The number of DVD-ROM drives keeps on growing, and now
the most of them work at a maximum of 16x. But there is also a DVD
drive based on the TrueX technology which provides a speed of 25x
due to a multibeam disc reading. Such a speed growth resulted
in some negative consequences. Apart from loud noise, low-quality CDs got
broken inside the drives because of high reading speed. Today we are going
to examine the most popular DVD drives, and we will compare them within
their speed categories. With time we plan to gather test results of all
DVD-ROM devices currently available on the market.
Testing technique
The most important part of the test is estimation of quality of CD
reading as CDs still prevail on the today's market:
- Tests of key parameters of CD reading with the following programs:
- Tests of reading of CD-R, CD-RW and low-quality
discs with the CDROM
Drive Analyzer.
- Additional tests of audio track extraction with the Nero CD Speed
(Advanced DAE) with a test CD-R created by this program.
- Estimation of the highest soundtrack extraction speed and appeared errors
with the CD
DAE 99. For comparison we used two discs: licensed and pirated.
- Estimation of reading of a CD-R 780 MBytes (90min) by complete
copying onto a hard disc and measurement of time of complete copying of
data. Rostok Media 90 min/780 MBytes 1x-12x was used in the test
- ATIP: 97m 21s 45f
- Disc Manufacturer: Optical Disc Manufacturing Equipment
- Assumed Dye type: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phtalocyanine)
- Media type: CD-Recordable
- Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
- nominal Capacity: 785.98 MBytes
The second part is testing of operation of the drives with DVD discs:
- Tests of key parameters of DVD reading (a two-layer DVD disc was
taken) with the Nero
DVD Speed.
- Estimation of quality of DVD-Video playback with the Cyberlink
PowerDVD 2.55.
In the third part we considered physical characteristics of the drives:
- Noise in operation (tray, seek). Noise parameters were estimated out of
10. Higher score is better.
- Vibration while working with a badly balanced CD.
- Thermal conditions after two hours of testing and video playback. The measurements
are conducted with a thermo-chip integrated into the motherboard and an
external sensor.
- A possibility to make a multizone drive (RPC-1).
*The tests with the Nero CD Speed, CDROM
Drive Analyzer, Nero DVD Speed were carried out 5 times.
We have taken a value of the parameters which is the closest to the average
since when testing optical media it is difficult to get precise results
as there are a lot of factors that affect the results.
Data on the tested 8x drives
Date on the tested 12x drives
For those who like to compare tests results straight away:
CD
WinBench 99 and Nero CD(DVD) Speed results and brief
characteristics of operation of the 12x drives
Data on the tested 16x drives
CD
WinBench 99 and Nero CD(DVD) Speed results and brief characteristics
of operation of the 16x drives.
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