Pioneer BDR-X13U-S

Review Pages

1. Introduction / Retail Package
2. Drive Information
3. Used Software
4. Explain Test Method
5. CD Reading Tests
6. CD Defect Disc Tests
7. DVD Reading Tests
8. DVD Defect Disc Tests
9. Blu-Ray Reading Tests
10. CD Writing Tests
11. DVD-R Writing Tests
12. DVD+R Writing Tests
13. Blu-Ray Writing Tests
14. PureRead 4+ - Page 1
15. PureRead 4+ - Page 2
16. Conclusion

Passing to the ABEX TCD-721R test discs, here things would be much harder to accomplish. Using the ABEX TCD-721R with Nero CD-DVD Speed gives us some first results.

Making a summary of the above tests, it shows that the non PureRead 4+ function seems to produce higher C2 Accuracy and "Quality" Score compared with the PureRead 4+ mode enabled. As it seems the drive with the Perfect/Master mode "misses" to report many C2 errors so that gives the high error rates with such "bad/scratched" media.

ABEX TCD-726 Nero CD-DVD Speed Advanced DAE Tests
Pioneer BDR-S13U-X	C2 Accuracy	Quality Score
No PureRead 4+	79.85%	75.3
PureRead 4+ Perfect mode	-	-
PureRead 4+Master Mode	41.75	5.5
PureRead 4+Master Mode + Real Time Pure Read	39.46%	0.0

After this test, we decided to perform real life tests, comparing the rips of the Abex TCD-714 vs Abex TCD-721R vs EAC Burst/Secure mode.

All wav rips compared with the DeltaWare software that give us if the tracks are identical or not and how much chance there is to hear audible noise/hiss/skips, especially above -160dbFS score. So keep in mind the higher the RMS score is the better (less chance to hear problems).

ABEX TCD-714 vs ABEX TCD-721R DeltaWare Comparison
#Track	EAC BURST No PureRead4+	EAC SECURE No PureRead4+	EAC BURST + PERFECT MODE	EAC BURST + MASTER MODE	EAC BURST + MASTER MODE REAL TIME PURE READ
1	Files are a bit-perfect match RMS=-∞dBFS
2	Files are a bit-perfect match RMS=-∞dBFS
3	Files match @ 99.9935% RMS=-111.9dBFS	Files are a bit-perfect match RMS=-∞dBFS
4	Files match @ 99.758% RMS=-95.9dBFS	Files match @ 99.9126% RMS=-97.6dBFS	Files match @ 98.9313% RMS=-41.0dBFS	Files match @ 99.7989% RMS=-57.7dBFS	Files match @ 99.7991% RMS=-57.7dBFS
5	Files match @ 99.0909% RMS=-92.4dBFS	Files match @ 98.8973% RMS=-90.9dBFS	Match not found!	Files match @ 99.4789% RMS=-43.3dBFS	Files match @ 96.5624% RMS=-39.0dBFS
6	Files match @ 97.6882% RMS=-84.3dBFS	Files match @ 97.2341% RMS=-83.7dBFS		Files match @ 93.8327% RMS=-40.2dBFS	Files match @ 93.5926% RMS=-44.2dBFS
7	Files match @ 90.7263% RMS=-79.9dBFS	Files match @ 90.7827% RMS=-78.5dBFS		Files match @ 97.0572% RMS=-81.3dBFS	Files match @ 94.2494% RMS=-81.1dBFS
8	Files match @ 49.9996% RMS=-79.8dBFS	Files match @ 89.0114% RMS=-86.7dBFS		Files match @ 89.5431% RMS=-87.6dBFS	Files match @ 85.206% RMS=-87.7dBFS
9	Files match @ 92.1055% RMS=-79.0dBFS	Files match @ 50.0096% RMS=-78.9dBFS		Files match @ 49.8765% RMS=-46.2dBFS	Files match @ 56.5637% RMS=-46.0dBFS
10	Files match @ 92.0211% RMS=-80.8dBFS	Files match @ 88.8731% RMS=-80.7dBFS		Files match @ 80.1774% RMS=-44.9dBFS	Files match @ 84.0826% RMS=-48.8dBFS
11	Files match @ 93.8277% RMS=-88.5dBFS	Files match @ 93.9514% RMS=-88.5dBFS		Files match @ 88.6218% RMS=-60.1dBFS	Files match @ 88.6218% RMS=-60.1dBFS
12	Files match @ 86.1727% RMS=-70.8dBFS	Files match @ 67.527% RMS=-72.6dBFS		Files match @ 79.2869% RMS=-67.7dBFS	Files match @ 49.9809% RMS=-45.4dBFS
13	Files match @ 96.4604% RMS=-65.1dBFS	Files match @ 8.4911% RMS=-63.7dBFS		Files match @ 49.9959% RMS=-51.3dBFS	Files match @ 87.315% RMS=-44.1dBFS
14	Files match @ 49.9963% RMS=-62.3dBFS	Files match @ 83.1186% RMS=-82.1dBFS		Files match @ 50.0305% RMS=-28.6dBFS	Files match @ 50.0119% RMS=-26.8dBFS
15	Files match @ 90.0449% RMS=-71.2dBFS	Files match @ 92.6766% RMS=-79.2dBFS		Files match @ 50.0184% RMS=-29.3dBFS	Files match @ 49.9933% RMS=-31.9dBFS

The Abex 721R disc didn't worked very well with PureRead 4+, at least at the outer end, where scratches are bigger and most hard to read/correct via the Error Correction mechanism of the drive.

The EAC software at burst mode seems to product good/acceptable "results" (No PureRead4+ enabled).

The EAC Secure (No PureRead4+ enabled) function takes ages to rip each track and it tries and re-tries until it read some data from the scratched disc and it seems to produce worst results than with BURST mode returned.

The EAC BURST + PERFECT mode, is a no go, since when it finds the first uncorrectable sector will skip it or return a reading error (C2), which makes the software skips this sector.

Enabling MASTER mode and Real Time Mode, sometimes we got better results from the BURST mode, other times we didn't. Again you have to remember that the MASTER mode also re-reads broken sectors and tries to "guess" what the data would be in order not to product an audible click/hiss/pause at the extracted file. Since some tracks have intentionally so many errors, you cannot get 100% "correct" data from the Abex TCD-721, compared with the "clean ", Abex TCD-714R CD-DA disc.

Note that the above results only apply for the R sound channel, while comparing also the L channel would introduce different results (limitation of the compare software). Note that the higher the RMS value is (towards 0) the higher the possibility you will hear an audible error/hiss/pause/etc.