detail information

"..The new TEAC CD-RW drive CD-W540E (40x/12x/48x ATAPI/IDE) offers, apart from the speed advantage, numerous useful innovations, such as Fine Focus Control and Intelligent Speed Control, Mount-Rainier, Write Proof technology, zoned CAV recording and an excellent 40x digital audio extraction (DAE) performance.."

This is what can be read on the TEAC website, together with the drive's specifications as you can see below:

Drive Specifications:

So in short we have all major functions in one drive. The page even claims (and so does the TEAC package box) a DAE speed of max 40x... We will check later if we can indeed achieve these speeds. Let's have a closer look at some of the features the TEAC CD-W540E supports:

Buffer (Underrun Protection):

The claimed buffer size of the TEAC CD-W540E is 8MB. Let's check this with Nero Burning Rom (v5.5.8.0):

That's strange... Nero reports that the drive only has about 6.5MB write buffer. We suspected this was again done to reduce costs of the drive since buffer memory is expensive. One of our viewers let us know that the TEAC actually only reports what amount of memory can be used since the drive itself uses some of the available memory. Besides the buffer size Nero reports that the TEAC CD-W540E uses the BURN-Proof technique to prevent buffer underruns.

Mount Rainier:

As Nero already reports the TEAC CD-W540E supports the Mount Rainier industry standard:

"...Mount Rainier enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout. The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders: OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers.

The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy..."

Running OPC:

Another feature of the TEAC CD-W540E is 'Running OPC' (Running Optimum Power Control). By following an analysis of the surface of the blank CD, this function automatically regulates the writing speed, and consequently avoids faulty burning processes with writing speeds that are too high. Together with the drive's buffer underrun technique, BURN-Proof, this provides a double protection against the interruption of the data stream when burning.

Fine Focus Control:

Besides the 'standard' buffer underrun technique and mount rainier support the TEAC CD-W540E offers some more advances features like 'Fine Focus Control'. The required strength of the laser varies greatly with writing and reading processes. With the movement of the write head with conventional CD-R(W) drives, faults often occur when writing and reading. TEAC has made a breakthrough with the new 'Fine Focus Control' technology, in that the laser always remains constant and never enters a 'jitter mode'. The laser remains precisely in the same position on the track, regardless of the speed. This key CD writing technology from TEAC enables the high recording quality with very high speeds and results in a more precise recording, and a higher-quality disc that provides an improved level of interchangeability when read.

Intelligent Speed Control:

A further qualitative improvement is the 'Intelligent Speed Control' technology, which tests the status of the CD before the writing process using various parameters in order to determine the highest writing speed with the best possible quality. For example, the number of tracks, the disk balance, the strength of the laser, the type of disk, and any possible vibrations with higher rotation speeds are all tested before increasing the (read/write) speed. We'll get back to the write method the TEAC CD-W540E uses later on.

Metal Chassis:

TEAC has invested a good deal of effort into realizing outstanding burning results, and that means in both mechanical and electronic components. The chassis of the TEAC drive (in contrast that of much of the competition) is made of 1.2 mm solid metal. This reduces anti-buckling vibrations to a minimum, one of the mechanical prerequisites for optimal writing results.

Write Method:

Next we will take a look at which writing methods the TEAC uses to write CD-R's. We used Nero CD Speed to do a test write. Below you can see the produced graph:

In the graph you can clearly see that the TEAC CD-W540E uses four zones to write the disc:

• Zone 1: 20x, then at 4 minute mark the write speed shifts to
• Zone 2: 24x, then at 22 minute mark the write speed shifts to
• Zone 3: 32x, then finally at 46 minute mark the write speed shifts to
• Zone 4: 40x and remains at this speed until the end of the disc is reached.

Wring in zones is known as Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity). Z-CLV is used to reduce the rotation speed of the CD-R inside the recorder and thus reducing noise and stress on the drive mechanism. During switching writing speeds, the drive's buffer underrun technique (BURN-Proof in this case) takes over preventing buffer underruns.

Because the drive switches between writing speeds and doesn't start writing at 40x the average speed is lower than 40x. In this case the average writing speed with a 74min/650MB CD-R is 31.21x (see the picture on the left).

An increase of about 5.0x (750kb/s) compared to 32x recorders we have previously reviewed, the Mitsumi CR-480ATE (26.26x) and the Lite-On LTR-32123S (26.22x). Compared to 24x recorders we have previously reviewed, the Waitec MEGALUS (22.70x), the Lite-On 24102B (22.75x) and the Plextor PX-W2410A (22.76x), the increase is about 8.5x (1275kb/s).