit shaky. We mentioned earlier how media is prone to warping on the outer portions and this is where most of the errors can occur. Plextor Q-Tools confirms that by detecting over 400,000 PI errors within the last 1GB or so written to the MCC 004 disc. Take a look at the graphs from LG's GSA-4160B...
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Again, about 99.9% of the PI errors are at the end of the disc. The Nero screenshots show nothing in terms of trouble with writing or reading from the disc on the LG drive, mainly because it was able to correct these errors with ease.
The DW1620 and DVR-108D have done a better job at writing to the media with 6052 and 5614 PI errors respectively. We're disappointed that the other drives could not write to the MCC 004 media or could not be read with Q-Tools like the burn LiteOn's SOHW-1633S performed.
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kellvarsen - Friday, November 26, 2004 - link
I would like to congrtulate the Anandtech team for this DVD-RW roundup as they prooved once more that they are better and more thorough with the testing than Tomshardware.And by this i am reffering to the writing quality test mainly ,which in my opinion is the most important and eloquent of them all.Great HL2 review also!!!Tabajara - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
I've heard several people say that the new Plextor 716A drives are defective, and are mostly burning DVD coasters, specially dual layer ones. Pioneer Europe isn't selling them yet, and this also point to some kind of manufacturing problem. I was waiting for this drive, but now I don't know if I will buy a NEC or a Pioneer one. I would buy the DVR-108 if a new firmware version enables the user the choose the booktype to be used.JaRb0y - Thursday, November 4, 2004 - link
Curious, did you get the NEC 3500AG to write Fujifilm 48X CDR media at 48X? It appears you did, but I heard NEC limited the speed on some types. My drive does 32X on the Fujifilm TY, am I missing something?DonB - Thursday, November 4, 2004 - link
"ND-3500A is priced $10 lower than Pioneer's DVR-108D at $68" Prices are really coming down. I bought the same NEC 3500A just a few months ago for $95 + shipping (from NewEgg).eleewhm - Wednesday, November 3, 2004 - link
you guys sure know how to review dvd writers???looks like you are good at opening up the drives only
Since when does NEC 3500 overdrive MCC003?????? 6:72??...it only writes @8x speeds....
pls relook at the way you guys post the results...and understand nero numbers before publishing the article...
see how ppl are thrashing you guys here in singapore...we have a bunch of serious ppl here doing testing ...
http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?p=11...
Maverick215 - Wednesday, November 3, 2004 - link
>NEC follows a pattern for each firmware revision: 2.xy, where:
>
>X = Type (Retail, OEM, Rebadge)
>Y = Revision number
>
>Till today know patterns:
>
>X = 0 (OEM)
>X = 1 (Retail)
>X = 2 (I-O Data)
>X = 4 (Freecom)
>X = 7 (TDK)
>X = B (Ricoh)
>X = F (MadDog)
>----------------------
>Y = 6
>Y = 7
>Y = 8
So what 2.26 really represents is the same generation of firmware with feature tweaks from an oem that rebadged the drive. The firmware wasn't released for the "retail" drive. We must distinguish OEM from rebadge now. OEM in the more "traditional" is a drive intended for resale, such as in a system(this is what you'll find at newegg and similar being sold as NEC). OEM rebadge would be a drive intended to be sold by another company with that company's logo etc if they desire, the insides of all these drives could very well be exactly the same, and often times are, since this saves the OEM a great deal of money. At most you'll get different revisions of the same line. (On the flip side you'll see companies such as HP that buy 16x drives from whoever is the cheapest, so Lite-On one month and BenQ the next)
--
NEC does have more support than just the "official" there are several "hacked" firmwares
that provide all kinds of features not in the official releases(bitsetting included), though I think they go beyond the scope of what you were trying to portray.
--
So, more fairly you would represent that the drive being OEM(system) might come with a 2.x7 firmware most likely 2.17(see above). An important distinction. Since this would seem to give this drive the same flaw as the pioneer (bitsetting only in DL) that disqualified itfrom winning..
But, I still don't need dvd-ram :)
Picking and chosing features from untested firmware and not doing the same from another drive has introduced a clear bias(bias in a scientific sense, which is information/data which skews the results of your study/review due to a sytematic error in your study/review design; I am NOT implying you have a bias to one product or another) in the selection of the winner.
==
as an aside, further confirmation that my assumption about the nutech drives is correct
email correspondence with Chris Geerlings,
Field Application Engineer from nutech I inquired to using any of the firmwares from the benq ftp. And he wrote back:
"I know the (G7)K9 works, the others I haven't tested yet."
asteamerandy - Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - link
In you review:"If LG had implemented bitsetting into their GSA-4160B, it would have helped their product climb the ladder ..."
"The booktype setting feature offered in this unit also makes this a great drive. The GSA-4160B is a bit on the steep side ..."
There are other instances if this abuigity. So which is it? Does the 4160B have the bit setting feature or not?
rcabor - Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - link
Why do you say "DVDR burn speeds are excellent, and the drive technically supports 4X DVD+DL burn speeds, even though it does not readily advertise such. You can see our original DL tests on the drive here." But then right below that you show an image of the box that Advertises 4x DVD+R dual layer?rcabor - Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - link
Maverick215 - Tuesday, November 2, 2004 - link
Still not working, short story=NEC 2.26=2.16 with tweaks to rebadge specifications. they do not follow traditional revision codes 2.x6=are all same