Write Performance, Part III: Media Compatibility
In this part of the test, THG measured how quickly it was possible to write to CDR and CDRW media of various specifications. The result of the write process was checked for errors with the aid of the CD-Speed surface scan function. THG tested five different CD-R and CD-RW media. The size of the collection of data was 717758 kiloBytes (for 700 MB CDR), or 660152 kiloBytes (for 650 MB CDRW). We used DAO or TAO as the method of writing. Both "Burnproof" and "Optimum write speed" were selected for all the writing processes. We have summarized the results in the following tables.
| Tested Media | Size | Certified Speed | Write Speed | Strat-egy | Manu. | Good Sectors | Damag-ed Sectors | Unread-able Sectors | Write Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octron | 700 MB | 24X | 16X | Short | Ritek Co. | 100% | 0% | 0% | 5:37 |
| Verbatim | 700 MB | 24X | 16X | Long | Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp. | 100% | 0% | 0% | 5:30 |
| Tevion | 700 MB | 32X | 16X | Short | Ricoh Company Ltd. | 100% | 0% | 0% | 5:35 |
| TDK | 700 MB | 40X | 16X | Short | Ritek Co. | 100% | 0% | 0% | 5:33 |
| Traxdata | 700 MB | 48X | 16X | Long | Disc ID not allowed | 100% | 0% | 0% | 5:43 |
| Traxdata | 700 MB | 40x | 16X | Short | Ritek Co. | 100% | 0% | 0% | 5:36 |
At 16x speed, there were no obvious differences to be observed.
| Tested MediaCDR | Size | Certified Speed | Write Speed | Strat-egy | Manu. | Good Sectors | Damag-ed Sectors | Unread-able Sectors | Write Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octron | 700 MB | 24X | 44X | Short | Ritek Co. | 100,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 3:58 |
| Verbatim | 700 MB | 24X | 44X | Long | Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp. | 100,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 3:57 |
| Tevion | 700 MB | 32X | 44X | Short | Ricoh Company Ltd. | 0,00% | 0,00% | 100,00% | Track Following Error |
| TDK | 700 MB | 40X | 44X | Short | Ritek Co. | Row 3 - Cell 6 | Row 3 - Cell 7 | Row 3 - Cell 8 | 3:20 |
| Traxdata | 700 MB | 48X | 44X | Long | Disc ID not allowed | 95,93% | 4,07% | 0,00% | 5:43 |
| Row 5 - Cell 0 | Row 5 - Cell 1 | 48X | 44X | Long | Disc ID not allowed | 92,28% | 7,72% | 0,00% | 03:12 (OWC-Off) |
| Traxdata | 700 MB | 40x | 44x | Short | Ritek Co. | 100,00% | 0,00% | 0,00% | 3:21 |
At 44x speed, the wheat gets separated from the chaff. The Tevion medium stands out because of its poor performance. In this case, every attempt to write produces a "Track following error" message after a few seconds, and the process is terminated. Even the new 48x medium from Traxdata fails to impress. With "Optimum Write Speed Control" selected, the burner reduces the write speed to 16x. So, we deactivated "OWSC." Now the burner does burn faster, but the results of the writing process are (logically) even worse. The burner does fine with the 40x medium from Traxdata. A good tip turns out to be the 24x medium from Octron, from the special offer display in the supermarket.
