Sony DRU-840A detail information

Writing Quality with CD-R/RW discs

Now we are going to test CD-R discs from different CD-R manufacturers.  To measure the write speed we will use the “create data CD” function from within Nero CD-DVD Speed.  We wrote these discs 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.  KProbe runs under Windows and works with the 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 CD-RW SOHR-5239V with firmware 2$0B 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 quality 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.

So, in short, our analysis will be based on these guidelines to determine the quality of the burned discs:

CD-R/RW quality scans guideline

Below you will see our obtained results:

Writing Data CD-R discs

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703Mb 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 Sony DRU-840A completed this burn in 3 minutes and 2 seconds.

Now let’s take a closer look at writing quality using CD-R media with the Sony DRU-840A.

An excellent result to start our CD-R quality tests, (highly recommended).

Here again, excellent results.

Another excellent result with this media; highly recommended.

This Sony media wrote with excellent results also.

Good quality with this media.

To finish off our CD-R write quality tests; this verbatim media also writes with excellent results.  (Highly recommended)

Now we will see how the DRU-840A performs with our CD-RW media…..

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs

The Sony DRU-840A did not do well with this media; this 32X CD-RW media can be problematic with numerous burners.

We will also test the Sony DRU-840A with a 4X Maxell CD-RW disc:

Here the Sony DRU-840A had problems towards the end of the burn.

Summary

CD-R writing quality is overall excellent with the Sony DRU-840A; however, the drive did not do so well with our CD-RW test media.

Nevertheless, this is a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media compatibility…

On the next page let’s take a look at the DVD+R/RW Writing Performance…

Reading tests

DVD+R/RW writing performance