Conclusion

After finishing the review, we have come to the conclusion that the drive's performance as a reader was good. The Optorite DD1203 had acceptable reading speed for a 40X drive and very good seek times in all modes. As for CD error correction, the drive performed poorly and is something we would like to see improved.

In the DVD tests, the drive showed good reading speed and low seek times. With scratched DVD media, the drive's ability to correct and read through the defective areas was very good, where in our tests, no errors were reported. There was only one case, that of the ABEX TDV-541 test disc, where the speed dropped in order to read the defective area.

Games protected with SafeDisc up to version v2.8 are not a problem for the Optorite drive. With newer versions, the drive could not make working backups. The ripping speed was not high, especially in the case of Safedisk protection scheme where the results were rather slow.

The DD1203 drive managed to play and rip both Key2Audio and CDS200 protection schemes. However the drive may not be ripping the discs 100% accurately since EAC reported timing problems. The 90min test disc was played successfully while the 99min disc reports errors in the last tracks. The drive also cannot backup the CDS200 protected Aiko Katsukino - The Love Letter title.

CD recording quality is good with half the media we tried, even after we flashed the drive with the latest firmware (120E). The rest of the media reported high jitter levels. This needs to be addressed and fixed!

As for the writing quality with the DVD media, it was acceptable. There were many cases with increased PI/PO levels. This is also something that we would like to see improved. However, no matter what the recording quality was, all the media we burned was playable on our standalone DVD players from Pioneer and Philips. There was only one case where the media did not playable.

- The Good

* 12X DVD+R recording
* Good DVD error correction
* Supports protected Audio discs (CDS200, Key2Audio)

- The Bad

* CD/DVD recording quality with several media (can be fixed with firmware upgrade)
* Cannot backup the CDS200 protected Aiko Katsukino - The Love Letter
* Doesn't support Booktype Bitsetting for DVD+R/+RW
* DVD±R needs improvement as drive produces high PI error rates and PI failures in many cases
* CD error correction is average
* Doesn't report C2 errors

- Like to be fixed

* DVD±R writing performance and quality