AOpen DSW1812P 18x DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of AOpen's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 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 18x, the DSW1812P uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that AOpen's new drive starts writing at about 7.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DSW1812P also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

AOpen's new drive performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the drives from LG and Plextor when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media, the DSW1812P turned in some of the fastest DVD+R and DVD-R writing times we've seen.

To check the media compatibility of the DSW1812P, 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.

The DSW1812P's media compatibility was a mixed bag. While the drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed, only two types worked at 18x.

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 SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) 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. 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 DSW1812P'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.

While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good with most of our DVD-R test media. The only exception was RiDATA's 16x media. As you can see, the PIF rate was fairly high, especially when scanned with the BenQ DW1640.

To test the DSW1812P'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.

When it came to packet writing, the DSW1812P's performance was pretty mixed. While it turned in some very good times with DVD-RAM media, it wasn't as fast as the drives from LG and Plextor when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DSW1812P, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, RiDATA and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 8x was not an easy task. The only media I found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs.

I should also point out that the DSW1812P had a lot of trouble writing to Ritek manufactured DVD+R DL discs. When writing to RiDATA's 8x DVD+R DL media, the burn process failed, no matter what speed Iused. The burn process also failed when writing to Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 4x. For our tests, we had to slow the writing speed down to 2.4x.

While no match for the drives from LG and Plextor, the DSW1812P took a respectable 18:48 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media. In both cases, the error rate started out fairly low but jumped up considerably on the second layer. Memorex's DVD+R DL media didn't fair any better. While written at a slower speed, the PI/PIF rates were very high at the layer change.

The DSW1812P also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

The DSW1812P performed pretty well when writing to DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive only took 18:28 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, the other discs yielded some mixed results. With Verbatim's 8x and RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media, the error rates stayed well within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI rates were much higher than we'd like to see.

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of AOpen's new DVD±RW drive was pretty mixed. The DSW1812P turned in some very impressive times with DVD±R and DVD-RAM media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW discs. Writing quality was also an issue as the PI/PIF rates were a bit high with some DVD±R DL media. Nevertheless, the DRU-DSW1812P was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it 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.

The DSW1812P also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R discs at speeds as high as 48x and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, AOpen's new drive gave us some mixed results. While the SHM-165H6S turned in some very impressive times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the AOpen DSW1812P gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.