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Appeared on: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
BTC DRW1108IM


1. Package - Installation

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 1

 

BTC launches its new 8x DVD dual format optical disc drive. It is compatible with all current formats, including DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW media and CDs.

 

- Features

The drive features 8x DVD+/-R writing, 4x DVD+/-RW rewriting, 40x CD-R writing, 24x CD-RW rewriting, 40x CD-ROM reading, 32x CD-RW reading and 12x DVD-ROM reading. Buffer underrun protection is also supported.

- Specifications
Host/Interface

E-IDE/ATAPI, MMC compliant

Disc Data Capacity

CD: 74min/650MB, 80min/700MB

DVD: 4.7GB

Disc Data Capacity

CD: 74min/650MB, 80min/700MB

DVD: 4.7GB

Supported Media for Writing

DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD-R, CD-RW

Writing Format

DVD: 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

Track at Once, Disc at Once, Session at Once, Multi-Session, Packet Writing (Variable & Fixed), Multi-track Reservation

Writing Speed

DVD+/-R: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x

DVD+/-RW: 1x, 2x, 4x

CD-R: 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x

CD-RW: 4x, 10x, 16x, 24x

Reading Speed

DVD+/-R max: 8x

DVD+/-RW max: 6x

DVD-ROM max: 12x

CD-R max: 40x

CD-RW max: 32x

CD-ROM max: 40x

Data Transfer Rate Max. 33MB/sec
Access time DVD: 160ms (12x) CD: 130ms (40x)
Buffer memory 2 MB with Buffer Underrun Protection
Disc Loading Tray loader, dust sealed
Mounting Method Horizontal
Audio output Digital and Analogue output
Weight 1.0kg
Dimensions (HxWxD) 41.8mm x 145.8mm x 193.3mm

The drive uses a 2MB buffer memory store and supports RAW DAO 96 writing (CD). The drive does not support Mount Rainier writing feature or CD+G reading feature.

The drive 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) and that's the reason for the 4 times left in the screenshot above.

- The drive

The european retail package includes a leaflet which contains information about the LiveUpdate Program and a disc support list, a software CD with NERO OEM Suite and a CD with the CyberLink Multimedia Pack including PowerDVD, Power Producer and MediaShow. Included also are an internal analogue audio cable as well as the mounting screws.

The drive's front panel's color is white. On the tray loader at left we can see the DVD dual logo and a 8x sign at the right. Below from left to right we can also see the power led, DVD R/RW logo, RW DVD+ReWritable logo, ultra Speed Compact disc Rewritable logo the emergency eject hole and the eject button.

On the rear panel you can find 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. Click on the photos for an enlarged view.

The drives PCB and chipset are manufactured by Toshiba.

The main chipset is manufactured by Mediatek.

- Installation

The device was connected to our test PC and was identified as "DVDRW IDE1108" under WinXP. All tests were done with firmware revision B118.

The following pages include test results for the BTC drive, in comparison with the Toshiba SD-R5272 and the TDK 880N, since both have about the same specifications as the Toshiba.


2. Data CD Reading Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 2

Data CD Reading Tests

- Pressed CD results (Click for CDSpeed results)

In the graph above, we can see that the drive was the fastest, although only slightly, among the three and it managed to confirm the manufacturer's specifications.

The reported seek times for the BTC drive are good for all modes.
- CD-R results (Click for CDSpeed results)

We made a copy of the previous, pressed CD in order to test the drive's behavior with CD-R media. As with the previous test, the BTC and the other two drives exhibit similar results.

The results with pressed CD are similar to those with the pressed CD seek times.

- ReWritable Media (Click for CDSpeed results)

For the reading test we used 24x Ultra Speed rewritable media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.


3. CD Error Correction Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 3

Error Correction Tests

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

- ABEX TCD-721R

Errors total
Num: 1327724
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
Num: 58521 Avg: -73.0 dB(A) Max: -35.0 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples
Num: 4183 Avg: 1.0 Samples Max: 11 Samples
Skips Samples
Num: 0 Avg: 0.0 Samples Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result
76.4 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

The performance with this disc is good. The total error count is about average while the maximum loudness error level is quite good and there were no skipped samples. The total score is very good.

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total
Num: 25523587
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
Num: 119814 Avg: 0 dB(A) Max: -5.7 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples
Num: 54509 Avg: 110.9 Samples Max: 3584 Samples
Skips Samples
Num: 2 Avg: 1596 Samples Max: 1596 Samples
Total Test Result
53.4 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is a usually a simple case for error correction. The BTC drive however, performed poorly. The total error count is high, while there are two skipped samples and many muted samples. The total score of 53.4 out of 100 is not acceptable.

- 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 being reproduced through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone 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 DRW 1108IM
5/5
5/5
5/5
3/5
0/5

The drive performed well. It managed to playback 5 out of attempts for three of the five levels. The fourth level sounded good for three of the five attempts and the fifth level did not play well at all. The attempt can be considered slightly better than average as most drives manage to play up to the fourth level, with some exceptions at last but fail all attempts with the fifth level, which is difficult for the majority of the drives.

- Summary

Test Disc
Reading Speed
Score
ABEX TCD-721R
Max
76.4
ABEX TCD-726
53.4
Average Score
64.9

The final average score for the drive is quite low, and this is due to its poor showing with the ABEX TCD-726 disc where the drive scored 53.4, where most other drives manage close to 100.


4. DVD reading tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 4

DVD reading tests

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

Again, as was the case with CD media, the BTC drive's reading speed is very close to that of the other two drives.

The seek times are very good.

- 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.

The DVD dual layer speed results reach a high level.

The seek times continue to impress.

- 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 disc's second layer. 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.

As can been seen from the following screenshot, the OTP dual layer DVD test disc had the same speed as the PTP. The seek times are at about the same levels.

- DVD Ripping Tests

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

Here, the BTC drive was the fastest. The reported 8872 kb/s is a good transfer rate.

- DVD Recordable / Rewritable reading Tests

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

The BTC drive was only marginally faster than the TDK with DVD+/-R media, and was the slowest with DVD+/-RW media. The best speeds here came from the Toshiba drive.


5. DVD Error Correction Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 5

DVD Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we examined the DVD reading capabilities of BTC drive with scratched / defective DVD media. For the tests we used CDVD Benchmark and Nero CDSpeed. The testing media referred, 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 contents of the 821 test disc without reporting any read errors. Whatsmore, the resultant graph is very clean, without any fluctuations.

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 of the TDR-821, with the difference that there are no scratches on the surface but defective areas ranging in dimensions from 0.5 to 1.1 mm. There are also fingerprints with height between 65 and 75 micrometers.

 

 

Again, the drive managed to read the defective areas on the disc without problems.

- 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 disc was read without any reading errors.

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 from 65 to 75 microns (micrometers).

 

 

The test finished successfully without reporting any errors.

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 testing pictures and 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 reading speed of the drive decreased early on in the first layer. The test ended successfully without read errors.

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 micrometer high fingerprints.

This time no errors or speed drops were reported. This disc was not a problem for the BTC drive.

 


6. Protected Disc Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 6

Protected Disc Tests
- Reading Tests

To create an image of the various protected titles onto a hard disk, we used Alcohol v.1.9.2.1705 software and the appropriate settings, depending on the protection type of the inserted discs. Below, the capabilities of the BTC drive are summarized, according to CloneCD software. As can be seen, 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

BTC managed to rip the contents of all test discs successfully. The most consistent ripping came from the Toshiba drive while the BTC and TDK drives had wide ranges in speed being especially slow with SafeDisc.

- Writing Tests

The BTC 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 having the latest software patches installed. After making the images of the various titles onto the hard disk, we burned them (maximum speed) with CloneCD. Two different discs were created for each title; one with the "Bypass EFM error" enabled and one more with the function disabled.

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

Drive
Game Title
SD2 Build
Settings
Bypass EFM error On
Bypass EFM error Off
BTC DRW 1108IM
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
Yes
Yes
Fifa 2004
v3.1
Yes
Yes

Excellent results. The drive managed to make working backups of all the game titles we tried, either with "Bypass EFM error" on or off. It is extremely rare for a drive to present this level of success with backups of game protection schemes.


7. DAE Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 7

DAE Tests

- Pressed and CDR AudioCD results

The BTC uses 42x CAV reading strategy for CD-DA. Below you can see the results from the CDSpeed transfer rate test with a pressed audio CD:

According to Nero CDSpeed, the average reading speed was 32.08x, while at the end of the reading process it reached a maximum speed of 42.38x. The seek times are also good.

 

 

 

We ripped the contents of the same audio disc to our hard disk, using the CDDAE software. The average ripping speed (burst mode) of 30x, is high.

The same pressed audio disc was copied onto a CD-R and was read again with CDspeed.

Again, the BTC returned a high extraction speed.

- Advanced DAE Quality

In the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test, the BTC drive returned an average speed of 23.25x, which is good performance, and a quality score of 99.9. According to CDSpeed the drive can read Cd Text and Subchannel Data but this is not the case for Leadin and Leadout.

- Support of 90/99mins AudioCDs

The BTC drive managed to playback a full 90min audio CD without problems, but didn`t managed to play the 99min test discs, having reading problems with all tracks.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

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

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

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

Key2Audio
CDS200
EAC
BTC DRW1108IM
OK
Recognize the disc but cannot rip or play the contents*
TDK 880N
OK
OK
Toshiba SD-R 5272
OK
Recognize the disc but cannot rip or play the contents

The BTC drive played back successfully only the Key2AudioCD but failed with the Cactus Shield Audio protected disc.

*Download firmware vB028 which fixed the problem


8. CD Recording Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 8

CD Recording Tests

- CD-R Writing Tests

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

The simulation test under Nero CD Speed, confirmed the manufacturer's specifications of 40x CAV recording. The average speed was 21.59x.

 

 

 

 

- Recording Times

We created an 80min data compilation with Nero Burning Rom and recorded it on a 700MB disc. The BTC needed 3:23 to conclude the burning procedure which was the fastest time among the three drives.

Below we present the best writing times for Toshiba drive at 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x with a Taiyo Yuden media.

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

- CD-RW Writing Tests

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

The test once again confirmed the drive's specifications for 24x rewriting. The average speed at the end of the test was 23.43x.

 

 

 

 

We also used Nero Burning Rom software to burn a 24x US-RW data media from Mitsubishi Chemicals. The data compilation we burned onto the disc, had a size of 651 MB. The duration of the recording process was 3:43 minutes. Again, the BTC drive was the fastest among the other drives, logical due to the 40x supported maximum writing CD speed.

- Packet Writing Tests

We used InCD and Mitsubishi Chemicals 24x US-RW media for all Packet Writing tests. 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
2:24 min
19.1X
Write
2:25 min
18.9X

- Other features

Overburning
YesUp to 96min
CD text reading/writing
Yes

After the latest firmware B218 the drive is capable for overburning up to 96min.


9. 3T Jitter Tests - Page 1

BTC DRW1108IM 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 16x, 24x, 32x and 40x. The 3T Pit & Land Jitter graphs are presented here.

- 3T Pit results

As we can easily conclude from the graphs above and below, the drive gives acceptable low jitter values at 16x and 24x speeds, while at 40x the level is well above the 35ns Red Book limit.

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

The average Pit jitter for recording speeds of 16x and 24x are good.

- 3T Land results

The jitter land levels illustrated in the graph above, are not encouraging. Only at 16x does the BTC drive offer acceptable quality recording.

Recording Speed
Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)
Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)
> 35ns
Max 3T jitter values (ns)
16X
30.51
29.76
No
35 Pit, 34 Land
24x
33.49
34.83
No
36 Pit, 38 Land
32X
38.20
36.88
Yes
41 Pit, 39 Land
40X
45.10
42.59
Yes
59 Pit, 51 Land
- Summary

The BTC is a good quality CD recorder at 16x and 24x speeds. At 32x and 40x, the levels were simply too high to be considered even as satisfactory. In the following page we test the drive's writing quality with other media brands.


10. 3T Jitter Tests - Page 2

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 10

Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

The same Nero compilation used in the previous jitter tests was used once again, this time with media from different brands. The recording speed was the maximum in all cases. The following graphs indicate the 3T Pit & Land Jitter results.

- 3T Pit results

According to the results we took from the jitter measurements, the BTC performed well with some of the media brands we used. Ritek and MAM prove to be very good combinations with the BTC recorder, whereas Maxell, CMC and Hi-Space media returned high jitter results.

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

- 3T Land results

The land jitter values were almost at the same levels as with 3T pit jitter, where once again only MAM and Ritek media produced acceptable results.

Recording Speed
Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)
Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)
> 35ns
Max 3T jitter values (ns)
Maxell 48x
43.80
42.76
Yes
56 Pit, 48 Land
Hi-Space 48x
35.76
36.02
Yes
50 Pit, 49 Land
CMC 48x
37.46
40.22
Yes
41 Pit, 46 Land
Mam 52x
30.63
28.49
No
36 Pit, 33 Land
Ritek 48x
29.51
27.07
No
35 Pit, 30 Land
- Summary

The drive performed poorly with various cd media. While MAM and Ritek media had very good values, all the other brands were way too high.

On the following page we check the C1 and C2 error rates for the same discs.


11. C1 / C2 Error Measurements

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 11

Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 / CU Error Measurements

The C1 / C2 / CU error rate was measured from the recorded discs burned during the previous writing tests (jitter). The software used is PlexTools Professional v2.11 and the reader is the Plexwritter Premium drive.

MEDIA
C1
C2
CU
CMC
Avg/Sec 3.2 1 0
Max/Sec 56 221 0
Total 15655 5244 0
Hi-Space
Avg/Sec 4.2 0.5 0
Max/Sec 47 109 0
Total 20372 2404 0
Mam
Avg/Sec 0.7 0 0
Max/Sec 19 42 0
Total 3556 65 0
Maxell
Avg/Sec 5 0 0
Max/Sec 235 16 0
Total 24111 137 0
Ritek
Avg/Sec 1.5 0 0
Max/Sec 30 22 0
Total 6993 88 0
16x TY
Avg/Sec 1.9 0 0
Max/Sec 31 0 0
Total 9198 0 0
24x TY
Avg/Sec 0.4 0 0
Max/Sec 14 0 0
Total 1918 0 0
32x TY
Avg/Sec 0.4 0 0
Max/Sec 17 0 0
Total 1874 0 0
40x TY
Avg/Sec 2.9 0.1 0
Max/Sec 46 22 0
Total 13800 540 0

 

  • Ritek 48x recorded at 40x

  • CMC 48x recorded at 40x

Below we present information regarding the CD-R media used in this test.

Disc
ID Code
Capacity
Taiyo Yuden 48x
TaiyoYuden 97m24s01f
79:59:72
Ritek 48x
Fuji 97m26s45f
79:59:73
CMC Magnetics 48x
CMC Magnetics 97m26s66f
79:59:71
Hi-Space 48x
unknown 97m25s07f
79:59:00
Mam 52x
Mitsui 97m27s58f
79:59:74
Maxell 48x
Ritek 97m15s17f
79:59:70
- Summary

According to our measurements, the drive's CD writing quality was not good with many of the media brands we tested. Maxell was the only one with extremely high C1 levels, while CMC and HiSpace had high C2 levels. Taiyo Yuden at 24x and 32x had the best results while Ritek and MAM also had some C2 errors.


12. DVD Recording Tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 12

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

The BTC supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum supported speed for DVD+R and DVD-R is 8x P-CAV and 4x CLV for DVD+/-RW media.

8x DVD+R

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

The drive started writing at 3.95x, and ended at 7.99x with an average speed of 6.34x.

 

 

 

Verbatim 8x DVD-R

The simulation with the 8x DVD-R was almost the same as with 8x DVD+R media. In this test we used Verbatim media.

Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+RW

Mitsubishi Kagaku 4x DVD-RW

- Burning Tests

The best recording times are illustrated in the following table. The values were taken 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 TDK 880N and Toshiba SD-R5272.

There is not much between the three drives, their times being very close. However, the TDK 880N had the fastest times with all the formats.

The table below presents the writing speeds, media name and media code for the various discs used.
Media
Code
Speed
CMC Magnetics 8x DVD+R
CMC MAG F01
8x
Philips 8x DVD+R
PHILIPS C08
8x
Mitsubishi Kagaku 8x DVD+R
MCC 003
8x
Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R
CMC MAG F01
4x
Maxell 4x DVD+R
YUDEN000T01
4x
That`s 8x DVD+R
YUDENT002
8x
Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD-R
MCC 01RG20
4x
CMC Magnetics 8x DVD-R
CMC MAG AE1
8x
Mitsubishi Kagaku & Verbatim 8x DVD-R
MCC 02RG20
8x
Pony 4x DVD-R
RITEKG04
4x
That`s 8x DVD-R
TYG02
8x
Mitsubishi Kagaku 4x DVD+RW
MKM A02
4x
Maxell 4x DVD+RW
PHILIPS 041
4x
JVC 4x DVD-RW
JVC0VictorD7
4x
Mitsubishi Kagaku 4x DVD-RW
MCC 01RW4X
4x

- Packet Writing Tests

For this test we copied a 403 MB file (412.822 KB) from the 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
1:55 min
2.6X
Write
2:39 min
1.9X

 

DVD+RW
Duration
Average speed
Read
1:55 min
2.6X
Write
1:25 min
3.5X

13. KProbe PI/PO quality tests

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 13

PI/PO quality results

The following screenshots present the PI/PO results for various DVD-/+R and DVD-/+RW media, recorded with the BTC drive at the maximum allowed speed.

The software used for the measurements was KProbe v1.1.29, ECC was set to 8 and the reading drive was the LiteOn LDW-811S at 4x speed. The specific methodology is very dependable on the drive used as a reader, while the reliability of the PI/PO provided output is not also technically confirmed. Thus as a result, we cannot safely come up with conclusive results, although we do make a comparison of the drive's behavior when using various DVD recordable/rewritable media.

The recording discs used are presented below, coming with details about each disc type.

 

Media
Code
CMC Magnetics 8x DVD+R
CMC MAG F01
Philips 8x DVD+R
PHILIPS C08
Mitsubishi Kagaku 8x DVD+R
MCC 003
Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R
CMC MAG F01
Maxell 4x DVD+R
YUDEN000T01
That`s 8x DVD+R
YUDENT002
Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD-R
MCC 01RG20
CMC Magnetics 8x DVD-R
CMC MAG AE1
Mitsubishi Kagaku & Verbatim 8x DVD-R
MCC 02RG20
Pony 4x DVD-R
RITEKG04
That`s 8x DVD-R
TYG02
Mitsubishi Kagaku 4x DVD+RW
MKM A02
Maxell 4x DVD+RW
PHILIPS 041
JVC 4x DVD-RW
JVC0VictorD7
Mitsubishi Kagaku 4x DVD-RW
MCC 01RW4X

The drive reported good writing quality with the most media we tested. There seems to be a lot of high PI generated while in most cases the PO was kept at fairly low levels. The DVD+RW media had increased PI/PO levels.

*July 19 2004, the new firmware release vB028 matched more media.


14. Conclusion

BTC DRW1108IM DVD±RW recorder - Page 14

Conclusion

Pros

Cons

  • 8x DVD+R/-R writing
  • 4x DVD+RW/-RW writing
  • 40x CD-R recording
  • 24x CD-RW writing speed
  • Fast DVD-Video ripping
  • Working backups of all our protected games CDs
  • Good DVD writing quality
  • Mount Rainier is not supported
  • Has problems with CDS200 protected AudioCDs.
  • High 3T jitter with some brands
  • Behavior with ABEX TCD-721R test disc

The BTC 1108IM performed extremely well, with low seek times in the CD reading tests. However it was disappointing in the error correction tests where we had expected better performance.

As for DVD reading, the BTC is fast with both recordable and pressed media. The seek times are rather low and the error correction capabilities are good. Despite the fact that it had to lower speed in order to read the defective area of our ABEX TDV-541 disc, the drive managed to playback all of our other test discs without reporting any errors or problems.

The drive managed to make working backups of all our protected games CDs, with fast ripping times for all game types we tried.

According to the DAE test, the drive returned good performance only with the Key2Audio protection scheme. With CDS200 protected Audio CDs, the drive recognizes the disc but cannot play or rip the contents*. The drive also failed to play our 99 minute AudioCDs, fortunately, this wasn't the case with the 90min CDs.

With CD recording tests, the BTC drive did not perform as well as we had hoped. The supported 40x maximum writing speed is high enough for a DVD burner but the writing quality wasn`t good with all media brands we used, at 40x speed. Here we would like to mention that it may be better to avoid recording at 32x and 40x speeds as the drive did not present good results. The truth is that such high recording, as at 40x, always has increased litter levels. We believe that with a firmware upgrade this will be fixed.

According to our tests the drive failed at the overburning tests, even though we tried with normal CD-R (700MB), 90min (800MB) and 99min (880MB). After flashing the drive with the latest firmware,B218, we managed to overburn up to 96min.

The DVD recording tests went a little better, where the drive performed well having high compatibility with all media formats*. The PI/PO levels were low in most cases. Only with DVD+RW media the levels were increased. This was a strong feature of the BTC drive.

At the time of this review, the drive wasn`t available on the market so it is not possible to make a price/performance evaluation.

*July 19 2004, the new firmware release vB028 fixed the CDS200 problem and also matched more media.



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