Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 DVD Burner

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Author

Wesociety
CD Freak
Article posted 25 Nov 04 11:23

Advanced tests

 

To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9.

Copy protection:

For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That is because the symbol of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer’s ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: ‘Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns”.

  • No sheep: Can’t backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
  • 1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
  • 2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
  • 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators, Womble, has written a guide concerning the ‘Sheep Test” that could be found here.

In the screenshot below we see that the Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 supports all available write and read features in CloneCD:

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode. This means that it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data.

Below are our results from the ‘Sheep Tests”:

Sheep Tests

Reader:
Mad Dog
MD-16XDVD9

One Sheep Writer
SD2OLD

Yes

Two Sheep Writer
SD251

No

Safedisc Writer
SD290

No

Three Sheep Writer
SHEEP3

No

The MD-16XDVD9 qualifies as a one sheep writer. It failed to produce a copy of sd251.dat that is useable. This means that it will have trouble backing up some copy-protected content.

Disc Quality testing & error reporting:

In order to test whether or not the MD-16XDVD9 supports PI/PIF reporting, we launched Nero CD-DVD Speed and attempted to run the Disc Quality Test that can be found inside the ‘Extra’ dropdown menu. Below you will find the produced results:

The MD-16XDVD9 does not support any form of PI/PIF scanning and reporting. This might be bothersome to advanced users because they will not be able to compare their discs for burn quality. Many competitors such as Sony, LiteOn, BTC, BenQ, and Plextor now support some type of PI/PIF/PO error reporting.

This completes our Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…

3 Comments

Captain Slog
Posts: 1
Posted on: 21 Jun 03 10:12
The BuyNow is dead and the DownloadNow link is password protected
SciFer
Posts: 249
Posted on: 05 Aug 03 18:14
The download now works but it takes you to their standard editon download page. You have to enter your name & email, it then emails you a ftp download link. Professional: ftp://downloads.gearsoftware.com/pub/demos/windows/gearppe_demo_en.exe Standard Edition: ftp://downloads.gearsoftware.com/pub/demos/windows/geardvdse_demo_en.exe This is the English edition, as there is an international version also available. These are 15 day Demos. The profession editional doesn't have the detail specs stated as the standard edition. For example, I am interested in importing a title set which we can do in the standard edition. We can only assume that it also functions in the Professional edition. I didn't read into it enough to have a clear understanding of the differences between both versions.
garsue
Posts: 3
Posted on: 08 May 07 18:46
where in the world is teh firmaware updates at for this drive. please

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