Home PI/PIF scanning – Who to believe?

Verbatim branded – MCC004:

We created our test data discs using CD-Speed’s ‘create data disc" function.

Burning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Burn speed 16x

Transfer rate test

Scanning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Scanning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Scanning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Scanning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

All our drives showed a broadly similar trend, although the NEC drive showed some PIF spikes which knocked down the quality score and the BenQ and NEC drives showed higher average PI errors than our Lite-On and Plextor drives.

Burning drive – LG GSA-H10N:

Burn speed 16x

Transfer rate test

Scanning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Scanning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Scanning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Scanning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

All our scanning drives showed a broadly similar trend. The NEC and BenQ drives once again showing slightly elevated PI errors.

Burning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Burn speed 16x

Transfer rate test

Scanning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Scanning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Scanning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Scanning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

This disc produced very interesting variations in results. Let’s first look at the NEC drives result. The cluster of PIF errors at 3.5gig (well out of specification) if correct should render the disc unreadable. Yet the NEC drive itself manages a perfect Transfer Rate Test.

Next let’s look at the BenQ result. At the recalibration point. According to the BenQ drive, Jitter rises as does PI and PIF errors. Yet our other drives show no problem at this point of the test disc. Our Plextor and Lite-On scans show no problems with this disc, although the Plextor scan shows elevated PI errors at about half way through the disc.

Burning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Burn speed 16x

Transfer rate test

Scanning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Scanning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Scanning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Scanning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

The BenQ drive in this instance shows elevated PI and PIF errors compared to our other drives at the end of our test disc. This is most likely caused by its faster scanning speed. However, all our drives show a broadly similar trend.

Burning drive ‘� Pioneer DVR-111:

Burn speed 16x

Transfer rate test

Scanning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Scanning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Scanning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Scanning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

The NEC drive on this occasion shows elevated PI errors, if we can ignore the PIF spike, the NEC drive reports similar PIF errors to the rest of our scanning drives.

Burning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

Burn speed 16x

Transfer rate test

Scanning drive ‘� BenQ DW1640:

Scanning drive ‘� NEC ND-4570A:

Scanning drive ‘� Lite-On SHW-16H5S:

Scanning drive ‘� Plextor PX-760A:

The single PIF spike in the NEC scan spoils what is essentially a good scan. The BenQ and Plextor drives report slightly elevated PI errors near the end of the disc compared to our Lite-On drive. All our drives report fairly similar PIF error averages.

Summary:
With our MCC004 test discs and burning speed now at 16x, the variations in results have become more pronounced. However, our Lite-On and Plextor scanning drives still manage to report broadly similar results.

Now let’s head to the next page where we take a look at the first of our DVD-R test results…..