|
|
Date: |
January
13th, 2003 |
| Type: |
Review |
| Supplier: |
RICOH
|
| Author: |
Mayhem |
| RRP: |
$595
AUS |
This is pretty much
the same as the DVD+RW recording characteristics, nothing to much different.
CD-R/-RW recording
speeds - While
only being about to record at 12x on CD media and rewrite at 10x makes
the drive a bit slower than the faster CD-RW recorders available at the
moment, which can handle 52x write and 24 re-write, it is still fast enough
to be able to handle the majority of people needs.
The CD writing functionality
of the drive works just like any other CD writer on the market, we felt
it wasn't really necessary to go into much detail on this side of things.
Results:
In all the tests that were performed we didn't have a single disc fail
(that is no discs that were burnt correctly on our part had any problems
being read by any of the test hardware), this is a good sign of the quality
of the burns and the compatibility of the plus ("+") standard
itself.
The only main problem
that we came across was that the DVD+R discs were rather incompatible
with the home theater DVD players that were used for testing. This is
similar to the problems faced with CD-R discs when DVD players where released.
The DVD+RW and CD-RW are compatible with the majority of DVD movie players
mainly because of the material the data side of the medium is made from,
that is, it closely resembles that of a stamped (manufactured) disc where
CD-R and DVD+R differ. The colour of the laser for the DVD playback can't
read the data from the CD-R and DVD+R discs as well as the ReWriteable
ones, thus causing incompatibility.
Conclusion:
Overall the MP5125A is a feature packed product and rather affordably
priced, this makes it in reach for most people who are after a larger
optical storage medium than CD-R's can supply.
One thing that is
a bit deceiving is that although the discs say 4.7GB capacity in reality
it is only 4.3GB as there must be a file allocation table etc just like
any other form of storage (but 4.3GB is still just over 5x the capacity
of a CD-R/-RW media and the price of the media is on a similar scale making
it quite affordable for data backup).
For those of you
interested Sony has recently released a DVD-R/-RW/+R/+RW drive, this means
you have the best of both the + and - standards at your disposal.
Pros
- Value for money
- Features
- Capacity
Cons
- Software is a
bit different to the usual Nero (if your used to that)
- Compatibility
of DVD+R with some home theater DVD players
Special thanks to
Monique Fox and the people over at Ricoh
for supplying this kit for us to review.
Score:
8.5 / 10
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