CDR-Zone.COM and Big Pockets present the Mirror Platinum 4X DVD+R review.

home - news

Posted on Wednesday 26th of May, 2004 at 12:48 by SirQUK
Source:

In association with Big Pockets we present the Mirror Platinum 4X DVD+R Media review.

Features
Packaging and presentation
DVD-R information
Burning
Verification and error checking
Conclusion

Many thanks must to goto Big Pockets for sending us this media to review for our CDR-Zone readers. In this review we get to look at the 'Mirror Platinum' 4x DVD+R media.

"Mirror Platinum media offer a good compromise between price and compatibility. Be warned though, not all DVD+/-RW drives will write to this media at the time of this review being published."

Features:

Pack Size: Pack of 100 +R format
Manufacturer: Mirror
Lead In Info: VDSPMSAB 001
Top Surface: Colour White Branded
Writing Surface: Colour Purple
Max Write Speed: 4x
Max Storage Data: 4.7Gb
Max Storage Time: 120min Single Sided

Packaging and presentation:

Our test media arrived in a double DVD case ensuring no damage could be done to the discs, although they are normally sold in spindles of 50 or 100.

The top writing surface of the disc is white with the Mirror logo and looks very eyecatching.

The recording surface is a dark purple and curiously carries a dye code of VDSPMSAB 001 according to VSO Inspector, DVDInfo, Nero CD Speed and our recording software.

DVD+R information:

In these tests the software used for all the recording where CopyToDVD 3 and DVD Decrypter 3.2.2.0.

VSO softwares new Media information utility - VSO Inspector was used for gathering our information about the inserted media, DVDInfoPro, CDCheck, and Nero CDSpeed were used to check the recorded DVD for errors, and the hardware used was the Pioneer 107 and Plextor 708 DVD+/-RW drives.

As the above screenshot from VSO Inspector shows, the Media Code/Manufacturer ID of 'VDSPMSAB 001', which is the id code used by Info Smart. Info Smart are building a good reputation for making value for money media that works on many DVD writers.

Nero CDSpeed comfirming the media code:

Available burning speeds in our Pioneer 107 showed 2.4x and 4x recording available but unlike the Ridat a 4X DVD+R we reviewed, these will not record at 8x if placed in our Plextor 708.

Capacity of the disc was 4.38 GB and compatiability problems should not be present with both PC and newer standalone DVD Players. Readers must be aware that there are some known playback problems on older standalone DVD players with the DVD+R format recordable discs.

Burning:

The standard CDR-ZOne.COM recording tests where used to test the DVD-R Media at various recording speeds, these being CopyToDVD from VSO-software was used to burn a Video DVD and Data DVD from my Hard drive with the Pioneer 107. DVDDecrypter was used to burn an ISO image of the same Video DVD on the Plextor 708.The entire process should take between 14 and 15 minutes to complete at 4x.

The above picture shows CopyToDVD burning the media at 4x.

The above picture shows DVDDecrypter burning an ISO image at 4x.

Verification and error checking:

VSO Inspector was used to check the recorded DVD for any bad sectors that might be present. As the screnshot below shows, no bad sectors where found during the scan:

To check for any errors on the recorded DVD, DVDInfoPro's "CD\DVD error test" utility and CDCheck Media error check function were used to Verify the recorded Media. The tests show that no read errors were reported.

DVDInfoPro reporting no errors on checking recorded media:

CDCheck reporting no errors on checking recorded media:

A second test was carried out to verify the DVD-R file structure. Both DVDinfoPro and CDChecks "Compare" utilities compared the files on the DVD+R to the original source files on the Hard Disk.

DVDInfoPro reported no errors with its compare utility:

CDCheck reported no errors with its compare utility:

As shown in the images above you can see the files on the DVD-R are identical to to the source files on the Hard Disk.

To check the playback, the same playing tests has used on our Verbatim Movie Reel review where carried out.. Both the software DVD Players played the DVD without error and so did the Bush standalone, but skip problems where noted on our Cyberhome 512, which was inline with other DVD+R media we had used on it, as it is one of the older models.

Conclusion:

The Mirror Platinum 4x DVD+R media burnt perfectly at 4x using both CopyToDVD and DVDDecrypter, recording either data DVD or Video ISO images on our Pioneer 107, and also had no problem recording at 4X on our Plextor 708. These discs wil not burn at 8X like the Ridat a 4x DVD+R with the Ricoh dye. No Errors where found on the Mirror Platinum Media used during these tests.

The writing surface, was clean looking with plenty of room for writing multiple lines. The Mirror Platinum media also passed the verification tests we used in this review, meaning no errors where found and we had a reliable backup of our impotant records.

Note:

"It has come to our attention from various sources that users with LiteonIt or NEC DVDRW drives should think very carefully about using this media in their drives, as it can cause major problems and here at CDR-Zone.COM we would not recommended them for use with these drives - maybe a newer firmware upgrade will resolve this issue, although they did write perfectly on both our Pioneer 107 and Plextor 708 DVD+/-RW drives at 4x."

Tested on: