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The specifications of the Philips DVDRW885 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 24x. Let's find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 700Mb using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (32x):

The drive took 3 minutes and 35 second to write the disc at 24x. Now let's see how this compares to other drives; the NU DDW-082 used 3 minutes and 2 seconds for the same writing operation at 40x speed, and the Plextor PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x.

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 11 different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On Employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On LTR-52327S drive with firmware QS0E and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive's error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive's error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Why wait any longer? Below are the obtained results:

BenQ CD-R Studio Master edition, which looks like professional studio recording media, is most suitable for audio recording. This media got an average of 1.90 C1 errors and is consider as 'Best disc quality".

This media from MMORE is printed with Multispeed 1x-52x. From quality is goes into the 'Best discs" category, because of its 1.18 C1 Average. Recommended media.

Recommended media for its good quality with an average of 1.04 it jumps to the top in 'best discs". But one of the most expensive media in these tests we made.

Platinum 52x Speed (made by Plasmon) is a very cheap media (Germany) and produced a good write quality. With the average 1.34 is goes into the group 'best discs". Recommended!