|  In the next round of tests, we ran a few real world examples of CD/DVD recording performance. We focused on CD-R and DVD+R recording to give a few examples of each drive's performance. DVD-R tests were not done because we did not have a comparison drive capable of writing to DVD-Rs, which would leave the test results a bit ambiguous. With each test we compared performance of each drive while writing data CD-Rs and DVD+Rs. Each one of the write tests was completed using Ahead Software's Nero v6.0
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CD/DVD Write Tests - Teac DV-W50D |
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The Burning Question... |
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Nero CD-R Write Analysis:
The first test we ran was a CD-R write test. With this test we recorded 703MBs of MP3 music files from the hard drive to Philips media rated for 48X.
Each drive completed the burn in less than 5 and a half minutes, burning at their rated 16X CD-R write speed. We would have liked to see a higher speed rating than the paltry 16X at this stage of the game. 16X used to be a decent speed, but as drives have improved, it is becoming a bit low end. We feel at this point 32X should be the bare minimum.
Nero DVD+R Write Analysis:
Next we recorded 4.0GBs of MP3 music files to DVD+R media rated for 2.4X. While the drive is capable of writing at DVD+R at 4X, we've found media rated at 4X is still hard to find. So we settled for 2.4X media and let the tests ride.
Once again, the two drives returned virtually identical results. Once 4X media becomes more available, this time should drop to around 13 minutes to burn 4GBs of data!
MP3 Encoding with MusicMatch 8.0
In our last test we loaded MusicMatch 8.0 and a 63 minute audio disc to test the drives capabilities while ripping MP3s. We set the quality to 128Kbps and turned off error correction to show the best possible performance attainable with each drive.
This is where the Teac 32X CD-ROM speed becomes evident compared to the 40X Plextor. Again, we are splitting hairs a little here and really can't complain over these times, but if you want the fastest ripping times you can get, the Teac DV-W50D will leave you yearning for more.
It seems that Teac's goal of an affordable drive that has everything you want, while trimming the features you may not miss has its pluses, but along with those pluses are a few minuses. Overall, the Teac DV-W50D DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW Dual Format Drive performed fairly well in all of our benchmark tests, but we feel there is room for improvement. The main problem being the drive is a little slow with reading and writing of CD-ROMs. That isn't to say that Teac hasn't put together a quality drive, in fact they have. The drive covers all of the bases in regards to compatibility and plans ahead for the future with support for Mount Rainier. Nonetheless, this only goes so far since Operating System support for Mt. Rainer is a long way off and by then, newer faster solutions will be available. In the end, our experience with the Teac DV-W50D DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW Dual Format Drive was good and we found it to be a worthy replacement for our Plextor PX-504A. We've seen this drive selling at several retailers for roughly $190, which is in the ballpark of the Plextor PX504A that is limited to the DVD+R/RW format. We give the Teac DV-W50D DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW drive a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating of a 9. Discuss This Article in Hardware's PC Hardware Forum! | 
