Ricoh MP5120A IDE DVD+RW - Page 12

DVD Tests

- Writing Performance
We used Nero 5.5.5.4 and written the same amount of data for both Pioneer DVR-A03 and Ricoh DVD+RW MP5120A drives. The results are listed in the following table among with the average CPU Usage:

As the tests result showed, the Ricoh MP5120A is the faster DVD recorder for now. The 2.4X writing speed is true and for writing a nearly full 4.7GB disc, you will need about 25mins. The Pioneer DVR-A03 needs 28mins at 2X and 56mins at 1X writing speeds. It is interesting that the DVD+RW writing seems to occupy much more CPU than DVD-R/RW.

- Erase Time Performance

The Ricoh MP5120A has very low erase times - one minute for quick erase and 11mins for full erase.

- Packet Writing Performance

We used the same file/methodology we are using for our CD packet-writing test. The Ricoh DVD+RW MP5120A needs less than 2minutes to write the test file. The drive performs as the specification state:

- 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 written with Nero 5.5.5.4 and were the same DVD movie.

PS. The Pioneer DVR-A03 couldn't recognize DVD+RW media with 1.55 firmware but this was fixed with newer 1.65 firmware revision!

Let's comment the results: ALL drives read DVD-R media without any problems. So far so good. Both Ricoh drives had problems reading DVD-RW media. Both drives could read the content of the disc, and playback the backup DVD-R through PowerDVD but after a while both drives stopped reading and PowerDVD error message came up... Since both drives have similar symptoms, we assume that this is a problem. The good news is that it can be solved with a firmware update :-).

There are 2 DVD-ROMs that couldn't recognize DVD-RW media. Both BTC/AOpen 16x with latest firmware installed failed to recognize the written DVD-RW media. DVD+RW has the same compatibility with DVD-R, with the tested drives. No problems occurred during recognizing and playback.

Judging from the results we can say that DVD+RW has better compatibility than DVD-RW, at least with the DVD-ROM we tested. There would be drives that cannot recognize DVD+RW media but this can be fixed with firmware update.

Lets now see what happened with a few DVD players we did managed to test with...All 3 DVD players failed to playback any of our DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW media! Why? We are not sure. Either the drives cannot physically read the 3 DVD formats or something wrong happened during the authoring part. There are reports from users that several authoring software offers higher compatibility than others. Ricoh lists the Marantz DV-17 as DVD+RW compatible player, something that complicate things...

If you look over Sony's product catalog you will find that ONLY 2 models (DVP-NS900V, DVP-NS700V) official support DVD-R/W media as SONY states. The highest DVP-S9000ES doesn't mention anywhere DVD-R/W support, although even we feel it also supports it. Ricoh also has the DVP-S9000ES as a DVD+RW compatible drive. For the rest models of SONY nothing is mentioned about the compatibility with DVD-R/W. Again Ricoh lists some of them as DVD+RW compatible.

If you remember Sony is a member of both "DVD Forum" - that proposes DVD-R/W- and the "DVD+RW Alliance". We assume that Sony's latest DVD Players should support all DVD-R/W/+RW formats. Till today no DVD+RW recorder has been announced from Sony. There is already a stand alone & for computer DVD-R/RW recorder. Le'ts dig some more info out: Sony had announced in 2001 CES show a "...RW Dual Compatible Recorder -- In an effort to simplify the various recordable DVD platforms, Sony is displaying a prototype recorder that will support both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. The RW Dual Compatible Recorder is scheduled for introduction in mid-2002...". SONY's has chosen DVD-R/RW as the initial DVD writing attempt but we don't know about what the future will bring....

The DVD+RW alliance has enough power to push manufacturers supporting DVD+RW format also. As Philips said already DVD+RW test discs has been send to various manufacturers for testing compatibility. Things supposed to be much better with upcoming DVD+R format...