RW reading tests

- Nero CD Speed 99 v0.83 Test:

For the RW tests, we used TDK's HS-RW media. All tested drives have a maximum of 24X reading speed, so the performance is way better from what we are used to with CD-RW drives. The AOpen 1648 is the fastest drive in this test and both the other two contestants are struggling really hard to keep up:

CloneCD Reading Tests

- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.5.1) 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 our DVD-ROMs. We also tested their reading performances with backups of the original CDs, since reading speeds vary between original and backup media.

- SafeDisc 1/2 Results:

The LiteOn LTD163 is the champion with SafeDisc 1.0 protected CDs. The Matsushita SR-8586 needs about one hour to make the image of the disc and AOpen 1648 earns the second place, even at a quite low performance.

The Lite-On continues to lead the race among the three tested drives. The Matsushita SR-8586 gets the last place once again, while the AOpen comes second.

LaserLock 1/2 Results:

The situation seems to change, as far as the LaserLock 1 tests are concerned. The Matsushita SR-8586 gets the first place, the AOpen model comes second and the Lite-On is last.

In the LaserLock 2 test, things become more complicated than they were. The AOpen 1648 gets the first place with the original CD, but Lite-On comes retaliates by winning first place on the backup CD test. The Matsushita SR-8586 doesn't perform good enough with the original CD, but gets the second place with the backup CD.

SecuROM Results:

The LiteOn LTD163 supports reading of SubChannel data from both Data and Audio tracks, and very fast, according to our tests. The Matsushita doesn't support reading of 96bytes of Subchannel data, which means you will not be able to read CD+G CDs. Last of all, the AOpen 1648 doesn't support reading of SubChannel data at all :(