X-bit labs

MSI DR16-B2 DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner: Repeated Success or New Heights? (page 16)

Category: Storage

by Vasily Melnik

[ 09/27/2005 | 09:43 PM ]

The competing DVD format will be examined next.

DVD-R Discs Burn Quality at 4x speed

MSI DR16-B2
 

BenQ DW1620 
 

Like in many other tests in this review, the MSI DR16-B2 produces a high quality disc here. The only thing you can find fault with is the increase of the PI Error rate closer to the outermost tracks. It is not as high as to seriously affect the readability of the resulting disc, though. That said, the results of the MSI drive pale before those of the BenQ DW1620 which has an average PI Error rate of less than 8. The BenQ disc has no error spikes on the outermost tracks and the total of PI Error blocks is almost two times smaller than on the disc recorded by the MSI DR16-B2. The BenQ drive also has fewer PI Failure blocks, too.

The Beta graph has two small fractures as the drive adjusted the laser power during the burn session. The overall quality of the disc is high. Jitter remains at about the same level throughout the entire disc. Like on the discs of the DVD+R format, Jitter is only big for small-length pits and lands. The Peak Shift value is big again. Let’s see if the DVD-R disc recorded at 8x speed is as good as the one recorded at 4x.

DVD-R Discs Burn Quality at 8x speed

MSI DR16-B2
  

BenQ DW1620 
 

The manner the errors are distributed on the disc in is similar between the DVD-R discs recorded by the two optical drives. There is a high level of PI Errors at the beginning of each disc, but the PI Error rate is then going down towards the outermost tracks. The disc from the MSI DR16-B2 is somewhat better than the one recorded by the BenQ, but the difference between them is small. So, both devices produce discs of average quality at this speed. By the way, this is one more case when the new firmware version doesn’t bring any positive improvements into the behavior of the BenQ DW1620. The problems the drive had with the older firmware remain with the new version, too.

You can clearly see three points on the Beta graph at which the drive changed the laser power. As a result, the graph is somewhat uneven, but the deviations are still within the acceptable limits. The Jitter rate remains roughly on the same level throughout the entire disc, with minor fluctuations.

According to the results of the TA Test, the Jitter value is bigger than at 4x burn speed, but only as concerns the lands. The Peak Shift parameter is the same as at 4x, i.e. it is rather big.

So, the results of the two optical disc drives in my DVD-R tests are the following: both models produce average quality discs at 8x burn speed and high quality discs at 4x speed. Some defects in the firmware of both devices are evident. The BenQ developers already tried to correct the problems but without much success so far. MSI is to make its own try in the next firmware update for their drive.

Next I will check the quality of the rewritable DVD discs recorded by the two devices.