Infiniti 16x DVD-R media review

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Posted on 5 Apr 2005 by SirQUK

Conclusion

The MCC030RG20 dye code used for the Infiniti 16x DVD-R branded media seems to be carrying on the tradition that Mitsibushi Chemicals have established when supplying companies such as Verbatim and now Infiniti with their media. As this is the first time we have reviewed any Infiniti media in such detail we welcomed the amount of media sent. 50 pieces enabled us to carry out extra tests such as recording 5 pieces to the the Plextor PX-716 with both Power enabled and disabled to see which one performed best as well as the usual 5 pieces per media for all review recording devices.

It also enabled us to test 5 pieces of media on the BenQ 1620 with both firmware versions B7T9 and B7U9 to see if similar recording speed issues such as we published in our Media forum for other 16x-R media that we had experienced with the B7U9 firmware.

"It is CDR-Zone.coms opinion that the more media we recieve the more we can test with and hopefully the truer the over all reflection of a media can be given by us."

During this review we encountered three pieces of media over the two spindles that seem to contain a very small speckled effect on them, one of these being the very last piece we used during testing. Infiniti have been contacted over this and hopefully it can looked into for future spindles. These 'speckles' could be put down to bad packing or movement in transport where some pieces of media had rubbed together - maybe they even slipped by the quality check. By our own grading standards 47 out of 50 pieces where of very good quality to the naked eye and over 100 pieces maybe we could give this a consistency score of 94/100 which we feel is inline with the average quality of spindled media compared to the Jewel cased versions.

We where extremely satisfied with the test results on both of our NEC DVD writers has experienced in the Verbatim review but what really pleased us was how well the Plextor PX-716 did with its Power Rec function disabled.

"Power Rec is there to stop the quality of a media going out of standard and Plextor do recommend you leave it enabled for maximum writing quality."

With Power Rec enabled we did not manage to get a 16x recording with 5 pieces tested and the difference in recording time between the having it enabled/disabled was 35 seconds with the resulting quality and transfer tests we did in the early stages of this review showed us very similar results. On this quality of media we feel you can leave the Power Rec function disabled and it is those results that we have shown in this review.

The NEC 3500 AG recorded this media in the quickest time of 5 mins 48 secs with all the other 16x capable review recording devices managing very respectable times of around 6 minutes and the Liteon-It 1653S being quite slow at nearly 8 minutes for a 12x recording but the resulting quality was very acceptable.

While looking at the results from the Disc Quality tests you may notice rather alarmingly low scores on some results and may be wondering how come CDR-Zone.COM are giving the Infiniti 16x DVD-R media a good rating. This can best be explained by first explaining how CD Speed comes to its Quaity Score. It is based soley on the maximum reported PIF errors. So if single spikes similar to what have been reported by the Liteon-It 1653S whilst scanning are found the Disc Quality score really does take a beating. Although the Quality score has to be based on something, it does not take into account the known bug in the MediaTek chipset used by the this particular Liteon and hopefully the transfer and playback tests are proof enough that these single spikes really do not effect the final recording. If you ignore this 'bug' and remove these spikes from the equation, the Quality scores would be in the 90's.

For those with BenQ or Philips writers that support the Disc Quality test feature in CD Speed scan the recordings of the Infiniti 16x DVD-R media from the NEC and Pioneer writers, this bug is not apparent and the spikes will not be seen. We did also scan our recordings using the Plextor PX-716A during testing and again the spikes did not appear. We feel the above statement to be a true reflection of our experiences with Liteon scanning. The Liteon was used as its scanning method most closely matches official standards that would be used in an industry CAT scanner which is what the industry uses to determine similar errors as the Disc Quality test in CD Speed shows at an acceptable 4x scan speed. We could have used the Plextor or the BenQ scanning results, but to try and keep review consistency we stayed with the Liteon results which we hope our readers are becoming very familiar with.

Note on Verification tests:

We will only show sector scanning and verification results if the recorded media had problems resulting in errors being found. If you dont see a verification test in our new style of media reviews then the you can safely assume none where found during our tests.

Judging by the results of our extensive tests, 16x seems a good optimised recording speed for this media with all our 16x capable review recording devices under the tested firmwares. It achieved very good quality on the Plextor PX-716 with Power rec disabled but we must make our readers aware that our particular BenQ 1620A would not record these with its lastest firmware B7U9 but did achieve it with Higher PIE errors than we would liked to have seen with firmware version B7T9 - we hope this will be fixed in a newer firmware.

Please feel free to talk about the review or your good/bad results with this brand of media in our Media Forum

About Infiniti:

Infiniti is amongst Europes leading suppliers of optical storage media. Established in 1996, the Infiniti range has achieved a strong reputation by only ever using the very best manufacturers. It is Infiniti goal to bring high quality CD & DVD's to the market before our competitors, as demonstrated recently by the launch of our 16x media and consistency is as important to us as quality. Ourcustomers know exactly what they are getting when they buy Infiniti. We will never compromise our values for the sake of cheap pricing.

The digital future is in your hands.

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