TEAC CD-W540E CD-RW
9. Writing Quality Tests
Writing Quality Tests
We used many media and burned them at various recording speeds with TEAC CD-W540E. We used Nero 5.5.7.9 as the CDR software. The produced CDs were measured by DigitalDrives and the results are illustrated in the following tables:
- 20x writing speed
Brand
|
C1
|
Average Burning Time (mins)
|
|
Max
|
Average
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 74min (24x)
|
8
|
0.5
|
4:16
|
Rrodisc 80min (32x)
|
30
|
3.0
|
4:31
|
The C1 error rate is very low with TaiyoYuden media at the 20x writing speed.
- 24x writing speed
Brand
|
C1
|
Average Burning Time (mins)
|
|
Max
|
Average
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 74min (24x)
|
11
|
1.2
|
3:42
|
Maxell 74min (12x)
|
23
|
3.5
|
3:47
|
TDK D-View (12x)
|
30
|
2.5
|
3:42
|
Taiyo Yuden 80min (32x)
|
17
|
2.5
|
3:57
|
As we can see, the writing time differs from media to media. The drive worked very well even with 12x media from Maxell and TDK.
- 32x writing speed
Brand
|
C1
|
C2
|
Average Burning Time (mins)
|
||
Max
|
Average
|
Max
|
Average
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 74min (16x)
|
14
|
1.6
|
3:42
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 74min (24x)
|
17
|
2.4
|
3:15
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 74min (32x)
|
24
|
2.5
|
3:15
|
||
Mitsubishi Chemicals 74min (24x)
|
22
|
3.1
|
3:14
|
||
Verbatim 74min (16x)
|
19
|
2.2
|
3:40
|
||
Creation 74min (16x)
|
22
|
1.8
|
3:15
|
||
Mitsui 74min (16x)
|
96
|
1.7
|
171
|
0.1
|
4:20
|
Mitsui 74min (24x)
|
550
|
10.7
|
3:14
|
||
Creation 80min (16x)
|
36
|
9.7
|
3:44
|
||
Verbatim 80min (16x)
|
28
|
3.7
|
3:26
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 80min (32x)
|
30
|
3.1
|
3:26
|
The highest C1 error rate comes from Mitsui media. The problem is that Mitsui CDs, have less recording capacity than other media. We burn data with 74:03:65mins long, so with Mitsui media, each drive must overburn. As it seems, the TEAC drive doesn't handle them too well, and as a result, in the last minutes the C1 error rate increases and we also saw a C2 error rate. With the rest media, writing quality is very good.
At the 32x writing speed, we can see several interesting results. The recording times for 74min CDs are divided in 3 categories. The first category is at 3:15mins, the second category at 3:40mins and the last at 4:20mins. So what happened? The drive at the first category shifted up writing speed from 20x-32x! At the second category, the drive followed the 20x-24x-32x-24x writing strategy and at the third, wrote the media at 20x (CLV).
The following three pictures show the performance with different media types.
The first picture shows the drive's best performance at the 32x writing speed.
The second picture shows that a specific type of media needed 3:42mins (32x). This happened when we used Taiyo Yuden 74min 16x certified media.
The last picture comes from Mitsui Chemicals SG Ultra (16x certified). The drive automatically lowered the recording speed down to 20x.
- 40x writing speed
Brand
|
C1
|
Average Burning Time (mins)
|
|
Max
|
Average
|
||
Taiyo Yuden 74min (32x)
|
21
|
2.3
|
3:15
|
Hitachi-Maxell 74min (40x)
|
21
|
2.3
|
3:06
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals 74min (32x)
|
17
|
1.4
|
3:04
|
Sanyo Digital 74min (16x)
|
22
|
0.9
|
3:14
|
Ricoh 80min (32x)
|
34
|
4.9
|
3:26
|
Ricoh 80min (40x)
|
45
|
3.3
|
3:27
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals 80min (24x)
|
57
|
6.3
|
3:25
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals 80min (32x)
|
27
|
1.5
|
3:13
|
Hitachi-Maxell 80min (40x)
|
23
|
2.3
|
3:13
|
Prodisc 80min (32x)
|
35
|
2.2
|
3:15
|
Mitsui 80min (40x)
|
42
|
3.7
|
3:16
|
Taiyo Yuden 80min (32x)
|
29
|
3.4
|
3:27
|
At the 40x writing speed, again the recording results are separated in two categories. At the 74min CDs, we have the best results with Mitsubishi Chemicals (3:04) and the worst with Taiyo Yuden 32x media.
At the 80min CDs, the best results come again from Mitsubishi Chemicals/Hitachi Maxell and Mitsui 40x certified media, and the worst from the rest of the media. The best results came at 20x-40x. The C1 error rate is low and especially with the Mitsubishi Chemicals media.