CDR Tests

- Procedure

We tested both drives with Nero v5.5.5.7, Ahead InCD v3.14, CloneCD v3.2.1.1 and, Padus DJ v3.50.818 software. We used various of media for performing our tests: Mitsubishi Chemicals 74/80min 24x certified, Mitsui 74min 24x certified, Taiyo Yuden 74/80min 24x certified, Ricoh 74min 24x certified and Ricoh's 74min HS-RW.

The Philips PCRW1208Jr supports up to 12x (CLV) writing speed, while Yamaha CRW70 continues to use P-CAV in order to reach 12x writing speed. As the Nero CD Speed test showes, the Yamaha CRW-70 starts writing at 8X and linearly increases its writing speed up to 12X, approximately in the time point of 22 minutes, continuing at this speed until the end of writing. The Philips PCRW1208Jr will write at 12x CLV at the whole disc.

- 74min CD-R Tests

We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly more than 74mins (74:03:65). We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:

The Yamaha CRW-70 was 6 seconds faster than Philips JackRabbit when writing at 8x with 74min CDs. The Yamaha drive also gave lower CPU usage than Philips PCRW1208Jr.

As was expected, the Philips PCRW1208Jr is faster than Yamaha CRW70 drive. The maximum time differences we noted was up to 29secs. Again the Philips PCRW1208Jr takes much higher CPU Usage than the Yamaha drive.

- 80min CD-R Tests

In our normal burning tests the 80min CD contains slightly less than 80min data (79:55:46):

We did not manage to write any 79min data CDs with the Philips PCRW1208JR. The Nero software gave an error just before the finalizing CD process was about to be done. The Yamaha CRW-70 finished writing after 472 seconds at the 12x writing speed.

- Overburning Tests

Yamaha CRW-70 can overburn up to 89 min. Philips PCRW1208JR does not support overburning.

- CD-Text Results

Both drives can write CD-Text but only Philips PCRW1208JR can read it.

- CloneCD Writing Tests

The CloneCD v3.2.1.1 reports that the Philips drive supports only the DAO-RAW feature. We performed our usual tests and we confirmed that the drive supports fully the DAO-RAW writing mode (Safedisc 1.0, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2). With the Yamaha CRW-70 supports RAW DAO and RAW SAO+SUB writing modes.

- SD2 Support
For the SD2 test we used the "No One Lives For Ever", "Max Payne" and "Emperor Battle of Dune" game titles. We used both drivesas readers/writers. The produced backup(s) didn't work using the same or any other drives we tested with. Therefore, both drives cannot produce SD2 working backups.

- 8cm mini CDs

Both drives support writing/reading of 8 cm mini CDs.

- Buffer Underrun tests

Philips CRW1208JR supports the "SeamlessLink" and Yamaha CRW-70 the "SafeBurn" anti-coaster technologies. We made several on-the-fly copies with CloneCD v3.0x series without any problems.