After more than a year
, Heise has finally published another test of 7 DVD-Burners (4 SATA and 3 IDE) in the latest issue of c't No. 11/2007 on sale today in Europe (they
have published short looks at individual drives, but this is the first comparative article in a long tine).
As usual, this post is only a summary of the test- primarily re. writing quality. There are many more detailed results in the magazine (graphs, reading performance, error correction and handling of copy protection on audio CDs).
Specifically, this article includes a long discussion on LG's SecurDisc (skeptical), basics on DVD-RAM (nothing new for regulars here) and the new "Live" file system in MS Vista that seems to be implementing some features long planned for Mount Rainier/Fuji.
This time round, the number of media types tested was greatly reduced- no DVD+R or DVD-RW types were tested!! The media chosen are those that "did best" in previous tests. However, they did include detailed results from AudioDev for Taiyo Yuden CDR's this time,
All DVDs were tested with the Audiodev CATS-DVD-PRO (no mention of the in-house Almedio AEC-1000 from previous tests).
The first table contains model and firmware and the c't grade for various categories. The quality and speed ratings for DVDs are combined in a single grade.
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DVD Burns CD Reading Noise
Model + Firmware R / RW / DL Burns CD / DVD CD / DVD
Asus 1.10 0 / - / 0 + 0 / 0 + / 0
DRW-1814BLT
LG 1.00 - / --/ -- 0 + / 0 - / 0
GSA-H55N
LiteOn 9L05 --/ 0 / -- -- + / ++ 0 / +
LH-20A1S
OptiArc 1-01 - / 0 / + -- 0 / - - / --
AD-7371S
Pioneer 1.15 --/ - / 0 + 0 / ++ 0 / ++
DVR-112
Plextor 1.00 + / --/ -- -- 0 / 0 0 / --
PX-800
Samsung SB01 - / --/ 0 0 + / + 0 / +
SH-S183L
The next table contains the actual and recommended burning speed for these drives and selected media. The recommended speed is based on details of the CATS scans. The second line shows the c't quality index and grade (# means POFs occurred or E22/E32 in the case of CD-Rs).
The results for DVD+RW are based on a 10 part burning cascade (in steps from writing the inner part 10x to once only for the outer part). The phase-change material used for RWs often needs to be "conditioned" and attains its final properties after several writing cycles. A burning cascade makes this process evident on a single (fresh) disc. A recommended "speed" of e.g.
3ini means "write completely 3x before regular use". In those cases where a
NO = "don't use" is noted, the error rate actually
increased with repeated rewriting. c't suspects that the laser power is too high in these cases.
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DVD-R 16x DVD-R 16x DVD+RW 8x DVD+RDL 8x CD-R 48x
Taiyo Yuden Sony Verbatim Verbatim Taiyo Yuden
TYG03 SONY16D1 MKM A03 MKM 003 TYG03
Model (000) (000)
Asus 16 / 8 16 / 16 8 / 3ini 8 / 8 48 / 48
DRW-1814BLT -41 / -- 62 / + 16 / - 26 / 0 67 / +
LG 20 / 12 12 / 8 8 / NO 8 / 6 48 / 16
GSA-H55N 17 / - -528 / --# -70 / -- -292 / --# 31 / 0
LiteOn 20 / 12 20 / 12 8 / 4ini 8 / 4 48 / 24
LH-20A1S -17 / -- -273 / --# 33 / 0 -155 / --# -29 / --
OptiArc 18 / 8 18 / 12 8 / 6 8 / 8 48 / 16
AD-7371S 42 / 0 4 / - 26 / 0 59 / + -388 / --#
Pioneer 18 / 16 16 / 12 8 / 2ini 10 / 10 40 / 40
DVR-112 -3 / -- -19 / -- 16 / - 32 / 0 61 / +
Plextor 18 / 18 18 / 8 8 / NO 8 / 8 48 / 16
PX-800 63 / + 46 / 0 -338 / --# -10 / -- -1701 / --#
Samsung 18 / 16 186/ 12 8 / NO 4 / 4 48 / 16
SH-S183L 28 / 0 -197 / --# -28 / -- 43 / 0 27 / 0
It's hard to draw general conclusions from these tests, although some things stand out:
- The best DVD combinations are Asus + Sony and Plextor + TY
- These drives do a lot better with DL discs than in the past
- Asus and LiteOn do best with the +RWs,
- LG and LiteOn have problems at high speeds and would be better off at lower speeds
- Asus and Pioneer do best with CD's.
- The BLER scan for the Plextor drive with Plextor (TY) media was the worst I've ever seen
- LiteOn is no. 1 for audio grabbing and reads all protected discs tested
- Pioneer and Samsung were excellent DVD readers
Unlike their other tests in past 2 years, c't has AudioDev scans available for CDR's as well, so the results may not be directly comparable. They list jitter, I3 (intensity of the shortest marks) and beta values as well as BLER and E22 / E32 maxima and base some of their speed recommendations on these. LG and Samsung have rel. low BLER values but the other signal parameters are outside limits though and may cause problems. The LiteOn burn OTOH had good properites where the burn speed was < 24x.
All told, the Asus drive was probably the best of the batch.
Personally, I would have preferred to see more media types in the test, especially some +R types (at the very least MCC 004).
G