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The specifications of the Toshiba SD-R5372 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

CD-R Writing performance:

First, let us examine the CD-R writing technology used by the Toshiba SD-R5372 by burning a data disc in CD-DVD Speed:

Here we can see that the Toshiba SD-R5372 has no trouble reaching it's rated CD-R write speed of 48X. The drive uses a CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) technique for CD-R writing to achieve a maximum of 48.55X and an average speed of 35.33x. Let us compare this to a few other drives.

We can see that the ASUS DRW-1604P uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-R at 32x. This gives an average write speed of 24.92x.

The Memorex F16 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48X, this gives an average speed of 37.23x.

We also used the Toshiba SD-R5372 to write a Memorex 52x CD-R disc with 700Mb of data 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 Toshiba SD-R5372 took 2 minutes and 39 seconds to write the CD-R disc in Nero Burning ROM. Let us compare the Toshiba's CD-R writing speeds with some other drives in the table below.

We can see here that the Toshiba drive is one of the fastest CD-R burners listed in our table. The SD-R5372 achieved the fastest CD-R write time in Nero Burning ROM. What about the CD-R write quality of the Toshiba SD-R5372? Let's find out now!

CD-R Write Quality:

Here we will test with a variety of different CD-R discs to measure speed and write quality. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test we used K-Probe 2, which is a tool developed by a Lite-On Employee. Kprobe runs on Windows and functions with drives made by Lite-On. Please note that different drives as well as different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. Here we used a Lite-On LTR-32123S drive with firmware XS0Z and scanned the discs at 40X speed (Actual speed is approximately 43X CAV on 80 minute CD-Rs).

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors reported by the scanning drive; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive's error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2. C2 errors can also be corrected by most drive's error correction capabilities, but they are not wanted with a good quality disc. A good disc should not have any C2 errors being reported, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below a 10.0 C1 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

We now present you with our results:

Fantastic C1 average and very good results overall! We can easily recommend these CD-R discs.

Good C1 average, good results, good discs!

The Toshiba is knocking down CD-R types one after another with good results. Again the C1 Average is nice and low. This Memorex brand 52x CD-R works great on this drive.  

Taiyo Yuden discs are well known for their excellent quality. The Toshiba SD-R5372 does a good job with these Fujifilm branded discs.

The Toshiba SD-R5372 only supports these 24x certified discs at 8x maximum. While this might sound disappointing, these low quality discs usually cause trouble in other drives such as slow downs and poor write quality. The produced write quality is very good.

These 52x certified discs could only be written at 8x maximum. These discs are lower quality CD-R, and we could accept a slower writing speed than 52x, but 8x is way too slow! At least the produced quality is good. The Average C1 error value is low and there are no C2 errors.

Great results on this SONY ATIP CD-R manufactured by Lead Data. Now why couldn't Toshiba have supported the other Lead Data CD-R as well as this?

Can this drive ever produce a bad quality CD-R disc? Not in any of our tests! Another good result! Another Fujifilm CD-R produced with good results.

Fantastic C1 Average at 0.57! The Toshiba SD-R5372 can really produce some nice Ritek CD-R discs.

Writing data CD-RW discs:

The specifications of the Toshiba SD-R5372 state that the drive is able to write CD-RW discs at 24x maximum. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality. First, let us examine the CD-RW writing technology used;

The Toshiba SD-R5372 writes at 24x to Ultra Speed CD-RW discs using Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity). The drive uses 4 zones to achieve 24x CD-RW writing.

We also wrote a disc with 650Mb of data 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 Toshiba drive took 4 minutes and 16 seconds to write 650 MB to the CD-RW disc. Again we present a comparison table.

We can see that the Toshiba SD-R5372 is one of the slowest CD-RW burners in our comparison table. The additional fourth zone definitely slows up the overall burn process, but does it lead to higher quality CD-RW burns? Let's find out now by performing some CD-RW write quality tests.

CD-RW Write Quality:

The C1 errors are very high, but at least there are no C2 errors and the disc appears to be fully readable. We have seen better results with these discs on other drives. It is much more difficult to obtain a good quality result on CD-RW discs compared to CD-R discs. Since there are no C2 errors we consider this an ok result, but it could be better.

Results here are not good. C1 errors jump into the 3000+ range and the dreaded C2 errors also make an appearance.

These results are acceptable for a CD-RW disc. 'Lower" C1 errors compared to the other CD-RW discs and there are no C2 errors showing up.

This Memorex High Speed 12x CD-RW produced the best result out of all the CD-RW media tested here. There is a C1 average of 21.71 and there are no C2 errors anywhere to be found, which is good.

CD-R/RW performance Summary:
The Toshiba's CD-R writing performance is excellent as far as speed and quality is concerned. Every single type of CD-R we tested produced a good quality CD-R disc. Our only complaint in the CD-R realm is that the 52x Lead Data CD-R's are only supported at 8x. CD-RW writing is slow compared to the competition and the write quality for 24x CD-RW writing could use some improvement. Overall it is an excellent CD-R writer and an ok CD-RW writer.

But after all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media compatibility…