In this page, we will be comparing the eight drives to see how they face up with DVD error correction. We gathered together the results from all eight drives for each test and for the purposes of this review, we will only be posting the graph of the drive with the best result in each test case. For the tests, we used CDVD Benchmark and Nero CDSpeed. The reference test media comes from ALMEDIO.

ABEX TDR-821

This is a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM with a 4.7GB capacity, and its surface has an artificial scratch of dimensions varying from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.

The following transfer rate picture comes from the CDVD Benchmark v1.21 transfer rate test.

The best reading with this artificially defective test media was reported by the LiteOn 1693S drive. As clearly seen in the above graph, the test went smoothly, right to the end without any drops in speed, while it maxed out at 16X.

ABEX TDR-825

This is also a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM of 4.7GB capacity. The data structure of the disc is exactly the same as that of the TDR-821, with the difference that there are no scratches on it but instead, defective areas of dimensions ranging from 0.5 to 1.1 mm.

There are also fingerprints sized between 65 and 75 micrometers.

In this test, CDVD found the NEC drive as the best in reading this kind of defective media. It passed over the defective regions without a hitch, reached 16X reading speed without any drops in speed.

- Dual Layer media

ABEX TDR-841

This is an 8.5GB dual layer single sided DVD-ROM disc with artificial scratches of dimensions ranging from 0.4 to 3.0mm, on both layers.

While all drives managed to read this defective media without any errors, the Asus drive was the one that climbed all the way up to 14X speed, without reporting any drops in speed producing a flawless reading performance.

ABEX TDR-845

The disc is a single sided, dual layer DVD-ROM disc of a capacity of 8.5GB. The only difference between the TDR-845 and the TDR-841 is that the first includes defective areas and fingerprints.

The dimensions of the defective areas range from 0.5 to 1.1 mm and the fingerprints are sized from 65 to 75 micro meters.

Once again the NEC drive proved to have an excellent error correction mechanism, with the test completing again without any speed drops, even though the transfer rate speed was halved in order for the drive to read this defective media.

ABEX TDV-541

The TDV-541 is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc, with a capacity of 8.5GB. The disc is based on the TDV-540 series which is designed for inspection and adjustment of DVD-VIDEO players. The disc checks the layer switch operation from layer 0 to layer 1 and also includes test pictures and test signals for DVD sound files.

The current TDV-541 also checks the error correcting capabilities of the drive and includes scratches from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.

The BenQ 1640 drive is the winner in this test, as it managed to read both layers perfectly, without any speed deviations or drops and a smooth graph from start to finish. Note that the BenQ drive managed to read this disc, reaching 12X reading speed. We had cases as with the NEC drive that read up to 8X only with this test. The BenQ drive was the fastest and smoothest reader of them all.

ABEX TDV-545

The TDV-545 disc is based on the TDV-540 series. It is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc with a capacity of 8.5GB. The TDV-545 includes artificial black dots on the data surface, sized from 0.4 to 1.0 mm. It has also 65 - 75 micro meter fingerprints.

Again the BenQ drive proved to be the best in the comparison as once more it managed to produce an excellent graph, this time with the ABEX TDV-545 test disc.

- Summary

The LiteOn, NEC, Asus and BenQ drives proved to be the best drives in each of these error correction tests. All eight drives managed to complete these tests though and not even one drive reported an error message during the reading of these test media. Feel free to have a look at the entire set of error correction results for each of the drives, in their respective reviews in the links below.