Test machine:

For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Asus A8V Deluxe
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Toledo)
• RAM: 1 GB Corsair Kit PC3200 DDR
• GFX: MSI GeForce 6600 GT
• Sound: Onboard Realtek AC'97
• Hard disk: Maxtor 6V300F0 300 GB (S-ATA)

System set-up:

The Philips SPD7000BD was connected to the VIA SATA interface and identified itself as PHILIPS SPD7000P. Autorun was enabled for all devices.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Philips SPD7000BD does not support Mount Rainer. The drive came shipped with firmware version BPBK, and was later updated to BPCJ (see below). The drive should use a 2MB buffer size for CD/DVD burning and 8MB buffer size for Blu-ray burning. Furthermore, the drive is reported as AACS compliant.

Installed Software:

Windows XP Professional XP Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool  
• DVD Identifier
• Exact Audio Copy v0.95 beta 4
• KProbe v2.5.2

Features and techniques:

Book type (bitsetting):

The Philips SPD7000BD supports Bitsetting, and will as default write DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM BookType.

DVD+R media with DVD-ROM BookType

DVD+RW media with DVD-ROM BookType

DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM BookType

Disc Quality Scanning:

The Philips SPD-7000BD seems to be ready to perform disc quality scans on CD/DVD/BD media, but at the moment it lacks support to report some measurement parameters. Hopefully these parameters can be implanted in future firmware/software updates. (Quality scans performed on the Philips SPD-7000BD drive can NOT at the present time be compared to scans done with other Quality scanners).

The scanning examples below were made with the Test length set to “Speed” under advanced option. (To save time, performing our scanning examples).

CD Scanning example

DVD scanning example. The PIF parameter reporting is at the time being not reported.

BD-R scanning example and as we can see the Jitter is currently the only parameter reported. (We stopped the scanning to save time and to just show you this scanning example).

BD-R scanning example and as we can see the Jitter is currently the only parameter reported. (We stopped the scanning to save time and to just show you this scanning example).

The Internals:

The internals

Some chips explained:

Hynix HY57V641620ETP-H

The Hynix HY57V641620ETP-H is a 64MBit CMOS SDRAM 133 MHz based on 1M x 4Bank X16 I/O

Philips TZA1047HL

The Philips TZA1047 is a flexible analogue processor for use in the optical bit engine of a DVD/CD-recordable system. It provides RF functionality and a sophisticated servo processor.

Philips SA56203TW

The Philips SA56203 is a one-chip motor driver IC that is capable of driving all motors of CD or DVD systems e.g. spindle, sled and loading motors and actuators on the optical pick-up unit. The driver intended for the 3-phase, brushless, Hall-commutated spindle motor uses PWM switching. Internal regeneration of the back EMF of the spindle motor enables the driver to operate in current-steering mode without using external power-dissipating sense resistors. The driver for the 2-phase sled stepper motor operates in current-steering PWM mode. In addition the IC contains four full-bridge linear channels that can be used to drive loading motor and 3D actuators (focus, tracking and tilt).

Philips Nexperia PNX7866EL

The Philips Nexperia PNX7866 is a single chip CD/DVD encoder/decoder device for 16 times overspeed DVD and 48 times overspeed CD record and playback operation. DVD+RW as well as DVD-RW formats are supported. Application areas include DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, Combo Systems (DVD-ROM + CD-RW), Double writers (CD-RW + DVD+RW), DVD Video, DVD-Video Recorders and DVD+RW data drives.  

Philips Nexperia PNX7869EL

The Philips Nexperia PNX7869 device is a single chip Blu-Ray channel encoder/decoder solution, intended as an add-on IC to the PNX7866, adding Blu-Ray disc (BD) read/write functionality to the existing CD/DVD Nexperia platform. Maximum supported BD speeds are 5X read and write. CD/DVD functionality and performance of the PNX7866 are unaffected by the PNX7869. BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RE physical formats are supported. The main application areas are CD/DVD/BD triple writer data drives and AV applications.

SolidBurn:

What is SolidBurn?

Philips introduces SolidBurn, a new self-learning feature that will ensure optimal writing conditions for any recordable DVD+R or DVD-R media.

This advanced writer feature executes a series of tests on an ‘unknown’ DVD media to determine the optimal writing strategy. Without SolidBurn, new DVD media and media that are not in the media list of the drive, are written using a less optimal standard write strategy. This could result in lower recording speeds than specified or lower quality recordings jeopardizing disc playability or lifetime.

How does it work?

Before the disc is burned, the drive writes two very short tracks, one in the LeadIn and one in the LeadOut area of the disc. Then the drive measures the jitter on both areas and decides if this jitter value is OK or not. If not, the drive will choose another writing strategy and redo the test until the Jitter is acceptable.

After this, the drive writes your data on the disc, with the best possible writing strategy, which was found by SolidBurn.

Why SolidBurn?

Every disc sold has unique parameters. Mostly, these parameters are almost identical, but sometimes, there are better and less good or even bad discs.

Normal drives will always use the same writing strategy, no matter if the disc inserted is a good or a less good one. SolidBurn will adapt its writing strategy for each disc.

Normal drives who encounter a disc they do not know, will use a default writing strategy, which is mostly not the best one. To guarantee better performance on unknown discs, regular firmware upgrades are required. SolidBurn makes no difference between known and unknown discs and will always choose the best writing strategy for each disc.

Some graphs

SolidBurn shows the lowest jitter measured (lower is better):

Using SolidBurn also gives the highest possible writing speeds, resulting in the lowest average recording times:

SolidBurn (and Overspeed burning) feature can be manually controlled i.e. BenQ’s QSuite:

An Introduction to Blu-Ray:

Until recently, optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM relied on a red laser to read and write data, the Blu-Ray format uses a blue-violet laser, which explains the name Blu-ray.

Blu-ray drives can also be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

A blue-violet laser (405nm) has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm); this makes it possible to focus the laser with even greater accuracy. This will allow data to be packed more tightly, so it's possible to squeeze more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 enables Blu-ray discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Now let’s take a look at the track pitch and compare them with that of DVD:

As we can see in the above screenshots, the storage density of Blu-Ray is much higher than DVD. The Blu-Ray laser beam spot is also much narrower than that of DVD.

Blu-Ray Error specification:

In the above table we present some of the specifications for reported errors on Blu-Ray media. At present we have no equipment or software available for measuring these errors.

Writing Technology:

In the following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the Philips SPD7000BD. For these tests we simply burned a disc with Nero CD-Speed’s “create data disc” function.

CD-Recordable:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.09x and writing time of 4 minutes and 14 seconds.

CD-ReWritable:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 24x, with an average write speed of 18.57x and writing time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds.

12x DVD+R Writing speed:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 12x. This gives an average write speed of 8.92x and a writing time of 7 minutes and 11 seconds.

12X DVD-R Writing speed:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at the maximum supported speed of 12x. This gives an average write speed of 8.87x and a writing time of 7 minutes and 26 seconds.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.17x and total writing time is 8 minutes and 28 seconds.

6X DVD-RW writing speed:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.75x and total writing time is 10 minutes and 12 seconds.

4X DVD+R DL writing speed:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at 4x. The average speed is 3.86x and total writing time is 28 minutes and 11 seconds.

4X DVD-R DL writing speed:

The Philips SPD7000BD uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL at 4x. The average speed is 3.82x and total writing time is 29 minutes and 50 seconds.

2x BD-R (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications the Philips SPD7000BD should be able to write BD-R 25GB Single Layer media at 2x.

The Philips SPD7000BD uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write BD-R at its maximum speed of 2x. This resulted in an average write speed of 1.94x and a total write time of 46 minutes and 34 seconds.

2x BD-RE (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications the Philips SPD7000BD should be able to write BD-RE 25GB Single Layer media at 2x.

The Lite-On LH-1B1S uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write BD-R at its maximum speed of 2x. This resulted in an average write speed of 1.96x and a total write time of 46 minutes and 15 seconds.

Let’s continue to the next page where we will examine the reading performance...

Introduction

Reading performance