CDR Tests

The Sony CRX200E supports 12x writing speed and is equipped with 8MB of buffer in order to avoid possible buffer underruns. The competition however supports anti-coaster technologies (BURN-Proof, JustLink, SeamLess Link), the lack of which is a negative for the possible buyer of Sony's proposal. We used the CD Speed 99 build-in writing speed test which confimed the 12x writing speed (12.02x average):

- Procedure: We tested the Sony CRX200E with Nero v5.5.1.8, Prassi PrimoCD Plus v1.5.730, CloneCD v3.0.0.14, Padus DJ v3.00.780 software, and with the following media: Verbatim 74min (16x) & 80min (16x), Mitsui 74min (16x), Prodisc 80min (16x) and with TDK/Plextor/Verbatim 74min HS RW. We did notice some problems with Prodisc 16x media when writting at 12x. After 3 minutes we got an error message "...Medium Error: No Seek Complete...". When we tried at 8x it worked fine. The final retail European package will come with WinOnCD/DirectCD package... We tried both, but for some reason our system hang right after the installation. :(

- 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:

As you can see, the Sony CRX200E has the largest burning time among the four competitor drives. The drive is around 10 secs slower than Ricoh 7125A and 7 secs slower than Acer 1208!

- 80min CDs:
In our normal burning tests the 80min CD contains slightly more than 80min data (80:02:16) but since the Sony drive doesn't support overburning we had to remove some of the data in order for the project size to fall back to 79:59minutes. So the posted 80min burning time is actually lower than the expected real one (2-3 seconds higher):

The Sony CRX200E is again the slower drive since it gives the higher recording time (real time is 447secs). The Ricoh MP7125A is faster with 11 secs gap and the Acer 1208 is slightly faster with 2 secs...

- Overburning Tests:
No such tests took place since Sony CRX200E simply doens't support overburning! This is another negative issue since nowdays we cannot burn 90 and/or 99min CDs. But what does Sony have to say about this?

The following text comes directly from the Japanese homepage: "...You can use the 700MB (80 minutes) but not the 900MB (99 minutes) CDs. The 900MB, which is sold from the part manufacturer (99 minutes) doesn't comply to the standard "Orange Book", which decides the specification of CD-R/RW. The SONY CD-R/RW drives guarantees the compatibility of read/writing of the CD-R/RW disk which satisfies the specification of "Orange Book"...."

- AudioCD Tests:
We created several Audio CDs (including CD-Text). Nero 5.5.1.8 had some problems burning AudioCDs with CD-Text, and we kept getting the same error message shown on your left (with various media). Therefore for making AudioCDs with CD-Text we used Prassi PrimoCD Plus and all produced CDs were played without any problem in the same drive.

- CloneCD Tests:
The Sony CRX200E supports DAO-RAW and SAO writing modes as the latest CloneCD reports. The drive also supports "Simulation". Our test results confirmed that the drive works with DAO- RAW.

- SD2 Support:
For the SD2 test we used the "No One Lives For Ever" CD title. We used Sony CRX200E both as reader/writer. The produced backup didn't play using the same driver or any drive we tested.

- 8cm mini CDs:
The Sony CRX200E supports 8cm mini CDs only for reading. Sony states: "...Both 12cm and 8cm CDs can be read, but only the 12cm can be written. When a special shape other than the circle is being used (star type and heart etc), please do not use, because there is chance of breakdown...". We did performed several simulation burning tests with 8cm miniCDs which were completed without any problem. However we cannot guarantee that real burn will work.

- Buffer Underrun tests:
The Sony CR200E doesn't support any anti-coaster technology. Instead it features 8MB of Buffer in order to solve this problem. As you can understand, under a light use you won't have problems, but if you start overdoing it then coasters will come aboard :-)

Verdict of CDR Results:
The Sony CRX200E general performance with CDR media didn't show any serious problems. The drive seems to need around 10more secs than others to finish the same task (different software didn't do any good, as our tests showed) which is something noticeable. Also it doesn't support overburning, which means you can forget about 90 and 99min CDs. On the other hand, it supports DAO-RAW, but failed to backup SD2 protected CDs, like most of the modern drives. Finally, the drive doesn't support any kind of anti-coaster technology, which would make it more attractive to the users eyes...

DDCD-R Tests

As we mentioned earlier, the Sony CRX200E supports 12x writing with DDCD-R media. The retail package contained only one piece of DDCD-R media so our tests were limited to only one burn :(. When more DDCD-R media arrives we will update our review. I know what you are thinking... How much data can a DDCD-R media hold? Prassi PrimoCD Plus has the answer:

As you can see the DDCD-R media can hold up to 148:09minutes or 1.302.21MB! Let's try to burn that capacity now. For our burn test we used Nero 5.5.1.8, which however was not the best solution..Why? Cause Nero's bottom bar has limit up to 800MB, while Prassi PrimoCD Plus goes up to 1.4GB. But for our tests we needed a burning time, which Prassi PrimoCD doesn't offer. Anyway, here are the test results of our one and only burning attempt,and various simulation times:

For burning a full DDCD-R media at 12x you will need around 13minutes. The simulation time was much lower (12:26). If you are not in a hurry the drive supports 8x and 4x writing speeds with DDCD-R media.

With the DDCD format, the writing mode is ONLY TAO Mode2/XA! We tried to burn at DAO with Nero but we encountered the following error message:

Also the Prassi PrimoCD Plus (that supports the DDCD format officially) offers only TAO mode, which proves our claims:

What if you try to record an AudioCD at DDCD-R/W media? The following error message apears:

The Sony CRX200E refuses to write since AudioCD is not allowed in the "Purple Book" standard.