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This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,
located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.
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Appeared on: Sunday, February 17, 2002
Mitsumi CR-4809TE CD-RW


1. Specifications

Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 1

- Introduction

recently announced its latest drive addition for high-speed optical storage. The new drive comes to complete the puzzle for the best 24x recorders and includes several features that make the drive unique! Mitsumi's proposal comes at the same time where Yamaha and TEAC's 24x recorders are ready to be shipped at the market. Let's see how Mitsumi's CR-4809TE can compete with the rest of competitors...

- Features

The drive supports 24x writing (Z-CLV), 12x re-writing, 16MB Buffer and "ExacLink" as the main anti-buffer underrun technology. Mitsumi added two unique features ,the biggest available internal buffer (16MB) ever found in a recorder and the fastest re-writing speed (12x)! The exact writing speeds are 4x, 8x, 16x (CLV), 16x-24x (Z-CLV) and re-writing speeds 4x, 10x, 12x (CLV).

- Product Specifications

* Supported formats: CD-DA, CD-ROM (Mode 1 und 2), CD ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 1 und 2), Enhanced CD, Photo CD (read only), CD Text, Video CD
* Recording methods: Disk at once, Session at once, Track at once, Multisession, Packet Writing
* Supported sizes: CDs with 8 and 12 cm diameter
* Interface: IDE/EIDE
* Transfer rates read: CAV Max 40x Speed 2.400 to 6.000 Kb/sec
* Transfer rates write: CD-R, 16-24x Speed 2.400 to 3.600 Kb/sec/ CD-RW, 12x Speed 1.800 Kb/sek
* Random Access: 98 ms typical
* Full stroke: 180 ms typical (00:02.00 - 60:00.00)
* Data buffer: 16 Megabyte
* MTBF :> 50 000 POH min

- The features

technology was developed by OAK Technologies as an anti-buffer underrun solution. Let's now see how OAK describes ExacLink : "....The ExacLink feature allows the drive to pause the write operation when data flow to the drive is interrupted due to other computer activity. When the drive receives enough data to continue, it begins writing again at the exact point where the previous write was stopped and with the exact power level and frequency used during the previous write. In this way, it appears to a reading device as if the writing operation had never been interrupted. This feature is valuable for writing CD audio discs since without the ExacLink feature, the drive would not be allowed to stop and re-start writing at random times since the resulting disc would be unreadable or contain errors..."

- The package

The package in which the drive arrived, contained only the bare drive -engineer version- with final firmware/hardware. The retail European version will include: The drive itself, a quick starting guide in 14 languages, 1 piece (24x certified) of Ricoh 80min CD-R blank, 1 piece of Mitsumi 74min (4x only) RW Blank, data/audio cables and mounting screws. The software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning ROM v5.5.5.1 OEM and Ahead InCD v2.32 (for packet writing use). The retail price of the drive is expected around 299DM and plans to hit the European market in the 5th of November 2001.

The front of the drive is exactly the same as we witnessed at the CR-4808TE model. The drive doesn't have the Mitsumi logo in the front of it, while it has the "High-Speed RW" logo, which indicates its RW speed. You will also find only one led, the eject button and the headphone input jack/volume selector:

At the back of the drive we will find the usual connectors (IDE interface, power), the jumpers for assigning the drive as a Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector and the analog/digital output connectors:

- Installation

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE was installed as a Master in the secondary IDE BUS. The drive worked in UDMA33 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "CR-48X9TE". We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted.

The drive was an October 2001 model with firmware revision v1.0b installed. We used the Nero (5.5.5.6), InCD (3.12), CloneCD (3.1.1.0) and Padus DJ (3.50.799) for the recording tests.

- Test Machine

WinMe/XP OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
ATI AIW 128
Mitsumi CR-4809TE firmware v1.0B
PleXWriter PX-W2410A firmware v1.02
TEAC CD-524E firmware v1.0A
LiteOn LTR-24102B firmware v5S0F


2. Data Tests

Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 2

Data Tests

- Test Method

* SCSI Mechanic v3.0x: This was used to compare the drive's I/O performance against other various CDR-W drives (see charts). We used a pressed CD containing PlexTools v1.08 for all tests.

* Nero CD Speed v0.84b was also used to check the drive's performance with pressed CDs. For that test, we also used the PlexTools v1.08 pressed CD.

- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE gave an average level reading performance compared with the competition. The drive has the third best "Average Sequential I/O" mark, and the PleXWriter PX-W2410A is still the best fine tuned drive for reading pressed CDs. It has also the second best "Average Random I/O" mark (843Kb/s) and the third best "Same Sector I/O" mark.

- Nero CD Speed v0.84 results: (Click to see the CD Speed Graph)

The Nero CD Speed results confirmed our previous tests results. The Mitsumi drive gets the third place behind PleXWriter and LiteOn drives. It starts reading at 18.25X and also ends at 39.98X. Future updates could improve reading performance...

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has rather high "Random Seek" results with 112ms. The TEAC CD-W524E is simply un-beatable with 77secs and the LiteOn LTR-24102B is also faster.

- PSX Pressed Media

For this test we used the PSX game 'NBA Jam Extreme' and we ripped the image to HD with CloneCD. We measured the reading time of the Mitsumi CR-4809TE, which is the third best with 268secs. The PleXWriter PX-W2410A does the same task at only 54secs :-)

- CDR Media: (Click to see the CD Speed graph)

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE got the last position when reading CDR media. The drive may improve its reading performance but the competition is faster. The closest performance comes from TEAC CD-W524E, which is slightly faster, while the PleXWriter PX-W2410A holds the first place.


3. RW reading tests
Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 3

RW reading tests

- Nero CD Speed v0.84 Results: (Click to see the graph)

For the RW tests we used the Ricoh's HS-RW media written at 10x speed. The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has one of the highest average reading performance ,with HS-RW media, and beats the competitive drives:

CloneCD Tests

- Procedure

We used CloneCD (v3.1.1.0) and 5 original CDs - Euro 2000 (SafeDisc 1), No One Lives For Ever (SafeDisc 2), Rally Masters (LaserLock 1), Desperados (LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) - in order to test the reading time of the Mitsumi CR-4809TE. We also tested the reading performance with backups of the original CDs, since the reading speed varies between original and backup media. For comparison reasons we added the results of the already tested PleXWriter PX-W2410A, LiteOn LTR-24102B and TEAC CD-W524E. The following picture shows the drive's reading/writing capabilities as CloneCD reports - (drive supports only hardware error correction):

- SafeDisc 1/2 Results

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE gave the highest reading times with SafeDisc 1/2 protected CDs. The drive needs almost 55mins to make an image of the protected CD in the HD, which is very slow compared to what the competition offers...

With SafeDisc2 protected CDs the performance is identical...

- LaserLock 1/2 Results

With LaserLock 1 protected CDs, the Mitsumi CR-4809TE performs slightly better than with SafeDisc 1/2 CDs but again it is the slowest drive.

The LaserLock 2 protected CDs are very hard for all recorders to read. The Mitsumi drive does not make an exception. It needs 25mins to read both the original/backup CDs and gets the second/last place respectively.

- SecuROM Results

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE does support reading of SubChannel from Data/Audio Tracks. The reading performance is good, however the LiteOn LTR-24102B is much faster.


4. DAE Tests

Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 4

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 software in order to check the DAE performance of the drive with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications, but the CPU usage was only taken from CD DAE 99, since EAC occupies the system a lot more. As a last note, we used the "BURST" reading mode of EAC. We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE reported speed along with the CPU Usage is displayed in the test graphs.

- DAE features

We used EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 to examine the drive's features. As the program reported, the drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports "Accurate Stream" and doesn't include "C2" error info. All 4 tested drives supports up to 40x (CAV) DAE speed.

- Pressed AudioCD results - (Click to see the Nero CD Speed graph)

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE performed very well with pressed Audio CDs but gets the last place since the competition is faster. The drive's average reading DAE ripping speed is 28.4X and also reported 7errors at the end of the process:

- CDR AudioCD results - (Click to see the Nero CD Speed graph)

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE improved its performance with CDR media and now gets the third place with LiteOn LTR-24102B. Its average reading performance is 28.8X and again produced 2 errors while reading the test disc:

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

After many requests from numerous visitors we have added the EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the build-in detection function:

Tested Drives
Average DAE Speed (X)
Pressed
CDR
TEAC CD-W524E
5.6
4.5
PleXWriter PX-W2410A
8.7
9.6
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
9.9
11.4
LiteOn LTR-24102B
9.4
9.6

- Advanced DAE Quality

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE gets a 100 score (best) in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test. The drive's average reading speed was 29.15x and no errors were produced. As the following picture shows, the drive can read CD-Text/SubChannel Data:

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that CD Speed 99 Advanced DAE test stretches drive's mechanism to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched disc. The disc was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order cause problems to most of the tested drives. We used CD DAE 99 software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:

Average Speed (X)
Errors
Errors Of Total Disc (%)
PleXWriter PX-W2410A
27.7
2946403
0.39
LiteOn LTR-24102B
25.7
345
0.00
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
25.6
24
0.00
TEAC CD-W524E
26.5
1
0.00

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE performed very well with our bad CDR test disc. The drive reports only 24 errors while reading our test disc at full speed! The only drive that beats it is the TEAC CD-W524E.

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE recognizes the 90min AudioCDs without any problems. However it seems to have a problem with the 99min CDs:

Reading 90minutes AudioCD


5. CDR Tests
Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 5

CDR Tests

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE uses Z-CLV for achieving 24x-writing speed. Below is a graph that represents the main differences of Mitsumi's implementation of Z-CLV writing technology compared to the fastest 24x Z-CLV recorder from Plextor. The Mitsumi writing graph is almost the same with the faster 24x Z-CLV recorder from Plextor:

Click To Enlarge!

The Mitsumi drive starts writing at 16x (0 mins), shifts to 20x at 6mins, shifts again up to 24x at 186ins and writes at 24x till the end of the disc. The drive has the same shift points with Plextor's PX-W2410A, however due to lower speed in the shift points is slighter slower than the Plextor recorder. In the following table we can see the average writing speed of the TEAC CD-W524E, PleXWriter PX-W2410A, LiteOn LTR-24102B and Mitsumi CR-4809TE, according to the Nero CD Speed:

CDR-W drives
Average Writing Speed with 80min CD (X)
TEAC CD-W524E
22.55
PleXWriter PX-W2410A
22.77
LiteOn LTR-24102B
22.78
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
22.72

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has an average writing speed of 22.72X, which is the third best among the four tested drives.

Click To Enlarge!

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has the same rotation speeds as the PleXWriter PX-W2410A, at least in the shift points.

- Procedure

We tested the Mitsumi CR-4809TE with Nero v5.5.5.6, Ahead InCD v3.12b, CloneCD v3.1.1.0 and, Padus DJ v3.50.799 software. We used various of media for performing our tests: Mitsubishi Chemicals 74/80min 24x certified, Mitsui 74min 24x certified, Taiyo Yuden 74/80min 24x certified, Ricoh 74min 24x certified and Ricoh's 74min HS-RW. The Mitsumi drive includes a build-in mechanism, which automatically reduces the writing speeding during the burn process. The drive doesn't limit the recording speed inside the recording software or show any sign at the beginning of writing but the final recording time unveils it.

- 74min CD-R Tests

We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly more than 74mins (74:03:65). We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has the higher burning time at 16x (CLV) writing speed. It needs 320secs to end the task. The CPU usage seems be increased and reaches the 18%!

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE is not the fastest 24x Z-CLV recorder you can buy nowadays. The drive after writing many media at 24x, had as the best recording time 242secs. The disappointing issue is the higher recording time with almost 28%. The PleXWriter PX-W2410A is 11secs faster. Future updates can improve writing performance...

- 80min CD-R Tests

In our normal burning tests the 80min CD contains slightly more than 80min data (80:01:47):

Again the Mitsumi CR-4809TE is the slowest drive at the 16x writing speed.

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE with 80min CDs is the slowest drive and its best recording performance was 257secs. The TEAC CD-W524E is 10secs faster.

- Overburning Tests

Using Nero CD Speed, we saw that the drive can overburn up to 99:00minutes:

- CD-Text Results

We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. The Mitsumi CR-4809TE can read/write CD-Text AudioCDs without any problems.

- CloneCD Writing Tests

The CloneCD v3.1.1.0 reports that the drive supports the DAO-RAW feature. We performed our usual tests and we confirmed that the drive supports fully the DAO-RAW writing mode (Safedisc 1.0, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2).

- SD2 Support
For the SD2 test we used the "No One Lives For Ever", "Max Payne" and "Emperor Battle of Dune" game titles. We used the Mitsumi CR-4809TE both as reader/writer. The produced backup didn't work using the same or any drive we tested with. Therefore, the Mitsumi CR-4809TE cannot produce SD2 working backups.

- 8cm mini CDs

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE supports reading/writing of 8cm CDs.

- Buffer Underrun tests

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE supports "ExacLink" anti-buffer underrun technology, which was developed by OAK Technologies. The drive worked without any problems when buffer underrun caused from our side. When you press ctrl+alt+del the drive will start blinking and when you un-freeze the PC will continue writing :-)


6. Writing Quality Tests
Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CD-RW - Page 6

Writing Quality Tests

We used Ricoh's 74min 24x CD-R media. All CDs were burned at 24x writing speed for each drive with Nero 5.5.5.6 and were Audio CDs with 74:51:27 in size. The produced CDs, were measured from DigitalDrives and results are illustrated in the following tables:

Ricoh 74min 24x media
Model
C1
Average Burning Time (secs)
Max
Average
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC on)
17
0.9
227
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC off)
20
0.8
LiteOn LTR-24102B
28
3.8
252
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed on)
22
1.3
247
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed off)
40
1.5
246
Plextor PX-W2410A
14
0.5
234
TEAC CD-W524E
41
1.0
237
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
14
0.5
242

The Mitsumi CR-4809E gave better writing quality from the PleXWriter PX-W2410A, when Ricoh's 74min 24x certified media are used. The average C1 error rate is 0.5 and the average burning time is 242secs. The PleXWriter is 8 secs faster. Very good performance from Mitsumi CR-4809TE. The following graph comes from the Ricoh 74min (24x) media:

Click To Enlarge!

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE general writing quality was the best we have witnessed with Ricoh's 74min 24x certified media. The drive not only keeps C1 errors below 10 but also has very low C1 average error rate.

- More Writing Quality Results

Mitsui 74min 24x media
Model
C1
Average Burning Time (secs)
Max
Average
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC on)
20
0.7
227
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC off)
17
0.7
LiteOn LTR-24102B
64
0.9
242
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed on)
18
1.2
246
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed off)
26
1.7
245
Plextor PX-W2410A
17
1.5
230
TEAC CD-W524E
17
0.8
237
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
21
1.3
242

With Mitsui 74min 24x certified media, the Mitsumi CR-4809TE has average writing quality with only 1.3 C1 average error rate. The burning time continues to stay at 242secs.

Taiyo Yuden 74min 24x media
Model
C1
Average Burning Time (secs)
Max
Average
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC on)
28
0.6
228
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC off)
53
3.0
LiteOn LTR-24102B
7
0.2
246
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed on)
10
0.5
253
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed off)
11
0.5
249
Plextor PX-W2410A
9
0.6
232
TEAC CD-W524E
9
0.4
238
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
11
0.3
245

With Taiyo Yuden 74min 24x certified media, the Mitsumi CR-4809TE has very good performance with only 0.3 C1 error rate. The burning time is increased by 3 secs.

Mitsubishi Chemicals 74min 24x media
Model
C1
Average Burning Time (secs)
Max
Average
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC on)
12
2.1
259
Yamaha CRW3200E (OWC off)
12
2
225
LiteOn LTR-24102B
10
1.8
244
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed on)
13
1.6
247
AOpen CRW2440 (JustSpeed off)
16
1.6
243
Plextor PX-W2410A
17
1.9
234
TEAC CD-W524E
15
1.8
236
Mitsumi CR-4809TE
21
2.0
242

None of the tested drives seem to give a very good writing quality when Mitsubishi Chemicals (Verbatim) 74min 24x certified media used. The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has the highest C1 error rate from the 24x Z-CLV recorders, while the average burning time stays at the same level as with the other media.

Various Brands at 24x media
Model
C1
Average Burning Time (secs)
Max
Average
Ritek 80min 24x
16
0.8
258
Taiyo Yuden 80min 24x
11
0.2
256
MitsuBishi Chemicals 80min 24x
23
3.7
257
Verbatim 80min 16x
14
0.7
258
Creation 80min 12x
74
15.8
334
       
TDK D-View 74min 12x
22
2.3
318
Mitsui 74min 16x
31
2.1
241
Ricoh 74min 8x
70
1.3

244

Verbatim 74min 16x
14
0.6
241
Creation 74min 12x
39
9.5
320

7. RW Writing Tests

Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 7

RW Writing Tests

We used Nero 5.5.5.6 for writing CDs at the maximum RW speed for all the tested drives. The Mitsumi CR-4809TE supports not only 10x but also 12x re-writing speed, making it the faster re-writer at this category:

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE ,with 12x RW, is currently the faster re-writer. It needs only 408secs to end the task. With 10x RW speed the drive needs 487sec. The CPU Usage is low and the erase time is under 60secs.

- Packet Writing Tests

We used Ahead InCD v3.12b for all Packet Writing tests with a TDK HS-RW media. The formatted disc had 534mbs of free space. We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC as the writers) to the formatted RW media using Windows Explorer (we dragged and dropped) and we completed the test twice to eliminate any possible time measurement faults and user errors:

The Mitsumi CR-4809TE has a 8.88X max packet writing performance. The average reading speed (12.05X) is good and only the PleXWriter PX-W2410A is faster.


8. Conclusion

Mitsumi CR-4809TE IDE CDR-W - Page 8

Conclusion

Positive (+)

Negative (-)

- Supports 24x writing (Z-CLV) speed
- Supports 12x re-writing (CLV) speed
- Includes 16MB Buffer (!!)
- "ExacLink" anti-coaster technology
- Has build-in media quality detection system
- Low C1 errors when 24x CDR media used
- Good data reading performance with both CDR/pressed media
- Highest re-writing/packet writing performance
- Good DAE speeds
- Very good DAE ripping quality
- Supports HS-RW standard
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data
- Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
- Supports Overburning (up to 99mins)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface
- Retail package includes Nero 5.5
- Low price ($137<=)

- Drive arrives late at the market..
- Competition is faster at both reading/writing speeds
- Higher seek times than competition
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
- Low PSX ripping speed
- Very bad CloneCD reading performance
- Can read only up to 89mins
- Competition offers 2 years of warranty (applies only for Europe)

Mitsumi's proposal for the 24x recording speed is very interesting. Although the drive arrives quite late at the market, it has all the potentials to compete and win ,at least at some points. The drive supports 24x writing, 12x re-writing, 40x reading and a huge 16Mb of buffer making it unique in its category. The ExacLink anti-buffer underrun technology is also present but the internal 16MB buffer makes things easier.

The drive performed very well in most of our tests and managed to get the first place in some of them -mostly in the re-writing test due to increased 12x RW speed. Its 24x writing Z-CLV implementation is not the fastest you can find at the market but the writing quality is very good, when 24x certified media are used. The built-in media quality system detection will prevent low quality media to be written at maximum speed (24x), something that in normal cases might cause un-readable CDs. As our tests showed, with further tweaking it can compete the fastest 24x recorders from TEAC & Plextor. The 12x re-writing speed will make users happy since no problems will occur and the current 4-10x HS-RW media can handle it. Lastly, the drive's DAE ripping speed/quality performance was very good. On the other side, the bad CloneCD reading performance among with the lack of SD2 support will not please users since the (LiteOn/Plextor/TEAC) competition offers such highly wanted features.

The drive's estimated price is expected around $137 (retail package), which makes it directly comparable with the TEAC CD-W524E. The LiteOn LTR-24102B costs much less ($90) and the PleXWriter PX-W2410A much more ($170). If the drive included SD2 support it could easily get our "Editor's Choice Award" but since it doesn't....



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