HP dvd640i LightScribe 16x DVD±RW

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.00 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.00 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

HP's new DVD writer gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at 16.7x (2505 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 36.7x (5500 / 150) on the outside. While this is fairly good for a drive with a maximum read speed of 40x, the dvd640's overall CD Winbench score was not as good as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at.

CD Speed v4.00 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

HP's new DVD writer performed better in our CD Speed tests. While not as fast as the drives from Pioneer and NEC, the dvd640i had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 40.56x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that its seek times were also pretty good.

CD Speed v4.00 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The dvd640i was a little faster when reading CD-R media. While this still wasn't enough to top some of the other drives, it had no problems reaching a maximum read speed of 41.51x. Here too, the dvd640i's seek times were pretty good.

HP's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The drive read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 44.70x!

CD Speed v4.00 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

The dvd640i didn't slow down very much when reading CD-RW media. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 40x in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.00 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while HP's new DVD writer supports accurate stream, it does not have the ability to cache audio data nor can it retrieve C2 error information.

The dvd640i did pretty well when ripping pressed audio CD's. With a maximum speed of 40.94x, HP's new DVD writer was able to take the top spot in our tests, narrowly beating out the DW1625.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While HP's new writer started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were a little slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.00 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The dvd640i was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. Nevertheless, it had no problems reaching a maximum DAE speed of 40x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

HP's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.21x. The drive did not create any errors, but for whatever reason did not pass all of the on-the-fly copying tests. In the advanced tests, the dvd640i was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well HP's new drive can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

While all of that green looks good, these ScanDisc results are a little misleading. Without the ability to retrieve error information, the dvd640i is unable to determine which sectors are damaged or unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The dvd640i gave some mixed results in this test. While it had the lowest number of errors, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.