Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD Writer - Lite-On or NEC Design

[Ian]

I didn't drop it, but its acted kinda flakey since I got it. I wouldn't be surprised if UPS or whomever kicked it around a few times.

I haven't tried burning TY discs at 20x, but the drive works fine when writing to other media at slower speeds.

[Dartman]

Well last night before I went to bed I retested the DAE disk the 7240 made with my 1655 and the errors we both got are not there so I think it is some sort of FW flaw or something just with the 7240

[callous]

How about making a DAE disc with the Benq 1655, then running the read Advanced DAE test using the 7240s? That should be interesting

[Dartman]

The very first advanced DAE quality test I ran with the 7240 was burned with the 1655 and also had no errors so may be some weird interaction of the drive with only it's own burns.

[jamescooley1]

look for bitsetting for the 7240S soon

[Ian]

I got my replacement drive today. Hopefully this one will work better.

[Scour]

Hope it, too

[Ian]

Ah yes... we're back in business.

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BenQ.TY.16x.DVD-R.b.png (23.71 KiB) Viewed 6022 times

Optiarc also sent along some 16x DVD+R DL and 12x DVD+R DL media. I'll be posting some results with that over the next few days.

[Dartman]

Cool!

[callous]

So now that the drive is back - let's see the full review soon

[Ian]

lol.. its coming. I'm adding more media tests right now.

[callous]

Which firmware did your sony come back with? Was it newer than 1.01?

[Ian]

It came with 1.01

Also, I went back and ran CD Speed's Advanced DAE test.

Optiarc AD-7240S CD Speed CD-R DAE Adv 1.01.png (6.64 KiB) Viewed 5994 times

[callous]

I think the drive only DAE issues with certain MID codes.

[Dartman]

Your probably right, it does it with the Sony mids I have Surprisingly enough

[Ian]

I used some crappy Fuji discs. I might have some Sony's stashed away some where.

[Ian]

The AD-7240S isn't as fast as some other drives when writing to DL media at 12x. Due to its CAV writing mode, it takes more than 14 minutes to write 8GB of data. This is slower than other drives that write at 10x using Z-CLV.

On a more positive note, the writing quality is pretty good. I gotta admit that I'm surpised by how good the results are with Ritek's 16x DVD+R DL media.

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BenQ.Ritek.16x.DVD+R.DL.1.png (21.7 KiB) Viewed 5929 times

[Dartman]

I had 1 verbatim old school DL left and I burned it at 4x with mine and the end of the disk test looked awful but it played fine as a AVCHD disk in my Panny bd-10a player. Most burns to that media looked way better then mine did and more like yours though.
I don't have any more DL disks left and with work dead lately I doubt I'll be able to get some more for a while.

[707]

Is it being said that this drive has DRM? That one could not back up the software that they own?

[Ian]

No, the drive itself doesn't have DRM.

For those that like LightScribe, the AD-7241S is in stock at Newegg. It's 29.99 with free shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827118032

[callous]

Should have waited :/ It's the same price i paid for the nonlightscribe

[Ian]

Review will be up later today.

[callous]

Good review.

Aside from being able to burn 24x on exactly 2 lines of discs, would the AD-7200S be a better choice?

[Ian]

Hmm... I'd have to think about that one. If you don't care about 22x or 24x DVD writing, the two drives are pretty similar.

[callous]

In your opinion, does the 7240s burn DVDs as well as the Benq 1640 or 1650?