1. Introduction
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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- Introduction
is
a well known peripheral manufacturer that also ships optical storage products.
Mitsumi's previous models have been well known, since CR-4804TE was the first
recorder that supported 99min CDs. However Mitsumi failed to follow the fast-recording
race. When 16x recorders came out, Mitsumi released an 8X writer and nowadays
when 20x and 24x recorders are a fact, Mitsumi releases a 16x writer. How succeful
Mitsumi's attempt will be in the 16x writing race and could it really compete
the existing best selling 16x recorders from Plextor, LiteOn and Teac?
- Features:
The
drive supports 16x writing (CLV) speed -max- among with "ExacLink"
as the main anti-buffer underrun technology. The exact writing speeds are 2x,
4x, 8x, 12x, 16x (CLV) and re-writing speeds 2x, 4x, 8x (CLV). Mitsumi released
two versions of the CR-4808TE. The first batch of drives had 8MB of buffer,
as our sample unit, but the massive retail drives will only have 2MB of Buffer.
Finally, it supports all available writing modes (TAO, DAO, Multisession and
Packet Writing).
- The new features:
ExacLink,
and not ExactLink, technology was developed by OAK Technologies and has
been used by Yamaha, LG and Mitsumi as an anti-buffer underrun solution. Yamaha's
2200X series was the first recorder that used OAK's "ExacLink" anti-buffer
underrun technology but with a different name "SafeBurn" , due to
increased 8MB of buffer and the monitor writing quality system. We can call
"ExacLink" a light version of "SafeBurn", which's destiny
is for medium level recorders...
Let's now see how OAK describes ExacLink : "....allows trouble free
creation of CD audio and other disc types under the most difficult conditions.
The ExacLink feature allows high speed, high quality writing of discs on the
first try, regardless of the computer performance and drive buffer size. Buffer
under-runs are no longer a problem with ExacLink since the drive automatically
responds to the condition and continues writing as soon as more data is available
without causing a buffer under-run error.
The ExacLink feature allows the drive to pause the write operation when
data flow to the drive is interrupted due to other computer activity. When the
drive receives enough data to continue, it begins writing again at the exact
point where the previous write was stopped and with the exact power level and
frequency used during the previous write. In this way, it appears to a reading
device as if the writing operation had never been interrupted. This feature
is valuable for writing CD audio discs since without the ExacLink feature, the
drive would not be allowed to stop and re-start writing at random times since
the resulting disc would be unreadable or contain errors..."
- The package:
The
package in which the drive arrived was the retail European version. This included:
The drive itself, a quick starting guide in 14 languages, 1 piece (24x certified)
of Ricoh 80min CD-R blank, 1 piece of Mitsumi 74min (4x only) RW Blank, data/audio
cables and mounting screws. The software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning
ROM v5.5.2.4 OEM and Ahead InCD v2.2.3 (for packet writing use). There is also
an electronic PDF manual included in the attached CD among with 3 games.
The front of the drive is what we can call "generic". The drive
doesn't have the Mitsumi logo in the front of it, while it has the "High-Speed
RW" logo which indicates its RW speed. You will also find only one led,
the eject button and the headphone input jack/volume selector:
At the back of the drive we will find the usual connectors (IDE interface,
power), the jumpers for assigning the drive as a Master/Slave, the SPDIF output
connector and the analog/digital output connectors:
- Installation:
The
Mitsumi CR-4808TE was installed as a Master in the secondary IDE BUS. The drive
worked in UDMA33 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "CR-48X8TE".
We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted.
The drive was a June 2001 model with firmware revision v1.1b installed. We
used the Nero (5.5.3.5), InCD (2.26), CloneCD (3.0.5.1) and Padus DJ (3.50.799)
for the recording tests. In case your Mitsumi CR-4808TE doesn't have 'ExacLink"
activated you can use this
utility to enabled it.
- Test Machine:
WinMe
OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
ATI AIW 128
Mitsumi CR-4808TE firmware v1.1B
PleXWriter PX-W1610A firmware v1.03
TEAC CD-516EB firmware v1.0A
LiteOn LTR-16101B firmware vTS0N
2. Data Tests
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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Data Tests
Test Method:
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x: This was used to compare the drive's
I/O performance against other various CDR-W drives (see charts). We used a pressed
CD containing PlexTools v1.08 for all tests.
- Nero CD Speed v0.83b was also used to check the drive's performance
with pressed CDs. For that test, we also used the PlexTools v1.08 pressed CD.
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE performed satisfactory in the SCSI Mechanic test. It
gave back 820kb/s in the "Average Random I/O" test, which is the second
best below Teac 516EB. However Mitsumi drive seems faster in the "Average
Sequential I/O" test, with 4450 instead of 4434kb/s of Teac. Both LiteOn
and Plextor drives are faster.
- Nero CD Speed v0.83 results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
Using Nero CD Speed 0.83b, we confirmed the SCSI Mechanic results. The Mitsumi
CR-4808TE is faster than Teac 516EB but slower than LiteOn and Plextor PX-W1610A.
The drive's average reading speed is around 30.44X.
In the "Seek Times" test, the Mitsumi CR-4808TE is slower than both
Teac and LiteOn drives. It's average random seek time is 111secs. Both Teac
and LiteOn are much faster with under 95ms seek time.
- PSX Pressed Media
In order to fulfil user requests, we have included a test with mixed mode CDs
(mainly PSX). For this test we used the PSX game 'NBA Jam Extreme' and we ripped
the image to HD with CloneCD. We measured the reading times and the Mitsumi
CR-4808TE is clearly not the best solution for someone who wants to have fast
PSX images ripped into his HD, since it's the slowest among the four tested
drives:
- CDR Media: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
With CDR media, the Mitsumi performs better than pressed CDs and has around
31.08X average reading speed.
3. RW reading tests
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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RW reading tests
- Nero CD Speed v0.83b Test: (Click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
For the RW tests, we used TDK's HS-RW media. The Mitsumi CR-4808TE has a 18.6X
average reading speed, which is the third best from the tested drives:
CloneCD Reading
Tests
- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.5.1) and 5 original CDs - Euro 2000 (SafeDisc 1),
No One Lives For Ever (SafeDisc 2), Rally Masters (LaserLock 1), Desperados
(LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) - in order to test the reading
performance of Mitsumi CR-4808TE. We also tested its reading performance with
backups of the original CDs, since the reading speed varies between the original
and the backup media. For comparison reasons we added the results of the already
tested PleXWriter PX-W1610A, Teac CD-W516EB and LiteOn LTR-16101B. The following
picture shows the drive's reading/writing capabilities:
- SafeDisc 1/2 Results:
The Mitsumi drive skips bad sectors very slow. It needs around 10mins to
make image of a SafeDisc 1 protected CD, when PleXWriter PX-W1610A needs only
2minutes. The LiteOn LTR-16101B is also faster and as for the Teac 516EB let's
just forget it...
With SafeDisc v2.0 protected CDs, the Mitsumi CR-4808TE continues
performing in the same way as with SafeDisc v1.0 CDs.
LaserLock 1/2 Results:
In the LaserLock protected CDs test, the Mitsumi CR-4808TE needs 38mins with
the original and only 9mins with the back CD. The competition also has problems
reading the original CD fast, but with the backup PleXWriter PX-W1610A holds
the first place.
With LaserLock 2 LaserLock 2 protected CDs, Mitsumi is the faster drive as
far as it concerns the original CD. However it didn't come up with the same
behaviour with the backup CD, as in the case of LaserLock v1.0 protected CDs...
SecuROM Results:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE can read SubChannel data from Data/Audio tracks and
very fast! The rest drives simply cannot follow...
4. DAE Tests
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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DAE Tests
Test Method:
We used CD DAE 99 v0.21 beta and EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 software in order to
check the DAE performance of the Mitsumi CR-4808TE with various AudioCDs (both
pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications,
but the CPU usage was only taken from CD DAE 99, since EAC occupies the system
a lot more. As a last note, we used the "BURST" reading mode of EAC.
We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The
Average DAE reported speed along with the CPU Usage is displayed in the test
graphs.
- DAE features:
As the program reported, the drive doesn't "Caching" data, supports
"Accurate Stream" and doesn't support "C2 Error info".
- Pressed AudioCD results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The Mitsumi supports up to 24x DAE with both pressed and CDR media. The
drive uses full CAV as the main reading technology. However compared to the
other competitors, Mitsumi CR-4808TE is much slower:
The drive has an average of 17.0x, staying far away from the top performer
PX-W1610A. The LiteOn LTR-16101B comes second and Teac 516EB third.
- CDR AudioCD Results: (click here
to see the CD Speed 99 graph)
The drive performs exactly the same as with the pressed media. The average
DAE is again around 17.2X:
- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode:
After many viewer's requests we have added the EAC's secure extract ripping
mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each
drive we used the build-in detection function:
|
Tested Drives
|
Average DAE Speed (X)
|
|
Pressed
|
CDR
|
|
LiteOn LTR-16101B
|
10.08
|
7.5
|
|
Teac 516EB
|
1.7
|
1.7
|
|
PleXWriter PX-W1610A
|
8.4
|
8.9
|
|
Mitsumi CR-4808TE
|
7.3
|
7.4
|
- Advanced DAE Quality:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE performed excellently at the Nero CD Speed Advanced
DAE quality test. The drive produced 0 data/sync errors and got a perfect score
(100). The drive can read "CD-Text" enabled AudioCDs and can read
"SubChannel Data" (from audio tracks) as the test results indicate:
- Bad CDR Media results:
Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches drive's mechanism
to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched disc. The disc
was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order cause problems to
most of the tested drives. We used CD DAE 99 software to rip the whole disc
(756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:
|
|
Average Speed (X)
|
Errors
|
Errors Of Total Disc (%)
|
|
LiteOn LTR-16101B
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26
|
155252
|
0,02
|
|
Teac 516EB
|
26,8
|
0
|
0
|
|
PleXWriter PX-W1610A
|
29.3
|
5069
|
almost 0
|
|
Mitsumi CR-4808TE
|
17.4
|
95
|
almost 0
|
As the tests proved, the Mitsumi drive has very good DAE quality. The drive
reported only 95 errors, when PleXWriter PX-W1610A has 5069 and LiteOn 155252.
Of course it cannot compete the Teac 516EB, since it's the absolute king of
this test.
- Ripping 90 and 99min CDs:
As we can see from the above graphs, the Mitsumi CR-4808TE doesn't have any
problems on ripping a 90min Audio CDR media. However it failed to recognize
and rip 99min CDs, despite the fact that it can write them. The drive seems
reading up to 89minutes:
5. CDR Tests
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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CDR Tests
The
Mitsumi CR-4808TE2 supports up to 16x (CLV) writing speed. We used Nero CD Speed
build-in writing test in order to test the drive's writing performance. The
drive's average writing speed is 15.98X as Nero CD Speed showed.
The
drive also has a build-in system for recognizing lower quality media and automatically
reducing the writing speed. That means you are not allowed to write un-certified
media at 16x! Also note that the drive doesn't support simulation when "ExacLink"
is activated according to the Nero 5.5.3.5:
- Procedure:
We
tested the Mitsumi CR-4808TE with Nero v5.5.3.5, CloneCD v3.0.5.1 and Padus
DJ v3.50.799 software.
For the CDR tests we used: Verbatim 74min (16x) & 80min (16x), Taiyo Yuden
74 & 80min (24x), Mitsui 74min (24 & 16x) and Ricoh/Verbatim/TDK 74min
HS-RW media. We didn't notice any problems with non-certified media, since the
drive lowers the recording speed from 16x down to 12x or even 8x.
- CD-R Tests:
We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly higher than 74mins
(74:03:65). We burned the same job with all 4 CDR-W drives:
The Mitsumi needs 412secs to finish the task. The test result is 5-6 higher
than what both LiteOn and PleXWriter can do. Perhaps the not exact 16x CLV (15.98X)
makes the difference.
The drive's performance at 16x seems very good and stays very close to the
competition. The drive needed 415secs to finish the task, 3 more than PleXWriter
PX-W1610A and 3 less than LiteOn LTR-16101B. Teac 516EB needs 15secs more to
finish and it's almost as slow as an 16x P-CAV recorder.
- 80min CDs:
Following the same procudure as in the previous test, we created a DataCD
(80:01:47) and used the same media for all burns:
Again in the 80min CD task, the Mitsumi CR-4808TE needs 6more seconds than
PleXWriter and 3 more than LiteOn drive. The Teac 516EB needs 14 more seconds
to finish and it's the slower drive among the four competitors.
With 80min CDs at the 16x writing speed, Mitsumi CR-4808TE has the second
best writing time, behind PleXWriter PX-W1610A with 340secs. The PleXWriter
comes first with only 334secs and LiteOn third with 341secs.
- Overburning Tests:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE supports overburning up to 99minutes!
- CD-Text Results:
We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. The Mitsumi can write/read
CD-Text enabled CDs.
- CloneCD Tests:
The
CloneCD v3.0.5.1 reports that the drive supports the DAO-RAW writing feature.
CloneCD also recognizes that the drive also supports anti-buffer underrun protection
(even with the name BurnProof/JustLink). From our tests results DAO-RAW recording
works without problems for the SafeDisc 1, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2 protections.
- SD2 Support:
For the SD2 tests we used the "No One Lives For Ever" and "Emperor
Battle for Dune" CD titles. We used the Mitsumi CR-4808TE both as reader/writer.
The produced backup didn't play using the same drive or any drive we tested.
Therefore the Mitsumi CR-4808TE cannot produce SD2 working backups.
- 8cm mini CDs:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE does support 8cm CDs.
- Buffer Underrun tests:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE supports "ExactLink" anti-buffer underrun
technology, which was developed by OAK Technologies. The drive worked without
any problems when buffer underrun caused from our side. When you press ctrl+alt+del
the drive will start blinking and when you un-freeze the PC will continue writing
:-)
6. RW Writing Tests
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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RW Writing Tests
We used Nero 5.5.3.5 for writing CDs in maximum RW writing speed for all the
tested drives. The Mitsumi CR-4808TE supports partial (8X) the HS-RW format
and as you have might expected, has the worse writing time:
The Mitsumi -since it re-writes at 8X- has the longest writing time. The drive
needs 601secs to finish the task. The erase time is the second best behind LiteOn
LTR-16101B while the CPU usage is low, due to the lower recording speed.
- Packet Writing
Tests:
We used Ahead InCD v2.26 for all Packet Writing tests. We used TDK
HS-RW media and we formatted it. The formatted disc revealed 530mbs of free
space. We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC
as the writers) to the formatted RW media-using explorer (we dragged and dropped)
and we completed the test twice to eliminate possible time measurement faults
and user errors:
The Mitsumi CR-4808TE has the lower reading/writing performance from all four
tested drives. The answer is obvious. Since the drive re-writes only at 8X it
cannot compete the other drives. The reading performance is also slow. The LiteOn
LTR-16101B is the leader in the writing performance but stays behind in the
reading part. The PleXWriter PX-W1610 is the leader in the reading but stays
third in the writing part.
7. Conclusion
Mitsumi
CR-4808TE IDE CDR-W - Page
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Conclusion
|
Positive (+):
|
Negative (-):
|
|
- Supports 16x writing (CLV) speed
- "ExacLink" anti-coaster technology
- Has build-in media quality detection system
- Good data reading performance with both CDR/pressed media
- Very good DAE quality!!
- Supports HS-RW standard (even partial)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data (very fast!)
- Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
- Supports Overburning (up to 99mins)
- Supports Ultra-DMA 33 connection interface
- Retail package includes Nero 5.5
- Low price (95$<=)
|
- Supports only 8X re-write speed!
- Higher seek times than competition
- Low HS-RW reading performance
- Low DAE ripping performance with both CDR/pressed media
- Low packet writing/reading performance
- Failed to backup SD2 protected CDs
- Low PSX ripping speed
- Bad CloneCD reading performance
- Failed to recognize 99min CDs
- Retail package doesn't include HS-RW media!!
|
Mitsumi's Cd-recording proposal at 16x writing speed has missed
to include something important...The full 10x re-writing speed. Almost all other
competitor drives include this feature. The drive's other features (16x CLV,
ExacLink anti-coaster technology, build-in media quality detection system) make
it an interesting case for users who wish to enter the recording area with a
cheap and good performer. The drive didn't have problems with various CDR media
while the area in which some users might be dissatisfied is the low reading
performance with DAE/protected CDs and of course the fact that no working SD2
backups can be made. Last but not least, Mitsumi certainly could add a HS-RW
media in the retail package. Why the possible user has to pay for it?
The drive can be found from 95$-110$ in the market (in 'bare' form), which
makes it an attractive solution. LiteOn 16x is around 91$, Teac 516EB 115$ and
PleXWriter PX-W1610A 162$.