1. Ricoh ships the first 20x recorder!
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
1
Ricoh ships the
first 20x recorder!
- Introduction:
Ricoh
has been a big competitor for Sanyo and Yamaha in the race for the fastest recorder.
They followed very quick Sanyo at 12x writing speed recorders but stayed back
in the 16x writing race. Ricoh had to do something to get back the lost ground
and in March of 2001 announced the "MP7200A" series model. Yamaha
and Sanyo at the same time announced their 20x and 24x writing solutions. After
being the first ever website who tested Sanyo's 24x writing recorder we are
testing the first ever 20x writing CDR-W drive.
The
new recorder supported 20x writing, 10x re-writing and 40x reading speed, making
it a great performer, at least in the specs. The MP7200A contains 2 new techniques:
"Zone-CLV" recording mode and "JustSpeed"
quality control mechanism. According to Ricoh there are several other improvements
over the previous Ricoh CDR-W drives:
-
New developed digital control LSI controls the pulse width with precision boasting
1.5 times of the traditional mechanism, thus allowing for stable write at high-speed.
- Improved dust prevention
- Power consumption at standby reduced to less than 1W. In addition, the PWM
(Pulse Width Modulation) algorithm used at the spindle motor driver enables
low heat emission design.
- Supports Ultra-DMA33 connection interface
- The New features:
The
Ricoh MP7200A is the first recorder that supports "Just Speed" technology.
This new technology ensures that a high speed burning suitability check of the
CD medium made when the CD is loaded for burning. If the check is successful,
the burner automatically adjusts the medium's optimal burning speed between
12x and 20x for the high-speed process. The Just Speed technology avoids disc
errors and slow writing speed. The mechanism controls the maximum writing speed
by:
(1)
using the ATIP information (maker name, model number, etc. pre-recorded on disc),
(2) performing test writing to the OPC area at the inner circumference of
the disc. This write test defines the basic speed information for the burning
operation.
(3) making another test that makes sure that the blank CD has no manufacturing
flaws. This test decides if the whole CD can be written at the speed selected
in step 2 or if further adjustment needed.
After running these 3 tests in the background, the MP7200A-DP starts burning
automatically at optimal speed.
(Constant Linear Velocity) is the recording technology that Ricoh MP7200A uses
in order to achieve a higher recording speed (20x). The same technique used
from Sanyo's CRD-BP5/1500P models (24/10/40) but in a different materialization.
When a recorder uses the Zone CLV recording method, the CD is divided in 3 zones
from the inner to the outer parts of the CD, in which the recording speed varies:
As we can see from the above graph, the CD divided in 3 zones, which are
separated from T1 and T2 time spaces. In each zone the writing speed is CLV
(Constant Linear Velocity) making the rpm at the inside perimeter low which
is useful for the lasting long time of the mechanism. The actual recording speed
is adjusted from the "JustSpeed" (Optimum Write Speed Control). Depending
on the ON/OFF setting of this function, the write speed is controlled as specified
below:
- When the speed control is ON: Writing is performed at the
speed of 12X in the lead-in area, at 16X from the 0-minute position up to around
the 5-minute position, and then accelerating up to 20X approximately from the
5-minute position to the 15-minute position.
- When the speed control is OFF: Writing is performed at the
speed of 12X in the lead-in area, at 16X from the 0-minute position up to around
the 10-minute position, and 20X from around the 10-minute position and after.
- The package:
The
package supplied was the retail Europe version. This included: The drive itself,
a set-up guide, 1 piece (24x certified) of Ricoh 80min CD-R blank, 1 piece of
Ricoh 74min High-Speed RW Blank, audio cables and mounting screws. The software
supplied with the MP7200A was Nero Burning ROM v5.5.1.1 and Ahead InCD v1.90
(for packet writing use). There is not any printed manual included - just an
electronic PDF file, which must be read especially from the novice users. After
checking the drive's features we saw that it cannot playback AudioCDs with "CD-Text"
and cannot write 8cm CDs (only read them in horizontal position) :(
The front of the drive will remind us a typical Ricoh CDR-W drive. It includes
the model's code (MP7200A) along with the "JustLink", "HighSpeed"
logo and of course the drive features (20x/10x/40x). 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 making the drive Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector
and 3 jumpers which are not used (factory reserved).
- Installation:
The
Ricoh MP7200A was installed as Master in the primary IDE BUS. The drive worked
in UDMA-2 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "Ricoh CD-R/RW
MP7200A". We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked
DMA and rebooted.
The drive was an April 2001 model with firmware revision v1.02. We used the
latest version for Nero (5.5.1.8), InCD (2.11), CloneCD (3.0.1.1) and Padus
DJ (3.00.780) for the recording tests. As we can see from Nero's features picture
we can select if "JustLink" and/or "JustSpeed" would be
enabled/or not by default.
- Test Machine:
WinMe
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
Yamaha 2100E firmware v1.0n
PleXWriter PX-W1610A firmware v1.01
Ricoh MP7200A firmware v1.02
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P firmware vV.vz32
2. Data Tests
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
2
Data Tests
Test Method:
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x: This was used to compare the Ricoh's
I/O performance against other various CDR-W drives (see charts). We used a pressed
CD containing PlexTools v1.08 for all of the tests.
- CD Speed 99 v0.80 also used to check the drive performance with pressed
CDs. For that test, we used PlexTools v1.08 pressed CD.
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results
The Ricoh MP7200, due to its very good seek times, has the biggest
"Average Random I/O" result among the 4 tested drives. The drive gets
the second place in the "Average Sequential I/O" with 4555kb/s. As
it seems it needs further development to reach the first PX-W1610A. Last the
drive's "Average Same Sector I/O" value is low (among with Sanyo's
CRD-BP1500P), showing that the drive's caching is not the best around.
- CD Speed 99 v0.80 results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
Using CD Speed 0.80, we have different results from the SCSI
Mechanic tests. Here the Ricoh MP7200A gets the first place (31.13x) with the
PX-W1610A second (with slight difference). The BP1500P comes third and the Yamaha
2100E comes last.
Again in the "Seek Times" test results, the Ricoh MP7200A
gets the first place with under 100ms seek time complying with the drive's specifications.
The competition has far bigger access times and we assume that must follow soon
Ricoh's example.
- CDR Media: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The Ricoh MP7200A continues to lead the speed-reading race with 31.43x average
reading speed. The PleXWriter PX-W1610A is again second, Sanyo CRD-BP1500P third
and Yamaha 2100E last.
3. RW reading tests
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
3
RW reading tests
- CD Speed 99 v0.8 Test: (Click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
For the RW tests, we used TDK's HS-RW media. The Ricoh MP7200A
gave the second best average reading test result (28.85x) among the 4 tested
drives, since at the end of the 74min gave a rather weird slow down to 21.25x:
CloneCD Reading
Tests
- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.1.1) and 3 original CDs (Rally Masters, Euro2000 and
Vrally 2 Expert) in order to test the reading time of Ricoh's MP7200A. We also
tested the reading performance with backups of the original CDs since the reading
speed varies among original and backup media. For comparison reasons we added
the results from Yamaha 2100E, PleXWriter PX-W1610A and Sanyo CRD-BP1500P.
- Results:
a) SafeDisc Results: Euro 2000 (Total: 257982 sectors
- 10141 bad sectors) - Reading Speed: Max
The Ricoh MP7200A gave a rather bad reading test results with
both the original and the backup CD. Both Yamaha 2100E and the PlexWriter PX-W1610A
do not have any problem skipping SafeDisc 1.0 errors and give the best results.
b) LaserLock Results: Rally Masters (Total:
321528 sectors - 6317 bad sectors) - Reading Speed: Max
With the LaserLock protected CDs, Ricoh MP7200A has a good performance,
especially with the original CD. However the competition is faster at both original/protected
CDs.
c) SecuROM Results: Vrally2 Expert - 343767 sectors
The Ricoh MP7200A not only has no problem reading SubChannel data but also
reads them damn fast! Just check the above graph :-)
4. DAE Tests
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
4
DAE Tests
Test Method:
We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 9 software in order to
check the DAE performance of the Ricoh MP7200A with various AudioCDs (both pressed
and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications, but the
CPU usage 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 displayed in the test graphs.
- DAE features:
We
used EAC v0.9 prebeta 9 to examine the drive's features. As the program reported,
the drive doesn't "Caching" data and supports "Accurate Stream"
and "C2 Error info". The specifications state that the drive can reach
up to 40x DAE (max) with both pressed and CDR media.
- Pressed AudioCD results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The Ricoh MP7200A revealed some problems reading pressed CDs. When we first
tried our usual Pressed test disc the results were very bad once the drive denied
giving a decent DAE ripping speed. We also made several tests with other pressed
Audio CDs, under which Ricoh MP7200A showed a good performance with some of
them and a bad one with the rest. This leads us to the conclusion, that Ricoh
engineers must look again on this particular issue and fix it with a newer firmware
revision.
|
Pressed Audio Disc
|
Average DAE Performance
|
|
Pressed CD 1 (test disc)
|
15,2
|
|
Pressed CD 2
|
22,4
|
|
Pressed CD 3
|
26,1
|
|
Pressed CD 4
|
26,1
|
For the above graph we used the DAE performance with our normal
test disc, which had the worst results:
- CDR AudioCD Results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
We said earlier that the Ricoh MP7200A seemed to have DAE problems with
pressed CDs. With our test CDR media discs we didn't have any serious problem
(noticed slowdowns mostly in the outer tracks of the tests discs), but when
we used some quite old CDR media the drive produced wav files with lot of errors...:
Note: The drive had many problems
with scratched/dusted CDR media and produced lot of error during DAE extraction....
- Advanced DAE Quality
The
Ricoh MP7200A completed the CD Speed 99 "Advanced DAE test", and gave
us very good results.
The average reading speed was 29.64x and as we can see from the
left picture the drive cannot read "CD-Text" enabled audioCDs, but
can read "SubChannel Data". Last the drive got 100 quality score (max)
, since it produced zero sync/data errors.
- Ripping 90 and 99min CDs
>>> 
As we can see from the above graphs, the Ricoh MP7200A doens't
have any problem ripping 90min CDs, and seems to have some problems reading
above 98minutes.
5. CDR Tests - Page 1
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
5
CDR Tests
- Page 1
The Ricoh MP7200A is the first *retail* CDR-W drive that supports
20x writing speed. The drive uses Zone-CLV writing technology, which is very
close to the actual 20x real CLV writing. We used CD Speed 99 build-in writing
test in order to test the drive's writing performance:
As CD Speed 99 showed, the drive starts writing at 16x (CLV)
and just before 10minutes jumps off to 20x (CLV) and continues to write until
the end at this speed. The average writing speed is around 19.50x (very close
to 20x), since the jump from 16x-->20x writing speed is done in short time
(under the first 10minutes)...
As we already stated in our introduction, the actual writing
speed of the drive differs from what "JustSpeed" technology orders.
When the "Just Speed" is activated, the drive automatically adjusts
the writing speed for having the best quality results. This means that low quality
media will NOT be allowed to be written at the maximum speed, making 20x/24x
certified media an absolute need.
For example, notice what Nero 5.5.1.8 reports:
Heh. What happened? Nero went crazy and reported the drive has
only 12x maximum speed? Nope.... We just have activated "JustSpeed"
and inserted a blank CDR media in the drive.
Ricoh MP7200A made its internal testing and decided that the
safest maximum writing speed for the specific media is only 12x (despite the
fact that the specific media is 16x certified...). Therefore automatically lowered
the writing speed and the CDR software complied with this change. If we then
visit Nero's writing tab, 16x and 20x options are gone! In simple words, we
cannot write this specific media at 16x or 20x since "JustSpeed" forbids
these speeds too. This is the protection that "Just Speed" offers.
We have noticed that with Mitsui's 16x printable media, even if the drive supported
20x writing, in the real burn the drive "lowered" the recording speed.
What if we de-activate "Just-Speed"? The software will
ignore the drive's suggestions and will give you full writing speed control
(and the desired 20x writing speed), even with uncertified 20x/24x media:
Nero
however, when start recording it will give you a warning signal "recording
quality may be affected not using JustSpeed option" and after a while
the drive will automatically lower the recording speed to 16x, if the inserted
media is not 20x/24x certified.
- Procedure:
We
tested the Ricoh MP7200A with Nero v5.5.1.8, CloneCD v3.0.1.1 and Padus DJ v3.00.780
software.
We had the same problem as with the Sanyo CRD-BP1500P...The media. Of course,
the retail package has one 24x media but you cannot make any serious testing
with only one media. Therefore, all our main tests done with 16x certified media,
which wouldn't give the best results. When 24 x certified media come out in
massive volumes, we will update our review.
For
the CDR tests we used: Verbatim 74min (16x) & 80min (16x), Mitsui 74min
(16x), Prodisc 80min (16x) silver and Plextor/Verbatim/TDK 74min HS-RW media.
- CD-R Tests:
We created "DataCD" job with data slight higher than 74mins (74:03:65).
We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:
As we can see, the Ricoh MP7200A makes the second best lower
time 5secs behind the PX-W1610A). The Sanyo CRD-BP1500P follows (318sec) and
the Yamaha 2100E comes last due to its P-CAV writing technology.
- 80min CDs:
As with the previous test, we created a DataCD (80:01:47) and used the same
media for all burns:
In this test, Ricoh MP7200A lowered it's time difference to 2 secs from PX-W1610A.
The Sanyo CRD-BP1500P again needs one more seconds to finish the task and as
for Yamaha 2100E stays behind with 353secs...
6. CDR Tests - Page 2
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
6
CDR Tests
- Page 2
- Comparison between various recording technologies
All 4 tested CDR-W drive have different recording technologies
in order to achieve the highest recording speed:
- Yamaha 2100E: supports 16x P-CAV
- PleXWriter PX-W1610A: supports 16x CLV
- Ricoh MP7200: supports 20x Zone-CLV
- Sanyo CRD-BP1500P: supports 24x Zone-CLV
Here is the most interesting graph of our test... How the various recording
technologies from our 4 contestants perform and which one gives us the lower
recording time? Yes i know you probably have thought of it, but let us explain:
(The above recording times for Ricoh MP7200A
and Sanyo CRD-BP1500P done with 16x certified CDs. That means the real recording
time with 24x certified media will be equal (or probably lower) that the one
is who are posted above. Anyway, let's compare them...)
As you may have expected the Sanyo CRD-BP1500P has the lower recording time,
since it is the faster among the 4 recorders. The interesting part here is that
the Ricoh MP7200A is only 30 secs slower for both 74 &80min tests. In other
words, Sanyo CRD-BP1500P does a full 74minutes in 3:51mins and Ricoh MP7200A
in 4:24minutes. The PleXWriter PX-W1610A needs 48secs, than Ricoh MP7200A, to
finish the task and as for Yamaha 2100E needs a complete extra minute (60secs)
more. More or less the same time differences apply for the 80minutes CDs also...
Of
course with 24x certified media, the burning times for Ricoh MP7200A, may be
somewhat lower. Nevertheless these results are very close to what Ricoh posts
on their webpage. Ricoh posted a tests comparison (above picture), between the
MP7200A and MP7125A models, when burning a full 74min CD. The reported burning
time (260secs) is very close to what (264secs) our tests (even with 16x certified
media) gave back!!!
So, is there a possibility that Nero's warning about reducing
the writing speed is not real? Could it be that even with 16x certified media
you are finally getting the maximum writing speed? We will know for sure when
we will have 24x certified media in our hands for extensive tests:
- Testing various media at 20x Z-CLV writing speed
The majority of the tested media did not seem to have any major
problems writing at 20x Z-CLV writing speed. Of course we always had Nero's
warning about reducing the writing speed, but the final results was pretty close
to what Ricoh engineers officially posted in their website (check above for
more details).
We tried to burn 5 CDs in ROW of each media at 20x writing speed
(with JustLink de-activated) with Nero 5.5.1.8, in order to see the behavoir
of our test media:
|
74min Tests
|
|
Tested Media
|
Best Burn Time
|
Worst Burn Time
|
Best Simulation Time
|
Worst Simulation Time
|
|
Mitsui 74min 16x SG
|
4:25
|
4:33
|
4:19
|
4:20
|
|
Verbatim DataLife Plus 74min 16x
|
4:30
|
4:31
|
4:19
|
4:19
|
|
Verbatim Datalife Plus 74min 24x(?)
|
4:24
|
4:25
|
4:19
|
4:19
|
|
Ricoh 80min 24x (JustSpeed activated)
|
-
|
-
|
4:23
|
4:23
|
|
80min Tests
|
|
Tested Media
|
Best Burn Time
|
Worst Burn Time
|
Best Simulation Time
|
Worst Simulation Time
|
|
Prodisc 80min 16x (silver bottom)
|
4:48
|
4:51
|
4:35
|
4:37
|
|
Verbatim DataLife Plus 80min 16x
|
4:43
|
4:43
|
4:37
|
4:42
|
|
Ricoh 80min 24x
(JustSpeed activated)
|
-
|
-
|
4:42
|
4:42
|
As we can see from our comparison tables, we had the best performance
at 74min CD tests with Verbatim DataLife Plus 24x(?) - (note: We put a "?"
in the media since Verbatim send us the media as 24x and the box said 16x+..)
- 4:24minutes. In the 80min CD tests the Verbatim DataLife Plus 16x gave us
back the same time in all burns (4:43). Since we had only one 24x certified
media we did not try to compare it under real recording, but only in simulation
(with JustSpeed activated), which by our suprise gave us a higher time. (!)
- Overburning Tests:
We used 90min CDs (from Medea
International) and 99min CDs (from Disc4You)
in order to check the drive's ability to overburn. With the CD Speed 99 overburn
test we got that drive can burn up to 99mins:
|
|
90min
|
99min
|
|
MP7200A
|
92:01:09
|
99:00:52
|
Afterwards we used Nero and confirmed the above results. We managed
to burn up to 99minutes of AudioCD tracks with MP7200A!
This is the first high speed recorder that supports such high
recording capacities.
- AudioCD Tests
We created several Audio CDs (including CD-Text). All of the CDs we created,
were tested with the Plextor PX-40TS and Plextor's CD-Text compatible CD player.
From what we saw, everything worked just fine. Note that the Ricoh MP7200A CANNOT
read the "CD-Text" information from CD-Text enabled Audio CDs.
- CloneCD Tests:
The
Ricoh MP7200A supports DAO-RAW writing according to the CloneCD v3.0.1.1. The
drive also supports "SAO-RAW" mode and simulation mode :). The CloneCD
supports fully the 20x writing speed so you only have to select or just put
the "max" setting...
We tried to backup protected CDs using various CD protections
and our tests for "SafeDisc 1", "LaserLock" and "SecuROM
2" had completed with success.
- SD2 report:
For the SD2 tests we used the "No One Lives For Ever" CD title.
We used the Ricoh MP7200A both as reader/writer. The results were ,as expected,
the same we had with the previous Ricoh drives negative...:
|
Worked
|
Didn't worked
|
|
-
|
Plextor PX-40TS
Sanyo CRD-BP4
Yamaha 2100E
Ricoh MP7200A
PleXWriter PX-W1610A
Sanyo CRD-BP1400P
Pioneer DVD-U05S
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
|
The above test shows that the Ricoh MP7200A cannot produce SD2
working backups CDs...
- Buffer Underrun tests:
The
Ricoh MP7200A supports the "JustLink" anti-coaster technology for
making buffer Underrun error-free CDs. The gap length of JustLink is 2-5micro
meters, which may seem high since the second generation of the "BURN-Proof"
technology has 0-gap length. The drive worked fine even under heavy pressure
from our side (100% CPU Usage).
- Verdict of CDR Results:
The Ricoh MP7200A is the first retail recorder which supports 20x Zone-CLV
writing speed. The drive's overall performance was very good with the various
CDR media and for enjoying the drive's full speed, probably you will need 20x/24x
certified CDs. The drive's recording times are 50secs faster than the 16x CLV
writing speed and slower 30secs than 24x Zone-CLV. Last Ricoh MP7200A has the
biggest Overburning feature among the tested drives since it can write up to
99minutes!
7. RW Writing Tests
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
7
RW Writing Tests
We used Nero 5.5.1.8 for writing CDs in maximum RW writing speed
for all the tested drives in 10x HS-RW media. All drive support fully the HS-RW
writing standard, except from Yamaha 2100E which supports only 8x re-writing:
The Ricoh MP7200A gave back again the lower recording time (485)
among the 4 tested drives, making it a very good performer. In addition, the
drive's quick erase time is the lower among the contesters (51secs). The rest
drives are simply slower...
- Packet Writing Tests
We used Ahead InCD v2.11 for all Packet Writing tests. We used Ricoh HS RW
media and we formatted it. The formatting of the media takes around 10min. After
formatting, we tested all four drives for their packet writing performance.
The formatted disc had 530mbs 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 explorer (we dragged and dropped) we completed the
test twice to eliminate possible time measurement faults and user errors:
The results show that the Ricoh MP7200A is without any doubt
the king of the re-writing performance. The drive gave back the best writing/reading
performance! That is very good news for people who are using packet writing
in their daily tasks.
8. Conclusion
Ricoh
MP7200A IDE CDR-W - Page
8
Conclusion
|
Positive
(+)
|
Negative
(-)
|
|
-
First recorder that supports 20x writing speed!
- "Just-Link" anti-coaster technology
- "Just-Speed" quality protection system
- Best DATA reading performance with CDs/HS-RW media around!
- Good DAE ripping performance (with CDR media)
- Best reading/writing packet writing performance around!
- Supports HS-RW standard (10x re-write)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports reading of SubChannel data (VERY FAST!)
- Supports CD-Text (only writing)
- Supports Overburning (writes up to 99mins!!)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface
- Good retail package (contains Nero 5.5)
|
-
Bad DAE performance with pressed audio CDs
- Problems with dusted/scratched CDR media
- Bad CloneCD reading performance (with SafeDisc 1/2 protected CDs)
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
|
Ricoh is the first manufacturer that ships an ultra high-speed recorder in
the market: MP7200A. The drive supports 20x Z-CLV writing speed, 10x re-writing
and 40x reading. The drive's overall performance was very good and in many tests
got the first place among the best selling recorders. Ricoh has added "Just-Speed"
quality protection system in the MP7200A ,protecting users from bad media, and
support for writing fully 99minutes CDs!
The possible buyer must know that he will need 20x/24x certified CDs in
order fully enjoy the Ricoh MP7200A's 20x writing speed. There is a problem
however, since even Ricoh will not be able to supply you with such media until
middle of May. The price of the drive is estimated in Japan around 230-240$
and in Europe around 300 Euro (267$).
The big advantage of Ricoh MP7200A is the "shipping time", since
the drive is already out in the stores...Yamaha's 20x writer will come out in
few weeks and as for the 24x retail drives we will have to wait until the first
days of July.