- CD Format

In order to test the Reading capabilities (Transfer Rate) of the SH-W162C drive, we use Nero CD-DVD Speed (4.01 latest version) and a set of test media including both pressed and CDR copies.

With Pressed CD media, the Samsung drive reported the highest average speed. Despite starting at a very low speed, it managed to finish with an end speed of 50X. In the other two tests, with CDR and USRW media, the SH-W162C showed very good performance. Unfortunately, the CDR media transfer rate for this drive is locked at 40X while the other two drives go up all the way to 48X.

- DVD Format

We repeated the process with DVD Pressed media this time and present outcome in the tables below.

No significant speed differences between the drives, but the Samsung drive was slightly faster.

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, progressing towards the outer range for each layer. Once more, the Samsung drive did not manage to keep up with the other two drives, due to it's lower max reading speed of 8X, this time with PTP DL ROM media.

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks towards the inner part of the disc. Similar performance as with the PTP DL media.

As we can see from the above graphs, the performance from all four drives is consistent. With ±R media, the Samsung drive was limited to 9X while the BenQ and NEC drives reached 12X. With ±RW media, the Samsung was again 3X slower than the other two drives managing 6.2X.

As expected, the BenQ drive proved to be the fastest ripper among the three. The Samsung drive reported a nice ripping speed though, ranking high in the fastest rippers list.

What we've seen in this series of tests, is that the Samsung drive is not a very fast reader with DVD media. Now let us move on to the rest of the tests and see if the Samsung drive makes up for this lack in speed with error correction and quality.

-Appendix

Nero CD-DVD Speed Graphs

CD Pressed / CD-R / US-RW
DVD Pressed SL / DVD Pressed DL / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R / DVD+RW