Datawrite Yellow 8x Speed DVD-R TTG02
Datawrite were enthusiastic about their 8x speed version of the yellow DVD-R and asked me to review them. My samples arrived on tubs of 25 with the labels on them similar to any other of the Datawrite brand, a subtle difference that was immediately noticeable was the shape of the top of the tub which had a wider outer rim with rounded off edges making it pleasant to handle. Although these tubs are stackable they are not compatible with the other designs of cake tub which is (with a large variety of media) inconvenient when I want to stack them. If only there was a standard laid down for cake tubs it would make life easier. The discs are yellow with the labeling stencil cut out of the finish; I am not a lover of yellow although writing on the surface stands out well. This yellow is softer than previous ones and has a slight tinge towards red and the finish is smoother than its predecessors. The cut out type of printing leaves the small print difficult to read. What has been done with the label is that the words "Manufactured by Datasafe Media LTD" have been added and the word Classic is absent, this has put the word Datawrite off center and does not look right perhaps the printers should be notified for future batches. The disc looks & feels well made with smooth edges and a nice mirror mid purple dye.
Here is the lead-in code from the media
00 6C 00 00 01 40 C1 FD 9E D8 52 00 02 85 0D 0C .L...@....R.....
87 89 90 00 03 54 54 47 30 32 00 00 04 00 00 00 .....TTG02......
00 00 00 00 05 BA A3 22 32 20 02 00 06 09 0A 15 ......."2 ......
98 89 90 00 07 88 80 00 00 00 00 00 08 05 15 0C ................
0E 09 04 00 09 96 05 0B 0B 78 88 00 0A 80 00 00 .........X......
00 00 10 00 0B 09 18 14 97 88 85 00 0C B8 9A B8 ................
83 00 30 00 0D 00 00 D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..0.............
I burnt several films with this media and tested the playback for compatibility they all played smoothly in my DVD players I burnt data & video to this media in the following drives:- PIONEER DVR-108, PIONEER DVR-107, PIONEER DVR-105, NEC ND-3500AG, Memorex DVDDLRWL1 F16, BENQ DW1620, LITEON SOHW1633S, TEAC DV-W516G
Here are the resultant graphs
PIONEER DVR-108 V1.14 burnt at 8X speed
 | The burn here started at 6x speed and quickly changed to the full 8x speed at about 300meg burning this disc in 7m54secs |
 Click Graph to see full details |
A burn quality test in my BenQ drive
The PIE errors remain low at below 10 for most of the scan increasing to about 20 at the edge of the disc. Jitter is good and constant remaining under 10 except for the very last sections. PIF is very low with a cluster only reaching 10 at the outer edge and this is reflected in the dips in the speed test at the same points
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
A smooth rise up to 4gig with some disappointing dips after the 4gig point
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PIONEER DVR-108 V1.14 burnt at 12X speed  | As this disc was capable of burning at 12x speed with the official Pioneer firmware I burnt this disc at 12x speed to see how it behaved. The burn took 6m50secs to complete |
 Click Graph to see full details | A burn quality test in my BenQ drive
PIE errors only slightly higher than at 12x speed with a couple of blips during the 12x speed burn and a peak of 33 at the end of the scan. Jitter is below 10% for the first half of the scan levelling off to 10% for the remainder of the scan. PIF errors have the same two peaks in the middle of the 12x speed burn area with a peak rising to 27 at the end of the scan
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
The speed test shows a better readability than at 8x speed with 1 blip near the middle of the disc and another one at the end of the scan.
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NEC ND-3500AG 2.08 burnt at 8X speed  | The NEC starts its burn at 4x speed going up in speed twice to reach the 8x speed taking a total of 9m42sec to complete this burn
A disappointing result here with regards to the speed of the burn |
 Click Graph to see full details | Burn quality as tested in the BenQ drive
PIE is good at under 10 for the majority of the scan with one acceptable blip in the middle of the scan and a slight rise to below 20 at the end.. Jitter starts well below 10% with two minor peaks reaching just over 10% with the average well below 10%. PIF errors are virtually non existent
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
This scan shows an almost perfect graph again What more can I say?
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MEMOREX DVDDLRWL1 F16 BWSE burnt at at 8X Speed  | A similar burning speed pattern here to the NEC starting at 4x and increasing to 8x speed in 2 stages with a total burning time of 9m39 secs |
 Click Graph to see full details | Burn quality as tested in the BenQ drive
PIE starting at a disappointing 10, with another disappointing rise to around 20 at the 12x speed start point, increasing to a peak of 116 at the end of the scan. Jitter remains constant at around 10% throughout the entire scan. PIF errors are very low and average zero
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
No real problem here just 1 minor blip during the scan which otherwise is a good scan
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BENQ DW1620 B7M9 burnt at 8x Speed  | This drive starts at 6x speed with a steady increase to 8x speed by the 500meg point taking 8m13sec to complete the scan |
 Click Graph to see full details | Burn quality as tested in the BenQ drive Another good result here with the PIE errors below 10 for most of the scan peaking at 20 at the end of the scan. Jitter starts about 8% with a gradual increase up to 10% at the end of the scan. PIF is almost zero
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
This scan shows an almost perfect graph. and there is nothing more to say |
LITEON SOHW1633S BS0H burnt at at 8x Speed  | The Liteon burn speed graph is almost identical to the Memorex clone taking 9m35sec to complete the burn |
 Click Graph to see full details. This graph is from firmware BS0H
A test burn with the latest updated firmware BS0K showed very little diferance in the scan CLICK HERE to view the graph from BS0K firmware | Burn quality as tested in the BenQ drive
The graph here is very similar to the Memorex starting at about 10 with a smoother speed transition but rising heavily at the end with a peak of 107. Jitter is constant at 10%. PIF peaks at 10 at the edge of the disc
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
A good scan here up to just over 4gig with a few disappointing dips after this
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TEAC DV-W516G B4S2 burnt at 8x Speed  | Same burning pattern as the Memorex & Liteon taking 9m29secs to complete the burn |
Scan of DVD burnt with firmware B4S6
Click Graph to see full details. This graph is from a test burn with the latest updated firmware B4S6 which is a great improvement to the earlier firmware CLICK HERE to view the graph from the previous firmware | Burn quality as tested in the BenQ drive
The 4x speed portion of the burn the PIE errors start at about 15 reducing to about 5 by the time the 6x burn cuts in with a gradual increase up to a peak of just under 40 around the 4gig point with a few peaks at the end at a maximum of 64. Jitter starts at 10% dropping to 8% at the 6x speed switch remaining fairly stable keeping well under 10% for the rest of the burn. PIF shows a few errors towards the end with a maximum of 14. This graph is a vast improvement on the previous firmware HERE were the resultant error rate was over double and the disc was reluctant to play in my Mustek player.
Unfortunately this latest firmware upgrade still does not allow bitsetting to be able to burn DVD+R media as DVD-ROM book format.
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This graph is from a test burn with the latest updated firmware B4S6 which is an improvement to the earlier firmware CLICK HERE to view the graph from the previous firmware
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Speed test in the Toshiba drive
A good scan with just the the 1 dip at the edge of the burn
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PIONEER DVR-107 1.18 burnt at 8X speed  | Just the one speed transition her from 6X speed to 8x speed at about 550meg with a total burning time of 8m17secs |
 Click Graph to see full details | A burn quality test in my BenQ drive
PIE is good here averaging about 5 for over half the scan with a gradual increase to about 8 and then a peak of just over 10 at the outer edge. Jitter starts about 7% with a gradual increase to just under 10% at the end, the average being 8.2%. PIF is again virtually non existent
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
This scan shows an almost perfect graph. and there is nothing more to say
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PIONEER DVR-105 1.32 burnt at 4X speed  Click Graph to see full details | A burn quality test in my BenQ drive
PIE starts about 10 and increases gradually up to about 15 at 2.5 gig with major increases to about 25 with an even major peak during the last 200meg reaching just over 80
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 | Speed test in the Toshiba drive
A good graph with just 1 dip at the end of the scan |
The PI charts have all been scaled to 80 so a direct comparison can be made between the different drives. Clicking on these images will bring up the original scan.
Because of the consistently good disc I have been getting for review I have made an attempt at making reading the discs more difficult by have increasing the reading speed of the discs and changed from C D/DVD speed back to a trusted DVDInfoPro which seems to show up more discrepancies in the scan
All the disc I burnt produced playable films with zero read errors, there is a tendency for the PI/PIF errors to increase towards the outer edge but it is only slight in most of the burns and I doubt if it will have any affect on the playback. The worst burns come from the Liteon Memorex, Teac & Pioneer 105, but these errors although disappointing are unlikely to give any problems. I will accept errors up to 200 as being an acceptable burn and all these came well within this margin.
All the 8x speed writers used would only allow a maximum of 8x speed burning with the exception of the Pioneer 108 which allowed burning of up to 12x speed I burnt a test disc at 12x speed with the Pioneer 108 and the resultant graphs are very good producing a better burn than the Liteon series drives. I burnt the same title set to a disc in each of these drives at 8x speed and the resultant scans if anything are better than the test data scans. Playback of these films is perfect without falter and on a rating scale I would give these discs 9/10.for consistency and playback compatibility.
This disc is a nice addition to the Datawrite range and will complement the other excellent discs that currently come from the Datawrite stables
Footnote
I have been advised by Datawrite that they are using two different mid codes for this disc, the one I have reviewed and CMCMAG AE1. This media uses the same dye formula and is every bit as good as the TTG02 the first production was the Datawrite printable 8x speed DVD-R media which was reviewed by me here
Datawrite Printable 8x Speed CMCMAG AE1Added: Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Reviewer: Flashhits: 21118
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