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An Exhaustive 16X DVD Burner Roundup
CrzyP writes "AnandTech has put together an extensive roundup on eight, count 'em, eight 16X DVD burners capable of writing to dual-layer media. Some of the big names on the list include Pioneer, NEC, LG, Sony, MSI, and more. They explain in detail the current technologies implemented into the newer drives, like bitsetting and error control as well as run their reading/writing benchmarks on 16X and dual-layer media."
according to the review its at the top of the list... the drive is only about 65-70 bucks and it has very hackable firmware, and I personally (since i own one) have never had any coaster from the drive ... btw.. use Riteks
Previous reviews on Anandtech and Tom's Hardware have suggested 16x is the DVD limit. Blu-ray and HD might given better performance by cramming more in the same space rather than spinning the disk faster. The media will probably still be expensive when it first appears of course.
This is not a sig
Faster rip speeds (not limited to ripping movies at 2x instead of 16x)
Region free (watch any movie)
Better media compatibility (write at 12x to those pesky Riteks)
Single layer bitsetting (DVD+R and DVD-R appear as DVD-ROMs)
I expect someone to even turn on the DVD-RAM reading capability in the NEC's chipset.
#include <sig.h>
Plextor PX-712SA SATA 12x DVD±RW http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid= 243
Here in Canada, CDR's cost about 45 cents apiece for 700 megs.
DVD-Rs cost about 80-130 cents apiece.
- For a CD-R, you're paying 6.5 cents per 100 megs
- For a DVD-R you're paying between 1.8 to 2.9 cents per 100 megs.
Any way you put it, DVD-Rs are WAY cheaper than CD-Rs. Since I got my DVD burner last summer, I've burned around 50 DVD-Rs. The spindle was around 75 dollars, taxes included. For the same capacity, I would've needed more than three 100-disc CDR spindles. Those generally go for 50$ each, taxes included. In all I've saved about 75$ right there. That's half of what I paid for my burner. Another spindle, and it'll have paid for itself...
The cpu/workstation setup is critical to buring reliably at 12x t 16x which I do all the time
4
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I use a dual 2800mp workstation,a tyan 2466-2m mobo, 2 gigs of DDR 2100,, a 128 mb visiontek card ($373 and the bees-knees 2 years ago), a 64 bit MegaRAID SCSI 320 2 ch HBA with 128 mb on board, and 4 seagate 15000 rpm U-320 36 gb drives running raid 5.
I run 2 partions on the raid 5 drive, each with windows 2000.
The 1st partion is for normal everyday use; and has all the normal crap on the drive.
The 2nd partition is for burning dvd's quickly.
Problem is all those programs you install and run sometimes have lots of crap running in the background. The way around that is a very simple OS setup; so that nothing runs except what you need.
In my case I use a program from www.litepc.com to modify the windows 2000 setup, so that I can eliminate lots of junk Bill Gates says has to be installed; like internet Exploder. Suffice it to say that by turning off WFP then uninstalling the parts of the OS you dont want, then re-enabling WFP you get a slim rock solid and very fast OS setup.
I use a pioneer dvr-108, which has been flashed with the latest and greatest firmware from links found at www.cdfreaks.com pioneer device forum
they link to:
http://pioneerdvd.rpc1.org
look for the correct firmware for your dvd device, in my case for the dvr-108 it was the file;
DVR-108 v1.14 - RPC-1 + 12xRip + nx4all
using the flash program DVRFlash 2.0 from this forum
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=1075
as you'll see they have a lot of other firmware available. Look through the forum, and search for results on your device; then follow the instructions.
A list of media is here:
The following 8X media can be burnt faster than the rated speed
MCC003 \
MCC02RG20 \
RICOHJPNR02 ---- These can be burnt at 12X
RITEKG05 / These were 100 stack for 40.50
TYG02
CMC MAG. E01 \
YUDEN000T02 / These can be burnt at 16X
MCC003 is Verbatim Datalife Plus DVD+R 8X
MCC02RG20 is Verbatim Datalife Plus DVD-R 8X
RICOHJPNR02 is RiTEK eXCELLENCE 8X DVD+R
RITEKG05 is PioDATA 8X MULTISPEED SUPER GRADE A (silver top, no other markings)
TYG02 is JVC DVD-R 8X
CMC MAG. E01 is Shintaro 8X DVD+R
YUDEN000T02 is "That's DVD+R for premium inspection 8X"
Now the HOW-TO:
I have used xcopy Platinum, but until I flashed my DVR 108 to this firmware it was non-functional with a dual layer burner. So I sometimes use this as well.
I have used DVD FAB, but found it didn't work everytime.
I currently use DVD Shrink 3.2 (freeware). However you'll find that if your I/O (ie HDD system is too slow) is slow, DVD Shrink will throttle you down to the rate the data is delivered at. If this happens, uninstall it, then delete the folder, then reinstall. The use of the firmware allows the display in Nero to show from 1x to 16x. Same in DVD Shrink. Normally you dont get these choices, if the media does not support them.
So for me it was a case of having the trial and error. However a combination of the above allows me to burn the ritek g-05 media at 12x or 16x all the time. In dvd shrink, it takes 18 minutes to encode and burn a backup of any 4.5 + gb dvd-video project..ahem..
Since this workstayion will install windows 2000 or xp pro in something like 8 min 25 secs, I'm sure that has a lot to do with the encoding rate, which truly blazes along.
Hope that helps,if you want to burn at 12 to 16x?? Other than that just direct everyone to the forums,
as the truth is out there...
But why is it that not a single one supports Mt. Reiner?
Its Mt. Ranier, and at the moment its pretty much vapourware. Check this out. (Not authoritative but well put).
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I was going to ask why none of these drives have Mt. Reiner.
There is at least one DVD burner that supports it: the Plextor PX-712 although thats only a 12x drive. Its also one of the few drives that support SATA. I've heard that the PX-716 that Anandtech couldn't get in time for their roundup will also have it. Should also have an 8MB buffer instead of the 2MB that all the other drives have, too. The price on Plextor drives is always a bit steep but they have the very best media support and features. Hope that helps.
--HC
So I'm jump'n up and down screaming show me the money.
The price of writable DVD's is much too high for me, I think I'll stick with my cheap-o CD-R's for now :D
58cents/each is too costly for you for a DVD+/-R? If you pay attention you can get this media localy during sales and such. Rather than 38cents/each for CD-R media.
58cents / 4.7gig = 12.3cents/gig
38cents / 650meg * ( 1gig/1024meg) = 59cents/gig
To be fair, let's look at the lowest price 50pack of CDs on this site. $8.00/50 = 16cents each
16cents / 650 * 1gig/1024) = 25.2cents/gig
Under these conditions, DVD-R is cheaper per gig than CD-r.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
I'm still trying to get my 8X to burn at 4X. I'm at my third stack of media (all from different manufacturers) and all I can do is 2.4X. Only coasters at 4X (except for Maxell media which I ran out of early on).
I had the same problem my self on my liteon 812s(832s rom). At first I plugged in my drive into my Promise UDMA/100 controler and the results were less than stellar. My burn speeds were limited to 2x and Nero would not fuction at all. I changed cables and plugged it into the motherboard and I've actually achieved 6x recording (1/2 @ 4x, 1/2 @ 8x). I can't say if it was the Promise controler or my crappy cables, but higher than 4x recording is possible.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
You seem to confuse region codes with CSS...
The one I used in 1990 was a Sony system that I was told cost $25K. That might have included the Compaq 486 that we hooked it up to (can't remember the speed at the moment).
:).
/s" as input and would generate .bat files as output. It sure beat doing it by hand.
The device was actually two boxes, both the size of two old full size CD players (a little taller than a 2U rackmounted server these days, but more square from a depth perspective). One of the boxes was an "encoder" and the other box was the one that actually did the writing (it had the tray).
The software was EXTEMELY archaic. You had all of these "virtual image" commands from the DOS prompt. When you created a directory, you had to say how large it was (in terms of kilobytes, not files). We figured out some basic formulae that worked pretty well for those values.
The user manual to the system was a complete joke. It was the worst translation job I had ever seen. We used to highlite sentences in it and challenge people to decrypt their meaning
I spent quite a bit of time making AWK scripts that would take the output of a "dir
Back then, we also would put signs up outside the lab room asking people not to run and walk softly, etc. We'd turn off all fans etc. in the room for fear of vibration damage. When media was that expensive, coasters really sucked!
I have the NEC 2500A in a bytecc 1394 case as does a good friend of mine. My house mate has the NEC 3500A in the 1394/usb version of the case. It was $40 on newegg. I only burt one coaster out of about 150 DVDs, but I think it was from my laptop messing up.
But when the top-rated dual-layer writer (NEC's ND-3500A) is only $68, dual-layer is a no-brainer. With cheap, serviceable drives for them, the media are sure to come down within a few months.
The only tools I've heard of for this are PlexTools (Plextor only) and Kprobe (Lite-On only), both for Windows only. One thing I've rarely seen mentioned is that these tools test the _reader_ as much as the writer. I have 2 Lite-On's; the first is a full size 52x CDR burner only, the second is a slim-line (laptop) combo CDR burner/DVD reader. The full size drive is picky about media (Off the top of my head, it loves Taiyo Yuden but Lead Data looks considerably dirtier).
The slimline combo drive results don't correlate at all. The average C1 errors are typically a tenth of the full size drive. I''ll theorize that the DVD reading head is better at reading the data that the now super cheapo CDR heads.
Finally sometimes the errors are random or weighted towards one area of the disk (the end usually). Sometimes however, theres a regular signal in the error graph (like a sawtooth pattern with even spacing). To me these indicate a mechanical interaction; the data's there, but the the errors go up WRT mechanical calibration differences between the reader and writer.
In my experience single samples of media often are representative of a brand of media, but error graphs are extremely specific to the model of reader; If you don't use the same reader with the same media, you might well assume the results to be near total noise.
Actually, it's Mt. Rainier.
Join the NFSNET. Our prime goal is making little numbers out of big ones. http://www.nfsnet.org/
To be blunt, Anandtech should stick to reviewing CPUs. In my experience, reviews of optical drives by those who don't specialize in them (such as Anandtech or Tom's) tend to be very poor. They look at the wrong things (put emphasis on things that are not important and not put emphasis on things that are) and their testing methods are not always accurate.
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For example, there are many who feel that the BenQ is actually a very excellent drive. The active OPC produces *better* results (not worse, as the reviewer thinks). Though slightly slower, it has the ability to overspeed media (burn 8x media at 16x, for example) with excellent quality. It also doesn't help that the review used a very outdated firmware for the BenQ review.
And to answer another question that someone had, none of these firmwares have DRM.
A better place for reviews:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/
And a review of this Anandtech review:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p
Actually, 1 DVD speed is pretty exactly equals to nine (9) CD speeds in data transfer rate and three (3) CD speeds in linear/rotational speed. IOW - you get 3x data speed from the same rotational speed. So - 16x DVD speed is 48x CD physical speed and we know how CDs start exploding at that (or a tad higher). OTOH - I read that DVDs are physically more robust (2 plastic layers instead of 1 for instance) but I wouldn't trust that. Also - 16x is about 22 megs/second (at max of course). I guess many users still don't have HDDs capable of providing that when translated to file system speed. I find 8x DVDs to be the sweet spot still - fast and _quiet_(!). Awaiting for cheap dual layer media.
I'm curious..
What kind of restrictions would DRM place on DVD burning? How can the burning hardware tell whether it's burning copyright material or not?
Yes, sites like CDRLabs, cdfreaks and CDRinfo should have better technical reviews. However, Anand has a shootout of several drives which makes it easy to compare them.