Philips DVD+RW 208 - Page 7

DVD Tests

- Writing Performance

We used Nero 5.5.5.7 and wrote the same amount of data for all Pioneer DVR-A03/Ricoh DVD+RW MP5120A/Panasonic LF-D311 and Philips DVDRW208 drives. In the Nero's 5.5.5.7 writing tab, only the 2.4x writing speed is displayed. The results are listed in the following table among with the average CPU Usage:

As the tests result showed, the Philips DVDRW208A is the faster DVD recorder for now since it managed to outperform even Ricoh MP5120A by 16secs. The 2.4X writing speed is true and for writing a nearly full 4.7GB disc, you will need about 22mins. The Pioneer DVR-A03 needs 28mins at 2X and 56mins at 1X writing speeds.

- Erase Time Performance

The Philips DVDRW208 has very low erase times - less than one minute for quick erase and 11mins for full erase.

- Packet Writing Performance

We used the same file/methodology as we are using for our CD packet-writing test. The Philips DVDRW208 drive needs the same time to write the file as the Ricoh DVD+RW MP5120A:

- Compatibility Tests

The compatibility tests done with the same discs used for the DVD-ROM drives (Matsushita's DVD-R, Pioneer's DVD-RW and Ricoh's DVD+RW media). All discs were written with Nero 5.5.5.7 and contained the same DVD movie.

As we had seen with the Ricoh MP5120A, the Philips DVDRW208 also supports DVD-R/DVD+RW media without any problems but not DVD-RW media. In fact the drive cannot recognize it at all, while the Ricoh MP5120A could recognize it but playback of written DVD movie failed.