detail information

During the introduction we already mentioned that the AOpen DRW4410 is not the newest drive around. But, the drive has some decent recording speeds on board, including 24x CD-R and 4x DVD+R recording. On this page of our review we'll see what these recording speeds mean when writing data compilations.

Writing Data CD-R:

For our CD-R data writing tests we simply set up a new compilation of 700MB using the Nero Burning Rom 5.5 software. We used the DAO (Disc At Once) writing method. The disc was finalized and set-up as a non-multisession disc. In the screenshot below you can see the burn process completed successfully:

As you can see from the screenshot, the burn process was completed in 4 minutes and 14 seconds. This recording time is a little slower than we saw on the Sanyo CRD-BPDV2 DVD recorder (4m:03s), but it's still fast enough for people who only record an occasional CD or two.

CD-R Write Quality:

In the graphs below, produced with the PlexTools Professional software and a Plextor Premium drive, you can see an overview of errors occurring during the read process. Please note that every burned disc will always have C1 errors. These are errors that are corrected by the drive and they will not affect the disc in a bad way as long as their amount is limited. C2 errors are however very bad for a disc and are harder to read and correct. When there are CU errors present on the disc it means you have bad burned disc and it can't be read in the test drive you're using as a reader.

Also keep in mind that the number of C1/C2/CU errors depends on a number of different factors. The combination of software, hardware and read speed have an effect on the results. Since we're using different software in this review and a different drive for reading the disc, the results may be (a little) different than when using other software like, for instance, Lite-On's WSES software. Nevertheless all programs will give you a good idea of the quality of the written disc.

AOpen - 52x certified - 24x write

The AOpen (Ritek) disc that came with the DRW4410 drive was recorder with excellent quality. There were hardly any C1 errors (0.4 average) and there were no C2/CU errors on the disc.

Maxell - 48x certified - 24x write

The Maxell (MPO) discs had a lot more C1 errors than we saw on the AOpen disc but their amount is not too high. There were no C2/CU errors on the disc and thus overall the disc was recorded well.

Imation - 48x certified - 24x write

The Imation media, manufactured by CMC Magnetics, had a lower amount of C1 errors than we saw on the previous Maxell discs. So, since there were again no C2/CU errors on the disc, this is another well recorded disc.

MAM-E - 48x certified - 24x write

With an average C1 error count of 8.3 the MAM-E media had the highest amount of C1 errors. As you can see from the graph the amount of C1 errors decreases throughout the disc. Once again, there were no C2/CU errors on the disc so overall the AOpen DRW4410 showed good performance when it comes to CD-R recording quality.

Writing Data DVD+R:

To test the AOpen's performance when writing DVD media we set up a new UDF/ISO compilation of roughly 4400MB in Nero Burning ROM and started the recording process:

The AOpen DRW4410 drive completed the recording process in 15 minutes and 22 seconds. This is not the fastest time we've seen since we when we write the same compilation with a Plextor PX-708A DVD recorder it only needed 14m:32s (when recording at 4x of course). The Sanyo CRD-BPDV2 recorder needed 14m:59s to record the same data compilation so overall the AOpen drive was the slowest 4x DVD+R recorder I've reviewed.

DVD+R Write Quality:

Unfortunately the only method of testing the write quality of a DVDR disc is by using the Kprobe software. The problem however is that Kprobe requires a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive to measure the errors on the DVD disc and I unfortunately don't own a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive. So, in order to somewhat test the write quality of the recorded DVD disc I simply watched them on a few standalone DVD players. I also played the DVDs in my very picky Xbox console and all discs played perfectly.

Read Tests

Re-Write Tests