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Datawrite Classic 8x Speed DVD+R MCC003




Datawrite seem to be changing their disc manufacturers and they have sent me some more discs to sample. This time the discs are DVD+R media and have the leadin code MCC003 which is manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. The discs are in the design of the Datawrite Classic and are classified as orange in colour, the colour is a dark mustard colour and the print is the standard stencil cut out that Datawrite are now using. This colour combination makes the label difficult to read but it does mean that there is less handling during printing due to there being only one color print process so there is only one pass in the printing stage which also helps to keep the handling & price down to the end user. The dye is a mid purple with no blemishes and the centre is clear with a well defined break from the dye area. The edges of the disc are very smooth with no irregularities

I checked the disc in my Pioneer 108 to find I was able to burn it at 12x speed and the dye stamper was MCC003

08 02 00 00 A1 0F 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3F .............&.?
00 00 00 00 00 00 03 4D 43 43 00 00 00 00 00 30 .......MCC.....0
30 33 00 38 23 54 37 12 02 42 6E 02 A8 6B 15 15 03.8#T7..BN..K..
0B 0B 08 08 01 19 1B 0C 0C 0C 0D 01 00 00 00 00 ................

I burnt several films with this media and tested the playback compatibility they all played smoothly in all my DVD players
I tested this media in the following drives PIONEER DVR-108, NEC ND-3500AG, Memorex DVD+/-DLRWL1 F16, BENQ DW1620, PLEXTOR PX708A, LITEON SOHW1633S & TEAC DV-W516G

Here are the resultant graphs

PIONEER DVR-108 V1.14 at 12x Speed

A burn quality test in my NU drive


The PIE chart shows very low at the start at 6x speed burning and reduces to almost zero at the 8x speed switch point with a slight increase at the 12x switch rising gradually to a peak of a mere 38 a good scan indeed. Jitter is fairly constant throughout with an average of just under 12% & PIF errors are almost non existent


Speed test in the Toshiba drive




This scan shows a perfect graph



NEC ND-3500AG

Burn quality as tested in the NU drive


The PIE chart shown has such a low scale it does not do the drive justice, with a maximum of 11 it is indeed a low reading .The jitter has just a slight increase at the 4x to 6x switch and peaks at just over 13%. PIE errors are very low at a maximum of 1.


Speed test in the Toshiba drive


An almost perfect scan with just the one dip which could be a speck of dust on the disc but the disc read fine without errors



MEMOREX DVD+/-DLRWL1 F16 vBWSE at 8x Speed

Burn quality as tested in the NU drive


Some minor peaks of around 80 at the start of the scan, but smoothing off to fewer than 40 as the scam progresses. This seems typical with the Liteon range and cannot blame it on the media.. Jitter is high at the beginning (over 16%) but the % drops as the scan progresses to average just over 13. The PIF again peaks at 16 at the start and then levels off to a mere 1


 


These errors shown here IMO are attributed to the drive and not the media but are not high enough to have any effect on playback quality.

Speed test in the Toshiba drive


The speed test shows a perfect graph going off the scale and this is typical with DVD-ROM discs produced with the Liteon series of drives


 



BENQ DW1620 at 12x Speed

Burn quality as tested in the NU drive

I am stuck for words with this scan the PIE errors so low with a maximum of 8 and an average of just 2. I doubt if I will find a much better scan, the jitter averages 11 and is constant throughout the scan and an almost non existent PIF error chart


 


This is a very good result especially when the disc was burnt at 12x speed in the Benq drive



 

Speed test in the Toshiba drive




This scan shows a perfect graph



PLEXTOR PX-708A at 8x Speed

Burn quality as tested in the NU drive


This drive is ageing a little now but the results are still acceptable you can see the increase in PIE errors at the 6x to 8x switch rising to a peak of about 120 near the outer edge then dropping at about 4gig at this point the drive reverted back to a lower burning speed which can be seen in the shading of the burn. Jitter % gradually rises to the same point and then drops down and the PIF shows a peak around the same point. The disc had no problems with playback during its entire length

Speed test in the Toshiba drive


The graph is good up to about 3.5gig where it falters for 1/2 gig and this is consistent with the PIF chart above. No real problem here just a minor deviation in burn quality.



LITEON SOHW1633S at 8x Speed

Burn quality as tested in the NU drive


Some high PIE peaks at the start of the scan with a maximum of just under 60 a pretty fair scan. Jitter is regular and returns an average of 13.1%. PIF a few peaks at the start consistent with the PIE errors and one peak at the end


Speed test in the Toshiba drive


The speed test shows a perfect graph going off the scale and this is almost identical to the Memorex which is typical with DVD-ROM discs produced with the Liteon series of drives



TEAC DV-W516G at 8x Speed

Burn quality as tested in the NU drive


This graph is not unlike the Liteon except that the peaks are double but at the same point in the scale

Speed test in the Toshiba drive




This scan shows a perfect graph


This DVD+R media produces very good burns in most of my drives and all the burns produced are playable without problems on the majority of my players. The BENQ graph does not come any better and the worst graph the PLEXTOR is still a good graph. This is another great classic disc from Datawrite who seem to be going from strength to strength with their superb quality media that is compatible over a wide range of DVD writers. The only downside as far as I am concerned is the colour! I have to say the discs are a lot hotter than the orible mustard coloured surface

Wherever possible I used the bitsetting utility to burn the discs as DVD-ROM book format for full player compatibility but unfortunately the Pioneer, NEC & Teac do not have this facility currently available. I expect NEC & Teac to include this in future firmware updates but I doubt if Pioneer will. When considering which burner to purchase if you are going to use DVD+R media it is important to be able to change the book type to burn the DVD+R media as DVD-ROM for full player compatibility


Added:  Friday, October 08, 2004
Reviewer:  Flash

hits: 12966
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