MSI DR12-A Preview: Still pushing for 12X DVDR
by Kristopher Kubicki on July 17, 2004 12:46 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Burn Tests DVD+R Media
We used a few different DVD+R discs to show write quality and speeds.MCC 003:
Here, Verbatim 8X DVD+Rs are burned and read with the MSI DR12-A.
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Click to enlarge.
Something appears drastically wrong here. Mitsubishi MCC003 media is some of the best that we can buy; seeing the burner choke on a seemingly easy 8X burn is disappointing. We were anticipating the burner going to 12X on the 8X media, but it looks like we won't even see 8X burn speeds on said certified disc! The disc that we just burned is unreadable in the same drive.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
PHILIPS C08:
We used store bought Memorex discs for this portion of the benchmark.
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Click to enlarge.
Another disc that is unreadable in the same drive. Notice this is 8X media, which recalibrated down to 4X during burning. Below, we tried reading the disc a second time in the same burner.
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We had better luck this time - but the disc was barely readable.
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Click to enlarge.
The Plextor drive, however, did not fare as well. This is a fairly poor burn.
VDSPMSAB001:
Just to keep the benchmark well rounded, we bought some low quality Platinum DVD+Rs from Microcenter.
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
The MSI drive can just barely initialize the disc, and it certainly can't read it. This burn was so particularly poor that we could not even get the Plextor drive to recognize the disk!
Below are a set of write descriptors that we could find for DVD+R media:
- RITEK R03: 8X
- MCC 002: 4X
- MCC 003: 8x
- CMC MAG F01: 4X
- PHILIPS C08: 4X
- PRODISC**
- RICOHJPNR00: 2.4X
- RICOHJPNR01: 4X
- RICOHJPNR02: 12X
- SONY D11: 8X**
- VDSPMSAB001: 4X
- YUDEN000T01: 4X
- YUDEN000T02: 12X**
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KristopherKubicki - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link
>Looking at your results, you probably got a faulty drive. Did you talk to MSI at all about these results?The drive isnt ready yet, its preproduction apparently.
Kristopher
Ian@CDRlabs - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link
I have to agree with Belzer here. Why are you saying that the drive is "similar" to the Plextor? I've said this to you many times in the past: same chipset != same driveLooking at your results, you probably got a faulty drive. Did you talk to MSI at all about these results?
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
PrinceGaz:The drive name is actually identified on the drive, not in software. We suspect the reason it came up as GENERIC is due to such an early firmware revision that MSI does not even have the drive labeled yet internally. They OEM to other people, and also use other people to OEM the drive too. If MSI is building the drive for a different client, it would make sense that they do not label a name onto their development model yet.
Kristopher
PrinceGaz - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
My CD-RW drive originally appeared as "ATAPI CD-RW 52XMax" in Device Manager before I updated the firmware (very similar to the "GENERIC DVD RW 12XMax" of that DVD burner).I guess this happens because initially when a drive is released, no burning software knows about the new drive so they just have it appear to the system as a generic device with certain basic features.
Later firmware identifies it correctly but you need updated burning software for it to recognise the drive correctly. The generic names are just a stopgap to allow it to be used until that updated software is available.
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
>Yes that would be a great idea...if you want to f*ck up the drive. Same chipset != same drive or even "fairly similar" or "essentially identical". Besides the Plextor doesn't support bitsetting either so it would be pointless even trying...I didnt say do it. In either case, i missed your review of the drive - sorry. I think i got the message across, "dont buy this drive".
If you think i've got so much nonsense and crap in here, why dont you point it out? We had this discussion about the chipsets before, but for the time being lets just not talk about that for now. What other errors are so marvelous in this review that you can't bring yourself to read it all the way through to the conclusion?
Kristopher
Belzer - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
"There are no official booktype setting capabilities for this drive. Since the drive is fairly similar to the Plextor PX-712A, it may be possible for creative users to flash an unofficial PX-712 firmware onto the drive and enable unsupported booktype functionality."Yes that would be a great idea...if you want to f*ck up the drive. Same chipset != same drive or even "fairly similar" or "essentially identical". Besides the Plextor doesn't support bitsetting either so it would be pointless even trying...
"Here is how the burner performed using Verbatim 8X DVD-R discs. These were the only discs that we could find which would burn 8X DVD-R on the burner."
Doesn't look like it's burning at 8x on the graph...
Then there are a couple of more errors/stupid things I don't even bother to comment. Everytime I read an AT optical drive review I'm surprised it's possible to have so much nonsense and wrong crap in one review.