Disc Quality Tests
Having recorded the maximum amount of data possible to the Samsung 8x+R media at its maximum available recording speeds to our review drives, the next stage of our review will concentrate on Disc Quality.
Has it support the most drives for Disc Quality tests, CD Speed was used to check the media for any errors or unexceptably high levels of Jitter.
"Please note that you will need a compatible drive for doing these scans such as the BenQ 1620 we have used. Other drives you could try include Lite-On/ NU TECH and ASUS branded writers."
"The less PI/PIF errors that are found on a media then in theory the longer the archival life of the media without data loss becoming a problem.
Jitter under 15% will give a good indication of a well balanced disc that does not 'shake' too much at any speed during recording.
Our chosen scan speed was 8x on the Benq 1620 with firmware B7M9. We have found that it gives very comparable scanning results no matter what scan speed is chosen and shows all the required information for our tests.
CD Speed Disc Quality CD Speed from Ahead software has a Disc Quality test which can give us an indication of how well the media has been recorded. We used it on the media recorded on all review drives. An explanation of the results is included with each screenshot. 
BenQ DW 1620A with firmware version B7M9 |
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Pioneer DVR 108 with firmware version 1.14 |
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NEC 3500AG with firmware version 2.08 |
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LiteOn 1633S with firmware version BS0K |
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Overview of Disc Quality tests:
The Disc Quality tests told us that all writers recorded the Samsung 8x+R media very well at its rated speed of 8x. The recorded media had no areas of the disc that would suggest we would see any problems during transfer or Video playback tests. The NEC 3500 and BenQ 1620 recorded the Samsung media most impressively and we feel there is room for some overspeeding to this media on these writers.
Understanding the results:
As long as PI levels stay under 300 then the recorded disc should be readable in any device at speeds above 6x. Single 'Spikes' above this limit can be ignored. Reported PI levels of upto 1000 can still be read by some devices, but we would question their long term archival life.
When reading the CDSpeed Disc Quality results for PIF errors, please pay special notice to the green shaed area on the bottom graph which we have nicknamed the 'safety zone'. As long as the PIF errors stay within this green shaded area then the disc is perfectly readable also with again single 'Spikes' ignorable but sustained areas above the safety zone would often reflect as skipping on DVD Video playback.
Different drives scan differently but the green area is always a good indication of maximum quality.
That said these are to be used as a basic guideline to the quality of the recorded media only and our scans at 8x may be considered as such. DVD players only read at 1x whilst playing a movie.
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