DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL writing tests
As with our Dvd Media Reviews, the tests we will carry out on the selection of recordable media will include producing a graph of the recording speed using CD Speed from ahead software. Next we will measure for potential amounts of PI error and PI failure values using KProbe and our Liteon 1673S and gain an average recording. This should give us a basic idea of potential errors these devices would need to correct to obtain good playback. We will also do tests for potential jitter/beta using a combination of PXScan and our Plextor PX-716A with the average recording from the KProbe tests. This should also give a basic idea of the shape of the recorded pits with the TA tests.
OK, it's not an industry standard CATS report by any means but it will give us a very good idea of the quality achieved by the NEC ND-4550 with firmware 1.06 and the recordable media used during this review. A brief explantion of each test is detailed below:
PIE: Indicates the number of Parity Inner Errors and should not exceed 280 with single spikes above this level usually ignorable.
PIF (Parity Inner Fail): indicates the number of PI Errors and should not exceed 4 with single spikes above this level usually ignorable.
Beta: the beta value is an indication of how well the recorded signal pits and lands are in balance. A horizontal line would mean perfect balance and would give the best readability result.
Jitter: this function shows the average jitter rate in the 3T~11T range. A lower jitter will give better results for readability and less chance on (un)correctable errors.
The existence of PI errors on a DVD is perfectly normal, since they can be corrected by the drive's ECC logic. However, these numbers should not be too high since they can create uncorrectable errors when the disc's playability decreases (for instance, by means of dust, fingerprints, scratches, etc.) In case of POF, there is a chance that the data will become unreadable. In order to achieve reliable test results, independent of the incluence of the drive’s performance, this test will be performed at the lowest speed.
As a guideline a good disc in our opinion will display much lower levels than specification set out. PXScan will show us if any levels are out of specification by showing the results in red. Please remember that media can vary from batch to batch and your results may not always match ours. We have tried to show results from different brands using the same media id codes. We hope this gives you a good idea of how certian brands may vary even if they use media from the same manufacturers as other brands.
While checking our K-Probe scans you may notice some single high spikes over where reported by our Liteon 1673S. The Liteon range of DVD Writers are renowned for finding single spikes such as these and we have learned to ignore them if all other tests indicate a good recording has been achieved. However, on some lower grade media these single spikes can come together with bad jitter, beta or recorded pits and cause issues that will impact on the quality of the recording.
All tests in this section of the review are completed using the drives maximum recording speed for any given media. The firmware used for all these recordings on the NEC ND-4550 with the latest available firmware 1.06 available from the link on page one of this review ( at the bottom of the 'other' section the specifications table ).
The DVD+R media support was very good overall with all tested brands of media attaining at least some form of good support from the NEC ND-4550A with some expections detailed later on in this review. During testing one brand of 16x+R media could not be recorded at its maximum rated speed, this being the Ridisc Purple which had a maximum supported speed of 12x..
So where media quality allowed we got some very acceptable recordings with the highlight being Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R having a maximum supported speed of 16x. With very nice results for a 100% overspeed we feel a lot of 16x media could only wish it was this well supported.
Our DVD+R Double Layer and DVD+RW tests brought out some mixed results. The highlights for sure are the 8x recording speed of the Verbatim 2.4x Double Layer by default in the firmware. Onto the DVD+RW results, rated speed support for most types of tested media was found during our tests although problems where found. The Traxdata, Verbatim and Memorex 4x DVD+RW media recorded with very good quality over a succession of rewrite cycles.
One final test we carried out on the NEC ND-4550 in this section of the review was to see if it was possible to over burn DVD+R media past its rated capacity of 4482 MB. As you can see, according to Nero CD Speed, the NEC ND-4550 is unable to overburn to DVD+R media. Although not always a good idea, sometimes just getting that extra 10-20 MB out of your media can save some headaches such as recompressing,leaving out of files or spanning across 2 DVDs.
A lot of media used in this review has been reviewed indepth on a number of popular DVD Writing devices in our Media Review Section. Please have a browse through these reviews to see how well the NEC ND-4550 did compared to our other tested writing devices.
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