- CD Format

The Samsung SH-W163A, supports up to 48X reading speed for CD media, while it can read up to 32X USRW media. The following graphs, indicate the starting, average and end reading speeds the drive managed to achieve with the two different CD media types, as well as the respective reading speeds of the comparison drives.

With Pressed CD media, all three drives reported more or less the same reading speeds, as all three drives support up to 48X with this kind of media. With USRW media, the Samsung and BenQ drives managed to reach up to 40X reading speed, while the LiteOn was left behind, since its maximum supported reading speed for this media is 32X.

- AudioCD

For these tests, we used a pressed AudioCD and the Advanced DAE CDSpeed feature.

The average DAE speed reported with the Samsung drive is 30.84X. As reported by the NeroCDSpeed Advance DAE quality test, the quality score for all drives was 100 , while the average speed reported for the Samsung drive was 29.09X. The drive can read CD Text and Subchannel Data, while it cannot read Leadin and Leadout data.

- 90mins Audio disc

- 99mins Audio disc

The drive can flawlessly read both 90 and 99min audio discs.

- DVD Format

We repeated the reading tests, this time using a collection of pressed SL and DL DVD media to test the drive's reading capabilities with DVD media and we post the results below.

All three drives support up to 16X reading speed with Pressed SL media, hence the speed differences are negligible.

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, progressing towards the outer range, for each layer. The reviewed drive supports up to 8X with this kind of media, hence its position in this comparison, where the BenQ drive came first, thanks to its supported 12X max reading speed with DL media.

The graph shown above indicates the reading performance of the drive with OTP dual layer media. 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 of 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 towards the inner part of the disc. Again, we have 8X max reading speed with DL media for the Samsung drive.

With both write-once and rewritable media, the BenQ drive was fastest. Again, the supported max reading speeds play a major role, with the Samsung supporting 12X max for -R/+R and 8X max for -RW/+RW media.

Good ripping speed reported, although lots of faster rippers are available on the market.

Overall good reading capabilities, although higher reading speeds with DL and RW media would be welcomed.

- Appendix

Nero CD-DVD Speed Graphs

• CD Pressed / US-RW
• DVD Pressed SL / DVD Pressed PTP DL / DVD Pressed OTP DL / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R / DVD+RW