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In House Review - LaCie 16x d2 DVD±RW

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In House Review - LaCie 16x d2 DVD±RW

Postby Ian on Wed Dec 29, 2004 12:56 pm

While I was on vacation, the Digital Dolphin was hard at work on a review of LaCie's new 16x d2 DVD±RW. This NEC based drive sports an attractive case, support for both FireWire and USB 2.0 and some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. The d2 is capable of 16x DVD±R and 4x DVD±RW writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it's one of the few external drives to offer support the DVD+R DL format.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on LaCie's new external DVD writer and see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the d2 have what it takes? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=251]Image
LaCie 16x d2 DVD±RW[/url]

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the LaCie 16x d2 DVD±RW, please post them in the forum using the link provided below.

Update: PDF of writing quality tests:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/files/Lacie16xDV ... esults.pdf
Last edited by Ian on Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Alejandra on Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:40 pm

You add a lot of media in this review, how long it took?

Nice review.
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Impressive isn't he?

Postby shaun on Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:49 pm

I think it has been established that DD needs a life :)

It would have taken him hours upon hours to get this review done :)

This is what sets CDLabs apart ;)
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Re: Impressive isn't he?

Postby Ian on Wed Dec 29, 2004 5:43 pm

shaun wrote:It would have taken him hours upon hours to get this review done :)


Probably longer. It took me hours upon hours just to proof read it. :wink:
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:39 pm

It would have been done about 3-4 weeks SOONER if the first drive hadn't been a lemon :roll:

Yes, my reviews do take a long.... long.... LONG time to make.... and to be honest, I did even more testing then what is shown in the review. I'll make more of it accessible as soon as I can find a place to upload the master PDF of results... umm, and after I *make* the master PDF of results :P
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Postby Ian on Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:38 pm

dolphinius_rex wrote:I'll make more of it accessible as soon as I can find a place to upload the master PDF of results... umm, and after I *make* the master PDF of results :P


Email it to me. I have a place for stuff like that.
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Postby Bhairav on Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:39 pm

Dolph, nice review, as usual ;)
One question: Aren't those Hyundai DVD-R discs fake? Aviationwiz had a few, and they crapped out big time. Maybe you ought to put a statement to that effect in the review?
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:09 am

Well.... they aren't claiming to be Taiyo Yuden made media, so they aren't really fake. They only seem fake if people are putting too much faith in the whole MID code thing being real. And since CMC and Prodisc already screw this up about as bad as any crappy TY code using manufacturer (for other codes of course), I don't think it really matters any more.

People who aren't really into this sort of thing will be able to keep an eye on what brands are producing what results. And people who are more interested in this field will be aware of where the media is made.

Besides, if I start focusing attention on something being "counterfeit" or "fake" media, then people will immediatly come to the conclusion that it will be completely incapable of any having any quality. This isn't always true (although with Hyundai it probably is!).

And the final reason would probably be: Sometimes adding more information, actually serves to greater confuse people :wink: (although not most regulars in this forum of course!)
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Postby RJW on Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:35 am

I wouldn't blame CMC. Prodisc yes but CMC. Nope.
CMC makes TDK, MCC , Philips,Fuji disc's appart from there own media. However all OEM jobs for the first 3 are made according to the quality that it should be at least the disc's that are officially sold for these compannies or related partners So I'm not talking about Bulkpaq or no named stuff which just happens to have the fancy code.

About Hyundai on there site they state that it's hongkong made by infosmart. Also Infosmart themselves report that they got a exclusive deal when it comes to manufacutering Hyundai media.
Now the 4x Hyundai media comes with SKC (which seems infact to be licensced !) and infosmart codes.
The 8x with TY codes. Infosmart sells this as something like fully 8x compatible code. Which is quite true.
So from the side of Hyundai and Infosmart there not claimeing it's TY media.
However I do know some sales persons who would sell these as TY or make a incorrect reference that it's a excellent disc from a well known manufacturer. Luckilly most webstores here in Europe are that fair to say that it's not TY. Infact quite some webstores did publish the negative respons they got for Hyundai media or infomration which explains what it is and how crap it is.

Hmm also there is one other fact while the Dolphin isn't pushing that hard on the fake media any more.
Let me say just the magic words: old OPTODISC's 8x DVD-R.
I also thinks that the followeing lines are put there for that reason:
Besides, if I start focusing attention on something being "counterfeit" or "fake" media, then people will immediatly come to the conclusion that it will be completely incapable of any having any quality. This isn't always true (although with Hyundai it probably is!).
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Thu Dec 30, 2004 1:01 pm

hehehe, I think someone here may know me too well :oops: and I never miss a good opportunity to blame Prodisc for something :wink:

But other then Optodisc's older 8x DVD-Rs, some other discs also seem like they may be alright even with another manufacturer's code.
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Postby MediumRare on Fri Dec 31, 2004 4:08 am

Nice test! I particularly like the extensive media checks (although a lot of these aren't useful for a resident of Europe). Since I'm visiting relatives right now, I don't have much time to read it thoroughly, especially the various BLER scans which I consider to be very important. I do have a couple of remarks and questions, though:
  • design is by Porsche (intro); BIOS is Phoenix (performance)
  • did you hook it up with USB or firewire? What chipsets were used in the enclosure?
  • did you use a LiteOn 832S for the CD Winbench test and a 1633S for all other comparisons ?
  • 48x is PCAV with plateau starting at ca. 74 min!! (something new to me, but NEC 3500 seems to do this too)
  • surface scan of a scratched disc giving all yellow suggests (to me) that C2's are not reported properly. How does it behave with other discs?
  • CD-write test says it's with randomn files but the picture is from a CD-Speed data disc. Is it possible to generate a data disc with randomn files ???
  • is it possible to flash this drive with other NEC firmware? (I know you don't want to do this for your tests).
  • I had a quick look at some BenQ scans and they seem to be mostly similar to Kprobe, which is somewhat reassuring for diagnostics.
    Image 7687 (BenQ Maxell 4x DVD-R) is missing
    Image 7724 (BenQ Imation 8x DVD+R) is a KProbe scan of something else
    (you may want to check the images)
Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to seeing more reviews from you.

G
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Fri Dec 31, 2004 4:12 pm

MediumRare wrote:Nice test! I particularly like the extensive media checks (although a lot of these aren't useful for a resident of Europe). Since I'm visiting relatives right now, I don't have much time to read it thoroughly, especially the various BLER scans which I consider to be very important.


I'm glad you like the media variety. It's these sorts of comments that keep me fueled when I'm spending 8 hours burning and testing DVDRs in a row, before getting 2 hours of sleep and heading to my day job :wink:

Don't worry though, my next burner review will include an assortment of European DVDRs as well! :D (yes, that means I'll have even MORE media next time... )

MediumRare wrote:I do have a couple of remarks and questions, though:
[*] design is by Porsche (intro); BIOS is Phoenix (performance)


Hrm... I could have sworn I copied "Pheonix" from the boot screen... I'll have to double check that one. I'll fix the Porsche thing when I get a chance.

MediumRare wrote:[*] did you hook it up with USB or firewire? What chipsets were used in the enclosure?


I used the Firewire interface as it was the most convenient. I had wanted to go back and rerun some of the benchmark tests with the USB 2.0 interface, but LaCie requires drives to be returned within a certain timeframe, and this became impossible (especially with Christmas).

MediumRare wrote:[*] did you use a LiteOn 832S for the CD Winbench test and a 1633S for all other comparisons ?


I don't own a LiteON 1633S, all those benchmarks are taken from Ian's testing, which is why some of the tests also have little notes about differences in testing methods for that drive. I used the LiteON 832s for Winbench since the results are highly dependent on your system specs. So all my Winbench results are from drives I own, from tests I ran myself, all on the same system.

Possibly on my next review, all of the other comparison results on the benchmarks and tests will ONLY be from my own reviews, so that all the testing methods and variables will be the same in all circumstances.

MediumRare wrote:[*] 48x is PCAV with plateau starting at ca. 74 min!! (something new to me, but NEC 3500 seems to do this too)


Yeah, I noticed that too! It's also new to me, and I had to re-run the test a couple of times before I decided it was supposed to be that way :P

MediumRare wrote:[*] surface scan of a scratched disc giving all yellow suggests (to me) that C2's are not reported properly. How does it behave with other discs?


It was a pretty scratched disc... Personally, I'm not a big fan of surface scan testing, since I don't think it does much for DVDRs, I only include it in my reviews for consistancy with Ian's. Unfortunately I don't have the drive anymore to compare another disc with, but I imagine the NEC 3500 would have very similar results.

MediumRare wrote:[*] CD-write test says it's with randomn files but the picture is from a CD-Speed data disc. Is it possible to generate a data disc with randomn files ???


I use Nero CD/DVD Speed's data disc creation tool usually, which creates random garbage files. Other times, when I need less then a full disc, I use random MP3 files put into scattered folders to make a specific capacity.

MediumRare wrote:[*] is it possible to flash this drive with other NEC firmware? (I know you don't want to do this for your tests).


I believe it is possible, but I didn't try, since I don't get to keep the drive. When I am able to keep the drives, I'm able to do things like that a lot easier.

MediumRare wrote:[*] I had a quick look at some BenQ scans and they seem to be mostly similar to Kprobe, which is somewhat reassuring for diagnostics.


Keep keeping an eye on that, since they also differ quite a bit on some occasions! Generally speaking, I tend to go for a best 2 out of 3 sort of thing. If the Plextor and BenQ agree, but the LiteON doesn't, I tend to go with that. Conversely, if the LiteON and BenQ agree but the Plextor doesn't, I tend to go with that. It's much more rare for the Plextor and LiteON to agree but the BenQ doesn't however. And when ALL 3 drives agree on a disc... then you've got something magic :wink:

And yes, all the Plextor testing WILL be released.... when I get a chance to make the PDF (read AFTER new Years).

MediumRare wrote:Image 7687 (BenQ Maxell 4x DVD-R) is missing
Image 7724 (BenQ Imation 8x DVD+R) is a KProbe scan of something else
(you may want to check the images)
[/list]Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to seeing more reviews from you.

G


Hrm... I'll go look into that! All the images are uploaded, and then linked to the HTML document individually, and by hand.... so mistakes can happen, especially when it takes 2-3 days to get all the images uploaded and linked for a single review! :o

Thank you for your kind words! I'm really enjoying it so far :D (although my g/f is less then impressed with me at time :P )
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Postby Scour on Sat Jan 01, 2005 8:22 pm

Hello!

Great review, dolphinius_rex :)

I like tests with many different media, but I think you don´t need to test with older media than you can buy ;) this time.
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Sun Jan 02, 2005 3:23 am

Scour wrote:Hello!

Great review, dolphinius_rex :)

I like tests with many different media, but I think you don´t need to test with older media than you can buy ;) this time.


Hrm... ok, next time I won't include any tests on RitekG03 media then :wink:
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Postby Ian on Tue Jan 04, 2005 9:46 pm

Here's a PDF of the writing quality test results. This should have been uploaded earlier, but I totally forgot (sorry dolph).

http://www.cdrlabs.com/files/Lacie16xDV ... esults.pdf
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Postby dolphinius_rex on Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:08 am

If people like the PDF Ian just posted, I'll make sure that they become a regular addition to all my reviews :wink:
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Postby spryfly on Thu Jan 06, 2005 12:21 am

dolphinius_rex wrote:If people like the PDF Ian just posted, I'll make sure that they become a regular addition to all my reviews :wink:


This is invaluble info. Please make this a regular addition to you reviews.
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Postby aviationwiz on Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:10 pm

dolphinius_rex wrote:If people like the PDF Ian just posted, I'll make sure that they become a regular addition to all my reviews :wink:


Looks kind of familiar, :P
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