Conclusion
During this review, as is now standard for all CDR-Zone.Com reviews, 5 pieces of the
BeAll Best 16x DVD-R media where recorded to each drive used. This is with the exception of the Plextor PX-716 which had 10 pieces recorded to ( 5 with Power Rec enabled/disabled ), and only the recording which most represents the average recording to each drive is shown in this review. We feel this is the best way to get a good reflection on well a particular drive/media combination works.
We also tested 5 pieces of media on the BenQ DW 1620A. Using an edited write strategy swap, we tried to achieve a more favourable result. More on this later on in the conclusion
We have also introduced a new way of doing our Disc Quality tests to try get as much accurate information about the recordings to the BeAll Best 16x DVD-R media as possible. As mentioned in the Disc Quality section, the Plextor allows us a more indepth look at each individual recording. The Liteon results with KProbe in conjuction with the Transfer tests are, in our opinion, still a very valid indication of a good/bad recording. However, we do get a lot more detail about just how good/bad the recording was if using the advanced tests available on the Plextor PX-716A.
If you are to carry out any of the list of available tests we do highly recomend the use of PXScan which can conduct all of these tests in one go and display the results in an easy to understand format. The tests at the recommended settings can take over 1 hr 25 minutes to complete but it is much more convenient and just as accurate as doing all the tests individually in Plextor own software - Plex Tools Pro.
We found the BeAll 16x DVD-R media to be very consistent with its claim of being a reliable and cost effective format. All of our review recording devices with the exception of the Liteon-IT 1673S achieved 16x recording and even the Plextor PX-716A produced a 16x recording to two out of five tested pieces with the Power rec feature enabled. Any Plextor users will understand how rare this achievement is with 16x recordings on this drive with Power Rec enabled. During tests with the Power Rec feature disabled very contrasting results where noted with some very good and some very bad discs recorded. Therefore we recommend leaving the Power Rec feature enabled for this media.
We also tried to edit the recording strategy for the BenQ DW 1620 with firmware B7V9 to see if we could achieve a more favourable result. Sometimes the DVD-R write strategies on the BenQ drive can be improved but try as we might, the default strategy seemed to be the best for this media under present firmware.
2 out of 35 pieces tested during this review had visible defects noted. These seemed to be consistent with a rubbing effect whilst on the spindle and although not welcomed this does seem to be what we coming to expect from spindled media. Bad quality control or bad shipping and handling? - we are still not sure and would welcome any feedback from users of this media to see if they have experienced anything similar.
The Disc Quality tests carried out showed quite high total PI Failure on nearly all of the tested media but nothing high enough to effect playback or transfer. Again very much inline with a cost effective media. Now we don't have an aging room or time machine to proof/disproof the 100 year archival claim but certainly a lot of the discs where of very good quality. But there where 4 or 5 recordings, especially on the NEC NC-3520 that exhibited enough problems to suggest they may not last the distance.
Hopefully after reading through the various tests we have conducted during the course of this review, a good understanding of the BeAll 16x DVD-R media has been achieved for our readers. Good compatibility at rated speed as well as good playback results where achieved even if the total reported errors where higher than we would come to expect from such media as Taiyo Yuden or Verbatims 16x DVD-R media we have reviewed.
It certainly lives up it its cost effective claims and offers low cost 16x recording with a good degree of quality overall. We have seen much worse 16x media sold under better known branding brands achieving lesser results in tests and if all spindles of BeAll 16x DVD-R media are of similar quality then buyer confidence should be good. That said BeAll developers have produced media in the past that is known to have variance and we await more testing inhouse with different batches of this media before we can fully recomend it as consistent media.
Of course we will make our readers aware of any variance in this media via our media forum.
| Review system specifications | | Processor: | AMD XP 64, 3400 Clawhammer | | Memory: | 1GB Kingston Hypermax | | Hard drives: | 2x Maxtor 250 GB with 16 MB cache cache | | Motherboard: | Epox 8KDA series | | Operating System: | Windows XP Professional | | Software used in review: | VSO CopyToDVD, CD Speed, PxScan and K-Probe | | Hardware used in review: | Pioneer 109XL, NEC ND-3540, NEC ND-3520, Plextor PX-716A, BenQ DW 1620A. Liteon 1673 |
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