1. About the test
When we tested the first 20x DVD burners last year we thought that the specific speed was way too high for reliable DVD recording. However, the 20x DVD drives appeared on the market and soon after them, some ODD makers pushed the speeds even higher with the release of the first 22x drives. Samsung, HLDS, LiteOn and Sony Optiarc were among them, with the latter to prepare for the release of an even faster burner that will offer recording at a blazing speed of 24x!
We have been always concerned about the quality of the recordings at the maximum available speed. The 22x speed speed is very high and controlling the burning procedure in order to maintain acceptable writing quality requires not only sufficient firmware engineering and drive design, but also discs that react well in the burning process itself and store data accurately. This means that in these discs should perform perfectly in beyond their their limits. Of course, ODD makers are aware of the strict requirements for 22x burning so they support this high speed using specific media only.
In this brief article we provide information about the way three of the latest 22x High Speed ReWriters perform when they burn compatible DVD recordable discs at 22x. These drives are the LG GH22NS30, the Samsung SH-S223F and the LiteOn iHAS422.
All the drives have been already presented through CDRInfo.com in the previous months, but for today's test we have updated their firmware to the latest available.
Drive |
Chipset |
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Panasonic MN103SD9GRAB |
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MediaTek MT1859LL |
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MediaTek MT1869L |
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For this test, we chose the following DVD recordable discs since they have generally shown high quality and reliability in the past and are also compatible for high speed burning:
- DVD+R
- Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) 16x
- Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h) 16x
- DVD-R
- Taiyo Yuden TYG03 16x
- Verbatim MCC 03RG20 16x
The discs were recorded with data using the the Nero CD DVDSpeed "Create disc" function. Their readability was checked with a typical transfer rate test.
For the writing quality tests, we used the IQB Omni Analyzer from Quantized ( http://www.quantized.com).
Let's move on to the tests.
2. Taiyo Yuden TYG03 DVD-R
Disc: Taiyo Yuden 's TYG03 (DVD-R)
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Burner: HL-DT-ST GH22NS30 v1.02
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Writing - 22X (16.28X average) in 04:18
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
The correctable PISum8 errors here exceed the acceptable limits (280) and unfortunately they were also reported as POF. These were reported in the outer part of the data area, where the burning speed was higher than 20x. Jitter was also out of specs after the 49mm radius of the disc.
Burner: LITEON iHAS422 v4L11
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Writing - 22X (16.10X Average) in 04:36
Although the LiteOn drive initiated the burning for 22x, it slowed down to16x before the end of the recordable area.
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
Despite the relatively slow burning speed by the end of the data area (16x), POF were reported there possibly due to the sudden drop in the burning speed.
Burner:TSST SH-S223F vSB03
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Writing - 22X (16.41X Average) in 04:22
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
This time we got a relatively good burn, with just the PISUm8 to slightly exceed the limits and zero uncorrectable errors.
3. Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h) DVD+R
Disc: Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h) (DVD+R)
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Burner: HL-DT-ST GH22NS30 v1.02
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Writing - 22X (14.27X Average) in 04:26
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
The correctable errors were slightly off the limits here, in the areas were the burning speed was high. No uncorrectable errors were reported.
Burner: LITEON iHAS422 v4L11
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Writing - 22X (16.10X Average) in 04:36
Although the LiteOn drive initiated the burning for 22x, it slowed down to16x before the end of the recordable area.
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
Despite the relatively slow burning speed by the end of the data area (16x), POF was very high here.
Burner:TSST SH-S223F vSB03
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Writing - 20X (14.94X Average) in 4:42
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
Although the Samsung drive did not burn the specific disc at 22x, we included the results in order to show that sometimes it's better to limit the recording speed to get better quality. The Samsung drive behaved pretty well here and almost all the measured signals were within limits.
4. Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) DVD+R
Disc: Taiyo Yuden 's YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) (DVD+R)
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Burner: HL-DT-ST GH22NS30 v1.02
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Writing - 22X (16.32X Average) in 04:26
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
The POF errors as well PIFs are way over limit, making this an unacceptable burn.
Burner: LITEON iHAS422 v4L11
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Writing - 22X (16.41X Average) in 04:28
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals
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A nice burn for the LiteOn drive with the Taiyo Yuden disc.
Burner:TSST SH-S223F vSB03
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Writing - 22X (14.32X Average) in 04:32
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
An excellent burn here with the Samsung drive.
5. Verbatim MCC 03RG20 DVD-R
Disc: Verbatim's MCC 03RG20 (DVD-R) 16x certified
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Burner: HL-DT-ST GH22NS30 v1.02
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Writing - 22X (14.26X Average) in 04:21
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
Unacceptable burn here with most of the signals beyond limits.
Burner: LITEON iHAS422 v4L11
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Writing - 16X (11.83X Average) in 05:43
For comparison, we included the specific results although the LiteOn drive burnt the disc at 16x.
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals
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A very nice burn for the LiteOn drive with the MCC03RG20 disc at 16x.
Burner:TSST SH-S223F vSB03
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Writing - 18X (13.49X Average) in 05:09
Reading - 16X
Quality Scanning Results
Click on thumbnail for larger view of all signals |
An excellent burn here with the Samsung drive with the MCC03RG20 DVD-R disc at 18x.
6. Summary
In the following table, we have summed up the results of our tests. Green cells indicate a good burn, where the red ones indicate a bad one (PISum8 >280 or POF). The orange cells indicate discs that PISum8 error rate was slightly higher than the limits, and no POF were reported.
We remind you that the discs in the table below were recorded at the maximum supported speed.
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HL-DT-ST GH22NS30 v1.02 |
LITEON iHAS422 v4L11 |
TSST SH-S223F vSB03 |
Taiyo Yuden YUDEN000 T03 000 (00h) DVD+R |
Bad burn @22x |
Good burn @22x |
Excellent Burn @22x |
Verbatim MCC 004 000 (00h) DVD+R |
Average Burn @22x |
Bad burn @16x |
Excellent burn @20x |
Taiyo Yuden TYG03 DVD-R |
Bad Burn @22x |
Bad Burn @16x |
Average Burn @22x |
Verbatim MCC 03RG20 DVD-R |
Bad burn @22x |
Good burn @16x | Excellent burn @18x |
It is obvious that the Taiyo Yuden T03 DVD+R disc should be your choice if you decide to use the 22x burning speed. The disc was reliably recorded using the LiteOn and the Samsung drives and it seems to offer the wider compatibility among the burners of the test for 22x.
Surprisingly, the Yuden TYG03 DVD-R disc did not perform so well. The burn with the TSST drive was average with the PISum8 errors to slightly exceed the limits, while the rest of the drives did not manage to offer high quality recordings, even at speeds lower than the 22x.
The MCC004 DVD+R and MCC03RG20 DVD-R discs are also reliable at least in slower speeds (16x, 18x, 20x).
The LG GH22NS30 burner will burn your discs at 22x but the result is questionable. LiteOn's solution seems to be optimized to use the Yuden T03 DVD+R for 22x only. Finally, the Samsung S223F was the best performer here and will wisely decide to use the optimal burning speed according to the inserted disc.
We should also note here that all the discs in this test were fully readable. The red color indicates that the specific disc could be more vulnerable since the error rates reported were already high right after the burning procedure. This could mean that the specific discs could become unreadable earlier than the rest after some years, provided that the discs are treated and stored under the same conditions.
In the following weeks we will have the chance to see more results with discs recorded at 24x.