1. Introduction
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW - Page 1
Introduction
Waitec
enters the DVD recording for PC market with a new DVD+RW data drive. DVD recorders
are certainly be the fastest growing consumer electronics products ever launched,
and the competition is already established among the different DVD recording
formats. Waitec adopts the +RW format in order to offer consumers abilities
for data back-up or digitally video recording material onto a re-writable optical
DVD disc. The "Waitec X-FILE" currently supports only CD/DVD+RW writing
and comes to compete other manufacturers such as Aopen, Ricoh and Philips.
The drive
Waitec
X-FILE supports 12x (CD) and 2.5x DVD+RW writing, 10x re-writing, 32x (CD) and
8x (DVD-ROM/+RW) reading. The drive also supports "SafeLink" in order
to avoid buffer underruns for CD format . Its writing speeds are: 2x, 4x, 8x,
12x (CLV) writing and 2x, 4x and 10x (CLV) re-writing.
The writing speed for DVD+RW format is 2.4X CLV (X factor is now 1385Kb/s)
which is equivalent to the 20x CD-RW drives. The drive doesn't support CAV writing
technology. The supported cache buffer is 2MB, and supports RPCII region control
system, allowing a four times region change. Waitec X-FILE does not support
writing to DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW and of course to DVD-RAM media.
The package
The
supplied package included the Waitec X-FILE drive, Nero Vision Express CD/DVD
video editing/authoring/burning software, Power DVD player software, one piece
of Waitec 4.7GB DVD+RW media, 1 Waitec CD-R 80min 24x media, an installation
guide, screw sets and audio cables.
On the front panel of the drive there are the "Waitec X-FILE ",
"High-Speed RW", and the "DVD+RW" logos. The drive has a
reading/writing operating led, headphone jack, volume control and the eject
button.
On the rear panel of the drive there are the usual connectors (IDE interface,
power), the jumpers for setting the drive as Master/Slave/Cable Select, the
SPDIF output connector and 3 jumpers which are not used (factory reserved):
Installation
Waitec
X-FILE was installed as "master" in the secondary IDE BUS. The drive
worked in UDMA-2 mode and after boot up, it identified itself as the "DVDRW6001".
The drive was a March 2002 model with an initial firmware revision v1.51.
The drive is equipped with 2MB cache buffer.
PC setup
WinMe/XP
OSs
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
Waitec X-FILE firmware v1.51
Ricoh MP5120 firmware v1.30
Philips DVDRW208 firmware v1.35
AOpen RW5120 firmware v1.37
2. CD / DVD Data Tests
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW - Page 2
CD / DVD Data Tests
SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results
Waitec X-FILE showed a good CD reading performance in the Sequential and
the Same Sector I/O tests, and is close to the competition in the Random I/O
test.
Pressed CD results: (click here
to see the CD Speed graph)
The Nero CD Speed 0.84 showed that all the drives in the test have approximately
the same average CD reading speed, and Waitec X-FILE keeps the good performance
with an 24.75X result.
In the same test, we measure the seek times of Waitec X-FILE. In the random
seek test, the drive was fast and the 106 ms result is compatible to the other
drives. The problem seems to be in the Full seek test, where the drive finished
in 275 ms, slower than the Aopen, Ricoh and Philips drives.
CDR Media: (Click
to see the CD Speed graph)
With CDR media, Waitec X-FILE is still fast and met the competition requirements
established by the other drives.
HS-RW media: (Click
to see the CD Speed graph)
For the RW tests, we used Ricoh's 4-10x HS-RW media. Again, all the drives
behaved in a similar way and finished the reading test at 25X average speed.
DVD Speed v0.52: (DVD Speed graphs for DVD-ROM,
DVD-R,
DVD-RW
,DVD+R,
DVD+RW)
Waitec X-FILE gave a high DVD-ROM average reading speed and leads in this
test. The drive started and ended the reading test in a higher speed than the
other drives.
The seek times of Waitec X-FILE are low and the drive gets the second position
in the random / 1/3 seek test. The Full seek test result was also surprisingly
high.
When ripping DVD movies, Waitec X-FILE has an average ripping performance
of 7997Kb/s, slightly faster than the second best performance from Philips DVDRW1208.
We checked the drive's performance when reading DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and
DVD+RW media. For this test, we compare Waitec X-FILE with Ricoh MP5125A. Waitec
X-FILE is a good DVD-R / +RW / +R reader, and is faster than the Ricoh drive.
The Waitec drive was slower in the DVD-RW reading test.
Movie Tests
We tested Waitec X-FILE with many DVDs and our overall impression was very
good. When using various DVD movies we didn't encountered any playback problems.
3. CloneCD Reading Tests
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW
- Page 3
CloneCD Reading
Tests
Procedure
We used CloneCD (v4.0.0.1) and 5 original CDs - No One Lives For Ever / Serious
Sam (SafeDisc 2), Desperados (LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2)
- in order to test the reading time of Waitec X-FILE. We also tested the reading
performance with backups of the original CDs, since the reading speed varies
between original and backup media. The following picture shows the drive's reading/writing
capabilities:
PSX Pressed Media
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 for Waitec X-FILE, which is
low (87secs).
SafeDisc v.2 Results
Waitec X-FILE seems to have problems with SafeDisc v.2 protected
CDs. The drive was reading slowly and Aopen RW5120 / Philips DVDRW1208 are faster.
LaserLock v.2 Results
In the LaserLock v.2 test, Waitec X-FILE was slow in the original
CD test but in the backup test was faster and gave the second best performance,
following Ricoh MP5120A.
SecuROM Results
Good performance for Waitec X-FILE in the SecuROM v.2 test. The drive shares
the first performance position with the Ricoh and Philips drives in the original
title test, and kept the same performance in the backup CD test.
4. DAE Tests
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW- Page 4
DAE Tests
Test Method
We used CD DAE 99 v0.3 beta and EAC v0.9 beta 2 software in order to check
the DAE performance of the drive with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR).
The posted DAE results are the average of both applications. We made a full
CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE
reported speeds are displayed in the test graphs.
DAE features
As
the EAC v0.9 prebeta 11 reported, Waitec X-FILE supports "Caching"
of data, "Accurate Stream" and "C2 error info".
Pressed AudioCD results
Waitec X-FILE does not support a very fast DAE speed, but is faster than
the other drives in this category and finished the test at 23.5X average ripping
speed.
CDR AudioCD Results
Waitec kept the same performance as in the previous test, and ripped the
audio CD-R at 23.4X.
EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode
After many requests from numerous visitors 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
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
0.5 (sync errors)
|
0.4 (sync errors)
|
|
Philips DVDRW208
|
1.1
|
6.5 (sync errors)
|
|
Ricoh MP5120A
|
12.3
|
11.6
|
|
Aopen DVDRW5160
|
1.7
|
1.6
|
During the test. Waitec X-FILE reduced the ripping speed dramatically in order
to maintain a quality ripping result. Although the very low average ripping
speed, the drive gave many sync errors and audible noise points were present
during the playback of the produced wav.* files.
Advanced DAE Quality
The advanced DAE test results were not bad for Waitec X-FILE. The drive got
a "100" score and the reading speed was high. The drive also can read
Subchannel Data and CD-Text:
Bad CDR Media results
This is a real life DAE test with a scratched disc. The disc was dirty, and
with some light scratches, enough to 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 (%)
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
8
|
52957773
|
7
|
|
Philips DVDRW208
|
8.6
|
50368737
|
6.66
|
|
Ricoh MP5120A
|
8.7
|
31033674
|
4.10
|
|
Aopen DVD5160
|
8.7
|
82424857
|
10.89
|
Waitec X-FILE ripped the disc at 8x average speed, slower than the other
drives and produced a specific amount of data errors (7% of the total data).
CD-Check Audio Test Disc
Digital Recordings
CD-CHECK is a compact disc which allows evaluation of the CD player's "error
correction headroom" (i.e. player's ability to correct data errors) and
"tracking" (i.e. player's ability to stay on track despite of disc
surface or other errors). CD-CHECK uses special digital signals in combination
with disc error patterns arranged over five tracks. The five tracks contain
a sequence of progressively difficult tests referred to as Check Level-1 to
Check Level-5. The higher the Check Level passed the more reliable the sound
reproduction of the CD player. A smooth, continuous tone of 20-seconds indicates
the player passes that Check Level. Any clicks, interruptions, skipping or looping
indicates failure of a Check Level.
|
CD-CHECK error sizes
|
|
Check Level-1
|
standard manufacturing errors
|
|
Check Level-2
|
0.375 mm
|
|
Check Level-3
|
0.750 mm
|
|
Check Level-4
|
1.125 mm
|
|
Check Level-5
|
1.500 mm
|
We tested the drive with the following procedure: We used WinXP Windows Media
Player to playback the disc, and using headphones we listened all tracks. A
continuous tone of 20 seconds plays in each track. If the drive playbacks without
an audible pop or click occurring during playback of the tone it passes the
check level. The tests are repeated five times. A result of 5/5 indicates that
no pops or clicks were heard in 5 out of 5 playbacks of a particular track.
A result of 0/5 means pops or clicks occurred during all 5 playbacks of a particular
track. Digital Recordings provides the following interpretation of results:
· Level-1 Pass: Player meets minimum requirements
· Level-2 Pass: Average error correction
· Level-3 Pass: Good error correction
· Level-4 Pass: Very good error correction
· Level-5 Pass: Excellent error correction
Test Results
|
Error Level
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
5/5
|
0/5
|
0/5
|
0/5
|
0/5
|
The drive did not manage to completely fulfill the 2nd level error correction
requirements, and failed to successfully playback (no audible pops or clicks)
the other level tones.
Ripping 90 and 99min CDs
The drive managed to read 99 min CD.
Reading Protected AudioCDs
For the test procedure we used 3 protected AudioCDs, which we
tested in both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE) processes:
* Pressed AudioCD with Sony's KeyAudio
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies
Island)
* CDR AudioCD protected with Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) - made with Clone Audio
Protector v1.1 (adding 30 secs lead-out)
|
|
KeyAudio
|
CDS200
|
CDS100
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
Cannot recognize the disc contents
|
Can rip the contents of the disc but
the tracks have too many audible errors
|
Reads all tracks as Data tracks - ripping
impossible
|
As the test results showed, Waitec X-FILE cannot handle any audio
protections. In the CDS200 test, the drive managed to rip the disc contents
but the produced files had too many errors.
5. CDR Tests
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW- Page 5
CDR Tests
Waitec X-FILE supports up to 12x (CLV) writing. The drive includes 'SafeLink'
as the main Buffer Underrun Technology. We did our tests with Nero v5.5.8.0,
CloneCD v4.0.0.1 and Padus DJ v3.50.799 software. For the CDR tests we used:
Taiyo Yuden 74 & 80min (24x), Imation 80min (32x) and Verbatim/TDK 74min
HS-RW media.
74 min CDs
We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly higher than 74mins
(74:03:65). We burned the same job with all three drives, using the same media:
Waitec X-FILE gave a fast writing time with 404 secs. The Philips DVDRW208
needs one second less than Ricoh MP5120A (406secs) to finish the task. All the
drives have the same performance in this test. The following picture is from
Nero when we used Taiyo Yuden 74min (24x) media:
80min CDs
Following the same procedure as in the previous test, we created a DataCD
with data higher than 80min (80:01:47). the Waitec X-FILE gets the first place
with 433secs, Aopen follows with approximately the same time, and Ricoh is 6
seconds slower :
The following picture is from Nero when we used Imation 80min
(32x) media:
Writing Quality Tests
We used Imation and Taiyo Yuden media and wrote a full 74min CD. All CDs were
burned with Nero 5.5.8.0, and they were data CDs with a 74:03:65 length size.
The produced CDs were measured from DigitalDrives:
|
Brand
|
C1
|
C2
|
Average Burning Time (secs)
|
|
Max
|
Average
|
Max
|
Average
|
|
Taiyo Yuden 74min 16x - written at
12x
|
39
|
0.4
|
0
|
288
|
|
Imation 80min 32x - written at 12x
|
61
|
3.4
|
433
|
The writing quality of Waitec X-FILE is generally high, especially with Taiyo
Yuden media. The following graph comes from the Imation 80min 32x media.
Other features
|
Overburning Writing
|
Up to 99mins
|
|
CD-Text (Read/Write)
|
Yes/Yes
|
|
8cm CDs
|
Yes
|
CloneCD Writing Tests
CloneCD
v4.0.0.1 reports that the drive supports the DAO-RAW feature. We performed our
usual tests and we confirmed that the drive supports the DAO-RAW writing mode
at the following CD protections: SafeDisc 1, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2 CD
protections.
SD2 Support
For the SD2 test we used the "Emperor: Battle for Dune", "Max
Payne", "Serious Sam - The Second Encounter" and "Medal
of Honour Allied Assault" game titles. We used the drive both as reader/writer
at the maximum reading/recording speed. The produced backups did not work in
all the drives we tested.
6. HS-RW Writing Tests
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW- Page 6
HS-RW Writing Tests
We used Nero 5.5.8.0 for writing CDs in maximum RW writing speed for all
the tested drives in 10x HS-RW media. Waitec X-FILE support the HS-RW writing
standard:
Waitec had the same burning time performance with the rest of the drives
in the test. The erase time of the drive is low and just one second slower than
Philips DVDRW1208.
Packet Writing Tests
We used Ahead InCD v3.28. We used Verbatim's Ricoh HS RW media and we formatted
it. The formatting of the media takes around 10min. After formatting, we tested
all four drives for their packet writing performance. The formatted disc had
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) we completed the test twice to eliminate possible time
measurement faults and user errors:
Waitec X-FILE performed well under the packet writing mode. However, the
writing/reading performance was slightly slower than the competition.
7. DVD Tests
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW - Page 7
DVD Tests
Writing Performance
We used Nero 5.5.8.0 and wrote the same amount of data for all Waitec X-FILE/Ricoh
DVD+RW MP5120A/Philips DVDRW208 and Aopen RW5120A drives. In the Nero's 5.5.8.0
writing tab, only the 2.4x writing speed is displayed. The results are listed
in the following table:
|
DVD Recording Tests
|
|
Drives
|
Writing Speed
|
Average Writing Time (min)
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
2.4x
|
23:14
|
|
Ricoh MP5120A
|
2.4x
|
23:02
|
|
Philips DVDRW208
|
2.4x
|
22:31
|
|
Aopen DVDRW5120A
|
2.4x
|
22:30
|
Waitec X-FILE finished the writing process faster than Philips DVDRW208 and
Aopen DVDRW5120A. Ricoh MP5120A is 12 seconds faster with 23:02 minutes.
Erase Time Performance
|
Average Erase Time (mins)
|
|
Drives
|
Quick
|
Full
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
0:35
|
11:45
|
|
Ricoh MP5120A
|
1:02
|
11:31
|
|
Philips DVDRW208
|
0:58
|
11:25
|
|
Aopen DVDRW5120A
|
0:59
|
11:27
|
Waitec X-FILE has very low erase times - less than one minute for quick erase
and 12mins for full erase. The drive is the faster in the quick erase test,
and close to the competition in the full erase task.
Packet Writing Performance
We used the same file/methodology as we are using for our CD packet-writing
test. Waitec X-FILE is faster than the other drives in the writing test and
slower in the reading part.
|
Packet Writing/Reading Tests
|
|
Drives
|
Average Writing Speed
|
Average Reading Speed
|
|
Waitec X-FILE
|
2.47x
|
2.47x
|
|
Ricoh MP5120A DVD+RW (2.4x)
|
2.4x
|
2.51x
|
|
Philips DVDRW208 DVD+RW (2.4x)
|
2.4x
|
2.50x
|
|
Aopen DVDRW5120A
|
2.4x
|
2.50x
|
8. Conclusion
Waitec
X-FILE DVD+RW - Page 8
Conclusion
|
Positive
(+)
|
Negative
(-)
|
|
- CD/DVD combo recorder
- Supports 8x DVD playback
- Supports reading of all DVD formats
- Supports "SafeLink" anti-coaster technology
- GoodCD/DVD/RW reading/writing packet writing performance
- Good access times
- Good CD writing quality
- Supports HS-RW standard (10x re-write)
- Supports DAO-RAW
- Supports reading of SubChannel data
- Supports CD-Text (writing)
- Supports Overburning ( up to 99mins)
- 2 years warranty
|
- Low DAE quality with dusted/scratched
CDR media
- Poor error correction
- DAE speed could be higher
- Low CloneCD reading performance
- Does not support SD2
- Cannot handle all AudioCD protections
|
The Waitec X-FILE showed a good overall behavior during our tests. The drive
is a fast CD-R/RW reader, writes CDs at 12x and offers fast seek times. Users
will be able to overburn up to 99min in the appropriate media, read/write CD-text
in audio CDs and will not be disappointed from the quality of the CDs they will
write. In the main weaknesses of the drive we could include the limited to 25x
DAE speed and the low quality of the audio extraction. Waitec X-FILE cannot
also produce working SafeDisc v.2 backups.
The X-FILE also supports reading of all the DVD formats, and the reading speed
is higher than competition in the most cases. However, we experienced some delays
in the DVD media recognition when they were inserted, but this was not occurred
constantly and was possibly a problem with the specific drive we had in our
labs. In the DVD+RW burning part, the drives gave a low recording time and also
low seek times in the DVD reading part. Most of the users could also expect
a DVD+R writing feature from Waitec, but this is expected in future models.
Waitec X-FILE managed to reach its specifications and if what is offered is close
to your daily needs, we believe that it would be worth to take a look in your
local Computer stores. The drive is available from May and the price is Euro 493
+ VAT, which could be lower. Waitec also offers a 2-year warranty for the drive:)