1. About this article
With the majority of the new DVD burners to support the 20X burning speed for recordable DVDs, consumers are often concerned about the quality of the recording when they choose to burn at the maximum available speed.
According to our hardware tests until now, burners normally support 20X burning only with selected DVD recordable media. And that because this speed is very high and controlling the burning procedure in order to maintain acceptable writing quality requires not only sufficient firmware engineering and drive design, but also media that react well in the burning process itself. This means that in most cases, these discs should perform perfectly in their limits.
In this brief article we provide a comparison of some of the latest High Speed ReWriters and some of the most common 20X compatible MIDs.
The drives that we are going to be using in the tests are illustrated below. All of them have been reviewed in our labs over the previous months.
Drive |
Chipset |
|
|
Panasonic MN103SC7GRT1 704U6F28 2 |
|
|
NEC MC-10044 |
|
|
Mediatek MT1899LE |
|
|
NEC MC-10042 |
|
|
Mediatek MT1859L |
|
and the MIDs:
- DVD+R
- Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h)
- Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h)
- DVD-R
- Taiyo Yuden TYG03
- Verbatim MCC 03RG20
The specific discs were selected among the numerous available DVDs in order to ensure that they will be widely accepted for 20x recording.
All of the drives are flashed with the latest firmware available, so that they are expected to offer the best possible performance.
The discs were recorded with data using the the Nero CD DVDSpeed "Create disc" function. Their readability was checked with a typical transfer rate test. The the DaTARIUS Analyzer 2X was also used to measure each disc's writing quality.
Let's move on to the tests.
2. 20x burning - YUDEN000 T03 DVD+R
Disc: Taiyo Yuden 's YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) (DVD+R) |
Burner: HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55L v1.05 |
Writing - 20X (14.88X Average) in 04:59
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Problematic burn here with some POFs.
Burner: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200S 1.05 |
Writing - 20X (14.84X Average) in 04:48
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Excellent burning quality here.
Burner: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-215 1.18 |
Writing - 20X (14.63X Average) in 04:49
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Again, excellent burning quality for the Yuden disc.
Burner: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203D SB00 |
Writing - 20X (14.94X Average) in 4:43
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
This one's not a good one, as many uncorrectable errors were reported just before the end of the burning process.
3. 20x burning - Verbatim MCC 004 DVD+R
Disc: Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h) (DVD+R) |
Burner: HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55L 1.05 |
Writing - 20X (14.89X Average) in 04:59
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Low writing quality here, with the test reporting many uncorrectable errors.
Burner: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-215 1.18 |
Writing - 20X (14.61X Average) in 04:49
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Burner: ASUS DRW-2014L1T 1.02 |
Writing - 20X (14.14X Average) in 5:12
Reading - 12X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
The POFs reported at around a radius of 56,5mm of the disc are not what we expected, with the measurements to terminate in the specific position of the disc. The PISum8 rate was also high at the 44mm and 56,5mm positions. The disc was read at 12x instead of the supported 16x.
4. 20x burning - TYG03 DVD-R
Disc: Taiyo Yuden 's TYG03 (DVD-R) |
Burner: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203D SB00 |
Writing - 16X (11.90X Average) in 05:53
Although the 20x speed was selectable before burning, the drive used the 16x CAV strategy.
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
The POF errors as well PIFs are way over limit, making this an unacceptable burn.
Burner: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-215 1.18 |
Writing - 20X (14.60X Average) in 04:47
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Not a good burn again, showing some error rates just above their limits.
5. 20x burning - MCC 03RG20 DVD-R
Disc: Verbatim's MCC 03RG20 (DVD-R) |
Burner: HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55L 1.05 |
Writing - 20X (14.92X Average) in 04:38
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
The graph shows us very high error rates.
Burner: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7200S 1.05 |
Writing - 20X (14.87X Average) in 04:37
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
The POF error rate is totally messed up. Another bad burn.
Burner: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-215 1.18 |
Writing - 20X (14.30X Average) in 05:11
Reading - 16X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
An excellent burn here with the Pioneer drive.
Burner: ASUS DRW-2014L1T 1.02 |
Writing - 20X (11.17X Average) in 6:02
Although the Asus drive initially showed potential to reach the 20x recording speed, it slowed down to resume burning at 16x.
Reading - 12X
DaTARIUS Scanning Test Results
Click on thumbnails for larger view |
Another good burn, this time with the ASUS drive. The PISum8 flag peaked right in the end of the data area but readability was not affected.
6. Summary
In the following table, we have summed up the results of our tests. Green cells indicate a good burn, where the red ones indicate a bad one (PISum8 >280 or POF).
We also included the duration of each burn, as the burning time is also the main advantage of the 20x recording speed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) |
- |
|
Good Burn in 04:48 |
Good Burn in 04:49 |
Bad Burn in 04:43 |
Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h) |
Bad Burn in 05:12 |
Bad Burn in 04:59 |
- |
Bad Burn in 04:49 |
- |
Taiyo Yuden TYG03 |
- |
- |
- |
Bad Burn in 04:47 |
Bad Burn in 05:53 |
Verbatim MCC 03RG20 |
Good Burn in 06:02 |
Bad Burn in 04:38 |
Bad Burn in 04:37 |
|
- |
According to the results, the best MID to use when burning at 20x is the Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) and the drive with the best quality performance proved to be the PIONEER DVR-215BK.
Indeed, the Pioneer drive managed to burn every 20X media at the corresponding speed, and the quality tests showed good results. Even when it comes to the burns that were not so good, the DVR-215 did not perform bad. The error rates were just over limit and the discs were totally readable.
As a last word, we should mention that statistically, the 20x burning speed negatively affects the quality of a DVD recording.