Disc Quality tests
Having recorded the maximum amount possible onto the BenQ 16x DVD+R media at its rated recording speed of 16x to all available review drives with Nero CD-DVD Speed, the next stage of this review will concentrate on Disc Quality.
The first part of the Quality tests involved scanning all the pieces of BenQ 16x DVD+R media recorded on each review recording device with the Plextor PX-760A Premium using Plextools XL Q-Check tests to find out how many potential SUM8 (PI Errors) and Sum1 (PI Failures) a playback device would have to correct whilst playing or transferring the recorded media. This also enabled me to obtain which of the 5 recorded pieces of media most matched the average result. The average disc shown below was then subjected to a Beta and Jitter test. Although more tests are available I believe I am showing the most common factors in overall disc quality.
"As the whole purpose of reviewing media for our readers is to try and obtain a good idea of the average quality of a given media, I have come up with this new methodoligy for determing these factors. These are my own personal views and by no means as accurate as an Industry C.A.T.S scan for measuring the quality of a disc but I believe I have come as close as I possibly can do with the equipment available to the average user."
I will expect that not every piece of media is capable of producing this
with such influences as excepted media/ hardware tolerance levels having an impact but I will expect the results not to consistently stray too far from set standards for a recommended media. It is also the sum of all tests that I use to determine the overall quality of the media and not one test alone.
The less Sum1 and Sum8 that are found on a media then in theory the better the chances are of good long term playback for this media without data loss becoming a significant problem. Thats not to say that recordings with high Sum1 and Sum8 levels will be bad - the error correction logic of DVD playback and transfer devices are capable of correcting many potential errors. There is just more chance they might be affected by such influences as dirt or fingerprints. Different scanning devices scan slightly differently but basic guidelines using a Plextor drive are that Sum8 should not exceed 280 for sustained periods and Sum1 should not exceed 4 for sustained periods. You don't want to see any reported POF's (Parity Outer Failures) as these normally should result in uncorrectable errors!
Jitter and beta must remain within set specifications for a Plextor scan (Beta should not exceed +15 or -5 for sustained periods with the more level the result the better). Jitter should stay within the lower half of the graph for best results. Reading devices with good jitter correction ability should be able to read higher reported levels better than those that don't.
Overview of Disc Quality results:
This is the part of the review which I was most interested in after sourcing this media. On the front of the spindle as mentioned on page 1 of this review, BenQ claim that its Picfect technology will ensure low amounts of potential Errors (measured as Sum8 and Sum1 in this review ). The Pioneer DVR 110 under firmware 1.39 could arguably have produced the best overall results but I couldn't class any of the recordings as poor or bad on any of the used recording devices. Results from both spindle A and B looked very similar to each other also. Although the review recording devices may not of recorded both spindles at equal speeds, the quality was of very equal quality on a consistent basis.
When checking the Beta and Jitter tests results, there is a lot of variation between recordings on individual recording devices and also a slight variation between both spindle A and B. When 16x recording speeds where achieved on the NEC ND-4570A, Jitter got high towards the outer edge of the recording, where recordings on the Plextor PX-760A Premium, LG GSA 4166B and Pioneer DVDR 110 offered very similar results dependant on which spindle was used. The most pleasing of the results came from the Philips DVDR1660P1, which exhibited very good and low levels of jitter throughout the recording. It is interesting that Solidburn was enabled by default for this recorder and it really did seem to work well when compared to other recording devices results in this part of the review.
In the extra tests carried out on this media, I found that leaving Solidburn disabled for known media on the Philips DVDR1660P1 resulted in higher reported Jitter values. You can expect a quicker recording time but not as favourable Jitter. With the Plextor PX-760A Premium, a new strategy was created in the Auto Strategy database using the full burn (destructive ) mode. This new stategy was then used to see if any improvement in speed or quality was noted. I found during these tests that using the default recording strategy in place worked better than forcing the creation of a new one under present firmware 1.01. You could of course disable Power record altogether and get 6 minute recording times quality cannot be guaranteed.
"Please note that you will need a compatible drive for doing these scans such as the Plextor PX-760A Premium I have used in this review for making my decisions on the potential quality of this media. Other drives you could try include BenQ, Liteon, NU TECH and ASUS branded writers, but only the Plextor drives with Q check functions offer the full range of tests."
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