Mitsumi CR-485FTE CD-RW

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Error Correction Tests
3. Data CD Reading Tests
4. Protected Data Disc Tests
5. DAE Tests
6. Recording Tests
7. Writing Quality Tests - Page 1
8. Writing Quality Tests - Page 2
9. Rewriting Tests
10. Conclusion

Mitsumi CR-48XFTE - Page 10

Conclusion

Positive	Negative
Very low seek times Average Error Correction High DAE Speed Supports Audio Protected discs Produces working SafeDisc v2.x backups Adequate writing quality Supports CD-Text (reading/writing) Supports reading up to 99min discs Overburning up to 99min Low Price	Unstable reading behavior Weak error correction with heavily scratched discs Failed to rewrite at 32x Does not retrieve C2 error information Reading of US-RW media at 40x Limited CD-R media compatible with 54x writing

Summarizing the benchmarking results, we start with the reading performance. In this part, the Mitsumi CR-48XFTE showed a very unstable behavior. In some cases the drive either read the inserted disc at a lower speed than 54x (i.e. 48x CAV), or even dropped dramatically the reading speed in the outer parts of the disc. This occurred with half of the CD-R or pressed discs we tested. Mitsumi might probably be able to improve this behavior by offering a firmware upgrade. On the other hand, in cases where the drive read the discs at 54x CAV, the average reading speed was impressive. In addition, the drive gave very low seek times.

Ripping of audio discs is supported at the maximum speed. The Mitsumi CR-X48FTE gave a high performance in the ripping test with the ABEX-726 (defected, fingerprints) disc but gave back more read errors with the TCD-721R (scratched). In addition, the drive does not retrieve C2 error information, so we could not evaluate correctly the error correcting capabilities of the drive by using the CDSpeed test.

Audio protected discs were easily read by the drive. The contents of both Cactus Data Shield 200 and Key2Audio protected discs were accurately transferred to the hard disk.

In the writing part, we should mention that the drive supports 54x writing in a limited number of CD-R discs. Most of the times, the featured writing control mechanism dropped the writing speed by the end of the disc resulting to increased writing times. Thus, the writing quality of the produced discs was not negatively influenced by the high writing speeds. The jitter measurements gave very good results, with some noticeable exceptions. Generally, the C1 /C2 measurements were adequate and none of the discs gave uncorrectable errors.

Rewriting at 32x was not possible with the Mitsubishi Chemicals US-RW discs. The drive could not recognize them, so we used 24x US-RW discs for the rewriting tests. A possible firmware upgrade could easily solve this issue, since it is mostly an on-chip logic matter than a media problem.

Mitsumi CR-48XFTE easily surpassed data protections. The drive was impressive since it produced working backups of SafeDisc v2.80 protected discs without any additional help by the CloneCD software (i.e. amplify weak sectors).

The Mitsumi CR-48XFTE is a very optimistic recording solution for all those who always hunt impressive specifications. Although the drive could easily make the difference in the benchmarks, it did not prove us that it deserves the top, over the competitive 52x writers. The overall impression we got is that the drive needs some extra fine-tuning through firmware upgrades in order to offer better performance. However, candidate buyers have always the last word and they always balance the positive and negative options and judge according to their needs. The Mitsumi CR-X48FTE is available in the retail the market at attractive prices between $45 and $55.