The next generation of High Speed burners are out but we still have little or no 16X speed DVD-R media,. There has been a few samples kicking about but none commercially available although we are promised that supplies will be available by the end of the month. ( we shall just have to wait & see). In the meantime I will test a couple of the latest 16X burners to see how they perform.

First test with the new Datawrite Transprint 8X speed DVD-R lead in code MCC 02RG20

00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 85 0D 10 .L...@....R.....
88 9A 80 00 03 4D 43 43 20 30 32 00 04 52 47 32 .....MCC 02..RG2
30 20 20 00 05 88 80 00 00 00 02 00 06 09 0D 13 0 .............
87 78 80 00 07 88 80 00 00 00 00 00 08 05 15 0D .X..............
10 0B 0A 00 09 98 08 0F 0B 78 88 00 0A 80 00 00 .........X......
00 00 10 00 0B 07 19 15 A7 88 75 00 0C 99 BC AA ..........U.....
A2 20 22 00 0D 00 00 D0 00 00 00 00 0E 09 00 00 . ".............

Pioneer DVR-109 v1.17	NEC ND-3520A v1.04
First test is a Data Test burn with Nero C D/DVD speed and both drives burnt at Z-CLV with the Pioneer starting at 6x speed and quickly increasing to 8x speed with a large number of OPC points towards the end of the burn	The NEC does not reach the full 8x speed until half way into the burn with fewer OPC points. The time taken for the burn is 8:11 for the Pioneer and 9:52 for the NEC the Pioneer being the fastest at 8x speed burning by 1:41
PI errors are just over 20 at the beginning of the scan dropping to about 10 at the 6x to 8x speed transition point remaining stable at about 10 up to just over 3gig where there is a gradual increase up to 40 at the end of the scan. This is a good result for this media & drive. Jitter average is 11% and a fairly constant scan, with PIF virtually non-existent Click on the scan to see the difference in the old firmware 1.09	Pi errors start at just over 80 and remain at this level for the 4x & 6X burn areas with a dramatic drop at the 6x - 8x transition and remain low up to the 3.5 gig point when it starts to rise reaching about 160 at the outer edge . Jitter is higher during the first part of the scan dropping down at the 6x - 8x transition point with one undesirable peak at the end of the scan. PIF, although higher than the Pioneer is still very low
A speed test in the NEC drive gives a perfect scan Click on the scan to see how it has improved from the 1.09 firmware	Speed test shows a perfect graph
A speed test in the Pioneer DVR-109 drive shows a good graph but only reaching a maximum of 12x speed taking 6:17 to read the disc against 4:58 with the NEC drive So for this reason I use the NEC for my speed read tests.	The NEC I was able to burn at 12x speed with this media and it can be seen that the burning speed started at 6x increasing to 8x at .5gig compared with the 4X - 6X - 8X at 2.25gig with the 8x speed burn. I am sure that time taken for the 8x speed burn with this drive could be reduced.
Speed test on the 12x speed burnt media shows a decrease in the reading speed due to the poorer quality of the burn.	The 12x speed burn in the NEC PI starts at about 80 dropping to an acceptable level for the 8x & 10X speed areas but rises at the 12x transition gradually increasing to a peak of over 300 at the end of the scan. Jitter is 15% until 8X speed when it drops to just over 10% for the 8x & 10X and then increases again to 15% at the 12x speed point. PIF shows an increase at the 12x speed and peaks at 30 at the outer edge.

Both these drives produce discs which play without problems on all my DVD players the results of the scans on the Pioneer burnt disc are excellent and superior to the NEC burns but the playability of the media is comparable. The Pioneer with the latest 1.17 firmware is an improvement on the earlier 1.09 firmware. The NEC will however burn this media at 12x speed with reduced quality but it does not seem to affect the playability of the media. If you are considering using the writer for reading media then consider that the NEC will read the disc faster at up to 16x speed as against 12x speed for the pioneer.

First tests on these drives shows the Pioneer to be superior to the NEC but not enough to reject the NEC, I am happy to own both drives. One thing that niggles me is that neither drive has DVD-ROM bitsetting facility for DVD+R media.

The Datawrite Transprint media is a stable media with a silver printable surface that goes right to the hub and produces a professional printed disc with my Epson R200
The main surface is 118 x 44 with a couple of centre rings 44 x 38 and 38 x 22. The 44 x 38 has a solid silver backing and is more prominently printed than the main area and the 38 x 22 has a transparent backing with the printing being semi transparent.

Added:  Thursday, February 17, 2005
Reviewer:  Flash
Related web link:  Pioneer Firmware Download Page
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