Disc Quality Tests
Having recorded the maximum amount of data possible to the Verbatim 16x+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 although upto 20% can be ok.
Our chosen scan speed was 8x on the Benq 1620 with firmware B7P9. 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. 
Pioneer DVR 108 with firmware version 1.14 |
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LiteOn 1633S with firmware version BS0K |
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BenQ DW 1620A with firmware version B7P9 |
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NEC 3500 AG with firmware version 2.18 |
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Overview of Disc Quality tests:
The Disc Quality tests told us that all writers recorded the Verbatim 16x+R media very well at its maximum rated speed supported by the drives. The NEC 3500 and BenQ 1620 both recorded the Verbatim media most impressively with very low errors reported.
The Liteon-IT although achieving the fastest recording time during our tests showed areas of high PIF and Jitter and slowdowns in transferring of data might be noticed with this recordingg if transfered at high speeds.
The Pioneer DVR 108, although not recording the media at its maximum rated speed, did produce a very good result in our Disc Quality tests and we feel it is only amatter of a new firmware to make the 16x a reality.
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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