CD Write Tests

1. CD-DVD Speed - CDR Media

The Optorite DD1203 is capable of writing to CDR media at a maximum speed of 40x. We used a wide variety of media to test its 40x capabilities.

The DD1203 uses the CAV method of writing to CDRs.  The drive starts writing at about 18x before eventually hitting 41x write speed. 

I gathered up various brands of CDR media to test its 40x compatibility.  Below is a list of the results.

The results here were just OK.  For example, I've always been able to write at 40x using the Philips brand media, however, I was only able to write to these discs at 32x.  The 48x rated discs had no issues writing at 40x as well as the disc from Imation.  This drive should be able to write to all these discs at its maximum write speed so it looks like this is one of those picky drives when it comes to CDR media.

2. CD-DVD Speed - CDRW

The drive did handle CDRW media quite well though.  It was able to write to 24x ultra speed discs without any issues.  Below is a chart with the two discs used in the tests.

3. HD-Burn Results

For those who are unfamiliar with the HD-Burn method of writing, the Nero Burning ROM Suite offers full support for HD-Burn.  To write in this method, you simply select HD-BURN option from the drop down menu on your New Compilation window.  Writing to media using this technology occurs at 24x.  I grabbed three different brands of CDR media and attempted to burn exactly 1.39GB of data. 

Now, ever since our review of the Optorite DD0203 quite some time ago, I've received numerous emails and have read up on users having issues creating HD-Burn discs.  A majority were simply unable to create one successfully.  I can tell you that just like the results from our Optorite DD0203, creating discs went through flawlessly without any issues.  The feature does work as advertised.  I used three different quality CDR discs to burn 1.39GB of data.  The discs used are shown below.

The only reason I can think of that this feature may not work is due to the use of cheap or unsupported media. 

There is something though that should be kept in mind when you decide to use this method to backup valuable data.  While this feature is certainly useful and works well, the discs created can only be read in Optorite drives.  Although this technology has been out for a while, it looks like other drive manufacturers are not providing firmware releases to support it.  For those wondering what would happen if you place one of these discs in another drive, the answer is...absolutely nothing.  If you attempt to open the disc in windows explorer or my computer, it prompts you to insert a disc.  I tested them on all optical drives I had on hand.

4. 99min CDR's and Overburning

The Optorite DD1203 does not support 99min CDR media, however, it did report the writing capacity of these discs as 93 minutes and did allow overburning up to 93min.  No issues during playback of the disc either.  At least the drive does allow for some overburning, which is nice.

Next: DVD Write Tests