Samsung SH-S203B 20x DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of LG's new drive I used Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 20x, the SH-S203B uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Samsung's new drive starts writing at about 8.3x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The SH-S203B also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

Samsung's new "Super WriteMaster" drive performed very well in our DVD writing tests. The SH-S203B turned in some of the fastest DVD±R and DVD±RW writing times we've seen, beating both the LH-20A1L and GSA-H55L by a small margin.

To check the media compatibility of the SH-S203B, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640 (firmware BSLB). When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The SH-S203B's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part.

To test the SH-S203B's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Samsung's new drive performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. The SH-S203B turned in some impressive times when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when reading the data back.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the SH-S203B, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from MAM-A, Memorex, RiDATA and Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While the SH-S203B is capable of writing to DVD+R DL media at 16x, discs rated at this speed have not gone into mass production yet. We tried getting pre-production samples from Samsung and Ricoh, but our contacts could not provide any. Once 16x DVD+R DL media starts to ship, I'll go back and rerun these tests. In the meantime, here are some results with media that is currently available

Even without 16x DVD+R DL media, the SH-S203B did very well in this test. When writing at 10x, the drive took a little more than 13 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good minute faster than the GSA-H55L and more than four minutes faster than the LH-20A1L and SH-S182D. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with the DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and MAM-A. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the error rates were very high at the layer change.

The SH-S203B also features 12x DVD-R DL writing speeds. Unfortunately, media capable of these speeds isn't available yet either. Once discs rated at this speed start to ship, I'll go back and rerun these tests. Until then, here are some results with media that is currently available.

The SH-S203B performed very well when writing to DVD-R DL media. While not as fast as the GSA-H55L, the drive took only 13:36 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, their new 8x rated discs yielded some mixed results. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI rates were a bit higher than we'd like to see. The worst results were with RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media. Looking at the CD Speed screenshot, you can see that the PI/PIF rates were pretty high throughout the entire disc.

Performance Revisited:

While Samsung's new "Super-WriteMaster" drive had a few rough spots, it performed fairly well throughout most of our tests. The SH-S203B flew through our DVD writing tests, turning in some very good times with DVD±R, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the drive either. The SH-S203B was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at an impressive 12x.

When it came to reading CD's, the SH-S203B gave us some mixed results. While the drive read pressed media at speeds near 48x, its CD-R and CD-RW read speeds were limited to only 40x. The SH-S203B also took a little longer than some of the other drives when writing CD's. Nevertheless, its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the Samsung SH-S203B gets a solid 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.