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Review: HP DVD-1035i Reviewed by: Dee-27 Provided by: Lite-On/HP (NL) Firmware: FH22 Manufactured: February 2007

Lite-On was kind enough to send us the HP DVD-1035I for review. In this review we will be seeing how this drive from one the world's most respected electronics manufacturers performs in our tests.

The HP DVD-1035i supports 20x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 8x DVD+R/DL-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written. In addition this drive also supports DVD-RAM read and write at 12x.

Company Information

HP is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries around the world. We explore how technology and services can help people and companies address their problems and challenges, and realize their possibilities, aspirations and dreams. We apply new thinking and ideas to create more simple, valuable and trusted experiences with technology, continuously improving the way our customers live and work.

No other company offers as complete a technology product portfolio as HP. We provide infrastructure and business offerings that span from handheld devices to some of the world's most powerful supercomputer installations. We offer consumers a wide range of products and services from digital photography to digital entertainment and from computing to home printing. This comprehensive portfolio helps us match the right products, services and solutions to our customers' specific needs.

Drive Specifications

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We found the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i at the HP website

 

Retail packaging:

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Our review drive was a retail version. Let’s take a look at the packaging.

Box Front

Box rear

 

Box left and right sides

Box top

What’s inside the box

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Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself and what the drive came shipped with.

Our retail package contained the DVD-1035i drive, fixing screws, software CD-ROM, and manual.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

The bezel of the HP DVD-1035i is simply styled. We can also see various logos, an emergency eject hole, single green LED and an eject button.

Drive top

Drive bottom

On the bottom of the drive we found one label and we can see the drive was manufactured in China during February 2007.

On the rear of the drive we can see from left to right, an unspecified connector, digital and analogue audio connectors, CS, slave and master terminal selectors, IDE connector and a power connector.

Now let’s head on to the next page were we can take a look at the features of the drive….

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Test machine

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For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster CX226BW 22” widescreen (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

System setup:

The HP DVD-1035i was connected to a IDE channel on the motherboards ICH9 IDE controller. As we can see from the above screenshot, Nero InfoTool reports the HP DVD-1035i as a UDMA4 device.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the HP DVD-1035i supports DVD-RAM read/write. The drive came shipped with firmware version FH22.

Installed software:

• Nero Burning ROM 8
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy
• KProbe

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed.

Features and techniques

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Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a look at the supplied software bundle. Please note, we may not use any of this software in this review.

The supplied software CD-ROM

In the above screenshot we see the available install options

• Drive user manual
• Nero 7 Essentials
• Adobe reader
• View readme text file

View the drive manual selection screen

Drive manual language selection screen

The Nero 7 Essentials install screen

Nero 7 Essentials offers, the following applications.

• Nero 7 Express Essentials
• Nero Showtime 3 Essentials
• Nero Vision 4 Essentials
• Nero Recode 2 Essentials
• Nero InCD 5 Essentials
• Nero PhotoShow Express 4

The software bundle is very good, up to date and should provide a good starting point for any new user as well as the more advanced user.

Disc Quality Scanning:

The HP DVD-1035i can be used along with KProbe or Nero CD-Speed for “Disc Quality Scanning”.

Disc Quality Scan at 4x scanning speed using CD-Speed.

Disc Quality Scan at 4x scanning speed using KProbe.

The HP DVD-1035i could be considered a useful drive for Disc Quality Scanning. The results seem fairly consistent with those of a Lite-On drive scanning at 4x

BookType (Bitsetting):

The HP DVD-1035i supports fully automatic bit-setting and supports Bit-Setting on DVD+R/RW/+R DL media types.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+RW with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the HP DVD-1035i:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 37.43x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 37 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the HP DVD-1035i was the fastest drive when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035I, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.93x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the HP DVD-1035i was one of the slowest drives when writing CD-RW media.

20x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 20x.

DVD+R

The HP DVD-1035i uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.70x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

DVD-R

The HP DVD-1035i uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.72x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 9 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

16x DVDR Disc Writing	Supported Write Speed	Write Strategy	Start Write Speed	End Write  Speed	Average  Write  Speed	Write  Time  Full 4.38Gb
Samsung SH-S182D	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.54x 7.58x	18.12x 18.16x	13.21x 13.42x	5m:34s 5m:16s
Optiarc AD-7173A	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.53x 7.53x	18.02x 18.05x	13.26x 13.29x	5m:26s 5m:27s
Plextor PX-760A	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.23x 7.24x	18.00x 18.06x	12.41x 12.35x	5m:34s 5m:41s
Samsung SE-S184M	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.62x 7.63x	18.24x 18.22x	13.46x 13.48x	5m:19s 5m:18s
Pioneer DVR-112	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.51x 7.51x	18.16x 13.34x	13.17x 13.12x	5m:11s 5m:13s
Samsung SH-S203B	20x +R 20x –R	CAV CAV	8.36x 8.39x	20.08x 20.11x	14.95x 14.97x	4m:38s 4m:38s
HP DVD-1035i	20x +R 20x –R	CAV CAV	8.18x 8.22x	19.65x 19.68x	14.70x 14.72x	5m:04s 5m:09s

As we can see from our table, the HP DVD-1035i was one of the fastest drives when writing DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.20x and a total writing time of 8 minutes and 7 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was about average at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 5.71x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 49 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.76x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 7 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.77x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 43 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was about average when writing double layer media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the HP DVD-1035i, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The HP DVD-1035i uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 10.00x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The HP DVD-1035i was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RAM media.

Summary:

There is no doubt that the HP DVD-1035i has excellent writing performance. CD-R writing speed was the fastest we have seen and DVD R writing performance was also very good.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….

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For these tests we will use Nero Disc-Speed to read various CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• DVD-ROM 16x
• CD-ROM 48x

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD that is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced result:

The HP DVD-1035i reached 47.46x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The HP DVD-1035i proved to be the fastest drive at reading our test CD-ROM. Access and seek times were very good.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD. The disc we used was a Ricoh 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Moser Baer India.

The HP DVD-1035i reached 47.87x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The HP DVD-1035i was among the fastest drives with our CD-R test disc.

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The HP DVD-1035i reached 34.22x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The HP DVD-1035i was one of the slowest drives when reading CD-RW media.

100 minute CD-R:

The HP DVD-1035i reached 52.75x when reading our test 100 minute CD-R and had no problems reading our 100 minute test CD.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the HP DVD-1035I, again we used Nero Disc-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it’s nearly 79 minutes in length (78:53:31).

The HP DVD-1035i reached 49.03x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

The HP DVD-1035i performed well above average when reading our audio test CD.

Audio Extraction:

For this test we used EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to test the drives Audio extraction performance. As we can see from the screenshot below, the drive supports accurate stream, C2 error info and caching.

Below is the results produced by EAC:

Burst mode.

Secure mode.

The HP DVD-1035i performed well in burst mode but much slower in secure mode.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the “Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used a CD-R media from RICOH (Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this media).

The extraction quality was excellent and the performance was excellent.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero Disc-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

Pressed DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD Video (single layer)

DVD Video (double layer OTP)

DVD Video (double layer PTP)

The HP DVD-1035i is not riplocked and read our single layer disc at 16x and our double layer test discs at 12x

The HP DVD-1035i was one of the fastest drives when reading pressed DVD-Video media.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a RICOH 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The HP DVD-1035i was the fastest drive when reading DVD+R media and about average when reading DVD+RW media.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4GB of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences in the speed, compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

Once again the HP DVD-1035i was the fastest drive when reading DVD-R media and about average when reading DVD-RW media.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The HP DVD-1035i read our DVD+R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The HP DVD-1035i read our DVD-R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

The HP DVD-1035i read our DVD-RAM disc at 12x using a P-CAV reading method.

Summary:

The HP DVD-1035i has excellent reading performance and is a very reliable reader

Now let’s head over to the next page where we will test CD-R/RW writing performance……

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The specifications of the HP DVD-1035i state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703MB using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x)

The HP DVD-1035i took 2 minutes and 51 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other drives in the table below:

The HP DVD-1035i was one of the fastest drives when writing our test CD-R media.

Write quality:

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the obtained results:

An excellent result to start our CD-R quality tests, (highly recommended).

The write quality on the Verbatim 52x media is very good, (Highly recommended).

Our RICOH media manufactured by Moser Baer India has burned with excellent quality (highly recommended).

Once again we have an excellent result, (highly recommended).

The HP media manufactured by CMC Magnetics has burned with good quality.

Another excellent result (highly recommended).

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

C1 errors are quite high. The result is OK but could be improved.

 

The result is good.

Summary:

CD-R writing quality and media compatibility is excellent with the HP DVD-1035i and CD-RW writing quality is good.

Now let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD recordable performance….

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The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 20x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the writing times for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD±R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4483MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Let’s compare with some other drives.

We can see the HP DVD-1035i has performed very well and is one of the fastest drives we have tested, but let’s see how good the writing quality is.

Write quality:

You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers, so we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In this test we use a Lite-On SOHW-1635S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can’t be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures) set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-Video disc (GoldenEye).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (The Green Mile). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below, you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.

Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random errors:

A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.

Here we see that a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors and that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI errors.

But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything, but if you’re interested, look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher, giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:

“If a row of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be “PI-un-correctable”.”

In theory, an ECC block may in the worst-case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (un-correctable errors) allowed on a good disc:

“In any ECC Block the number of PI-un-correctable rows should not exceed 4.”  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1, the maximum error value should not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF’s.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc – but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a Optiarc AD-7173A DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed the reader is that some companies disliked that we used a modified firmware to obtain 16x reading speed. So to please them, we are now using a drive that reads DVD+R/-R media at 16x as default. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Easier explanation on how to read the test results.

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in KProbe reports?

Use this as a guideline for good discs:

• PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
• PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.

And as always; lower is better

And look at the reading curve; if it looks clean with no dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1P with firmware KL0N along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-O3 along with Nero Disc-Speed and CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

The result is excellent and the disc was burned faster than its rated speed.

A very good result and the disc were written at faster than its rated speed.

The result is excellent considering this disc was burned faster than its rated speed.

No surprises here, an excellent result from the Verbatim 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

The result is good.

PIF errors are fairly constant throughout the disc, but the result is good considering the disc was burned at faster than its rated speed.

The writing quality is excellent.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

We used the same test procedures as in our DVD+R tests.

Below are our obtained results.

The result is excellent.

PI errors are high at the start of the disc but within specification, the result is ok but could be improved.

 

Summary:

The HP DVD-1035i writes DVD+R with excellent/very good quality and is able to burn selected media at higher than its rated speed. The HP DVD-1035i wrote our test DVD+RW media with generally good quality.

Now let’s look at DVD-R/RW performance and quality on the next page…..

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DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1P with firmware KL0N along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-O3 along with Nero Disc Speed and CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

PIF errors are high and out of specification at the end of the disc, there is also a hint of problems at the end of the disc with our read-back test. The result could be improved.

The result is excellent.

PI errors are high at the end of the disc but are within specification. The disc was also burned at faster than its rated speed and the result is good.

PI errors are elevated at the end of the disc, but are well within specification. As the disc was burned at faster than its rated speed, the result is good.

PI errors are high at the end of the disc but are within specification and we have a perfect read-back test. The result is good.

The result is excellent.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

For this test we used the same testing procedures as in our DVD-R tests.

The result is good.

The result is good.

Summary:

The HP DVD-1035i has in most cases, written our DVD-R/RW media with excellent/good quality and wrote selected media at faster than its rated speed.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD R DL writing performance and quality……

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DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing performance and quality:

The HP DVD-1035i supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 8x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we pre-authored several video clips into an image file and burned the resulting image in Nero Burning Rom. We then used the Lite-On LH-20A1P along with KProbe to test the discs quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our Optiarc AD-7173A and AD-7170A using Nero CD-Speed.

The HP DVD-1035i burned our 8x rated Ricoh media in 18 minutes and 20 seconds. PI errors are very high and out of specification just after the layer break. Our read-back test also shows some problems. The writing quality could be improved.

The HP DVD-1035i burned our 2.4x rated Verbatim media in 45 minutes and 48 seconds. A cluster of PIF errors just before the layer break is cause for concern. Our read-back test confirms this. Writing quality could be improved.

The HP DVD-1035i burned our 2.4x rated Infiniti media in 45 minutes and 41 seconds. PIF errors are high and out of specification near the end of the disc and our read-back test failed. Writing quality could be improved.

DVD-R DL:

The HP DVD-1035i burned our Verbatim 8x media in 18 minutes and 45 seconds. The result is very good.

The HP DVD-1035i burned our Verbatim 4x rated test media in 28 minutes and 39 seconds. PI and PIF errors are extremely high and out of specification at the layer break and our read-back test failed. The writing quality could be improved.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

We only have 3 standalone DVD-Players available and 1 standalone DVD-RAM DVD-R recorder to test the DVD+R DL medias (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type: DVD-R):      

• Panasonic DVD-RV32
• Panasonic SA-HT520
• Proline DVDP350
• Panasonic DMR-E50 recorder

Compatibility results:

All our DVD Standalone devices played the DVD+R DL media burned by the HP DVD-1035i without problems in most cases but failed with our Infiniti media.

Only one DVD Standalone device would play the HP DVD-1035i burned DVD-R DL media without any problems.

We would like to mention, that the compatibility issue with standalone DVD Players/Recorders and the DVD-R DL media format is caused by incompatibilities with the standalone devices used in this review, and not the HP DVD-1035I or media format used.

Summary:

The HP DVD-1035i writing quality with our tested DVD DL media was very disappointing and requires some improvement.

Let’s head onto the next page where we will take a look at DVD-RAM performance….

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DVD-RAM writing performance:

The HP DVD-1035i is a so-called Multi drive, meaning it also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also supports the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it has differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

We can see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots. These tick marks are "address information" ("Pre-mastered Pit Header Field") which are embedded onto the disc. This is header information in front of data sector area, and is the same format as HDD and MO.

A DVD-RAM’s disc can be formatted in the following formats:

• FAT32
• UDF 1.02
• UDF 1.50
• UDF 2.00
• UDF 2.01
• UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done as “background processes”. Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish, you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any “hangs” or CPU slowdowns.

DVD-RAM has error correction, but also has error replacement to spare sectors as a "defect management" function. This gives higher reliability than other DVD format.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100.000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors. Let’s try to read back the 2 discs that we wrote:

Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests.

Maxell 12x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the HP DVD-1035i wrote our 12x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 12x in 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

Now let’s see if the HP DVD-1035i can read our test disc.

The HP DVD-1035i had no problems in reading our test disc at 12x.

We then ran a scandisc to check for errors. As we can see from the above screen shot, there were no errors on the disc.

Maxell 5x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the HP DVD-1035i wrote our 5x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 5x in 11 minutes and 14 seconds.

Now let’s see if the HP DVD-1035i can read our test disc.

The HP DVD-1035i had no problems in reading our test disc at 5x.

We then ran a scandisc to check for errors. As we can see from the above screen shot, there were no errors on the disc.

Summary:

The HP DVD-1035i proved reliable at both reading and writing our test DVD-RAM media. When using 12x media the drive completed a full disc in 5 minutes and 44 seconds, which should be fast enough for every day backups.

To round of this review, we will run some advanced tests on the HP DVD-1035I on the next page….

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To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the HP DVD-1035I. These tests are: “Sheep Test”, and some special disc tests.

For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That’s because the logo of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer’s ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: “Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns”.

• No sheep: Can’t backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
• 1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
• 2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
• 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators Womble; has written a guide concerning the “Sheep Test” that can be and be found here.

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the HP DVD-1035I supports everything.

The HP DVD-1035i supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

 

As we can see from the table and screenshots, the HP DVD-1035i is a “Two Sheep Burner” but we note the HP DVD-1035i also managed to read our Safedisc 2.90 test disc.

Overburning:

700MB (80 minute) over-burn test:

From the screenshot above, the HP DVD-1035i reported a maximum overburn capacity of 83:21.65. We attempted to burn a disc slightly less than the reported maximum capacity. To be exact we setup a test burn of 82 minutes and 52 seconds.

The HP DVD-1035i had no problems in over-burning our 80 minute disc to 82 minutes and 52 seconds.

We then decided to see if the HP DVD-1035i could read the overburned disc.

As we can see from the above screenshot, the HP DVD-1035i had no problems in reading our test disc.

DVD+R over-burn test:

We first tried to burn a DVD+R media.

As we can see from the above screenshot, the HP DVD-1035i does not support overburning on this media type.

DVD-R over-burn test:

We will now try a DVD-R media.

Again the HP DVD-1035i did not support overburning to the media type.

MINI DVD discs:

In this section we are going to test if the HP DVD-1035I is capable of writing and reading mini DVD-RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

The Memorex media is made by CMC Magnetics.  Thanks to Memorex Europe for sending us this media.

The HP DVD-1035i had no problems in writing our test MINI DVD-RW disc. Now let’s find out if the drive can read the disc.

The HP DVD-1035i read our test MINI DVD-RW media without any problems.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the HP DVD-1035i would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 8, and used NERO CD-DVD Speed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The HP DVD-1035i had no problems in reading our Video-CD disc. The reading speed is however locked at 40x.

This concludes our HP DVD-1035i review. To read the conclusion, click on the link below.

Positive:

• Good writing performance on DVD±R media.
• Excellent writing performance on CD-R media
• Excellent/very good CD-R writing quality and compatibility.
• Excellent/very good DVD±R/RW writing quality.
• Can burn selected DVD±R media faster than its rated speed.
• Excellent reading performance and reliability.
• Reads pressed DVD Video SL/DL and recordable media at 16x/12x.
• Supports DVD-RAM read/write at 12x speed.
• Supports automatic BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R/RW/DL.
• Supports Disc Quality Scanning with CD-Speed and KProbe.
• Good software bundle.
• Can read/write MINI DVD.
• Can overburn CD-R and read 100 minute CD-R.

Negative:

• DVD±R DL writing quality needs improving.
• CD-RW and DVD±RW writing quality could be improved.
• Noise levels are high when the drive is running at high speed.
• Single coloured LED for read/write.

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points:

The HP DVD-1035i is a fast drive as far as writing DVD media is concerned and extremely fast when writing CD-R media. Being a so called multi-drive, the HP DVD-1035i supports all of the currently popular CD/DVD formats including DVD-RAM.

The HP DVD-1035i was able to burn all our tested CD-R media with excellent/very good quality and media compatibility was also very good.

DVD±R writing quality was also of a very high standard and on most media excellent. The HP DVD-1035i was also able to burn selected DVD±R media at faster than its rated speed.

The HP DVD-1035i also proved to be a good performer with DVD-RAM media, again recording some very fast write times with our tested 12x DVD-RAM media.

Reading performance and reliability is excellent with most media groups.

The supplied software bundle should provide a good starting point for new and more advanced users alike.

The main negative points:

There are not that many negative things to say about the HP DVD-1035i.

DVD±R DL writing quality in most cases was not good and requires improvement via a firmware update.

CD-RW and DVD±RW writing quality could also be improved.

The HP DVD-1035i is noisy when running at high speed and caused a lot of vibration in our review PC case.

We would also like to see different coloured LED’s being used for read/write.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The HP DVD-1035i is good in the most important areas (CD-R and DVD±R writing quality and performance) but could be improved in other areas”

You may comment on this review below or in this forum thread.

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