1. Installation/Package
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 1
- Introduction
Many manufacturers ship external drives mostly based at USB2.0 connection
interface, since it offers increased portability among with easy installation.
The EHW-4048U is a fast drive from AOpen that includes all the features that
competition offers (40X writing, 12X re-writing, 48X reading) in a very attractive
price. We compare it with other USB2.0 solutions in order to test whether the
AOpen drive can stand the tough competition.
- Specifications
The AOpen CRW4048U uses the Z-CLV recording technology and the CAV for reading.
The drive's features according to Nero Info Tool are the following:
The drive supports 48X maximum reading, 40X writing and 12X rewriting speeds.
JustLink and JustSpeed technologies are present to prevent any buffer underrun
problems and ensure the burning quality. The cache buffer is 2MB and reading
of CD-Text and CD+G is also supported. Nero Info Tool reports that C2 error
information is also retrieved by the drive but its accuracy will be examined
later. Lastly the Mt. Rainier is not present, and probably won't be adopted
with any future firmware upgrade.
As with previous AOpen drives, the default read speed is set to 40x. Pressing
the Eject button for 5 sec will change the maximum read speed to 48X. At that
time the operation LED will brink 2 times slowly. The drive will keep working
at 48X until you reboot your computer. Below is the Nero Info Tool screenshot
with the "Turbo" mode enabled. The drive's maximum speed is 48X:
- Recording/Rewriting speeds
The AOpen CRW4048U supports 40X with the use of Z-CLV recording technology.
Below it's the Nero CD Speed writing graph that illustrates the use of Zone-CLV:
The 40x writing speed range is divided in 5 zones: The drive starts writing
at 16X from the lead-in area till 4mins, shifts up to 20X at 5mins, accelerates
24X at 14mins, shifts up again to 32X at 32mins and lastly shifts to 40X at
56mins and stays there until the end. The average recording speed is 29.61X,
as Nero CD Speed reports. The drive's Zone-CLV implementation gives slower average
writing speed than some other 40X recorders.
- The package
We
got the European retail version that includes: the drive, 40X CD-R media, 12X
HS-RW media, a DC adapter and a USB2.0/1.1 cable. The attached software comes
from Ahead (Nero Burning Rom, InCD). A printed manual in two languages that
explains the basic installation and working facts is also bundled. The drive
has been around for a while and can be found in a low price for less than $100.
Looking at the front panel, we can see the "JustLink/JustSpeed",
"HS-RW", "AOpen" and "40X/12X/48X" logos printed
on the tray. The external case of the drive is colored to white, but the front
panel is light blue. The eject/next buttons, volume selector, and the headphone
jack are also present, as usual in the E-IDE models.
The operation LED blinks differently according to the current operation of
the drive. When you eject/close the disc tray or a disc is accessed, the LED
lights to green. When a disc is just loaded and there is not any other operation,
the light goes out. When audio playback is in progress, the indicator blinks.
Inserting an illegal disc or when some hardware trouble has occurred makes the
indicator blink quickly. Last, while writing a CD the led blinks to orange.
On the rear panel we will find the DC-in power connector, the Power ON/OFF
switch, the Audio out jack and the USB2.0/1.1 connection interface.
On the top of the drive we can see the model's codename "EHW-4048U"
among with the manufacturing date (July 2002):
After removing the screws on the button we can easily see the drive's internal
design (attention this voids your warranty!).
The drive is built on RICOH and ESMT chipsets. The board design is similar
to the CRW4850, making overclocking a possibility:
- Installation
The AOpen CRW4048U was connected through the bundled USB2.0 cable. The drive
was recognized as "AOPEN CD-RW CRW4048". We used Nero v5.5.9.17,
CloneCD v4.0.1.10 and Ahead InCD v3.51.61 for the recording tests. Within Nero,
under drive properties you can disable "JustSpeed" to obtain the maximum
burning speed (40X) with all the inserted CD-R media. The drive came with v1.03
firmware revision installed, but we used the newest v1.07 to complete the tests.
2. Data Reading Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 2
Data Tests
- Pressed CD results: (Click to see the CD Speed Graph
for 40X
and
48X)
At the 40X (default) reading speed, the EHW-4048U drive is not the faster
among the competitor drives since it gave only a 31.0X average reading speed.
However under the 'Turbo' mode it superpasses the competition giving an impressive
37.43X average reading speed.
The seek times of the AOpen EHW-4048U are very close to each other either
when the drive is set to 40X or to the 48X speed. The only difference can be
seen at the Full Stroke test. The faster drive comes from WAITEC with 87ms for
the random and 161ms for the full stroke.
- CDR Media: (Click to see the CD Speed Graph for 40X
and
48X)
With CD-R media, the EHW-4048U gets again the first place with an 37.64X average
reading speed ('Turbo' mode). The seek times are also very good but the FRISBY
II is faster...
- RW media: (Click to see the CD Speed Graph for 40X
and
48X)
Again the 'Turbo' mode makes the difference and the EHW-4048U comes first
with a 38.21X average reading speed. What is very impressive is that the drive
reaches 50.74X at the end of the disc.
3. CloneCD Reading Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 3
Error Correction Tests
In the following tests we examine the reading error correction capabilities
of AOpen EHW-4048U.
- EAC CD-R Test Disc
- Test Results (Max Reading)
Errors total
|
Num: 26320
|
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
|
Num: 8649
|
Avg:-83.6 dB(A)
|
Max: -13.0 dB(A)
|
Error Muting Samples
|
Num: 122
|
Avg:1.7 Samples
|
Max: 5 Samples
|
Skips Samples
|
Num: 0
|
Avg: 0 Samples
|
Max:0 Samples
|
Total Test Result
|
81.2 points (of 100.0 maximum)
|
Despite the fact that the drive did not corrected the data from neither the
black triangle defect nor the five scratched areas, the amount of total errors
is not very high and the average error level is only -83.6dB(A). The drive also
didn't skip any samples resulting to an overall score of 81.2 out of 100 (perfect),
which is quite good.
- ABEX TCD-721R
- Test Results (Max speed)
Errors total
|
Num: 75364191
|
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
|
Num: 391474
|
Avg:-28.5 dB(A)
|
Max: -1.6 dB(A)
|
Error Muting Samples
|
Num: 199092
|
Avg: 19.8 Samples
|
Max: 3584 Samples
|
Skips Samples
|
Num: 2
|
Avg: 2939.0 Samples
|
Max: 2939 Samples
|
Total Test Result
|
51.2 points (of 100.0 maximum)
|
The ABEX 721R test disc is very hard to read for almost all the drives. The
AOpen EHW-4048U showed a bad behavior since it started reporting errors before
the artificially defected area begin. The error spikes reached -1.6 dB(a) in
several areas and many skipped samples occurred. The performance is low (51.2
points).
- ABEX TCD-726
- Test Results (Max Speed)
Errors total
|
Num: 140018342
|
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
|
Num: 654784
|
Avg:-23.7 dB(A)
|
Max: -5.5 dB(A)
|
Error Muting Samples
|
Num: 288703
|
Avg: 4.0 Samples
|
Max: 3584
|
Skips Samples
|
Num: 1
|
Avg: 409 Samples
|
Max: 409 Samples
|
Total Test Result
|
57.4 points (of 100.0 maximum)
|
The AOpen drive didn't perform well, giving many errors especially by the end
of the process and got a 57.4 score.
- Conclusion
Test Disc
|
Reading Speed
|
AOpen EHW-4048U
|
EAC CD-R
|
Max
|
81.2
|
ABEX TCD-721R
|
Max
|
51.2
|
ABEX TCD-726
|
Max
|
57.4
|
Average Score
|
63.26
|
The AOpen EHW-4048U got a less than medium overall score of 63.26.
- C2 Information accuracy
- Test Results (MAX Speed)
The C2 accuracy of the AOpen EHW-4048U is very low according to the CDSpeed.
The drive got an 38.31% score. The quality is also very low due to high number
of sync errors. The EAC analyzer software reported the following C2 %. The different
results in C2% accuracy between the CDSpeed and EAC are due to different calculation
method, but both tests indicate that the drive cannot be used safely for DAE
when using C2 error information.
Test Disc
|
Reading Speed
|
AOpen CRW5224
|
Score |
EAC CD-R
|
Max
|
66.9
|
ABEX TCD-721R
|
Max
|
51.6
|
ABEX TCD-726
|
Max
|
50.0
|
Average Score
|
67.0
|
4. CD Error Correction Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 4
CloneCD Reading
Tests
- Procedure
We used CloneCD and 4 original CDs - Serious Sam 2 (SafeDisc 2), Desperados
(LaserLock 2), V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) and NBA Jam Extreme (PSX) - in order
to test the reading times of the drive. 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 reading/writing features
as CloneCD reports:
- PSX Pressed Media
For this test we used the PSX game 'NBA Jam Extreme' and we ripped the image
to the HD with CloneCD. The EHW-4048U needed 209secs to finish the task, much
slower than the performance of the PX-W4012U, which gave the best performance.
- SafeDisc v.2 Results
The AOpen EHW-4048U was very slow with the SafeDisc 2 discs. The main reason
is that the drive locked at the 4X reading speed after it skipped all the bad
sectors. Note that when we used another software, like Alcohol 120%, the same
task was performed at almost full speed giving of course a much lower reading
time. The faster drive in this test comes from YAMAHA.
- LaserLock v.2 Results
The AOpen EHW-4048U performed better with the original LaserLock
v.2 disc and got the first place, but was slower with the backup disc.
- SecuROM v.2 Results
All drives can read SubChannel data from Data/Audio tracks. The faster drive
comes from YAMAHA with 2217.85Kb/s. The AOpen EHW-4048U gets the third place
with 1685.13Kb/s.
5. DAE Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 5
DAE Tests
- DAE features
- Pressed AudioCD
The AOpen drive got the first place with 33.8X. At the default reading speed,
the DAE performance was good with 29.3X, while the CRW-F1DX gets the second
place with 30.7X
- Audio CD-R media
With CD-R media, the EHW-4048U had a low performance of 20.4X when it read
at the default speed, but under the 'Turbo' mode it got the first place with
33.6X average reading speed.
- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode
EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced
WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the built-in detection function:
Tested Drives
|
Average DAE Speed (X)
|
Pressed
|
CDR
|
AOpen EHW-4048U
|
21.4
|
21.5
|
- Advanced DAE test
All the drives got a "100" score. The DAE speed for
the AOpen drive under the 'Turbo' mode is 35.12X. The drive can read CD-Text
and Subchannel data as the Advanced DAE test reports.
- 40X reading speed
- 48X reading speed
- Bad CDR Media results
We used CD DAE software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) to the
hard disk.
|
Average Speed (X)
|
Errors
|
Errors Of Total Disc (%)
|
AOpen CRW5224
|
8.3
|
19809978
|
2.62
|
The condition of the disc can be considered as very bad, so the purpose of
this test is not to get the best results with zero read errors, but to estimate
the capabilities of the drive. The drive locked its reading speed at 8.3X and
ended the test with a low error rate (2.62%).
- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs
Tested drives
|
Ripping up to
|
AOpen CRW4048U
|
Can read up to 99 minutes
|
- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs
For the test procedure we used 2 protected AudioCDs, which we
tested in both recognition and ripping (with EAC BURST mode) processes:
* Pressed AudioCD with Sony Key2Audio (Celine Dion - New Day Has
Come)
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies
Island)
|
Key2Audio
|
CDS200
|
EAC
|
AOpen EHW-4048U
|
Recognizes the disc contents with TOC
manually function but cannot rip!
|
Rips entire disc but under burst mode several
tracks reported with errors
|
The AOpen EHW-4048U was able to rip CDS200 but not Key2Audio protected Audio
discs...
6. CDR Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 6
CDR Tests
The AOpen CRW4850 supports 8X, 12X, 16X (CLV), 20X, 24X, 32X and 40X (Z-CLV)
writing speeds. When JustSpeed is activated and the inserted media is not supported
for writing at the maximum speed, the drive lowers the maximum speed down to
24X. De-activating JustSpeed will enable writing at the maximum speed.
- Recording Tests
The amount of the data we burned was 704MB (80:01:26), for all the drives.
The AOpen EHW-4048U finished last with 211secs, while the WAITEC FRISBYII was
the fastest drive with 183secs. That is a 28secs difference. The YAMAHA CRW-F1DX
came second with 187secs and the PleXWriter PX-W4012U third with 198secs. Below
are the best recording time results we had:
- Overburning Tests
The AOpen drive can overburn up to 99 mins with the proper media. It is advised
to keep the recording speed down to 8X or 12X with such media.
- CD-Text Results
The drive can read/write CD-Text without any problems.
- CloneCD Writing Tests
The CloneCD software reports that the drive supports the DAO-RAW feature.
With the use of proper media, DAO-RAW writing can be performed at 40X. However,
in many cases we tried to write above 12X under DAO-RAW mode we always had a
coaster. For checking the drive's EFM correction status, we used 3 different
game titles with different SafeDisc 2 versions with the latest software patches
installed. We used the drive as reader/writer at maximum reading/recording speed.
Two discs were burned for each game (Amplify Weak Sectors On/Off). Two discs
were burned for each game. One disc burned with PadusDJ and the other with CloneCD
(Amplify Weak Sectors On). The results are posted in the table below:
Game Title
|
Tested Drive
|
SD2 Build
|
Settings
|
Amplify Weak Sectors On
|
Amplify Weak Sectors Off
|
Max Payne v1.05
|
Creative 52X
CD-ROM
|
v.2.50.020
|
No
|
TEAC 40X
CD-ROM
|
BTC DV316
DVD-ROM
|
Serious Sam - The Second Encounter v1.07
|
Creative 52X
CD-ROM
|
v.2.60.052
|
No
|
TEAC 40X
CD-ROM
|
BTC DV316
DVD-ROM
|
The Sims - Unleashed
|
Creative 52X
CD-ROM
|
v2.80.010
|
No
|
TEAC 40X
CD-ROM
|
BTC DV316
DVD-ROM
|
The AOpen EHW-4048U was disappointing when trying to backup protected discs.
The AWS (Amplify Weak Sectors) didn't show any improvement and the produced
discs did not play in any CD/DVD-ROM drives we tested...
7. Writing Quality Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048 CD-RW - Page 7
Writing Quality Tests
We used various media and burn them at the maximum writing speed of 40X,
with JustSpeed On/Off. The writing quality scores are in the following table:
Brand
|
JustSpeed Status
|
C1 Errors
|
Average Burning Time (mins)
|
Comments
|
Max
|
Average
|
Prodisc 80min 40X
|
On
|
36
|
1.20
|
3:31
|
|
Off
|
22
|
1.7
|
3:46
|
|
SKC 80min 16X
|
On
|
35
|
3.9
|
3:33
|
|
Off
|
18
|
1.8
|
3:34
|
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals
80min 48X
|
On
|
Write Error when JustSpeed enabled
|
|
Off
|
65
|
2.4
|
3:31
|
|
Ciba Plasmon 80min 48X
|
On
|
29
|
2.1
|
4:04
|
Disc Burned at 24X
|
Octron 80min 24X
|
On
|
64
|
7.8
|
3:35
|
|
Off
|
44
|
4.7
|
3:34
|
|
The writing quality of AOpen EHW-4048U was average. The drive doesn't seem
to like Mitsubishi Chemicals media when JustSpeed is enabled and the number
of C1 errors is high with the Octron (Ritek based) 24X media either with JustSpeed
enabled/disabled.
- C1/C2 Error rate from Mitsubishi Chemicals 80min 48X @ 40X (JustSpeed
Off)
In the following table you can see the manufacturing details of the media
we used for our tests.
Name
|
Real Manufacturer
|
ID Code
|
Capacity
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals 80min 48x
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals
|
97m34s23f
|
79:59.73
|
Prodisc 80min 40x
|
Prodisc
|
97m32s19f
|
79:59.74
|
Octron 80min 24x
|
Ritek
|
97m15s17f
|
79:59.73
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals 80min 40x
|
Mitsubishi Chemicals
|
97m34s23f
|
79:59.74
|
Ciba Plasmon 80min 48X
|
Plasmon
|
97m27s18f
|
79:59.74
|
8. RW/Packet Writing Tests
AOpen
EHW-4048 CD-RW - Page 8
RW Writing Tests
With HS-RW media, the drive supports the 4X, 10X and 12X CLV re-writing speeds.
For the burning tests, we burned a full 74mins disc with all the drives. The
results are showed in the following chart, for the maximum supported speed of
each drive.
The faster re-writer comes from YAMAHA with 226secs, due to its 24X US-RW
writing speed. The rest of the drives support the 12X maximum re-writing speed.
The faster drive comes from Plextor with 398secs. The AOpen drive gets the last
place with 408secs.
- Packet Writing Tests
We used Ahead InCD v3.51.61 for the packet writing tests. The formatted disc
had 534 MB 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 Windows
Explorer (we dragged and dropped) and we completed the test more than once,
to eliminate any possible time measurement faults and user errors.
The packet writing performance for the AOpen drive was good and shares the
second place with FRISBYII. However, the drive cannot compete the 24X re-writer
from YAMAHA. At the reading part, the AOpen drive gets the first place with
20.27X
9. Conclusion
AOpen
EHW-4048U CD-RW - Page 9
Conclusion
Positive (+)
|
Negative (-)
|
- Supports USB2.0 interface
- Supports "JustLink" and "JustSpeed" technologies
- Under 'Turbo' mode, the drive gets the first place in the data/DAE reading
tests
- Average writing quality
- Good packet writing performance
- Can rip CDS200 protected Audio discs
- Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data
- Supports CD-Text (reading/writing)
- Supports Overburning (up to 99mins)
- Retail package contains Nero, 40X CD-R, 12X US-RW media at low price
of <$100
|
- Drive is slower at all recording speed
due to its Z-CLV implementation
- Low CD Error correction capabilities
- Doesn't support the Mt. Rainier format
- Cannot backup protected discs!
- Low CloneCD reading performance
- Writing at DAO-RAW above 12X produces coasters
- C2 error information is present but with low accuracy
- Cannot rip Key2Audio protected Audio discs
- Noisy operation under the 'Turbo' mode
|
The EHW-4048U is not the fastest AOpen recorder but has some good features
for entry-level users. The USB2.0 interface is now a standard and the drive's
reading performance was good especially under the 'Turbo' mode. AOpen and many
other manufacturers support the 40X reading as the default reading speed to
avoid noise and possible explosions of the inserted discs. The activation of
'Turbo' mode is easy and the drive will work at that speed unless you reboot
the computer.
The drive is able to read/write up to 99min discs, can read/write CD-Text,
rips CDS200 protected Audio discs and produces discs with average writing quality.
On the negative side, the drive's writing times are higher compared with other
recorders, its error correction capabilities are low, it doesn't support the
Mt. Rainier format, fails to backup protected discs, cannot rip Key2Audio protected
discs and although the C2 error information is present, the % accuracy is low.
The EHW-4048U can be found under $100 making it a cheap recorder for the amateur
user. Of course the competitor USB2.0 drives are higher priced but also offer
a more higher performance...