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Posted by Jan S.
Posted on 26/03/06 23:37
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Reading performance
 

Reading performance:


For these tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD's, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

  • DVD-ROM: 16x
  • CD-ROM: 48x 

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing Creative Blaster Audigy install CD that is close to 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

The Philips DVDR1660 reached 47.29x. Let's compare the result in the table below:

Pressed
Discs

Average
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

Pioneer
DVR-109D

30.77x

18.18x

24.51x

96ms

110ms

182ms

BenQ
DW1625

30.74x

15.39x

38.87x

99ms

112ms

161ms

NEC
ND-3540A

34.82x

19.88x

46.09x

122ms

132ms

210ms

BenQ
DW1640

36.58x

20.82x

47.67x

107ms

123ms

175ms

Pioneer
DVR-110D

31.61x

18.09

41.99

99ms

111ms

189ms

LG
GSA-4167B

34.79x

20.01x

46.21x

103ms

120ms

178ms

Philips
DVDR1648

35.61x

20.10x

47.12x

100ms

117ms

170ms

NEC
ND-4550A

34.75x

19.87x

45.99x

128ms

136ms

216ms

NEC
ND-4551A

34.71x

20.01x

45.97x

135ms

145ms

222ms

Philips
DVDR1660

35.70x

20.13x

47.29x

106 ms

124ms

176ms

The Philips DVDR1660 is among the fastest drives, reading pressed CD-ROM.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD. The disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation. 

CD-R
Discs

Average 
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

Philips
DVDR16LS

30.69x

17.68x

40.44x

126ms

137ms

175ms

NU
HDW-164

32.20x

18.48x

42.65

N/A*

N/A*

N/A*

NEC
ND-3540A

35.68x

20.76x

47.06x

128ms

130ms

213ms

BenQ
DW1640

36.57x

20.92x

48.09x

203ms

233ms

239ms

Pioneer
DVR-110D

31.18x

18.37x

40.99

111ms

121ms

204ms

LG
GSA-4167B

35.63x

20.79x

47.16x

110ms

130ms

190ms

Philips
DVDR1648

36.45x

20.90x

47.95x

100ms

110ms

161ms

NEC
ND-4550A

35.60x

20.74x

47.01x

134ms

136ms

210ms

NEC
ND-4551A

35.53x

20.67x

46.77x

187ms

146ms

218ms

Philips
DVDR1660

36.54x

20.94x

48.27x

104ms

113ms

169ms

Again the Philips DVDR1660 is among the fastest drives reading CD-Rs.

* Some drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually moving the pickup.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

As we can see above, the Philips DVDR1660 is locked at 40x, reading CD-RW; now let us compare it to other drives below.

CD-RW
Discs

Average 
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

Philips
DVDR16LS

30.70x

17.71x

40.55x

131ms

149ms

179ms

NU
HDW-164

32.20x

18.17x

42.53x

N/A*

N/A*

N/A*

NEC
ND-3540A

30.76x

18.02x

40.08x

132ms

128ms

213ms

BenQ
DW1640

31.36x

17.47x

41.46x

105ms

116ms

250ms

Pioneer
DVR-110D

24.96x

14.60x

33.01x

105ms

119ms

195ms

LG
GSA-4167B

30.53x

17.86x

40.41

102ms

115ms

169ms

Philips
DVDR1648

30.68x

17.58x

40.48x

99ms

110ms

161ms

NEC
ND-4550A

30.66x

17.92x

40.12x

134ms

141ms

214ms

NEC
ND-4551A

30.63x

17.94x

40.08x

171ms

166ms

317ms

Philips
DVDR1660

30.75x

17.67x

40.55x

106ms

115ms

170ms

The Philips DVDR1660 performed above average on CD-RW read test.

* Some drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually moving the pickup.

Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:

We used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it's about 78 minutes long (77:43:45).

The Philips DVDR1660 reached 49.65x while reading CD-DA discs. Let us compare the result with other drives:

Audio
Discs

Average 
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

Philips
DVDR16LS

31.44x

17.75x

41.69x

107ms

124ms

176ms

NU
HDW-164

32.98x

18.32x

43.70x

N/A*

N/A*

N/A*

NEC
ND-3540A

31.43x

18.00x

40.16x

119ms

135ms

217ms

BenQ
DW1640

37.15x

20.94x

49.23x

171ms

200ms

184ms

Pioneer
DVR-110D

31.52x

17.95x

42.38x

108ms

124ms

201ms

LG
GSA-4167B

31.26x

17.78x

41.39x

102ms

123ms

270ms

Philips
DVDR1648

37.34x

20.93x

49.57x

100ms

120ms

173ms

NEC
ND-4550A

31.33x

17.97x

40.11x

123ms

138ms

220ms

NEC
ND-4551A

31.30x

17.89x

40.13x

122ms

142ms

222ms

Philips
DVDR1660

37.42x

20.09x

49.65x

107ms

125ms

173ms

The Philips DVDR1660 is among the fastest drives while reading Audio-CDs.

* Some drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually moving the pickup.

And as a last test we used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio to our hard drive. According to EAC the Philips oes not support C2 Error Info.

 

Below is the results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive performed excellent in burst and slower in secure mode.

Advanced audio - DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used a CD-R DA media from MMORE (Thanks to MMORE (NL) for sending us this media).


The extracting quality is excellent and it should support everything, except reading the Leadout.

 

DVD reading performance:


Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

DVD - DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it's useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you're going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.


DVD-Video Single Layer

 
DVD-Video Double Layer (OPT)


DVD-Video Double Layer (PTP)

As we can see the drive reached 16x on DVD-Video Single Layer and 12x on DVD-Video Double layer.

DVD
Video

Average 
Read
Speed
(SL)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(SL)

End
 Read 
Speed
(SL)

Average 
Read
Speed
(DL)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(DL)

End
 Read 
Speed
(DL)

Philips
DVDR16LS

11.97x

6.61x

15.97x

6.02x

3.35x

8.01x

NU
HDW-164

6.40x

3.54x

8.53x

5.87x

3.26x

7.81x

NEC
ND-3540A

5.94x

3.32x

7.93x

5.45x

3.03x

7.24x

BenQ
DW1640

11.86x

6.59x

15.79x

9.01x

5.03x

12.00x

Pioneer
DVR-110D

11.98x

6.42x

15.98x

9.34x

5.26x

12.41x

LG
GSA-4167B

7.64x

4.28x

10.18x

6.17x

3.45x

8.20x

Philips
DVDR1648

11.97x

6.61x

16.05x

9.03x

4.99x

12.01x

NEC
ND-4550A

11.84x

6.57x

15.82x

8.90x

4.95x

11.83x

NEC
ND-4551A

11.83x

6.56x

15.77x

8.89x

4.94x

11.82x

Philips
DVDR1660

12.00

6.64x

15.99x

9.05x

5.00x

12.04x

The Philips DVDR1660 performed excellently on the DVD-Video SL/DL tests.

 

DVD - DVD+R/RW:


For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a Verbatim 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data. Below are the results:


DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

DVD+R
DVD+RW

Average 
Read
Speed
(+R)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(+R)

End
 Read 
Speed
(+R)

Average 
Read
Speed
(+RW)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(+RW)

End
 Read 
Speed
(+RW)

LG
GSA-5160D

7.66x

4.11x

10.23x

6.15x

3.32x

8.21x

ASUS
DRW-1604P

9.35x

5.19x

12.52x

6.26x

3.48x

8.36x

Samsung
TS-E522U

6.23x

3.44x

8.32x

6.22x

3.43x

8.31x

Philips
DVDR16LS

6.24x

3.42x

8.34x

6.24x

3.42x

8.34x

NU
DHW-164

6.47x

3.53x

8.63x

6.46x

3.52x

8.65x

NEC
ND-3540A

11.99x

6.56x

16.05x

9.87x

5.45x

13.18x

BenQ
DW1640

12.10x

6.59x

16.22x

9.37x

5.12x

12.56x

Pioneer
DVR-110D

9.35x

5.16x

12.46x

6.24x

3.44x

8.33x

LG
GSA-4167B

7.70x

4.23x

10.30x

6.17x

3.42x

8.25x

Philips
DVDR1648

9.32x

5.08x

12.47x

9.36x

5.12x

12.50x

NEC
ND-4550A

11.93x

6.53x

15.95x

9.79x

5.40x

13.08x

NEC
ND-4551A

11.95x

6.59x

15.98x

9.79x

5.37x

13.08x

Philips
DVDR1660

9.38x

5.13x

12.53x

9.38x

5.13x

12.54x

The Philips DVDR1660 performed average on DVD+R and above average on DVD+RW. Now let us see how it will perform on DVD-R/RW.

 

DVD - DVD-R/RW:


For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4Gb of data. Our test results are found below:


DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences in the speed, compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

DVD-R
DVD-RW

Average 
Read
Speed
(-R)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(-R)

End
 Read 
Speed
(-R)

Average 
Read
Speed
(-RW)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(-RW)

End
 Read 
Speed
(-RW)

Philips
DVDR16LS

6.23x

3.40x

8.33x

6.24x

3.41x

8.34x

NU
DHW-164

6.46x

3.49x

8.66x

6.46x

3.49x

8.64x

NEC
ND-3540A

12.01x

6.58x

16.06x

9.85x

5.42x

13.16x

BenQ
DW1640

12.09x

6.59x

16.17x

9.34x

5.11x

12.50x

Pioneer
DVR-110D

9.36x

5.18x

12.51x

6.24x

3.46x

8.34x

LG
GSA-4167B

7.71x

4.25x

10.31x

6.16x

3.34x

8.23x

Philips
DVDR1648

9.35x

5.13x

12.51x

9.35x

5.11x

12.50x

NEC
ND-4550A

11.97x

6.58x

16.01x

9.78x

5.37x

13.07x

NEC
ND-4551A

11.98x

6.56x

15.98x

9.78x

5.37x

13.07x

Philips
DVDR1660

9.37x

5.13x

12.53x

9.38x

5.13x

12.53x

Once again the Philips DVDR1660 performed average on DVD-R and above average on DVD-RW.

Overall thoughts:

The Philips DVDR1660 is a very good reader.

 

But now it's time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW discs…

Want to submit your own review? Click here
Reactions on this item
As always, it is unfortunate that reviews do not tell us which BenQ this is. It is easy enough to find out, but such a complete review leaves out important information that buyers will want to know. It would also be helpful to see more testing of burns with Solidburn on and off. I may have missed it, but I don't know which way the tests here were done.
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