writing quality, CD-Rs, diff. burners, advice?

[SkaarjMaster]

For those that don't know, I just replaced my Lite-On LDW-851S DVD burner with a BenQ DW1655 DVD burner and the BenQ burns DVDs beautifully. Going through posts on this forum, it seems the BenQ might not be the best to burn music on CD-Rs so I decided to run Disc Quality Tests using Nero CD-DVD Speed on a burn of the same music for these two drives plus the LTR-52246S CD burner and see what the results are. I ran an old version of CD-DVD Speed (3. last night on 3 discs with only 55 minutes of music (one burned with each burner) and had the following preliminary quality results:

BenQ DW1655 - 97%
Lite-On LTR-52246S - 96%
Lite-On LDW-851S - 84%

All tests were run with discs in the BenQ drive. I do plan on starting a new thread where I can post the scan results and know how to save png files for that, but I have few questions first.

1. Is the Disc Quality test the one I want for sure?
2. Do I post the full png file (graph and data)?
3. Should I use discs that are closer to being full of music?
4. Yes, I will use the latest version of CD-DVD Speed next time. Any other details I need to know to get these tests right?

I just want to know if it's worth it to install either of the Lite-On drives in my newer computer and use it the burn CD-Rs and the BenQ for DVDs. Right now, it looks like it would not be worth it. Maybe the 851S has burned so many CD-Rs (over 100) that it has started to wear down or something. Thanks for any advice.

[DrageMester]

I'd suggest using the Advanced Disc Quality tab in Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.7.0.0 as your primary test. That will show you all the Exy errors individually as well as BLER (C1) and Jitter. Both the Statistics window and the main window should be saved.

I seriously doubt your old LiteOn LDW-851S can compete in writing quality with the BenQ drive. The LiteOn LTR-52246S CD-RW drive might be able to compete, but you'll have to find that out by burning and testing.

If you want the best possible burn quality you shouldn't burn at maximum speed. I suggest using 16x as a starting point, and if you have the time you can test other burn speeds also.

[SkaarjMaster]

If you want the best possible burn quality you shouldn't burn at maximum speed. I suggest using 16x as a starting point, and if you have the time you can test other burn speeds also.

Yes, I normally burn music at 16X anyway. I'll burn it at 8X if the files to burn are a little messed up and need a slower burn. Thanks for the suggestions on testing. I'll try some tests tonight with the latest version of CD-DVD Speed.

[dodecahedron]

i usually burn CDs at 16x since that is the fastest CLV speed.
well, for most drives anyway 16x is the fastest CLV speed. my old Plextor 40x drive could burn 20x CLV so i used that speed on it.

[SkaarjMaster]

OK guys, I'm just going to post the results from the 55 minute music CD-R ran with CD-DVD Speed 4.7.0.0 on Taiyo Yuden CD-Rs burned at 16X for each drive. All tests run on BenQ drive. The drives will be listed in order (BenQ DW1655, Lite-On LTR-52246S, Lite-On LDW-851S) and for each drive the Advanced Disc Quality stats will be listed first followed by the Disc Quality stats..........actually all Advanced stats will be listed first followed by all Disc Quality stats (that's better for comparing in this thread. I hope this works.

First, the run in the updated version of CD-DVD Speed revealed different general quality percentages:

BenQ DW1655 - 97%
Lite-On LTR-52246S - 97%
Lite-On LDW-851S - 93%

BenQ DW1655 Advanced Disc Quality Statistics(...17_24-stats.png)

Lite-On LTR-52246S Advanced Disc Quality Statistics(...18_22-stats.png)

Lite-On LDW-851S Advanced Disc Quality Statistics(...19_09-stats.png)

BenQ DW1655 Disc Quality Statistics(...16_58-stats.png)

Lite-On LTR-52246S Disc Quality Statistics(...18_00-stats.png)

Lite-On LDW-851S Disc Quality Statistics(...18_53-stats.png)

OK, so I didn't post it exactly right, but the order is there. A description is now included now that I figured out how to post comments. What do you guys think? I'm thinking I should just leave my BenQ drive in there for now.

[bicomputational]

The combination of the higher c1 totals and the quite high
jitter of the 851s would really make me hesitate to use the
drive, even if the numbers are technically within spec.
It's like a baseball player just before he has that year where
he can't hit the fastball anymore - you can see the skills are
going.

[SkaarjMaster]

Makes me wonder what it was doing when I first got it almost 3 years ago and what kind of DVD burns it made? Anyway, I'll keep the CD-R burns it made until the music starts sounding crappy or the disc needs reburning. In the meantime, looks like I'll keep the BenQ for DVD and CD burns. It's nice to know that I can burn CD-Rs with the other computer (52246S) whenever I want to though.

I ran the same tests at work on those 3 discs, but the Advanced Disc Quality tab did not appear (maybe because the test drive is CD only?). Only ran the disc quality tests and it looks like the quality scores improved to 99%, 99% and 97%. Here are the statistics posted in order (BenQ, 52246S and 851S):

[SkaarjMaster]

Tried another disc that was burned a few months ago with the LDW-851S with 75 minutes of music and the C1 errors were a lot lower and jitter was only slightly lower and the general quality score was 97%. This is more encouraging. All right, I'm done testing for now. Thanks for the help everyone!