Excellent Product Reveals Itself on the Results It Produces

It is amazing how affordable or cheap DVD+R or DVD-R recordable (write-once) discs are these days. I recall back in early 2004 I bought a 100-pack of DVD+R 16x (by Fujifilm) for $89.99 at BestBuy – and that was also on sale. Now, I can get a 100-pack DVD+R for $25. This price is almost the norm these days, if you keep your eyes open for a good deal now and then, and especially with the appearance of dual-layer as well as the new Blu-Ray “technology stuff”. I got the TDK 100-pack DVD+R 16x 4.7GB, single-layer, for $24.99 at OfficeMax (after a $25 instant rebate).

TDK among other name brand DVD+R or CD-R discs are my DVD removable media of choice. Before TDK, I regularly used Verbatim (DVD+R) virtually for all media or DVD backup. Verbatim seemed to be my most reliable DVD recordable removable media, especially on my LiteOn DVD-LDW411S 4x and LiteOn SHM-165H6S 16x burners.

However, for some inexplicable reason, they failed to burn successfully on my LiteOn LH20A1H 20x burner. I regularly encountered burn error or unburnable process, mostly due to speed compatibility issues when I used Studio321 DVD X Copy application software that basically tried to use the maximum burn speed of the burner. Thus, there was understandably a conflict between the DVD medium’s 16x burnable speed and the 20x burn speed of the burner. Even on my DVD Shrink program (using NERO burner software) it sometimes failed to complete the burn; and if it did it would not read during playback. My CloneDVD2 program sometimes would not burn at all. Then I discovered that the TDK DVD+R disc works on my LiteOn LH20A1H 20x burner.

TDK 1-16x DVD+R

Despite what the image shows at the top on the listing, the TDK +R version 100-pack is packaged in blue. (The image above is for the –R version.) The media itself has a dull gray coating on the top surface with TDK DVD+R 1-16x 4.7GB RW printed horizontally across the disc. There are no lines for writing or labeling. Of course, the burn surface is coated in deep purple. The entire disc itself seems to be of high premium quality. At this point, I have gone through about several hundred TDK +R discs already and each disc has identical make quality. Its dull gray coating on the back no doubt helps improve the burn surface reliable for read/write; unlike discs by other makers that are sometimes translucence – the label mark can be seen through from the burn side. The TDK’s dull gray coating makes labeling easy. It is also good for custom made label that does not peel itself off easily.

Burn Capability
This TDK DVD+R disc is compatible for burn speed from 1x to 16x (and possibly higher). In other words, the TDK DVD+R 1-16x will be compatible for DVD burner that uses 2.4x, 4x, 12x, or 16x speed to write on the disc. On my old DVD burners, one uses 4x and the other 16x burn speed, the TDK DVD+R worked flawlessly – I do not recall any coaster at all.

Test: Benchmark

Personally, to merely confirm the disc’s good performance based on burn success is probably not enough to validate its overall performance. Clearly, each make of DVD disc has its own strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, I often run a few standard tests just to make sure there is enough evidence to set the standard rating.

So I ran a few tests on the TDK DVD+R on read/write performance, both done under my LiteOn LH20A1H, a burner I use to burn TDK discs (DVD discs and CD-Rs). Below is a brief summary of the various tests I conducted using Nero CD-DVD speed test, benchmark, and transfer rate. I tested this under Nero CD-DVD Speed Version 4.61.2.

Create Data Disc: I was able to achieve a maximum speed of 16.18x with an initial speed of 6.28x. The disc has a recordable length (storage capacity) of 4.38GB. Benchmark produced quite an impressive smooth graph indicating that the disc was able to provide a constant (or linearly increasing) read/write speed all the way to the maximum setting. The result yielded an average of 12.10x in CAV (constant angular velocity). The entire test took about 5 minutes.

Benchmark: Read and Data Transfer Rate On the same disc that was used to create data disc reported above, my LiteOn LH20A1H was able to achieve a maximum speed of 16.34x with an initial speed of 6.80x under CAV. The transfer rate was 43MB/s which is considered excellent. Most impressive is the graph produced by the result, revealing an extremely smooth increasing curve that basically indicates that the storage media is quite good for a storage device (LiteOn LH20A1H) to read and access data. Access time is probably not the most impressive, merely at 130ms random and 251 ms full. But many tests I have done yielded around the values, which are considered the norm.

Under Nero’s Disc Info, TDK was detected as follows:

Disc Type: DVD+R
Manufacturer: CMC
MID: CMC MAG M01 000(00)
Write Speeds: 2.4x, 4x, 8x, 12x – 16x

What this tells me is that the DVD+R discs were manufactured by CMC Magnetics Corporation and were labeled and sold under the name TDK. This is the common practice in the storage media market anyway, and there is nothing surprising about that.

Under the same test setup, Disc Quality test showed that PI errors and failures are reasonably low: PI errors max = 978 (with an average of 25.24) and PI failure max = 99 (average 0.96). I believe what this means is that the lower the PI maximum errors are the less problem is likely encountered during any burn application; but it’s important to also remember that each media may perform differently for data and/or movie VOB files. My results found here seem to indicate that TDK is quite good for both.

Comparison
Out of curiosity, I tested my Verbatim DVD+R 16x (single-layer) for PI errors and failures and to my surprise Nero Disc Quality test revealed a higher rating: PI errors max = 1285 and PI failures max = 191.

Similarly, a DVD+R disc by Ricoh, maker of DVD discs for many vendors, including Sony or Fujifilm, did not particularly yield a match test results done under my LiteOn LH-20A1H burner and Nero benchmark. The particular disc I tested was a relabeled as Sony. It results were disappointing, with PI errors max = 1328 and PI failures max = 172. A data transfer rate test revealed an uneven graph that indicated uneven data read/access. On the contrary, a DVD disc by Ritek indicated a commendable result and quite competitive with the CMC MAG discs.

Read and Playback Test
I have tested playback of TDK DVD backup on a home DVD player with successful read and recognition every time, with the following media players:

Astar PD-3060 Portable DVD Player
Sony DVD-ROM DDU1615
LiteOn DVD-ROM DH-16D2P
LiteOn DVD-RW LDW411S (4x burn speed)
LiteOn LH-20A1H (up to 20x burn speed)
Samsung DVD burner SH-S162A 16x (dual-layer)

CONCLUSION

The TDK DVD+R (manufactured by CMC Magnetics Corporation) revealed formidable results under various tests and benchmarks compared to other DVD discs I have used in the past (Dynex, Fujfilm, Sony, Memorex, Teon, Verbatim, Imation, etc). So far I have yet to experience any burn errors both for data or video VOB files. Therefore, the TDK DVD+R discs will be my choice for any and all-purpose burn applications.

While Taiyo Yuden or Ritek produce excellent and reliable DVD discs that many vendors rebatched and sold under their names, the TDK DVD+R based on CMC Magnetics Corporation is quite competitive! Its price per disc is on par with any other name brand DVD discs currently on the market. Its overall and better general performance over other name brands DVD discs especially makes it a high recommendation. While choosing the right DVD media for a specific application maybe, if not entirely, dependent on a particular DVD burner, I have found the TDK DVD+R 16x single-layer disc to be compatible with my DVD burners and readers. Moreover, it is important to remember that a DVD media disc mostly dictates the success of a burn application, and choosing the right one contributes a lot to that success. For this reason, the TDK DVD+R 16x single-layer discs offer an excellent choice!


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Specifications: TDK DVD+R
Layer: Single (1 layer)
Storage Capacity: 4.7GB
Write Speed: 2.4x, 4x-8x, 12x-16x
Disc Type: Write once (Recordable)