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1. Retail Package - Installation

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 1

After the success of its DRW 1004IM dual recorder, BTC enters the 8x DVD+R battle with the release of the DRW1008IM. The promising model is capable of recording on all availiable media formats in the market, except DVD-RAM.

The drive can burn DVD+R/RW media at 8x and 4x respectively. It also supports 4x for DVD-R and 2x for DVD-RW. The maximum writing speed for CD-R media is 40x, while for CD-RW it is 24x. The manufacturers specifications are given below.

- Specifications

Model name	DRW 1008IM
Interface	E-IDE/ATAPI , MMC compliant
Disc data capacity	(CD) 74min/650MB, 80min/700MB (DVD) 4.7GB
Supported media for writing	DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, CD-R, CD-RW
Writing formats	(DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW) DVD-ROM, DVD-Video(CD) CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-Extra, CD-I, Mixed-Mode CD, Video CD, Photo CD, CD-TEXT, Bootable CD, CD-R, CD-RW, Multi-Session
Writing methods	(DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW) Random Access Write, Sequential Write(CD-R/RW) Track at Once, Disc at Once, Session at Once, Multi-Session, Packet Writing
Writing speed	(DVD+R) 1x, 2x, 4x,6x,8x (DVD-R) 1x, 2x, 4x (DVD+RW) 1x, 2x , 4x (DVD-RW) 1x, 2x (CD-R) 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x (CD-RW) 4x, 10x, 16x, 24x
Reading speed	DVD+R-R 8x DVD-RW/+RW 6x DVD-ROM 12x CD-ROM/-R 40x CD-RW 32x
Data transfer rate	Max. 33MB/sec
Access time	(DVD) 160 ms (12X) (CD) 130 ms (40X)
Data buffer	2 MB
Disc loading	Tray loader, dust sealed
Weight	1 Kg
Mounting method	Horizontal
Dimensions (WxHxD)	148.6 x 41.8 x 193.3 mm

The drive uses a 2MB buffer memory. The RAW DAO 96 writing (CD) is supported while Mount Rainier is not.

The BTC DRW1008IM uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. For our tests, we set the region code to 2 (Europe).

- The drive

BTC's retail package includes two CD-ROMs, containing Ahead's Nero complete package for recording, authoring and editing, plus PowerDVD with Power Producer and MediaShow also included.

The warranty, an audio cable and mounting screws complete the retail package contents.

The drive's front panel is colored light grey and has more than the usual markings and logos displayed. On the tray door on the left we have the "dual" logo signifying that this is a dual recorder, and on the right the 8x marking. Below, from left to right are the internet address for a driver update site where you can keep your drive's firmware up to date, the activity/power LED, the DVD RW, RW DVD-ReWritable, and Compact Disc ReWritable logos, and finally the eject button. Above and a little to the left of the eject button is the emergency eject hole. The activity LED lights up green when busy and blinking orange when recording is in progress.

On the rear panel (schematic included above for clarity) there are the analogue and digital audio outputs (SPDIF), the IDE connector and the power input.

Removing the screws and opening the drive's cover voids the drive's warranty. For reference reasons, we post the following pictures.

Mediatek's MT1818E chip used on this recorder, is from the same series as the one used on theLiteOn LDW-811S and Pacific Digital U-30201 drives.

- Installation

The BTC DRW1008IM was connected to our test PC and was identified as "DVDRW IDE1008" under WinXP. All tests were done with firmware revision v0055 (available soon).

The following pages include the test results of the BTC drive in comparison to two other dual DVD burners, the LiteOn LDW-811S and the Optorite DD0401.

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2. Data CD Reading Tests

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 2

Data CD Reading Tests

- Pressed CD results (Click for CDSpeed results)

Looking at the graph above for pressed CD media, it can be seen that the BTC DRW1008IM was the fastest among the three drives. The final speed reached, 43.84x is quite a high reading speed, and confirms the manufacturers specifications for 40x reading.

On the seek times test, the drive recorded good times but not the best, being slightly slower that the Optorite DD0401.

- CD-R Media results (Click for CDSpeed results)

We next made a copy of the pressed CD used in the previous test, in order to check the drive's behaviour with CD-R media. Once again the BTC drive performed very well, being the fastest.

Here too, while the drive's seek times were quite good, it was again a shade slower than the Optorite drive.

- ReWritable Media (Click for CDSpeed results)

For this reading test with ReWritable media, we used 24x High Speed rewritable media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.

The reading speed with CD-RW media was quite good. The reported speeds place the drive in the middle of our typical comparison, with Optorite proving to be the fastest here.

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3. CD Error Correction Tests

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Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we check the drive's behaviour when reading scratched / defective audio discs. The test discs used were the ABEX series from ALMEDIO.

- ABEX TCD-721R

Errors total	Num: 844191
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 47605	Avg: -74.0 dB(A)	Max: -36.0 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 2697	Avg: 1.0 Samples	Max: 11 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result	77 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

The drive had very good behaviour with the ABEX TCD-721R test disc, giving a very low count on the number of errors at an average of -74 dB. Notice that the maximum value was at -36 dB. The muting samples were 2697 while none were skipped. The score of 77 points is a good one.

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total	Num: 37
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 4	Avg: -73.6 dB(A)	Max: -58.4 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result	94.3 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is much easier for drives in general to read, and as such, the BTC DRW1008IM drive corrected almost all errors, only 4 were reported. The score in this test is 94.3 points out of 100, which is very good.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction / Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively more difficult tests. These tracks are referred to as Check Level-1 through Check Level-5.

The tracks are reproduced (played) through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone coming out from the speakers is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested drive.

Error Level	1	2	3	4	5
BTC DRW1008IM	5/5	5/5	5/5	5/5	0/5

The drive succesfully passed the first 4 check levels for this test. The 5th tracks produced a constant noise in the background. Notice that the 5th check level, which has a scratch a size of 1.500 mm, is difficult to read with most drives. The fact that the drive managed to read perfectly up to the fourth level is quite good, and we can comfortably say that the drive is capable of reading defective discs.

- Summary

Test Disc	Reading Speed	Score
ABEX TCD-721R	Max	77
ABEX TCD-726		94.3
Average Score		85.7

Combining the two scores from the ABEX tests gives an average total score of 85.7 points out of 100. This is a very good overall score.

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4. DVD Reading Tests

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 4

DVD reading tests

- Single Layer DVD-ROM (Click for CDSpeed results)

In the DVD single layer read test, BTC and LiteOn produced very similar speeds, while Optorite was slowest by only a small difference. The reported 12.4x speed for the BTC DRW1008IM confirms the manufacturers specifications for 12x reading.

The manufacturer's specifications give the drive as having a seek time of 160msec for DVD media. NeroCDSpeed reports that the drive needed 113ms for random seek, putting it well within specs, while it needed 204ms for full seek time, and 134 ms for 1/3 seek. The seek times nonetheless, are a little on the slow side, while best seek times came from LiteOn drive's with high advance.

- Dual Layer PTP DVD-ROM (Click for CDSpeed results)

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting the read process from the inner tracks on the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, and progressing outwards towards to the outer tracks for each layer.

According to the manufacturer, the BTC DRW1008IM has a maximum reading speed of 8x CAV with dual layer DVD-ROM discs. The drive managed to reach a maximum reading speed of 8.28x and was only marginally slower than the other two.

Here too, the drives seek times are a little slow. LiteOn had the bets seek time values.

- Dual Layer OTP DVD-ROM

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks inwards towards the inner tracks of the disc.

 

Both layers were read flawlessly without reporting any error. The drive finished the test with a peak speed of over 8x.

- DVD Ripping Tests

We measured the DVD-Video ripping speed of the BTC DRW1008IM using the latest version of DVD Decrypter. The DVD Video title is the "Matrix" pressed DVD-Video.

The BTC drive ripped the movie to hard disk at 7174 KB/s average. The performance is good but a deal slower than the LiteOn drive which posted the highest transfer rate.

- DVD Recordable / Rewritable reading Tests

The chart below shows the Nero CDSpeed average reading speed results with the following media:

• 8x DVD+R
• 4x DVD+RW

• 4x DVD-R
• 2x DVD-RW

The BTC DRW1008IM returned satisfactory average speeds, especially with +/-R media. But once again the Optorite drive proved to be the most capable reader this time with DVD media.

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5. DVD Error Correction Tests

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DVD Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we examined the DVD reading capabilities of the BTC DRW1008IM drive with scratched / defective DVD media. For the tests we used CDVD Benchmark and Nero CDSpeed. The reference test media come from ALMEDIO.

- Single Layer media

ABEX TDR-821

This is a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM with a 4.7GB capacity, and its surface has an artificial scratch of dimensions varying from 0.4 to 3.0 mm. The following transfer rate picture comes from the CDVD Benchmark v1.21 transfer rate test.

The drive read the 821 test disc without reporting any read errors. From the graph above it can be seen that the drive did not have any problems reading over the defective areas, regardless of the defect size. The maximum speed reached at the end of the test was 12x.

ABEX TDR-825

This is also a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM of 4.7GB capacity. The data structure of the disc is exactly the same as that of the TDR-821, with the difference that there are no scratches on the surface and instead defective areas ranging in dimensions from 0.5 to 1.1 mm. There are also fingerprints with height between 65 and 75 micrometers.

As in the previous test, no read errors occured with this disc. The drive again managed to reach maximum reading speed slightly in excess of 12x CAV.

- Dual Layer media

ABEX TDR-841

This is an 8.5GB dual layer, single sided DVD-ROM disc with artificial scratches of dimensions ranging from 0.4 to 3.0mm, on both layers.

Here too, the drive performed very well, this time with dual layered media. The maximum speed reached was 8x, which shows the drive's reading ability with such media.

ABEX TDR-845

This disc is a single sided, dual layer DVD-ROM disc with capacity of 8.5GB. The only difference between the TDR-845 and the TDR-841 is that the first includes both defective areas and fingerprints. The dimensions of the defective areas range from 0.5 to 1.1 mm and the fingerprints have height sized from 65 to 75 microns (micrometres).

This disc was also not a problem for the drive, although there are a few more speed variations present than on previous tests (random yellow dots) as the drive marched over the different defects present on this disc.

ABEX TDV-541

The TDV-541 is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc, with a capacity of 8.5GB.The disc is based on the TDV-540 series which is designed for inspection and adjustment of DVD-VIDEO players. The disc checks the layer switch operation from layer 0 to layer 1 and also includes test pictures and test signals for DVD sound files. The current TDV-541 also checks the error correcting capabilities of the drive and includes scratches sized from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.

 

The drive read the TDV-541 test disc under CAV mode without reporting any readable errors. The graph above reveals the good error correcting ability of the BTC drive. The switch from the first layer to the second did not produce any problems at all.

ABEX TDV-545

The TDV-545 disc is based on the TDV-540 series. It is a single sided, dual layer Video/S-2 disc with a capacity of 8.5GB. The TDV-545 includes artificial black dots on the disc's surface, sized from 0.4 to 1.0 mm. It also has 65 - 75 micrometre high fingerprints.

 

 

This disc too, seems to be no problem for the BTC drive. All in all, it performed exceedingly well in these series of tests with defective media.

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6. Protected Disc Tests

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 6

- Reading Tests

To create an image of the various protected titles onto a hard disk, we used CloneCD v.4.3.1.9 software and the appropriate settings, depending on the protection type of the inserted disc. Below are summarized the capabilities of the BTC drive, according to CloneCD software. Notice that the drive supports writing of CD+G under RAW DAO:

The game titles we used for each protection scheme are given in the table below:

Game Title	Protection Scheme
PSX "NBA Jam Extreme"	Lybcrypt
Serious Sam The Second Encounter v1.07	SafeDisc v.2.60.052
VRally II	SecuROM v.2

PSX Pressed Media

SafeDisc v.2

SecuROM v.2

The BTC drive managed to rip the contents of all test media in very short time, with high speed. It was the fastst among the drives in the first two tests, with PSX and SafeDisc, while being second (although not by much), to the LiteOn drive with the Securom game title.

- Writing Tests

The BTC DRW1008IM supports the DAO-RAW writing mode. 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. After making the images of the various titles to the hard disk, we burned them (maximum speed) with CloneCD. Two different discs were created for each title; one with the "Amplify Weak Sectors" enabled and one more with the function disabled.

The table below shows the results of the attempted backups and whether they ran (game installed / played normally), or not.

Drive	Game Title	SD2 Build	Settings
			Amplify Weak Sectors On	Amplify Weak Sectors Off
BTC DRW1008IM	Max Payne	v2.51.020	Yes	Yes
	Serious Sam - The Second Encounter v1.07	v.2.60.052	Yes	Yes
	The Sims Unleashed	v.2.8	Yes	Yes
	The Sims Superstar	v2.9	No	No

The backups were tested in many CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives, and both installation and playability worked flawlessly. Only Sims Superstar failed, which uses the SafeDisc v2.9 protection scheme, but this is not at all unusual as virtually all drives have failed with this protection scheme.

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7. CD-DA - DAE Tests

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 7

DAE Tests

- Pressed and CDR AudioCD results

The BTC DRW1008IM uses 32x CAV strategy for CD-DA. Below is the resultant output from the CDSpeed transfer rate test with a pressed audio CD:

According to CDSpeed, the average reading speed with this disc was 32.36x, while the reported seek times were rather good.

 

 

 

We ripped the contents of the same audio disc to our hard disk, using the CDDAE software. The test returned an average ripping speed (burst mode) of 30.2x, which is an acceptable speed. The LiteOn drive was the fastest at 39.9x while the Optorite was the slowest.

- Advanced DAE Quality

In Nero's CD Speed Advanced DAE test, the BTC drive reported an average speed of 21x, which is a poor performance, and a quality score of 100. CDSpeed reports that the drive can read Cd Text and Subchannel Data but not Leadin and Leadout.

- Support of 90/99mins AudioCDs

BTC managed to rip the contents of our 90/99min test discs successfully.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For this test procedure we used two audio discs with different audio protection schemes. We tested for both recognition and ripping to the hard disk. The software used was Exact Audio Copy.

* Pressed Audio disc protected by Sony Key2Audio (Celine Dion - New Day Has Come)

* Pressed Audio disc protected by Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies sIsland)

	Key2Audio	CDS200
	EAC
BTC DRW1008IM	OK	Recognize the disc but cannot rip or play the contents
LiteOn LDW-811S	OK	OK
Optorite DD0401	OK	Recognized the disc.Ripped and played all tracks on the disc except the first.

The BTC DRW1008IM performed well with our Key2Audio disc, managing to both read and rip. This wasn't the case with our other audio CD however, which uses CDS200 protection. The BTC DRW1008IM recognized the disc but unfortunately could neither rip or play the contents of the specific disc. For the same discs, the Optorite drive only had problems with the first track on the CDS200 protected disc, while the LiteOn managed to rip and play both.

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8. CD Recording Tests

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CD Recording Tests

- CD-R Writing Tests

The BTC DRW1008IM supports 8x, 16x, 24x, 32x and the maximum 40x CAV writing speeds. Below you can see the CDSpeed writing simulation graph with Taiyo Yuden 48x CD-R media.

The writing process began at 18.64x and finished at 42.14x reporting an average recording speed of 31.91x. According to this, the manufacturers specifications for 40x recording are comfirmed. The drive uses CAV mode.

 

 

 

- Recording Times

We created an 80min data compilation with Nero Burning Rom and recorded it on a 700MB disc. The best time was that of the BTC drive, completing the task in 3:09 minutes, with 40x writing speed selected. The performance is very good for 40x recording speed.

Below are the best writing times at 8x, 16x, 24x, 32x and 40x with a Taiyo Yuden media.

In the followwing graph you can see the recording times with various media brands.

Often, while recording with Creation, Hi-Space and Taiyo Yuden media at a speed of 40x, the buffer underrun error was avoided on one occassion where we received the following message.

- CD-RW Writing Tests

The BTC DRW1008IM supports 24x P-CAV maximum rewriting speed, with Ultra Speed rewritable media. Below are the results from the CDSpeed writing simulation test with blank 24x US-RW media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.

The test once again confirmed the drives specifications for 24x rewriting. The burning procedure started at 18.77x and finished at 24.41x having an average of 23.54x.

 

As a comparison, we provide the rewriting time of the BTC drive against those of the LiteOn and Optorite drives.

We also used Nero Burning Rom software to burn a data disc using 24x US-RW media from Mitsubishi Chemicals again. The data compilation burnt had a size of 651 MB and the duration of the recording process was 3:40 minutes.

From BTC's official website, you can stay informed regarding CD media brands that the drive supports. For your convinience we have included the links below:

CD-R

CD-RW

- Packet Writing Tests

Using InCD and Mitsubishi Chemicals 24x US-RW media for all Packet Writing tests, quick format took 32sec. The formatted disc had 530mbs of free space. We copied a 403 MB file (412.822 KB) from Hard Disk (on the same PC as the recorder) to the formatted RW media through Windows explorer (drag and drop).

 

Operation	Duration	Average speed
Read	2:27 min	18.7X
Write	2:21 min	19.5X

- Other features

Overburning	Up to 96min
CD text reading/writing	Yes

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9. 3T Jitter Tests - Page 1

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 9

Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

On an 80min 48X CD-R disc from Taiyo Yuden we burned the same AudioCD project at 8x, 16x, 24x, 32x and 40x. The 3T Pit & Land Jitter graphs are presented here.

- 3T Pit results

As we can easily conclude, from the given picture above, the BTC drive performed extremely well, keeping the jitter values at a low, and certainly well within the Red Book level. No matter what the speed, the drive reported good quality results. The 8x recording speed was the best while all the others were also rather good, especially 40x.

The average 3T Pit Jitter values for all recording speeds are illustrated in the following table.

Here it can be clearly seen that the pit jitter levels were very low.

- 3T Land results

As with pit jitter, land jitter values were also low and below the Red Book limit of 35nsec. All the speed had quality results.

The following average graph confirms the low levels.

Recording Speed	Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)	Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)	> 35ns	Max 3T jitter values (ns)
8X	22.51	24.27	No	25 Pit, 28 Land
16X	27.71	28.44	No	31 Pit, 31 Land
24X	27.49	27.20	No	32 Pit, 30 Land
32X	28.32	26.95	No	31 Pit, 30 Land
40X	26.76	27.27	No	29 Pit, 29 Land

- Summary

The BTC DRW1008IM has proved to be a high quality CD recorder, regardless of recording speed.

The following page where we check the jitter levels produced on various manufacturers discs, should give a better indication of the writing quality level of the drive.

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10. 3T Jitter Tests - Page 2

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 10

Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

The same Nero compilation, as in the previous test, was used in order to burn media from different brands. The recording speed was the maximum 40x in all cases. The following graphs show the 3T Pit & Land Jitter results.

- 3T Pit results

With all media, the jitter levels were once again low. Only Hi-Space and SKC media passed over the limit of 35nsec at the end.

The average 3T Jitter values for all manufacturers discs are illustrated in the following graph.

- 3T Land results

Once again all the media brands gave low land values, with the exception of Hi-Space which again, towards the end managed to go well over the limit.

The average values presented below illustrates the drives quality recording levels.

Recording Speed	Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)	Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)	> 35ns	Max 3T jitter values (ns)
Creation 48x	26.37	26.00	No	31 Pit, 31 Land
Hi Space 48x	32.07	31.61	Yes	42 Pit, 42 Land
Ritek 40x	28.24	29.80	No	33 Pit, 33 Land
Memorex 52x	28.37	27.76	No	29 Pit, 30 Land
SKC 48x	30.46	30.27	Yes	36 Pit, 35 Land

- Summary

Except for Hi-Space media, the values for the various manufacturers discs seem to be low and steady. Certainly the average values were very good, and the BTC drive seems to be on the way to establishing itself as a high quality recorder.

On the following page we check the C1 and C2 error rates for the same discs. These are the last of the quality tests.

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11. C1 / C2 Error Measurements

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 11

Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 Error Measurements

The C1 / C2 error rate was measured for the recorded discs burned during the previous writing tests (jitter). The software used was UMDoctor Pro II, and the reader the Optorite DD0203 drive.

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 8x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 16x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 24x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 32x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 40x

• Memorex 52x recorded at 40x

- Summary

In the main, these are very good results. The C1 levels are rather low, with the exception of Creation media. C2 errors were reported with Creation and more pronounced with Hi-Space media. In the case of Creation media, the C2 errror levels appear to be located in the same region on the disc which produced the high jitter values in our previous tests. Other than this, the remaining results were very good.

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12. DVD Recording Tests

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 12

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

The BTC DRW1008IM supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum supported speed for DVD+R is 8x (4x~6x~8x Z-CLV), 4x CLV for DVD-R, 4x CLV for DVD+RW and 2x CLV for DVD-RW media.

Currently, only a few 8x certified DVD+R media are available on the market. The supported 8x DVD+R media which we tested came from Mitsubishi Chemicals and Taiyo Yuden.

8x DVD+R

An 8x DVD+R disc from Mitsubishi-Kagaku was used to check the 8x writing strategy of the drive. The software used was Nero CDSpeed, and its "create disc" function.

The drive started writing at 3.98x, maintaining this speed until the 750MB address mark on the disc, where the speed changed to 6x. This speed was kept until the 2.75GB address mark where the drive accelerated to the final 8x for the rest of the recording. Overall average speed was 6.31x.

Below are the same tests with DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD+RW media.

4x DVD-R

4x DVD+RW

2x DVD-RW

- Burning Tests

The best recording times are illustrated in the following table after burning 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media, using the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc. For comparison, we also include the writing times for the Optorite DD0401 and LiteOn DRW-811S drives.

As you can see fron the tables above, the BTC drive was the fastest with DVD-R/RW media. And while there was not much between the drives, only times with DVD+R media proveda little on the slow side.

The following screenshot was taken from Nero, after successful burnings. The amount of data is the same for all the tests.

• Mitshubishi Chemicals 8x DVD+R

• Pioneer 4x DVD-R

• Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+RW

• Pioneer 2x DVD-RW

Media	Code	Speed
Mitshubishi Chemicals 8x DVD+R	MCC003	8x
Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R	YUDEN000 T01	8x
Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R	MCC002	4x
N-Tech 4x DVD+R	MEDIA ID 001	4x
Pioneer 4x DVD-R	PVCR001002	4x
Pony 4x DVD-R	RITEKG04	4x
Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD-R	MCC 01RG20	4x
Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+RW	MKM A02	4x
Sentinel 2.4x DVD+RW	SENTINELW01	2x
Pioneer 2x DVD-RW	PVCW00V00245	2x
TDK 2x DVD-RW	TDK502sakuM3	2x

The table above presents the writing speeds of the drive for the various media formats.

From BTC's official website, you can stay informed regarding DVD media brands that the drive supports. For your convinience we have included the links below:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

DVD-R

DVD-RW

- Packet Writing Tests

For this test we copied a 403 MB file (412.822 KB) from Hard Disk (on the same PC as the recorder) to the formatted RW media through Windows explorer (drag and drop).

DVD-RW	Duration	Average speed
Read	2:08 min	2.4X
Write	2:34 min	1.99X

DVD+RW	Duration	Average speed
Read	2:07 min	2.4X
Write	3:58 min	0.9X

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13. KProbe PI/PO Error Measurements

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 13

KProbe PI/PO quality results

The following screenshots show the PI/PO scans for the various DVD-/+R and DVD-/+RW media, recorded with BTC DRW1008IM at the maximum permitted speed.

The software used for the measurements was the KProbe v1.1.26, the ECC ws set to 8 and the reader was LiteOn LDW-811s. The specific methodology is very dependent on the drive used as a reader, while the reliability of the PI/PO provided output is also not technically confirmed. Hence as a result, we cannot safely come up with conclusive results, although we do make a comparison of the drive's behaviour when using various DVD recordable/rewritable media.

The recordable discs used came from Mitsubishi Chemicals, Taiyo Yuden, N-Tech, Pioneer, Sentinel, TDK and Ritek. Further details about each disc type are presented at the bottom of this page.

• Mitshubishi Chemicals 8x DVD+R

• Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R

• Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R

• N-Tech 4x DVD+R

• Pioneer 4x DVD-R

• Pony 4x DVD-R

• Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD-R

• Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+RW

• Sentinel 2.4x DVD+RW

• Pioneer 2x DVD-RW

• TDK 2x DVD-RW

Media	Code
Mitshubishi Chemicals 8x DVD+R	MCC003
Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R	YUDEN000 T01
Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R	MCC002
N-Tech 4x DVD+R	MEDIA ID 001
Pioneer 4x DVD-R	PVCR001002
Pony 4x DVD-R	RITEKG04
Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD-R	MCC 01RG20
Mitshubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+RW	MKM A02
Sentinel 2.4x DVD+RW	SENTINELW01
Pioneer 2x DVD-RW	PVCW00V00245
TDK 2x DVD-RW	TDK502sakuM3

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14. Conclusion

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BTC DRW1008IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 14

Conclusion

Pros	Cons
8x DVD+R writing 4x DVD+RW/-R writing 40/24/40 CD-RW Very Good CD/DVD error correction Good writing quality with CD Creates working backups of SafeDisc v.2.80 Supports CD-Text (reading/writing) Supports 99min audio discs Fast DVD ripping Fast ripping speed with protected game discs	6x DVD±RW reading Cannot playback/rip CDS200 Audio CD Low DAE speed Increased DVD seek times Writing quality problems with specific CD-R

Overall, the BTC drive performed satisfactorily and appears to be a reliable, quality recorder. The reading speeds for CD/DVD were rather good. Although we estimate that the 6x reading for DVD+RW and DVD-RW is low and could be faster. The seek times were acceptable with CD media but they could be better with DVD media.

The error correction for Audio CDs was very good. The drive returned low loudness and muting sample errors with no samples skipped. In the DVD error correction tests, the BTC drive performed excellently. All of our test DVDs played succesfully from the drive without any errors reported. The drive just ignored the defeactive areas on those discs.

In the protected disc tests, the BTC drive had good behaviour, although the drive cannot make SafeDisc v2.9 working backups, however all previous versions are supported. The drive is also very fast ripping with all the game types we tried.

From the DAE test that we carried out we fell that the drive's response could be better. The drive can read fast Audio CD's but the average speed in the advanced DAE quality test were rather low, only 21x. Plus the fact that the drive didn't manage to play/rip the CDS200 protected Audio CD.

In the writing test the drive performed well, with low times recorded. The only concern was that accasionally the "buffer underrun was avoided" error messsage popped up. The drive also supports up to 96min overburning.

From the quality measurement tests that we carried out, the drive reported very low jitter values at all recording speeds and with all the media brands. Only with Hi-Space media some C2 error were reported, but in our opinion this cannot deter from the drive's very good performance, among the best we have seen for these tests.

In the DVD recording tests we would like to see the writing speed beginning at 6x rather than 4x, and the duration with 6x writing to be less. Apart from this the drive performed well without errors. The recording quality for DVD media was good, according to KProbe measurements.

BTC will plans to release a Bit Setting software for the drive in order to achieve better compatibility for the DVD+R/+RW format.

BTC DRW1008IM is available in the market at a price of 140-130 Euros, depending on your area. The price is quite competitive, although you will possibly need some extra searching over the net to find it at this price.