detail information

The specifications of the NEC ND-4550A state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Let us 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. (40x):

The drive used 3 minutes and 5 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other drives:

• Philips DVDR1648 used 2 minutes and 50 seconds at 48x
• LG GSA-4167B used 3 minutes and 7 seconds at 48x
• Pioneer DVR-110D used 3 minutes and 34 seconds at 40x
• NU DHW-164 used 3 minutes and 12 seconds at 40x
• Philips DVDR16LS used 3 minutes and 26 seconds at 40x
• Samsung TS-E552U used 2 minutes and 52 seconds at 40x
• LG GSA-4163B used 3 minutes and 15 seconds at 40x
• Philips DVDR1640P used 3 minutes and 17 seconds at 40x
• NU DDW-082 used 3 minutes and 2 seconds at 40x
• Samsung TS-H552B used exactly 3 minutes at 40x         
• Plextor PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from 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 KProbe 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 SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 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.

Below are the obtained results:

BenQ media with average C1 errors of 0.98 - it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category.

Maxell media made by Ritek, and with the C1 average of 0.25 it goes into the 'best quality discs" category.

Another good result, but the media was only burned at 32x. 

RICOH media - manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 1.54 it goes in the 'best quality" category.

Media made by Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of 0.57 it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category, however this media was burned at 40x.

Verbatim - a well-known brand showed us a C1 average of 0.29 - it goes in the category 'Best Discs".

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Due to requests from our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media. Settings and testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 5 times.

CD-ReWritable media:

24x CD-RW media made by Daxon, the result of this disk is excellent with the C1 average of 0.52.

The result is very good.

Summary:
The CD-R writing quality is excellent, and the CD-RW quality is very good.

So let us head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance…