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

Good performance from the Philips DVDR1648P burner. The total error count is rather low while most importantly, no samples were skipped. From the graph we can see that the drive has a good CD error correction mechanism, with the error loudness level being lower than -34.0 dB(A) except for a couple of spikes which hit a maximum of -22.6 dB(A).

- ABEX TCD-726

The ABEX TCD-726 test disc is always easier to read and the Philips DVDR1648P had no problems at all reading it successfully, without a single error reported. No skipped samples and no error muting samples indicate excellent performance. This makes the burner a very good reader for defective CD media, in terms of speed and readability.

- 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 through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested drive.

This disc is a very good test to determine a drive's CD error correction. The fifth track is almost impossible to read with the majority of drives while most fail even when reading the fourth track. In our case, the Philips drive impressed us, reading all tracks and reporting a single audible click over the fifth track and this, in just one out of the five repetitions.

- Summary

The overall performance of the burner with defective and problematic CD media is very good. One of the best drives in this series of tests in comparison to the latest drives, and not only.