Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we check the drive's behavior when reading scratched / defective audio discs. The test discs used were the ABEX series from ALMEDIO.

- ABEX TCD-721R

The above picture shows the effected area on the Abex TCD-721R disc while the graph below shows the reported errors during the reading test. To measure this, we compare the reading errors of the defective disc against a disc without defects.

The performance with this disc was very good. Despite the total number of errors, the average error loudness is quite low, at-73.7 dB(A), while no skipped errors were reported.

- ABEX TCD-726

The above picture shows the effected area on the Abex TCD-726 disc while the graph below shows the reported errors during the reading test. To measure this, we compare the reading errors of the defective disc against one without defects.

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is much easier for drives in general to read. The Freecom drive's reading performance was perfect, so the testing software awards the drive with the perfect score of 100. During the test, no samples were skipped or muted, while an average level for loudness errors of -174.0dB(A) was reported.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction / Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively more difficult tests. These tracks are referred to as Check Level-1 through Check Level-5.

The tracks are reproduced (played) through software multimedia players (Windows Media Player, Winamp and Power DVD). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone coming out from the speakers is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested drive.

The drive's overall performance was a little lower than it could have been. The external writer managed to playback the first three tracks clearly but there were many audible clicks during the playback of the last two levels.

- Summary

The Freecom FX-50 DVD+/-RW received an average score of 88.45 out of 100 for the two Abex test discs. This is a plus for the drive as the score is quite high.