The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 24x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the writing times for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

Write quality:

Disc Quality Scanning – PI/PO:

DVDs use an error detection and correction system (ECC) which is usually transparent to the end-user, but we can get an idea of the “quality” of a disc by performing Disc Quality Scanning, which shows how many errors the drive is detecting and correcting behind the scenes. There are two layers or stages of error detection and correction on all DVD media; these are called Parity Inner (PI) and Parity Outer (PO). Data is arranged in ECC blocks containing rows and columns of user data with additional columns of PI error correction and rows of PO error correction. An ECC block contains 32 KByte of user data with some added control data, scrambled and arranged in 192 rows and 172 columns with an additional 10 columns of PI error correction and 16 rows of PO error correction. The Parity Inner stage is performed first, and up to 5 bytes in a row can be corrected. Any row with one or more errors is counted as a Parity Inner Error (PIE). Any row with more than 5 errors is considered un-correctable and is counted as a Parity Inner Failure (PIF). The Parity Outer stage is performed next and will detect and attempt to correct any errors that are still left after the PI stage. Any column that has errors is counted as a Parity Outer Error (POE), and any column that has un-correctable errors is counted as a Parity Outer Failure (POF). If a POF occurs the drive can sometimes re-read the problematic spot and correct the problem; this happens only during normal reading and not during scanning, however. Disc Quality scanning is influenced by the drive performing the test, and that’s why different drives report different results and even the same drive will report (slightly) different results when scanning the same disc again. Please note that PI/PO and Jitter scans only test some aspects of disc quality and that other important aspects are not revealed. But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amounts of errors, some players are pickier about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with scans from two pressed DVD discs:

The scan above shows the results from a pressed, Single Layer DVD-Video disc (Goldeneye).

The above scan shows the result from a pressed Double Layer DVD-Video disc (The Green Mile). The Lite-On DVD burners used in this review report errors as follows: ·         PIE per 8 ECC blocks (rows with 1 or more bytes in error) ·         PIF per 1 ECC block (rows with 6 or more bytes in error) We want to see as low error numbers as possible. PIE per 8 ECC blocks should be no higher than 280. PIF per 1 ECC block should be no higher than 4. Both the pressed DVD-discs above are well within the standards if we ignore the single PIF spike in the DL scan that is probably caused by the layer break. If you want to look at the standards for yourself, download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc – but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X speed, by lowering the speed to 2X (DVD-R/RW)/2.4X (DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time. To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from an Optiarc AD-7203A DVD-Writer which by default is able to read DVD±R media at 16x speed. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Jitter:

Jitter is a very complex subject and even more difficult to explain when we start to use optical drives designed for the home market to measure jitter values. Let’s first look at the DVD specification for pressed DVD discs (in the bold part courtesy of Pioneer Electronics). “The DVD design target is that when the worst-case disc allowed by the specification, considering the economics of production, is played using the worst-case pickup that can be produced in volume economically, the byte error rate after error correction will still be 1 x 10-^-20, which is good enough to be acceptable for computer applications. Since the above target is for “after error correction,” the error correction capability must be calculated. Considering the trade-off between error correction capability and the overhead of the added redundancy, the DVD format was set to one ECC block per 32 KB. This requires a byte error rate before correction of 1 x 10^-2. In order to achieve good economy on both the part of the discs and the playback mechanisms. The current disc tilt specification was determined as a result of the efforts on both sides. As will be explained hereafter, it is difficult to make the error rate a specification of the disc itself. Therefore, a jitter standard is set by the DVD specifications. A simple calculation based on a normal distribution requires that the jitter rate be under 15.4%, and experimental results indicate that jitter must be under 16%, to achieve the required error rate. Since the disc tilt varies within a revolution, it was decided to adopt the design concept that jitter must remain within 16% at the instantaneous peak value of tilt. Since it is actually very difficult to measure the peak value, the concept became to measure the average jitter at under 15%, and the byte error rate at under 5 x 10-3.” What is Jitter? In basic terms, we could say jitter is a product of “pit and land distortion” In other words, when the drive reading the disc has to compensate by means of a “tilt servo” which constantly tries to move and refocus the PUH lens for optimum tracking and tries to compensate for the imperfections of pits and lands on the pressed or recordable media. This is further compounded by the hardware used for recording and playback. Not only is the record and replay process limited by the resolution of the optical pickup, it is also horribly non-linear. In addition, the playback of the pits is subject to non-linear crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track, and also from pits in nearby tracks. The things that causes jitter divide into three main types. ·         Variation in pit length and width. ·         Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track. ·         Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks. Variation in pit length and width The recorded pits themselves are not perfectly accurate. Anything which causes variations in the sizes of the pits will produce jitter. A prime culprit of this is sudden variations in laser power (laser noise). If laser power varies, then the laser beam itself changes and will vary in intensity and possibly focus. This will cause the pit length and width to also vary and we now have jitter. Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track If the pits are not totally accurate, then the laser beam spot may overrun a pit and gather data from the adjacent pit in the same track, or if the “land” is to short, then the laser beam spot can be influenced by the adjacent pit and this is called inter-symbol interference. Inter-symbol interference is worse at low recording velocities, because the pits are shorter and closer together. And it is the cause of “deviation” of the pit lengths. Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks Crosstalk between pits in adjacent tracks is caused by the laser beam spot being larger than the width of the track. It is a largely random contribution and is worse at lower recorded velocities, because the highest frequency components of the readout signal in the wanted track, with which the crosstalk is competing, are weaker. Some other factors to consider There are many aspects to consider when we add Recordable DVD media into the mix. We are now dealing with an organic dye, which is inherently unstable. We must also consider the equipment we are using to measure jitter is aimed at the home market. So we must also take into account variations between drives that we are unable to calibrate for such tests. Now let’s look at some of the hardware limitations of the drives we are using to measure jitter. If there is no tilt, then the jitter value includes components from light source noise, circuit noise, disc noise, standard interference between symbols (inter -symbol interference), and some small amount of crosstalk from the neighbouring tracks. Next we consider manufacturing variation in the circuitry. Variation due to the circuitry have noise-like characteristics, and increase the minimum jitter level, but are thought to have a very small effect on tilt margin. Factors such as offset in the servo circuit, however, both increase the jitter level and decrease tilt margin. How we will measure jitter We will be using a Lite-On DVD writer to conduct these tests along with Nero CD-Speed at 4x scanning speed. In the screen shot below we can see a PI/PIF scan including a jitter test (the purple graph in the lower window) we carried out on a single layer DVD+R media. Due to a bug in Nero CD-Speed we could only measure the first layer of our DVD±R-DL discs.

Now, let’s find a reasonable average jitter level. Experimental results indicate that 8% average value or less is a desirable figure, based on the DVD specification. That does not mean that jitter average values above 8% are bad. In fact, many optical drives will quite happily read recordable DVD media with jitter values of more than 14% average without any problems. Other drives, including standalone DVD players may begin to struggle reading discs with average jitter values above 10%. So there is a fairly wide range of acceptable values. One must test their own playback devices to see what they can cope with. However, for the purpose of having a basic guideline we can use in our reviews, we present a rating system for average jitter values. ·         Less than 8% (average) = Very good ·         8% – 9% (average) = good ·         9% – 12% (average) = average ·         Above 12% (average) = poor

Here is an easier explanation on how to read the test results

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in your Nero DiscSpeed/CD-Speed Quality Scans? Use this as a guideline for good discs: ·         PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.

·         PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.

·         Jitter: An average jitter value of 8% or less is considered to be very good. You should not worry too much if the average value is slightly above this figure.

And as always; lower is better

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On SHM-165P6S with firmware MS0R along with CD-Speed to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7201S with firmware 1.09 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

An excellent result, PI and PIF errors are low and jitter at 9.25% average is acceptable too. These discs can be highly recommended for usage on the Optiarc AD-7240S.

The result is well within the limits and the writing time is very low. Due to the high writing speed the average jitter is a little higher than what we would like to see but still far away from being bad.

No surprises here, an awesome result from the 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

In general a good result on these Pleomax discs, but the error rate is increasing a little towards the end but it is nothing that one should be worried about.

While the error rates are still very low on these discs, we have seen better results on other media and would rather go for those discs instead.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

We used the same test procedures as in our DVD+R tests. Below are our obtained results.

We would like to see lower PI values in the area that is written at 6x or maybe even using 8x write speed throughout the disc. However the area that was written at 8x gave an awesome result and surprisingly was even better than what we got on many other non-rewritable discs.

Again the result in the area written at 6x speed could be improved a little while it was perfect again in the area that was written at 8x speed. These rewritable discs should be very reliable

Summary:

The Optiarc AD-7240S burns DVD+R media with generally good to very good quality and even at 24x burning speed the results were surprisingly good, however only one media type is certified for burning at 24x speed on the AD-7240S. On our tested DVD+RW media, writing quality was good too but there is still some room for improvement on the 6x writing strategies. Now let’s look at DVD-R/RW performance and quality on the next page…..

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