Traxdata 16x DVD-R media review

Conclusion

Before we give our final thoughts here is a brief explanation of of exactly how many pieces of media where used on each review recording device as well as why we chose our particular Disc Quality review structure:

During this review, as is now standard for all CDR-Zone.Com reviews, 5 pieces of the Traxdata 16x DVD-R media where recorded to each drive, 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 is how best to get a good reflection of well a particular drive/media combination works.

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 Traxdata 16x DVD-R media as possible. As mentioned in the Disc Quality section, the Plextor does allow us a more indepth look at each individual recording. The Liteon results with KProbe in conjuction with the Transfer tests are still in our opinion a very valid indication of a good/bad recording but 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 recomended 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.

Although not every used review recording device supported this media at its maximum rated speed of 16x, at least 12x was achievable with default firmware. The NEC ND 3540 is capable of 16x recording speeds to the Traxdata 16x DVD-R media if you use an edited write strategy from Liggy and Dee-27. This 'enhanced' strategy ( results available here ) showed 16x was more than achievable and we would hope that if the consistency of this media remains good then NEC may support 16x in future firmwares. The Pioneer DVR 109 XL has some work to do for better support and was the only drive we could not test at 16x. Like with a lot of high speed DVD-R media at present, the Pioneer is recording with a lean to the recording pits which will only increase the likelyhood of issues in the future.

Something that always pleases us is that 2 of the 5 pieces of Traxdata 16x DVD-R media recorded with the Plextor 716A using its Power Record feature actually made 16x. Anyone who has used this featuire on their Plextor will know that it can refuse to record even the best brands of media at 16x without slowing it down at any given point. this feature protects against bad high speed recordings is is recommended to be left on. We did try a few pieces with this option disabled, but as always, results are too incosistent to recommend. leave the Power Record option enabled and recordings should be within set specifications

As we could find no visible defects such as dark spots of dye, scratches or general 'blotchiness' at the areas where the Plextor PX-716A's Power Record feature slowed down we can maybe deduce that the Plextor felt that not all the pieces of tested media where good enough in its eyes for 16x recording ( again no media is safe here ).

Plextor owners will know all about the Power Rec feature but in a nutshell it takes the information it finds when doing tracking and focus tests during calibration at the beginning of the recording and uses that information to decide on the optimun recording strategy and is per media specific. Recordings with this option enabled are like snowflakes with no two recordings being the same, but they all share the same goal of the Plextor trying to record as perfect a recording pit as possible and a more detailed explanation can be found Here at the Plextor website( Abode PDF reader required ). Plextor will always advise leaving this function enabled.

We got the expected results from our Liteon 1673S tests with some very puzzling and unlikeable reported beta results. Beta results should not exceed +15% or -5% for a very good result bur reported levels are +20% and -10% aree usually still very readable and do not have a big impact on the long term quality of the media. The Liteon 1673S results with firmware JS0C where below both these lower limits with reported levels as low as -12.8% but for the mostpart it did not exceed -10%. This is typical of a 16x recording on this drive and something we hope Liteon can fix in future firmwares. Beta is not the most important factor in achieving a good recording but any out of specification levels can only increase the likelyhood of issues further down the line.

The BenQ DW 1640 under firmware BSLB gave some very nice results overall and is a drive we would quite happily record to this media with and if you compare it with the results from the BenQ DW 1620, we can see that there really isn't too much difference in the recording quality of these recording devices with the Traxdata 16x DVD-R media. The BenQ DW 1640 however, does have the advantage of Soildburn technology to try and learn variable batches of media. If your results with the default settings on the DW 1640 don't match ours, you may have a variable version and the Solidburn Technology will help to record this media with more sucess. If the Traxdata 16x DVD-R version of the RitekF1 dye is as consistent as the batch we recieved, this should not be needed.

In summing up we found during this review of the Traxdata 16x DVD-R media that attaining 16x was possible to nearly all review recording devices with some very good quality results on all drives but we would like to see the maximum rated speed of this media supported by both the NEC and Pioneer recording devices. We would also like to take this chance to ask Ritek one question - please can you keep future production of the Traxdata 16x DVD-R media to at least this standard as it is the A grade version of the RitekF1 16x DVD-R dye.

About Conrexx/Ritek Europe:

Conrexx Technology B.V. is the European subsidiary of RITEK Corporation, the world's largest optical media manufacturer. In Europe, RITEK markets its products with the Traxdata brand name. Traxdata has become a leading brand in optical storage media, selling more than 35 million units of CD/DVD-R a month. The Traxdata product portfolio includes: CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, Flash Memory products, compatible ink cartridges and portable storage appliances.

Visit www.traxdata.com for more information.

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