detail information

To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the Samsung SM-352B. These tests are: making backups of protected data and audio discs as well as an overburning test.

Copy protected data discs:

For this test we will use CloneCD (as usual) and Blindwrite for the newest protections, to make a backup of games containing some of the most popular copy protections. In the screenshot below we could see that the Samsung SM-352B supports all available write and read features in CloneCD:

The Samsung SM-352B supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data. Below are our results for all the tested games:

Motoracer 3 is protected with Tagé¨s, a protection that uses a very special sub channel protection. So far no drives have been able to backup this game successfully.

Flé¥klypa grand prix is a Norwegian game that is protected with CD Cops, again a very special protection that is added during the manufacturing process. So far no drives have been able to make a 100% working backup, a few drives in combination with a few media types may make a backup that works in a few drives.

Desperados: Wanted dead or alive is protected with Laserlok, a protection that takes very long time to read for most drives, but most drives is able to make working backups of this game.

The Diablo 2 expansion set is protected with SecuROM version 4.62.00 0100, a widely used protection scheme. Writers able to read and write subchannel data correctly should be able to backup this Game.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice city is protected with a newer version of SecuROM: namely version 4.84.69 0071. Very few (if any) writers could reliably make working backups of this protection.

Max Payne is protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Max Payne is version 2.30.33. If a writer supports 'Almost correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors.

Serious Sam is also protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Serious Sam is version 2.51.21. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors.

Command and Conquer: Generals is another game protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Command and Conquer: Generals is version 2.80.10. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it may be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors. Not that some writers may still have problems with this version.

The protection on The Sims: Superstar expansion pack is also safedisc, this time it's version 2.90.40. Very few (if any) writers are able to reliably make a working backup of this protection.

The table below shows the backup capabilities of the Samsung SM-352B writer:

*Worked in both a JLMS XJ-HD-165H and a Toshiba SD-M1502, but the loading time was pretty long. We also created a physical data file (.BWA) and used the information from this file while writing. No ATIP hiders or emulators were running.

Settings for Blindwrite; Enhance Weak sectors and autoplay is disabled.

Except for the laserlok disc the drive performed pretty good at reading and is among the fastest safedisc readers. On the writing part it did extremely good as well since it backed up most protections which we expected it to backup, plus the GTA Vice city disc that we did not expect it to back-up.

Copy protected Audio:

For our protected audio test we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test:

Westlife: World of our own is protected with Cactus data shield 100.

Natalie Imbruglias White lilies Island. This disc is protected with Cactus datashield 200

Shakira: Laundry service, which is protected with Key2Audio version 2.

And finally Celine Dion: A new day has come, that is protected with key2audio version 3

Results:

The drive is unable to extract data from the Cactus data shield protected discs, which makes it lag behind some other drive out there. If backing up your original protected audio discs is important, then this drive is not your number one pick.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the Samsung SM-352B we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to more than 99 minutes:

To make sure that it actually works we wrote a 99 minutes disc in Nero Burning ROM:

And the recording went successful as the above picture shows.

And then we tested the readability of the disc in Nero CD/DVD Speed:

The drive read the disc at 24X and got some slight problems at the end but was still able to read the whole disc. Just as a second test we tested the quality of the disc in K-probe:

The error level increased at the point where the read back slowed down. It's a problem that we are aware of and is not caused by the drive but is caused by our RiTEK 99 minute discs as well as the nature of 99 minute discs which is well outside the standards.

Now, that concludes our Samsung SM-352B review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…