Available speeds and recording tests
VSO Inspector from VSO Software was used for gathering our information about the available recording speeds this Ricoh 16x DVD+R media could be recorded at on our review recording devices. This media information utility allows us to easily see the rated speeds available for the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media according to the hardware used during this review as wel as the full Media ID code for the media.
As mentioned on page one of this review, the hardware used for these tests consisted of the NEC 3500AG, NEC ND-3520, Pioneer DVR 108, BenQ 1620A and the Liteon-IT 1653S, all of which are maximum recording speeds of 16x.
Once the maximum available recording speeds for each device had been discovered using VSO Inspector CD Speed from Ahead software was used to record a test DVD of maximum capacity to see if the review recording devices achieved their maximum recording speed. The DVD's created with here with CD Speed will be used later on during the Disc Quality, Transfer and any required Verification tests.
All the review drives saw the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media has capable of recording at its rated speed of 16x ( with the help of modified firmware from Liggy and Dee-27 on the NEC drives ) except for Pioneer DVD 108 with firmware 1.18. The Pioneer reported a maximum recording speed of only 4x which is what both the NEC ND 3520 and 3500 AG reported under official firmware.
As a result of only being to record at a maximum speed of 4x we have with held the results of the Pioneer DVR 108 until a new official firmware is released that supports the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media at its rated speed ( or at least gets some where near ).
There really can be no point to doing a recording at a 400% under speed in CDR-Zones opinion.
Create CD Tests at rated speed The Create CD function from CD Speed was used to record the maximum amount of data possible to the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media at its maximum available recording speed on all review drives. 
BenQ DW 1620A with firmware version B7T9 |
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LiteOn 1653S with firmware version CS0G |
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NEC ND-3520 with firmware version LDv1.U7 |
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NEC 3500 AG with firmware version LDv2.TB |
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Overview of recording times:
The BenQ DW 1620A took 5 minutes 54 seconds to record the maximum amount possible to the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media.
The NEC 3500 AG took 6 minutes 03 seconds to record the maximum amount possible to the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media.
The NEC ND 3520 took 6 minutes 04 seconds to record the maximum amount possible to the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media.
The Liteon-IT 1653S took 6 minutes 15 seconds to record the maximum amount possible to the Ricoh 16x DVD+R media.
The BenQ DW 1620A reported the fasted recording time closely followed by the NEC 3500 AG and the NEC ND-3520. The Liteon-IT achieved the slowest recording time but it was only 20 seconds slower than the BenQ DW 1620A at its maximum 16x recording speed.
Of course achieving the fastest recording speed does not always mean you achive the best quality recording and it must be pointed out that most users would prefer a lightly slower recording time if it meant a higher quality recording. Please read on to see what our other tests discovered about the recorded media during our Disc Quality and Transfer tests and wether or not using unoffical or modified firmwares on our NEC drives produced any good/bad results.
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