Available speed and recording tests
VSO Inspector from VSO Software was used for gathering my information about the available recording speeds the Verbatim 8x DVD+R Double layer media on our review recording devices. This media information utility allows the user to easily see the rated speeds available for the Verbatim 8x DVD+R Double layer media according to the hardware used during this review. It can also tell the user the full Media ID code for any given media. 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 here in this first test with CD Speed will be used later on during the Disc Quality, Transfer and Verification tests. Tests carried out included the recording of 5 pieces of media to each drive to gain an average recording. Due to the limited supply of this media I have not carried out any extra tests outside of the drives default settings.
The 5 pcs of media per drive used in this review include 1 pc that was used to let the drive learn the media.
All of the recording devices used in this review supported the Verbatim 8x DVD+R Double layer media at its rated speed of 8x. In the case of the Plextor PX 755-A, a maximum speed of 10x was possible. It is plain that the record Verbatim have for good rated speed support is still there.
Under default settings, the Plextor PX-755A recorded the Verbatim 8x DVD+R Double layer media in the fastest average time of 15 minutes 02 seconds with 10x possible to some parts of the disc. The BenQ DW 1640 offered a very good speed of 15 minutes and 41 seconds at a speed of 8x while the Pioneer DVR 110 managed a relatively slow 8x recording speed of 17 minutes and 5 seconds. The NEC 4551A proofed to be one of the slowest of all tested recording devices, consistently achieving 8x recording times of about 18 minutes and 34 seconds. The slowest recording time was achieved by the Philips DVDR1660P1 with only the second layer obtaining the rated 8x recording speed to the Verbatim 8x DVD+R Double Layer media. So all recording devices achieved the rated speed of 8x for at least 50% of the disc although there was quite a marked difference in recording times.
Overview of recording times
These are the recordings that come closest to being the average recording times in each of the review drives used in this review.
| | Writer used: | Average recording time | | PX-755A [Retail] Plextor (firmware: 1.01) | 15:02 | | | DW 1640 [OEM] BenQ (firmware: BSOB) | 15:41 | | | DVR 110 [OEM] Pioneer (firmware: 1.39) | 17:56 | | | ND-4551A [OEM] NEC (firmware: 1.07) | 18:34 | | | DVDR1660P1 [Retail] Philips (firmware: P1.3) | 19:35 | |
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"Of course achieving the fastest recording speed does not always mean you achieve the best quality recording as we will be quick to point out to our readers. There is no point in having the fastest recording if the quality suffers! Hardware manufacturers do sometimes slow media down in firmwares or limit the max speed for each particular piece of media recorded to achieve the best quality possible and prevent a bad recording."
Please read on to see what our other tests discovered about the recorded media during our Disc Quality, Transfer and Playback tests.
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