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This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,
located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.
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Appeared on: Tuesday, February 19, 2002
Yamaha CRW2200E CD-RW


1. Features

Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CDR-W - Page 1

- Introduction:
Yamaha has been a leader in CD-Recording for many years. After some hard years, Yamaha got the leadership with the shipment of the first 16x (P-CAV) recorder back in November of 2000. After the shipment of 16x (CLV) writers, Yamaha announced in March of 2001 a new series of recorders with the code name "2200", which supported 20x writing, 10x re-writing and 40x reading. In the same time period Ricoh and Sanyo had announced similar/faster recorders, which also supported the same specs but realized them with a different approach in technology. The battle has started for the best/faster recorder ever! Who will win? Who offers the most solid ultra high speed recorder?...

- New features:
The Yamaha 2200x series support 20x writing (P-CAV), 10x re-writing (CLV) and 40x reading (CAV). The competition from Ricoh and Sanyo achieves high-speed recording with the adoption of Zone-CLV writing. On the other hand Yamaha continues to believe that the P-CAV writing technology, as introduced in the 2100x series, is the future...

The P-CAV method keeps disc rotation constant in the inner portion of the disc as writing speed smoothly accelerates outwards until it reaches top speed. After that, writing speed is kept constant (CLV) until the end of the writing.

In the P-CAV method, the rotation speed is kept moderate (5500 rpm) in the inner portion of the disc, compared with CLV method (over 9000 rpm at the beginning of the disc by 20X CLV). That helps improve the quality of write in the inner portion of the disc, because moderate disc rotation reduces the vibration that corrupts quality. Also since the rotation speeds are low the life of the laser diode and the drive's pickup will be extended.

On the other hand
Z-CLV recording method utilizes the existing CLV method combined with linking technology developed for buffer underrun protection. The writing of a disc is divided into several zones, and writing speed is kept constant within each zone. When it shifts up to the next speed, writing is suspended and then restarted using the buffer underrun protection.

As you can understand in the Yamaha's P-CAV writing technology there isn't any link. Yamaha believes that P-CAV is: "...Ideal for Audio CDs and pre-mastering a disc for mass duplication...".

- New Technologies:

The Yamaha CRW2200 series has mainly one new big technology with the codename: "SafeBURN".

is actually a series of different technologies which are combined in order to give recording protection system that not only avoids buffer underrun, but ensures the written disc is of the best possible quality, even at the fastest recording speeds.

SafeBURN is the concept for error-proof CD recording, which includes (but is not limited to) Buffer Underrun Protection, 8MB buffer and Optimum Write Power Control. That means triple security with 8 MB Buffer, Buffer underrun protection and Optimum Write Speed Control. SafeBURN system, employs Oak Technology's buffer underrun protection method in the DSP and is integrated with Yamaha's own chips to achieve the highest accuracy of highest level of data continuity possible. The following graph shows how the technology works:

When data transfer is delayed and memory in the buffer drops to a critical level, recording is suspended until the buffer has regained sufficient memory, after which the recording restarts virtually seamlessly from the point at which it was suspended. The link is done at the same speed of writing. If you are writing at 20X, then the link is done at 20X. According to Yamaha the gap length between the 2 links is below one micrometer, (not measurable). Sanyo has said that the latest build of "BURN-Proof" also has no gap length (found in BP1400P series) and as for Ricoh's "Just-Link" there isn't any change in the 2-5 micrometers of gap length.

- 8MB of Buffer:
The Yamaha 2200x series are equipped with an 8MB buffer memory. You might think why Yamaha has added 8MB of buffer, when other manufacturers have only 2MB of buffer with their recorders.

The answer ,according to Yamaha, is that: "...minimizes the incidence of buffer underrun in cases where the CPU of the host PC is not fast enough and other applications are running while writing. Frequent activation of buffer underrun protection increases the time required for the completion of disc writing, because the drive has to seek for the linking point every time. Too many occurrences of buffer underrun devalues the essential nature of high speed drives. In addition, even if buffer underrun protection can make virtually seamless links, a disc with no links is more desirable than one that is full of links..."

What Yamaha states is true... If you try to burn a CD while getting many buffer underrun the total recording time is higher than in case you don't have zero buffer underrun. However in cases such as CD to CD copy (on-the-fly), the 8MB of buffer will not save the "link" between the 2 broken parts..For normal applications and with the proper CDR software, the 8MB of buffer work smooth and avoids un-necessary links.

- Optimum Write Speed Control:
The Optimum Write Speed Control function that automatically adjusts writing speed to the optimum level for each kind of disc. Simply by setting the writing speed at 20X, the CRW2200 checks the characteristics and conditions of the inserted disc and automatically selects the maximum optimum writing speed for the disc to ensure data reliability when the disc is read back by CD-ROM drives or CD players.

Plextor, Sanyo and Ricoh have similar systems with can drop down writing speed. Due to the lack of P-CAV technology other drives can only reduce the speed from 24x to 20x or 16X (all speeds are CLV) while Yamaha's Optimum Write Speed Control can set the maximum writing speed more flexibly, at 20X, 19X, 18X, 17X, 16X, 12X and 8X

The Optimum Write Speed Control is enabled by default but you can be turned off within the recording software. If the drive finds the recording quality good it can rise up the recording speed from 12x up to 20x (which however we must note never witnessed). With the Nero software you can notice the speed dropdown since a warning message appears (among with the increased writing time).

- Universal design of interface variation:
The Yamaha with the 2200x series introduced a revolutionary idea.... All CRW2200 series models are based on the same ATAPI drive. Using interface bridge adapters specially engineered by Yamaha, the 2200 series can be connected to a several of different interfaces (SCSI, FireWire, USB 2.0) making all users happy. Also the production cost is less now since the Yamaha develops only one model (IDE) instead of multiple. The idea is very clever and we hope that other manufacturers will follow it in order to produce a full series of interfaces (including long requested SCSI recorders):

The CRW2200 series features five models to meet users' needs: CRW2200E (internal ATAPI), CRW2200S (internal SCSI-3), CRW2200SX (external SCSI-3), CRW2100IX (external IEEE1394), and CRW2200UX (external USB1.1/2.0).


2. Installation

Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CDR-W - Page 2

Supplied Package:
The package supplied was a special pre-release version and included: The drive itself, an ATAPI to SCSI-3 converter (converts 2200E to 2200S), 50 CD-R (Taiyo Yuden 20x certified media) and the necessary CDR software: Nero OEM 5.5.1.8, Ahead InCD v2.11 and NeroMIX v1.208 (works only with Yamaha 2200E series).

The retail package will include a well printed manual, among with Yamaha's 80min 20x CDR media (again from Taiyo Yuden) and one piece of Yamaha's 4-10x (HS-RW) media.

Let's take a look at the drive itself. The drive is the same (more or less) with the 2100x series. Most users will notice immediately the "20/10/40" logo that gives the drive's specifications in a short look:

The drive has only one LED (orange indicates writing; green indicates reading) and the usual controls: eject button, headphone input jack and volume potentiometer. On the back of the drive we find the usual connectors (IDE interface and Power), the jumpers for setting the drive to Master/Slave option, analogue and digital audio output connectors and a hole (to be used with the SCSI connector):

As we said earlier we got also an ATAPI to SCSI converter. This can be used and convert a Yamaha CRW2200 drive in the CRW2200S. The SCSI converter has in the back the jumpers for setting the drive's SCSI ID and termination/block size and a big screw for secure the connection between the drive and the connector. Of course there is the SCSI plug-in interface and at the right a smaller power connector:

I know what you are thinking: Does this converter work with other IDE devices except Yamaha CRW2200E? As we was informed from Yamaha no. Even if you attach any IDE device, it will be recognized as Yamaha 2200S! We haven't tested this issue yet but we will do in our upcoming Yamaha 2200S review :-)

Installation:

ATAPI CDR-W drives are very easy to install. Just decide what the drive should be, master or slave, set the appropriate jumper and you are all set! After booting up your system, the CDR-W identifies itself as the "Yamaha CRW2200E". We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted. The drive was a April 2001 model with firmware revision v1.0B. After some problems we found with a specific media, Prodisc 80min, Yamaha send us a newer firmware revision (B.0C) which corrected the problem. Actually last week Yamaha posted officially the final v1.0c firmware revision and in case your 2200E drive doesn't have it by default, we advise to go for it…

For most of our tests we used: Nero 5.5.1.8, Ahead InCD v2.13, Padus DJ v3.00.780 and CloneCD v3.0.0.17. Note that CloneCD doesn't recognize yet that Yamaha CRW2200E series supports DAO-RAW. However we managed to force CloneCD writing at DAO-RAW mode with Yamaha 2200E and our test results were very good - DAO-RAW does work :-)

Here are the full specifications for the Yamaha CRW2200x series:

Model Name
CRW2200E-VK
INTERNAL IDE ATAPI
CRW2200S-VK
INTERNAL SCSI
Interface
Enhanced IDE (E-IDE) ATAPI
SCSI-3 (Ultra SCSI)
with SCSI Converter Kit
Data Capacity
650MB (74min) 700MB (79min)
Writing Speed CD - R
1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 12x (CLV), 16x, 20x (12x-20x Partial CAV)
Writing Speed CD - RW
2x, 4x, 8x, 10x (CLV) 10x(4x-10x Full CAV)
Reading Speed
40x (max.) Full CAV
Data Buffer Size
8MB (3,224sectors)
Average Random Access Time
150msec. (reading)
Disc Loading Type
Front auto-loading tray loading
Writing Methods
Disc-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Packet Writing
Writing Formats
CD-DA, CD-G, CD TEXT, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Photo CD, Video CD,
CD-I, CD EXTRA
Weight
0,9kg
0,97kg
Accessories
Blank CD-R
Blank CD-RW

ATAPI Flat Cable
Fastening Screws
Owners Manual
Software Guide
Software
Blank CD-R
Blank CD-RW
SCSI Convertor Kit
SCSI Flat Cable
Fastening Screws
Owners Manual
Software GuideSoftware
Software
Ahead: Nero 5.5, NeroMIX, InCD, Nero Toolkit

External Future packages:

Interface
Front
Back
SCSI External
USB 1.1/2.0
FireWire External

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
PleXWriter PX-W1610A firmware v1.02
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P firmware v6f.34
Ricoh MP7200A firmware v1.10
Yamaha 2200E firmware v1.0B/ B.0C / v1.0C


3. Data Tests

Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CDR-W- Page 3

Data Tests

Test Method:
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0 & CD Speed 99 v0.80 Tests: With these tests we attempt to compare the I/O performance of Yamaha's CRW2200E to other various CDR-W drives (see charts) and we also checked the drive performance. In all of the following tests we used a pressed CD containing PlexTools v1.08 original CD.

- SCSI Mechanic v3.0 results:

The Yamaha CRW2200E didn't perform very well in the SCSI Mechanic tests. The drive had the lower score in "Average Sequential I/O" tests results and came 3rd in the "Average Random I/O" test. In the "Average Same Sector I/O" tests, the drive showed a superb performance and gave the best result ever tested in a CDR-W drive (25400 KB/s).

- CD Speed 99 results: (click here to see the CD Speed 99 graph)

The CD Speed 99 results confirmed our previous tests results. The Yamaha drive seems to be the slower among the 4 tested drives. The problem is that the drive starts reading at only 17.7X and ends the test at 38.7X test. The PleXWriter PX-W1610A seems performing best and Ricoh MP7200A follows very close, while the Sanyo CRD-BP1500P comes third.

The Yamaha 2200E is slower than the rest of the drives since the 40x max reading speed is reached at 80min CDs. Why does this happen? The drive is designed with that concept. Other manufacturers reach 40x reading speed at 74min CDs.

The seek times for Yamaha CRW2200E are very good compared to Plextor and Sanyo drive. The drive has an average 128ms Random Seek time and the Ricoh MP7200A is the champion in this test with only (!) 93ms.

- CD Speed 99 Results (CD-R Media): (click here to see the CD Speed 99 graph)

Things are better with CD-R media for the Yamaha CRW2200E. The drive's average reading speed is now 30.07X but also the rest drives are faster than with the pressed disc. Ricoh MP7200A takes the revenge from the pressed CD test and is the leader with 31.79X (Plextor is second with 31.56X). The speed gap is less, but still exists.


4. RW reading tests
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CDR-W - Page 4

RW reading tests

- CD Speed 99 HS-RW tests: (click here for the CD Speed 99 graph)

For the RW tests we used the TDK HS-RW media written at 10x speed. The Yamaha 2200E performed very well and could possibly had the first place if the drive didn't lower its reading speed after 65minutes (check the graph). Anyway the winner in this test is Ricoh MP7200A with the blazing speed of 31.69x. The Plextor and Sanyo drive have only 32x reading speed with HS-RW media and lagged behind with 25x:

CloneCD Tests

- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.0.17) 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 Yamaha CRW2200E. 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-W1610A, Sanyo CRD-BP1500P and Ricoh MP7200A. The following picture shows the Yamaha's CRW2200E reading/writing capabilities (after our little tweak - since CloneCD's default report is that the drive doesn't support DAO-RAW):

- SafeDisc 1/2 Results:

The Yamaha CRW2200E performs quite well and follows the leader PleXWriter PX-W1610A. The problem is that with CDR media the drive reports more read errors than the real existing ones. That slows down the reading process and of course gives much higher reading time.

The Yamaha CRW2200E gave back a rather slow reading speed , compared to the strong competition from the PleXWriter. The drive again in the CDR backup media reports more errors...

LaserLock 1/2 Results:

In the LaserLock protected CDs test, the Yamaha drive had an average performance with the original CD and the second best performance behind the PleXWriter PX-W1610A.

Here is a test where the Yamaha CRW2200E performed quite good. The drive reads the original CD quite faster than the Sanyo/Plextor drives, which need almost 2hours to complete the image (!), but takes the second time again behind Ricoh's drive. With the backup CDR media, the drive reached high reading speeds, but again reported more bad sectors than the existing real ones...

SecuROM Results:

The Yamaha CRW2200E does support reading SubChannel from Data/Audio Tracks and reads them quite fast! The Ricoh 7200A seems that is faster and takes the first place


5. DAE Tests
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CDR-W - Page 5

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 Yamaha CRW2200E 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 9 to examine the drive's features. As the program reported, the drive does "Caching" data, supports "Accurate Stream" and can't utilise "C2" error info. All 4 tested drives supports up to 40x DAE speed.

- Pressed AudioCD results: (click here to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The Yamaha CRW2200E has shown an un-pleasant behavior with pressed CDs, which drops it from the first place. The drive kept slowing down after 65minutes so the final average ripping speed is the slowest among the 4 tested drives. Note that although the CD Speed 99 graph seems perfect, real DAE tests with CD DAE 99 and EAC showed the opposite view. Also you can see how the drive behaves with a second pressed disc over here...

If Yamaha fix that problem the drive's DAE will be boosted up possibly to 30x (average). The Plextor drive still holds the first place with 30.3x and Ricoh MP7200A continues closely with 29.6x. The Sanyo drive comes third with 28.5x and Yamaha 2200E last with 26.4x:

- CDR AudioCD results: (click here to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The same behavior continued with CDR media. Here the CD Speed 99 graph shows clearly the drive's drop down speed and the real life tests confirm it. The drive's average ripping speed with our test disc was around 25.8x and in this test Ricoh MP7200A got the first place with 30.0X! Plextor stayed in second place and Sanyo BP1500P in last (also showed strange behavior with CDR media):

- Advanced DAE Quality:

The Yamaha 2200E got 100 score (best) in the CD Speed 99 Advanced DAE test. The drive's average reading speed was 28.22x. However the drive has some problems recognizing the test disc (sometimes work sometimes don't)..

Yamaha said that "...in case the CD has invalid CD-Text data, the CRW2200 may or may not detect the CD depends on which position in the lead-in area it starts to detect TOC information. So we assume that the result (sometime the drive can detect the disc and sometime it cannot) may depend on the initial position of the optical head at power on..."

As for the Sanyo the drive aborts the test after a while it starts so we left it outside. Both Plextor and Ricoh drives got an 100 score (perfect) but....real life tests showed something oposite.

- Bad CDR Media results: (click here to see the CD Speed 99 graph)

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-W1610A
29.3
5069
almost 0
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
*
drive reports read error after 5secs
-
Ricoh MP7200
8.3
505040044
66,76
Yamaha CRW2200E
5.7
1041038
0,14

The best results came from the PleXWriter PX-W1610A. The drive didn't drop its reading speed, despite the fact that thumbs and dust were evident on the disc, and managed to give the lower reading errors (almost 0%). The Sanyo drive stopped reading after 5 secs so you cannot see any numbers.

If you remember previously, Ricoh MP7200A got the perfect score in CD Speed's 99 Advanced DAE test. However in real life results the drive managed to read incorrectly about 67% of the output data! Lastly, the Yamaha CRW2200E gave a high number of errors but the final % of total errors in disc is satisfactory (0.14%).

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs
The Yamaha CRW2200E recognized the 90min AudioCD without any problems. With 99min CDs sometimes it recognize it sometimes doesn't. As you can see the drive stops reading about 94mins:

Reading 90minutes AudioCD

Reading 99minutes AudioCD


6. CDR Tests
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CD-RW - Page 6

CDR Tests

The Yamaha CRW2200E is the first recorder that support 12-20x (P-CAV) writing speeds. Yamaha has added in the new drive anti-coaster technology called "SafeBURN" which eliminates buffer underrun.

Let's see a comparison chart between different various recording technologies:

The Yamaha drive starts writing at 12x (0 minutes) and continues increasing writing speed up to 20x (around 32mins) and writes at 20x till the end of the disc. The competitor drives use Zone-CLV and as you can see are faster. In the following table we can see the average writing speed of the Yamaha 2200E, Ricoh 7200 and Sanyo's BP1500P, according to the CD Speed 99:

CDR-W drives
Average Writing Speed (X)
Yamaha CRW2200
18.44
Ricoh 7200
19.50
Sanyo BP1500P
22.58

As you might have expected, the Sanyo BP1500P is the fastest drive with almost 22.58X average writing speed, Ricoh MP7200A comes second with 19.50X and Yamaha 2200E third with 18.44X. The question now is do these writing speeds apply in real life tests? Don't rush in conclusions. The test results vary from the tested media and there were some cases in which Sanyo 24x was the slowest among the 3 tested drives... More on this later.

Yamaha claims that their drive stays below 6000rpm and the CD Speed 99 writing test confirmed it. The 2200E starts at 6060 and ends at 4260rpm. This gives Yamaha an advantage over the competition since lower RPM mean less noise for the drive and less vibrations. The Ricoh 7200 starts at 7950 and ends at 4235rpm. The drive makes one big jump, when it passes from 16x CLV to 20x CLV (at 6-10minutes), from 6830 to 7820 rpm. Last the Sanyo BP1500P has the biggest rpm ,as expected due to it's 24x writing speed. It starts at 7932rpm, makes the first jump from 16x to 20x CLV at 2-6minutes, makes the second jump from 20x to 24x at 12-16minutes and continues to write at 24x speed till the end. The problem is that in both jumps the drive reaches almost 9000rpm that causes noise. In short words: More RPM means higher writing speed and higher noise from the drive.

- Procedure: We tested the Yamaha CRW2200E with Nero v5.5.1.8, Ahead InCD v2.13, CloneCD v3.0.0.20 and, Padus DJ v3.00.780 softwares. We used various of media for performing our tests: Verbatim 74min (16x and 16x+) & 80min (16x), Mitsui 74min (16x), Prodisc 80min (16x), Ricoh 74min (8X) and with TDK/Plextor/Verbatim 74min HS-RW. We did notice some problems with Prodisc 80min 16x media, which were corrected with a newer beta firmware revision (B.0C)...

Yamaha said that "...Current firmware 1.0B (and 1.0C) lowers the speed to 8X when the inserted disc has no ID code in ATIP information and CRW2200 recognizes it as "unknown" even when Optimum Write Speed Control is OFF. Next version of firmware will allow users to write at the speed manually set by user at his own risk, as long as OPC is successful. If the OPC fails before writing, the drive simply refuses to write and let the disc unwritten..."

- 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:

As you can see, the Yamaha CRW2200E has the biggest burning time since it's 16x writing speed is not CLV but P-CAV. The drive needs 324secs finish the burn when Plextor PX-W1610A needs 312secs. That's 12secs time gap. The difference from the rest drives seems to be much lower (7-8secs).

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

The Yamaha CRW2200E is the slower drive since it gives the higher recording time (348secs). The PleXWriter again gives the lowest recording time and both Ricoh and Sanyo drives follows....

Comparing the different recording technologies we see that the Yamaha 2200E is about 32secs faster than a 16x CLV recorder, 15secs slower than MP7200A and 40secs slower than Sanyo BP1500P. Those time differences seem dropping down slight in the 80minute CDs:

Here the Yamaha 2200E is faster 28secs than a 16x CLV recorder, 22secs slower than MP7200A and 34secs slower than Sanyo BP1500P. The above results are the best you can get (from the tested media). As you will read later you must use 20x or 24x certified media else you will have possibly longer burning time than the expected one...

- Overburning Tests:
The Yamaha supports overburning as Nero states... or not? The drive can overburn but when we tried to burn 90 and 99minutes CDs we had problems. When the drive reached the end it locked, and after a while the PC also locked. Note that it failed to read 99minute CDRs. Yamaha said officially that they don't support both 90 and 99minute CDs. Maybe a coming firmware revision fixes this problem also.

- CD-Text Results:
We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. The Yamaha CRW2200E managed to write/read them (and CD-Text) without any problems.

- CloneCD Tests:
The CloneCD v3.0.0.20 reports that the drive doesn't support the DAO-RAW feature. In first, we were disappointed but after Yamaha insisted that the drive DOES support DAO-RAW we tried a little tweak and managed to force CloneCD see the drive's DAO-RAW capabilities.

Since CloneCD allowed us to test the DAO-RAW feature we performed our usual backup tests and we confirmed that the drive supports fully DAO-RAW writing mode (made backups of Safedisc 1.0, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2). We suspect that in a newer version, the CloneCD author will fully support the drive's features. Note also that CloneCD recognized that drive has anti-coaster technology (SafeBURN) - even the Burn Proo/JustLink box was ticked.

- SD2 Support:
For the SD2 test we used the "No One Lives For Ever" CD title. We used the Yamaha CRW2200E both as reader/writer. The produced backup didn't play using the same driver or any drive we tested. Therefore also the new Yamaha model cannot produce SD2 working backups.

- 8cm mini CDs:
The Yamaha supports 8cm CDs both in reading/writing. As Yamaha said the drive will not support business cards or weird shape CDs.

- Buffer Underrun tests:
Yamaha has added "SafeBURN" anti-coaster technology. This system will protect users from buffer underrun and from what our test results showed worked very good. We made several on-the-fly copies with CloneCD v3.0x series without any problems and we also stopped PC (with ctrl+shift+del) several times. In all cases the drive continued writing!


7. Media Tests - Page 1
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CD-RW - Page 7

Media Tests - Page 1

You might have thought by now that the Sanyo CRD-BP1500P is the fastest CD-RW drive ever made… And you are partially correct. Why partially? Cause the media quality is a very important aspect in such high speed writing speeds.

For our tests we used both 74 & 80min various brands CDs. We just got in our hands 24x certified media from Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui and Ricoh. We supposed to had Verbatim's 24x certified media also but till the time that article was written nothing came over.

Our goal was to test both how the 3 drives perform under good/medium and bad quality media at the maximum speed they can write. We made 3 burn attempts for each drive and each brand.

All CDs burned under the same capacity (74:03:65) with Nero 5.5.1.8. Especially for the Yamaha 2200E and Ricoh MP7200A we done 4 burns each round. For the Ricoh 7200 setting JustSpeed on/off and for the Yamaha 2200E OWC on/off ("OWC" means "Optimum Writing Control"). So for just testing only one brand we used 15CDs for all 3 drives. The amount of CDs for 74mins reached 180CDs and for 80min at 105. That makes around 285CDs! Not bad :-)

74min CDs Test Results:

- No Name (Prodisc) X? - silver top

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
422
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
284
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
272
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
267
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
TDK Cyclone 241040
262
-

- Creation 12x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
607
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
601
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Sees the media only as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
267
In one case ccoaster - "Write Error" after 1:19
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
*
"Focus or Tracking Error" after 3:21mins - coasters
TDK Cyclone 241040
*
"Focus or Tracking Error" after 3:40mins - coasters

- Ricoh 8x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
322
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
281
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
410
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
265
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
245
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
239
-

- MMore ?x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
611
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
*
Power Calibration Error in all cases
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
266
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
279
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
248
-

- Princo Silver top ?x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
419
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
283
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
267
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
290
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
262
-

- Verbatim 16x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
325
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
280
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 16x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
268
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
240
-
TDK Cyclone 241040

- Mitsui SG Ultra 16x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
285
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
280
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
271
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
266
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
256
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
240
-

- TDK D-View 12x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
618
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
284
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
265
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
323
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
*
All times "Power Calibration Error" - no coaster

- Maxell ?x (printable top)

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
414
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
284
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
267
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
247
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
246
-

- Verbatim 16x+ (Generic)

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
280
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
280
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
417
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
265
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
247
-
TDK Cyclone 241040

- Taiyo Yuden 24x (silver top)

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
290
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
286
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
270
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
279
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
244
-

- Mitsui SG Ultra II 24x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
284
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
285
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
270
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
266
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
239
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
241
-

- Ricoh 20x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
420
Drive sees the media as 12x. Yamaha said will fix problem in next firmware revision
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
282
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
268
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
265
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
244
-
TDK Cyclone 241040
240
-

Conclusion:

As the tests results showed, all drives seem to have various problems with each media. For example even with Taiyo's Yuden 24x certified media, all 3 drives gave back the not the best results as you may expected. This is that we will occupy the engineers for the next couple of months. How improve media compatibility in such high speeds...

Now if you wondered which media worked better for each drive we can say that:

- Yamaha 2200E: Verbatim 16x+ (Generic). The drive gave back the exact same time results with both "OWC" enabled/disabled. The media supposed to be 24x certified ,hence the 16x+ mark, and performed very good also with the rest drives.

- Ricoh 7200A: Ricoh 20x. As you might expected the Ricoh performed best with Ricoh 20x certified media in both cases, when "JustSpeed" was enabled/disabled.

- Sanyo BP1500P: Mitsui SG Ultra II (24x)/Verbatim 16x. With both media, the Sanyo drive gave back the best results. The best time result was 3:59mins and it's the faster among the 3 tested drives..


8. Media Tests - Page 2
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CD-RW - Page 8

Media Tests - Page 2

All CDs burned under the same capacity (80:01:47) with Nero 5.5.1.8. We burned the same amount of CDs for all tested drives. Especially for the Yamaha 2200E and Ricoh MP7200A there are 2 results. One with burning monitor quality system -JustSpeed- "ON" and one with "Off". For the 2200E the "OWC" means "Optimum Writing Control". Those settings can be turned of/off whithin Nero.

80min CDs Test Results:

- No Name (Prodisc) X? - silver top

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
319
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
305
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
338
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
284
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
301
-
TDK CyClone 241040
   

- Creation 12x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
653
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
643
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Sees the media only as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
289
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
263
-
TDK CyClone 241040
*
Always "Focus of Tracking Error" message - no coasters

- Verbatim 16x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
351
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
303
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 16x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
284
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
270
-
TDK CyClone 241040
256
-

- Prodisc 16x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
319
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
305
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
340
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
284
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
284
-
TDK CyClone 241040

- No Name 16x (white top)

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
649
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
644
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
*
Recognizes the media as 12x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
286
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
348
-
TDK CyClone 241040
281
-

- Yamaha 20x

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
307
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
307
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
390
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
284
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
283
-
TDK CyClone 241040
256
-

- Taiyo Yuden 24x (silver top)

Drive
Average Burning Time (secs)
Notes
Yamaha 2200E (OWC enabled)
306
-
Yamaha 2200E (OWC disabled)
306
-
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed enabled)
437
Recognizes the media as 20x
Ricoh MP7200A (JustSpeed disabled)
284
-
Sanyo CRD-BP1500P
260
-
TDK CyClone 241040
256
-

Test Results Conclusion:

Again the tests results showed that all drives need specific media in order to get their maximum performance. Again the Verbatim's 16x certified media seem to perform better with our 3 contesters.


9. RW Writing Tests
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CDR-W - Page 9

RW Writing Tests

We used Nero 5.5.1.8 for writing CDs at the maximum RW speed for all the tested drives. It's nice that Yamaha in the new 2200x series adopted the 10x re-writing speed:

The Yamaha has an impressive re-write time of 476secs managing to outperform the rest drives... The time gap is from 9 to 16secs! A very nice surprise from Yamaha, considering that the previous 2100x series featured only 8x rewrite... Also the erase time stays below 60secs but the Ricoh 20x seems slightly faster.

Packet Writing Tests

The Yamaha CRW2200E supports both 10x CLV and 4-10x CAV packet writing peformance which according to Yamaha:

"...CLV mode is definitely faster when you write large numbers of files or large data ‘sequentially’. But when it comes to “random” write/read access to a High Speed CD-RW disc (such as when opening, editing and overwriting a Word document stored on the disc), CAV mode can perform better. This is because CAV keeps disc rotation speed constant and does not require continuous adjustment by spinning up and down according to the location of where the data is read or written..."

We used InCD v2.13 for most of our packet writing tests. The 2 packet-writing modes can be selected within drive's InCD properties tab:

We used a TDK HS-RW media and we formatted it. The formatting of the media takes around 18 minutes. 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 Yamaha 2200E gave the fastest packet writing among the four tested drives. It managed to surpass all other drives. The drive also performed very well in the reading packet-writing formatted discs and looses the first place with only 0.5x gap. In case you wondered, the drive's performance with 4-10x CAV selection was much slower (as expected) and reached 4.96x.


10. Conclusion
Yamaha CRW2200E IDE CD-RW - Page 10

Conclusion

Positive (+):

Negative (-):

- Supports 20x writing speed
- Uses link-less writing technology
- "SafeBURN" anti-coaster system
- Intelligent design... It can be transformed to SCSI with a adapter!
- 8MB Buffer
- Good CloneCD reading performance
- Supports HS-RW standard
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports CD-Text (read/write)
- Supports reading of SubChannel data
- Best packet writing performance
- Best Re-writing performance
- Low noise compared to the 2100x series
- Supports UDMA-33
- Price (233$??)

- Due to P-CAV, it is not the fastest 20x recorder you can buy
- Drive slows down after 65mins
- Average reading performance
- Overburning does not work!
- Has problems with specific Audio CDR media
- Doesn't backup SD2 protected CDs
- Reports more bad sectors than the really existing ones

The Yamaha 2200E is the first drive that supports 20x writing speed with a different technological approach than the other competitors. The P-CAV technology is not the fastest writing technology but seems to produce the best quality because of its link-less design. The drive also arrives with impressive 8MB of buffer and of course "SafeBURN" anti-coaster system. Yamaha has now also a anti-coaster technology, thanks to OAK Technology's help, and from what we saw it works very well -just as good as BURN-Proof/JustLink/SimlessLink does. Another big and welcome improvement over the past is the 10x re-writing speed adoption, which in our tests was the best among the competitor drives. The 2200E series support DAO-RAW and reading of SubChannel data but fail to backup SD2 protected CDs.

So, are we talking about a perfect drive? Nope... The drive has specific weaknesses. We could list them but for us the most annoying are the strange slowdown after 65mins and the luck of overburning, which is there but not working. Of course those problems can be improved with firmware updates and this is also what Yamaha claimed.

The competition from Ricon is very strong, since the MP7200 is faster (in absolute writing times) and it's already in the market for almost one month. There are also 24x recorders coming in less than a month so the decision is difficult for the possible buyer. Each drive has its own pros (+) and cons (-) which must be examined carefully from potential users. We feel that Yamaha 2200E is a safe buy but as usual you will have to make your own conclusions.



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