Final Words
What makes a DVDR drive perfect? Well, for one, it has to be able to write to just about any media that we throw at it and then read it back without a hitch. A perfect write should have no PI/PO(DVDR) or C1/C2(CDR) errors on it when read back with PlexTools.So, what makes a DVDR drive acceptable, a great deal, better than the rest? The ideal, best drive out of a group should be able to write to high quality media without any problems, and should be able to read back a disc to which it wrote in the first place. It should have no problems reading a disc unless it reports a successful write incorrectly. This is what we saw in our benchmarks today. There were a few drives like the Toshiba SD-R5372 and LG GSA-4163B that could write a disc "successfully", but not read it back with its own laser.
Half of these drives failed to even see Ritek brand RW media, which cannot be caused by a bad batch of media. Sony's DRU-720A wrote to them perfectly, but even its disc had a good number of PI errors. We were really dissapointed in the NEC ND-3540A's performance when compared to drives like the BenQ DW1640, but hopefully their performance will improve as their BIOS matures.
The only drive we saw that could write to the majority of discs and quickly at that was BenQ's DW1640. It had average performance on most of the benchmarks. but always had a successful read to go with the successful write. The only disc that it could not write to was the MKM A03 8x DVD+RW.
Besides that single issue, the DW1640 has features to aid in successful writes, as well as bitsetting features to allow greater compatibility of the media to which it writes. The bitsetting utility can be downloaded from BenQ's website. Over these 6 DVDR units, we recommend the BenQ DW1640 for its performance and reliability in writing to various types of media. Expect this drive to start showing up on retail store shelves very soon.
Special thanks to BenQ for supplying us with the DW1640.
Special thanks to Sony for supplying us with the DRU-720A.
Special thanks to Marken Communications for supplying us with Verbatim brand test media.
Special thanks to Antarra Communications for supplying us with Ridata brand test media.
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IceWindius - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
Wheres the damn Plextor 716A in the review???? Thats like blasphemy!PuravSanghani - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
For those of you wondering why we did not include the Plextor PX-716 drive, we simply could not get a unit in time. We do hope to include a Plextor unit in the next roundup.Purav
DrZoidberg - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
Just imagine if these drives tried to burn generic media. The PI errors would be in the millions and half the drives cannot read the discs then.Anyway burning 8x dvd is like 8 mins now so its fairly quick, just watch tv drink a beer and your done. Prefer a few more mins and half the number of PI errors anyway
USAF1 - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
I agree with the lynch mob above that the drives should be tested with a wider variety of media before crowning a winner. Also, the thing that I found most disturbing about the review is that it contradicts the recommendation made in the July 2005 storage guide from two days ago. I suppose the 1640 isn't yet available in the US and thus wasn't an option in the storage guide or maybe Anandtech hadn't yet received the 1640 to test. However, if I'd listened to the quote below from the storage guide and went ahead and bought an NEC 3540, I'd certainly be upset to see it perform poorly relative to a competing drive two days later. I guess that's the price you pay to be on the cutting edge..."It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the best DVD burner these days; NEC's 3540A"
USAF1 - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
timmiser - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
I would like to have seen tests of how well a burned DVD would work in a DVD player? I regularly produce DVD's and to mass burning processes but reliability in set top DVD player is my highest priority.-Tim
RMSe17 - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
How come Plextor 716 wasn't part of the reviewed drives? Isn't it supposed to be one of the best?LoneWolf15 - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
#20, I hope your reply was a joke, seeing as that's what Princo media generally is --a joke. It's cheap crap, and a major rule of DVD burning is that if you use crap media, you'll get crap results.PuravSanghani - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
We do miss Plextor drives and will definitely include the new 16x unit in our next roundup. We have been using PlexTools for a while now and the only drive that will work with the software is a Plextor drive. Maybe its time we update our Plextor unit though :).As far as media testing goes, we chose MCC/MKM and Ritek media because of their track record with us. However, nothing is set in stone and we would be happy to hear any suggestions for future reviews.
Thanks,
Purav
Dennis Travis - Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - link
I loved the review. Only thing I would like to eventually see is the latest Plextor 16X drive tested so I can compair it to the other new drives.