Samsung SH-S182D DVD-Writer Review

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Samsung was kind enough to send us the SH-S182D for review. In this review we will be seeing how this drive from one the world's largest electronics manufacturers performs in our tests.

The Samsung SH-S182D supports 18x 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 at 12x.

 Company information:

We are sure that most of you know Samsung already, but let us take a look at some of the company information found at: www.samsungoms-europe.com

If you are interested in reading more company information, please visit: www.samsungoms-europe.com

 

Drive specifications:

Now let us take a look at the specifications of the Samsung SH-S182D, found at Samsungs website:

 

What's inside the box?

In this section we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the drive and its technology.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Left Side

Right Side

Below you will see the contents of the retail box:

The drive supplied was the retail version. As we can see the drive is supplied with software, IDE cable, Audio cable, instructions and fixing screws. 

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

The bezel of the Samsung SH-S182D is pleasingly styled. We can see an emergency eject hole, a single green coloured LED for read and write (we prefer a different led colour though for writing) and an eject button. The logos include the LightScribe logo, the WritemasterTM logo, the SAMSUNG logo, a DVD Forum DVD-Multi recorder logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+R DL logo and a CD-RW High Speed+ logo.

Top

On the top side of the drive we found one sticker and we can read it was made in Indonesia '“ May 2006.

Underside

Left/Right Side

On the back of the drive starting from the left, we can see a digital audio connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

We installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

 

From the screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware SB01, but was later updated with firmware SB02.

Another shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

But let us continue this review and see how it really performs.

 

On the next page we will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features…………

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Test machine:

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Asus A8V Deluxe
  
  
• Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Toledo)
  
  
• RAM: 1 GB Corsair Kit PC3200 DDR
  
  
• GFX: MSI GeForce 6600 GT
  
• Sound: Onboard Realtek
  AC'97
  
• Hard
  disk: Maxtor 6V300F0 300 GB (S-ATA)
  

System
set-up:

The Samsung
SH-S182D was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as TSSTcorp
CD/DVDW SH-S182D. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun
was enabled for all devices.

Firmware
Update:

The Samsung
SH-S182D firmware can be updated using the supplied 'live update" software; all
that is required is an Internet connection. The drive was shipped with firmware
SB01 and was during the course of this review updated to version SB02. See the
screenshots below on the firmware update process.

Software:

Windows XP
Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows
XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero Burning ROM
  
  
• Nero CD/DVD
  Speed
  
• Nero Info
  Tool
  
• Slysoft CloneCD
  
  
• Exact Audio Copy
  v0.95 beta 4
  
• K-Probe

 

Features and techniques:

The Drive also
features 'Double Optimum Power Calibration Technology". The Double OPC
constantly monitors the sensitivity of the media and adjusts the laser strength
to achieve the best possible results. It does this by analyzing the reflection
from the media's surface.

Disc Quality
Scanning:

With a small
edit to the Windows system registry, the Samsung SH-S182D can be used along with
Nero CD-Speed for 'Disc Quality Scanning".

Scanned at 4x

Scanned at 8x

Scanned at 12x

BookType
(bitsetting):

The Samsung
SH-S182D supports bit-setting, and is capable of writing DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R
DL media with DVD-ROM book type.

This feature
can be changed with the i.e. the Book Type settings in Nero Burning ROM under
the Choose Recorder option:

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 DL with book type
DVD-ROM

DVD+RW with book type
DVD-ROM

DVD+R with book type
DVD-ROM

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

This should say
DVD-ROM.

Now it's time
to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Samsung
SH-S182D:

CD-Recordable:

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at
its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 37.16x and a total
writing time of 2 minutes and 52 seconds.

For comparison
we have made the following table: 

As we can see
from the table, the Samsung SH-S182D is one of the fastest drives when it comes
to writing CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
writing technology to write at 32X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 28.30x
and the total time 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

For a better
overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see
from the table, the Samsung SH-S182D performed average on writing
CD-RWs.

18X DVD+R/-R
Writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 18x. This gives an average write speed
of 13.21x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 34 seconds.

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD-R at its maximum speed of 18x. This gives an average write speed of 13.42x
and a writing time of 5 minutes and 16 second.

8X DVD+R DL
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-S182D supports 8x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 6.34x and total writing time is
19:13 minutes.

8X DVD-R DL
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-S182D supports 8x writing speed on DVD-R DL media.

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD-R DL at 8x. The average speed is 6.38x and total writing time is
18:59 minutes.

8X DVD+RW
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 6.98x and total writing time is 8:41
minutes.

6X DVD-RW
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-S182D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.64x and total writing time is
10:41 minutes.

 

Included software:

Now it's time
to look at the included software and to comment if needed. Notice that we may
not use the included software in our performance testing part of the
review.

Nero OEM
suite:

 

Now that we
have finished examining the drive and its writing strategies, it's time to head
on to next page, which is reading performance
test…

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Reading performance:

For these
tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-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 Creative Blaster Audigy install CD that
is close to 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

The Samsung
SH-S182D reached 47.10x. Let's compare the result in the table below:

The Samsung
SH-S182D performed average reading pressed CD-ROM. The Seek Times is
excellent.

CD-Recordable
Discs:

For this test
we made a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD. The disc we
used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation. 

The Samsung
SH-S182D is one of the slowest drives reading CD-Rs, due to the locked read
speed at 40x. The Seek Times is excellent.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

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

As we can see
above, the Samsung SH-S182D is locked at 40x, reading CD-RW; now let us compare
it to other drives below.

The Samsung
SH-S182D performed average on CD-RW read test, and once again the Seek Times is
excellent.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

We used Nero
CD/DVD-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 about 78 minutes
long (77:43:45).

The Samsung
SH-S182D reached 41.61x while reading CD-DA discs. Let us compare the result
with other drives:

The Samsung
SH-S182D performed average while reading Audio-CDs.

Below is the
results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive
performed well in burst mode, but rather slow 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 DA media from MMORE (Thanks to MMORE (NL) for sending us this
media).

The extracting
quality is excellent and it should support everything, except reading the
Leadin/Leadout.

 

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use
Nero CD-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.

DVD '“
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 (OPT)

As we can see
the drive reached 16x on DVD-Video Single Layer and 8x on DVD-Video Double
layer.

The Samsung
SH-S182D performed very good on the DVD-Video SL test and rather slow on the
DVD-Video DL test.

 

DVD '“ DVD+R/RW:

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

DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

The Samsung
SH-S182D performed below average on DVD+R/RW. Now let us see how it will perform
on DVD-R/RW.

 

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
Samsung SH-S182D performed below average on DVD-R/RW.

Overall
thoughts:

The Samsung
SH-W162C is a respectable reader, it is by no means the fastest reader on the
block, but during our read tests it proved reliable.

 

But now
it's time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW
discs…

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The specifications of the Samsung
SH-S182D 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 700Mb 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 drive used
2 minutes and 59 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares
to other drives:

• Samsung SH-W162L used
  2 minutes and 53 seconds at 48x


• Philips DVDR1660 used 2 minutes
  and 49 seconds at 48x


• NEC
  ND-4551A used 2 minutes and 51 seconds at 48x
  
• NEC
  ND-4550A used 3 minutes and 5 seconds at 48x
  
• Philips
  DVDR1648 used 2 minutes and 50 seconds at 48x

 

Write Quality:

We will test
CD-R discs from 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
KProbe 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:

Brand:	BenQ CD-R Thanks to Daxon for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	97m22s67f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:54s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.41
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

BenQ media with
average C1 errors of 0.41 - it goes into the group 'best quality discs"
category.

 

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to RICOH Europe (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India Limited
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	1x-52x
Write Speed:	40x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	2m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.72
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

RICOH media '“
manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 0.72 it goes in
the 'best
quality" category.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:53s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.86
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

This media
goes into the category 'best quality discs" for its C1 average with 0.86.

 

Brand:	Miflop Extreme Printable. Thanks to MiFlop Media for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	2m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.24
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by
Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of
0.24 it goes into the group 'best quality discs"
category.

Brand:	Ultron '“ Thanks to Ultron AG (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SONY Corporation
Code:	97m24s16f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	3m:17s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.99
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

This 52x
certified media was only burned at 32x, however the quality is very good
and with
the average C1 errors of 0.99 it goes into the group 'best quality discs"
category.

 

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:52s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.34
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Verbatim '“ a
well-known brand showed us a C1 average of 0.34 - it goes into the category
'Best Discs".

 

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

We will also test CD-RW
discs from different CD-RW manufacturers. Settings and
testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want
to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for these tests have
been written to before, but none have been written to more than 5
times.

CD-ReWritable
media:

 

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:30s
C1 Average/Sec:	52.21
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The C1 errors are
quite high, but at least there were no C2 errors.

Summary:

The CD-R writing quality is
excellent, and the CD-RW quality could be improved.

 

So let us
head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance…

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The
specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 18x 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

Look below for
the results.

The
results are respectable, but let us see how 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 SHM-165P6S 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-uncorrectable"."

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 (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:

'In any
ECC
Block the number of PI-uncorrectable 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 NEC ND-4551A 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 the Lite-On SHM-165P6S along with KProbe to measure the disc
quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4551A along with CD-Speed for our
read-back tests.

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	DAXON AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:09s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.65
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is
very good.

Brand:	Emtec
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India Limited
Code:	MBIPG101R05
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.27
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result is
excellent.

Brand:	Maxell
Manufacturer:	Maxell
Code:	MAXELL003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.46
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result is
excellent

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ Thanks to Miflop for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden Company Limited
Code:	YUDEN 000 T03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	5m:20s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	12.52
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Miflop extreme
media with Taiyo Yuden media code, the result is ok.

Brand:	Philips
Manufacturer:	InfoMedia
Code:	INFOMER30
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:10s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

The result is
good.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JNP R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.79
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The result is
very good.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK Corporation
Code:	TDK003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.41
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.11

The result is
ok.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (Germany) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	5m:18s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.25
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result
could have been excellent without the high PI error level at the end of the
disc.

 

DVD+ReWritable media:

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RICOH Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPNW21
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The result is
very good for this DVD+RW media.

To sum it
up: So
far the Samsung SH-S182D writes DVD+R/RW with good quality. Let's find out how
the drive will do on DVD-R/RW media.

 

On the next
page you will find the DVD-R/RW writing
results...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write
quality:

In these tests
we will be using the Lite-On SHW-1635S and SHM-165P6S along with KProbe to
measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4551A along with
CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	Maxell
Manufacturer:	Maxell
Code:	MXLRG04
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.55
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is
good.

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ Thanks to Miflop for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden Company Limited
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	5m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.14
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

Miflop extreme
media, with Taiyo Yuden media code and the result is ok.

Brand:	Panasonic
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden Company Limited
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.27
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result is
excellent.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAG AM3
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:0s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.97
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

The result is
good.

Brand:	Sony '“ Thanks to Sony (Germany) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY16D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.30
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

The result is
ok.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TTH02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:10s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.45
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.14

The result is
could have been better. So any improvements are welcome.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (Germany) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03R G20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	5m:18s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.92
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is
very good.

 

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	JVC
Manufacturer:	Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.
Code:	JVC1Victord7
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.74
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is
excellent.

Brand:	Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RW 6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.44
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is
excellent.

To sum it
up:
Overall, the write quality is ok on DVD-R and excellent on DVD-RW media.
Improvements on DVD-R media are welcome.

 

Head on to
next page and read about DVD+R DL compatibility and write
quality...

---

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing speed and
compatibility:

The Samsung
SH-S182D 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.

Testing
procedure:
We created an ISO Image from
a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of 8103
MB. We then wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 7. Below are the
results:

Nero completed
the burn successfully with the Ricoh media in 19 minutes and 16
seconds.

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOHJPN D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	19m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	13.70
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.10

As we can see
from the KProbe scan the PI errors are higher on the first layer then on the
second layer.

Nero completed
the burn successfully with the Traxdata media in 21 minutes and 9 seconds.

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	RiTEK Corporation
Code:	RITEKS04
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	21m:09s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.09
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Again the PI
errors are higher on the first layer then on the second layer.

Let us compare
the Samsung SH-S182D results with some other DL capable drives.

*1 Verbatim DVD+R DL
*2
Traxdata DVD+R DL
*3 Ricoh DVD+R DL

DVD-R
DL:

As mentioned
at the beginning of this page, the Samsung SH-S182D supports the DVD-R DL
standard up to 8x. Again, we used Nero Burning Rom 7 to write the DVD
Image:

The Samsung
SH-S182D used 27 minutes and 7 seconds to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL 4x media
at 4x.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.34
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

The result is
ok, the read-back curve shows a speed drop near the layer change.

As we can read
from the image above we got an error while writing this media on the Samsung
SH-S182D.

 

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

We have 4
standalone DVD-Players and 1 standalone DVD+R/W recorder available to test the
DVD+R DL media (BookType: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (BookType: DVD-R)
with:

• Aiwa DVD
  Player XD-DV370
  
• Medion
  DVD/DivX Player MD7457
  
• Medion
  DVD/DivX/NeroDigital Player MD80796  
  
• Red Star
  DVD-Player 230G
  
• Mustek
  R100A DVD+R/W Recorder
  

Compatibility
results: 

All DVD
Standalone devices played the Samsung SH-S182D burned DVD+R DL media. But only
one DVD Standalone devices would play the DVD-R DL media.

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 Samsung SH-S182D or media format
used.

Summary: Overall the results are
ok.

---

DVD-RAM:

The Samsung SH-S182D is a
so-called Multi Recorder, 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.

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

Maxell branded 12x media
manufactured by Maxell

Verbatim 5x media manufactured by
Matsushita

As we can see, the Maxell
media is rated at 12x and the Panasonic media is rated at 5x.

Now let's see how DVD-RAM
media is written and read by the Samsung SH-S182D.

Maxell 12x media written at 12x
without verification

Maxell 12x media written at 10x
without verification

Maxell 12x media written at 8x
without verification

Maxell 12x media written at 6x
without verification

Verbatim 5x without
verification

Verbatim 5x with
verification

For those of you who are
not familiar with DVD-RAM, you may probably think that something went wrong
during the write process with the verification turned on, since the 5x
media was written at 2x. But not to worry, that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM
discs, the reason for the 'low" speed is, the drive constantly reads back the
data after writing it to verify that it's written correctly. We can also call it
a 'bullet proof" writing/verify technique, with no data loss/errors.

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:

Maxell DVD-RAM

Verbatim DVD-RAM

As we can see, the
Samsung SH-S162S also reads DVD-RAM using a fast P-CAV/CLV reading method, but
reads the disc at its rated write speed, meaning our 5x media was read at 5x and
our 12x media was read at 12x. The Samsung SH-S182D had no problems in reading
our two test discs.

EDITORS
NOTE:

The rather shaky read
back curve for 12x DVD-RAM media was fixed in firmware version SB03:

 

Before we
round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next
page…

---

To round off
this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Samsung SH-S182D. These
tests are: 'Sheep Test", protected audio discs and some special disc tests.

The 'Sheep Test":

 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 found here.

In the
screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Samsung SH-S182D supports
everything.

The Samsung
SH-S182D supports DAO-RAW recording mode, which basically means, it can write
uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

As we can see
from the table the Samsung SH-S182D is a 'Two Sheep Burner", in addition it also
managed to copy the Safedisc V2.90 test. It could not manage the Sheep3 test
though

 

Copy protected Audio:

For our
protected audio test, we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the
protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried
to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we
had available for this test: 

Celine Dion: A
New Day Has Come; protected with key2audio version 3.

 

Herbert
Gé¶nemeyer: Mensch - This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4
.3(build 12b)

And Michelle:
Leben!; protected with Cactus Datashield 200.5.1.91 '“ 5.10.090.

Results:

 

Overburning:

To test the
overburning capabilities of the Samsung SH-S182D, we used the over-burning test
in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.

CD-R:

For this test
we used an Infiniti Professional Compax 99min/900mb CD-R. (Thanks to Medea
International (UK) for providing the disc).

According to
Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to 102 minute and 35 seconds. However
we set the overburn capacity down to around 100 minutes and turned on the
overburn function is Nero CD/DVD Speed:

To test if the
Samsung SH-S182D is capable to read overburned CD-Rs, we used a 99:57 minutes
CD-R:

As we can see
from the picture above the Samsung SH-S182D had no problems reading the 99:57
minutes CD-R.

DVD+R:

We also tried
to overburn a DVD+R media:

According to
Nero CD-DVD Speed the Samsung SH-S182D can not overburn DVD+R media.

DVD-R:

According to
Nero CD-DVD Speed the Samsung SH-S182D can not overburn DVD-R media.

 

This
concludes our Samsung SH-S182D review, let us head on to the last page to read
our conclusion…

Positive:

• Supports
  CD-R/RW writing at 48x/32x
  
• Supports
  DVD±R writing at 18x
  
• Supports
  DVD-RAM at 12x
  
• Supports
  DVD+RW/DVD-RW writing at 8x/6x
  
• Supports
  Mt. Rainer
  
• Overall ok
  writing quality
  
• Supports
  Bitsetting for DVD+R/+RW/+R DL (BookType to DVD-ROM)
  
• 'Two sheep"
  writer
  
• Supports
  DAO-RAW writing
  
• Can rip
  copy protected Audio-CDs
  
• Reads
  CD-ROM at 48x
  
• Reads
  DVD-ROM/DVD-Video SL at 16
  
• 'Two sheep"
  writer  
  
• Can
  overburn CD-Rs around 99 min
  
• Can read 99
  min CD-Rs
  
• Good
  Software package
  
• Can do disc
  quality scanning
  
• Lead free
  product  
  

 

Negative:

• Reads
  CD-R/CD-RW/CD-DA only at 40x
  
• Reads
  DVD±R/RW/±R DL only at 12x/8x/8x
  
• Can not overburn
  DVD±R
  media
  
• Quality
  improvements of DVD-R and DVD±R DL media
  
• Green LED
  for both reading and writing

 

Conclusion:

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

The main
positive points: The Samsung SH-S182D was the
second 18x DVD writer that appeared after Plextor's PX-760.

The total 18x
DVD writing times are very good and the quality ok on this Samsung
SH-S182D.

The CD-R write
quality is excellent with the Samsung SH-S182D, with most tested CD-R media
returning impressive results. Write performance was also impressive with many
burns well under 3 minutes.

The Mt. Rainer
support is something that we can not find in every drive, so this feature gives
the Samsung SH-S182D some extra points from us.

Bitsetting
support on DVD+R/+RW/+R DL is also a welcome inclusion and ensures good
compatibility with set top DVD players.

The supplied
software package was also good, and should provide the beginner and the more
advanced user with all the necessary tools to write DVD and CD recordable
media.

As a last
point we would like to mention that this DVD burner is a 'lead-free" product,
which meet the recycling standards that came into effect on the 1^st
of January 2006.

The main
negative points: There are few negative points
about this drive, we would like to mention that other drives offer faster read
speeds on CD-R/RW/DA and on DVD±R/RW/±R
DL media.

Further, it
was a little disappointing not to find some media that could be burned at higher
than its rated speed.

Quality
improvements on DVD-R and DVD±R DL media would be welcome.

We would also
like to see a dual coloured LED, with one colour used for read and a different
colour used for writing, instead of the present single coloured green
LED.

To sum it all
up, this is what we would say: 'The
Samsung SH-S182D is an inexpensive and overall an OK drive with really nice
features".

 

By using our
price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we found the
drive offered at 33.99 $, and at getprice the drive is listed at 32.80
€. (August
2006).

 

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

 

Thanks to:

---

 

	Miflop Media '“ Spain for providing the media used in this review.
	Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe '“ The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.
	Daxon Technology Inc '“ Taiwan for providing the BenQ media used in this article.
	Medea International '“ United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
	MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.
	Ricoh Europe '“ For providing the media used in this review.
	SVP Communication '“ The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
	Sony '“ Germany for providing the media used in this review.
	Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.