Teac DV-516E IDE DVD-ROM - Page 08

Conclusion

Teac DV-516E performed adequately in the most of the tests and the results were confirmed by the drive's specifications. The supported 16X DVD-ROM reading speed for the single layer discs and 12X for the dual layer DVD-ROMs turned out to be adequate and faster than the competition in the reading tests. Reading of DVD-R/RW and DVD+RW media is also not excluded but in a lower speed. However, the DVD+R format is not supported. As for the DVD ripping, the drive gave a good performance, slightly slower than the other DVD-ROM drives.

The drive did not have any difficulties to read the ABEX DVD-ROM test discs, and the corresponding error correction tests gave no read errors. In some cases the drive lowered the reading speed in order to maintain reading accuracy, with successful, however, results.

CloneCD users would better choose another reader for their tasks with protected discs, since the drive is extremely slow. The 48X reading speed for CD-R is high enough and the seek times are very low for a drive in this category. As for the CDDA format, the drive is fast and the DAE speed reaches the 30X. The HS-RW reading speed could also be set to 48X and not at approximately 34X, as our test results showed.

Staying in the reading part for the CD format, we could say that the error correction capabilities of the drive are average and the DAE quality should be also improved. As for the audio protections, the drive will disappoint users since it cannot handle the "Key2Audio" and "Cactus Data Shield 200" modes. The drive can retrieve C2 error information but the reliability is low.

The Teac DV-516E is generally a reliable DVD-ROM drive but also a fast one. The CD/DVD-ROM combination could be very handy for the candidate users among with the 2 year-warranty offered by Teac. The retail kit is priced at 59 Euro