X-bit labs

MSI DR16-B2 DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner: Repeated Success or New Heights? (page 7)

Category: Storage

by Vasily Melnik

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

16x Speed

It’s not surprising anymore that the two drives burn discs in an absolutely identical manner at the lowest tested speed, too. Let’s check the quality of the recorded discs.

The total number of C1 errors is smaller on the disc recorded by the MSI, but this advantage is negated by the big spikes of C2 errors on the outermost tracks. Yes, C2 errors are present on the disc recorded by the BenQ, too, but they are not that numerous and are probably due to minor defects of the medium. If we suppose that the MSI DR16-B2 also supports laser power calibration at the beginning of the disc, a natural question arises: why did this function help its opponent to decrease the number of C1 errors in this area, while the MSI drive, on the contrary, produced C2 errors there?

And like at 24x burn speed, the disc recorded by the MSI drive couldn’t pass the Beta/Jitter test successfully. This time, however, there is an explanation – the numerous C2 errors didn’t allow our reference drive to read the disc to the end.

CD-R Performance Summary

Summing up the CD-R section of this review I should note the following. The MSI DR16-B2 at first seems to be a little better than the BenQ at writing blanks of that format, but a closer examination shows that it has serious problems with burning the outermost tracks of the disc at 24x and 16x speeds. These problems result in read errors. Thus, 40x burn speed is the only speed at which the MSI drive produces acceptable quality CD-R discs. The manufacturer should think about improving the burn strategies and the OPC function.