Samsung SH-W162L DVD-Writer Review

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Review:
Samsung SH-W162L
Reviewer: Jan70
Provided by: Samsung
Germany
Firmware: TS01 '“
TS03
Manufactured: October
2005

Samsung Germany was
kind enough to send us the SH-W162L 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-W162L
supports 16x DVD±R,
8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 8x/4x DVD+R DL/-R DL
writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be
written. This drive is also the first drive from Samsung that
supports LightScribe direct disc labelling.

 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 SE-W162L, 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-W162C 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-R/RW logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+ReWritable 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 the
Philippines '“ October 2005.

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 Mt.Rainier support and a larger
buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware TS01, but was later updated
with firmware TS02 and TS03.

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 3500+
  (Venice) 1000 MHz Hyper Transport
  
• RAM: 1 GB Corsair Kit PC3200
  DDR
  
• GFX: MSI GeForce 6600 GT
  
• Sound: Onboard Realtek
  AC'97
  
• Hard
  disk: Seagate Barracuda ST3250823A
  250 GB

System
set-up:

The
Samsung
SH-W162L
was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as TSSTcorp CD/DVDW
SH-W162L.
DMA (Direct Memory
Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

Firmware
Update:

The Samsung
SH-W162L firmware can be updated using the supplied 'live update" software; all
that is required is an Internet connection. The drive was shipped with firmware
TS01 and was during the course of this review updated to version TS02 and TS03.
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 Samsung
SH-W162L is based on the new Mediatek MT1888LE chipset.

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-W162C can be used along with
Nero CD-Speed for 'Disc Quality Scanning".

Scanned at 4x

Scanned at 8x

Below a scan
made at 12x by using KProbe:

BookType
(bitsetting):

The Samsung
SH-W162L 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 Bitsetting option in Nero CD-DVD:

Or 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-W162L:

CD-Recordable:

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at
its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 37.21x 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-W162L is the fasted drive when it comes to
writing CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
writing technology to write at 32X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 28.44x
and the total time 3 minutes and 35 seconds.

For a better
overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see
from the table, the Samsung SH-W162L performed average on writing
CD-RWs.

16X DVD+R/-R
Writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed
of 11.93x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 35 seconds.

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD-R at its maximum speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.83x
and a writing time of 5 minutes and 54 second.

Below are some
write graphs from some other drives for comparison:

The
NEC
3540A uses
CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing
speed of 11.81x and a writing time of 5 minutes
and 58 seconds.

The Philips
DVDR16LS uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.33x and total writing time is 6 minutes
and 8 seconds. The average speed is lower and the writing time is higher than it
could have been due to the Walking OPC generation 2 using some time to
constantly adjust the writing quality, we could see this as constant dips in the
speed curve.

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.60x
and total writing time is 6 minutes and 12 seconds. Below, we made a comparison
table:

*1 - Actual
writing speed was max 14x due to USB-Bridge limitations.
*2 '“ Actual writing
speed was max 13x due to USB-Bridge limitations.

8X DVD+R DL
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-W162L supports 8x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 6.39xx and total writing time is
19:06 minutes.

4X DVD-R DL
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-W162L supports 4x writing speed on DVD-R DL media.

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-R DL at 4x. The average speed is 4.02x and total writing time is 27:26
minutes.

8X DVD+RW
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-W612L uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 6.99x and total writing time is 9:09
minutes.

6X DVD-RW
writing speed:

The Samsung
SH-W162L uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.68x and total writing time is 10:59
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-W162L reached 47.38x. Let's compare the result in the table below:

The Samsung
SH-W162L is among the fastest drives, 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-W162L is one of the slowest drives reading CD-Rs, due to the locked read
speed at 40x. The Seek Times is excellent.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

 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-W162L is locked at 40x, reading CD-RW; now let us compare
it to other drives below.

The Samsung
SH-W162L performed average on CD-RW read test, and once again the Seek Times is
excellent.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

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-W162L reached 41.85xx while reading CD-DA discs. Let us compare the result
with other drives:

The Samsung
SH-W162L performed average while reading Audio-CDs.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

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-W162L performed excellently on the DVD-Video SL test and average 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-W162L performed 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-W162L performed 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-W162L 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 53 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares
to other drives:

• 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
  
• LG
  GSA-4167B used 3 minutes and 7 seconds at 48x
  
• Pioneer
  DVR-110D used 3 minutes and 34 seconds at 40x
  
• NU DHW-164
  used 3 minutes and 12 seconds at 40x
  
• Philips
  DVDR16LS used 3 minutes and 26 seconds at 40x
  
• Samsung
  TS-E552U used 2 minutes and 52 seconds at 40x
  
• LG
  GSA-4163B used 3 minutes and 15 seconds at 40x
  
• Philips
  DVDR1640P used 3 minutes and 17 seconds at 40x
  
• NU DDW-082
  used 3 minutes and 2 seconds at 40x
  
• Samsung
  TS-H552B used exactly 3 minutes at
  40x         
  
• Plextor
  PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x

 

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:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.61
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

BenQ media with
average C1 errors of 0.61 - 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:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.20
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

RICOH media '“
manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 1.20 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:52s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.21
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

This media
goes into the category 'best quality discs" for its C1 average with 2.21.

 

Brand:	Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK 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:59s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.13
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by
Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of
0.13 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:	16x
Write Time:	5m:38s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.22
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

This 52x
certified media was only burned at 16x, however the quality is very good
and with
the average C1 errors of 0.22 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:	3m:08s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.22
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Verbatim '“ a
well-known brand showed us a C1 average of 0.22 - 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:35s
C1 Average/Sec:	6.13
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The result is very
good

Summary:

The CD-R writing quality is
excellent, and the CD-RW quality is very good.

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 16x 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 SHW-1635S and
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 SHW-1635S and SHM-165P6S along with KProbe to
measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4551A with firmware
1-07 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	DataWrite '“ Thanks to E-Net for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics Corporation
Code:	CMC MAG M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.24
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The result is
ok.

Brand:	Plextor '“ Thanks to Plextor 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:	16x
Write Time:	5m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.23
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Plextor media
with Taiyo Yuden media code, the result is excellent.

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:	5m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.49
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is
excellent.

Brand:	RiDisc Xtreme '“ Thanks to E-net for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RiTEK Corporation
Code:	RITEK P16
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.84
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

RiDisc Xtreme
with Ritek media code, the result is excellent.

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY D21
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.48
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The result is
good.

Brand:	Ultron '“ Thanks to ULtron AG (Germany) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	18.58
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.19

The result is
ok.

 

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:	9m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.29
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The result is
excellent for this DVD+RW media.

The result is
very good.

To sum it
up: So
far the Samsung SH-W162L writes DVD+R with very good/excellent quality and
DVD+RW media with very 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 with firmware
1-07 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	Datasafe '“ Thanks to E-net for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.36
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Datasafe
media, with Mitsubishi media code and 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:	5m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.94
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

The result is
good.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TTH02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.69
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.15

The result is
ok.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:29s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.49
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result is
excellent.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.51
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is
excellent.

Brand:	Ultron '“ Thanks to Ultron AG (Germany) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 02R G20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:30s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.59
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is
very good.

 

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK W06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:53s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	39.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.27

The result is
ok.

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:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.05
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is
excellent.

To sum it
up:
Overall, the write quality is very good on DVD-R and DVD-RW media.

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-W162L 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/4x.

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 Verbatim media in 19 minutes and 5 seconds.

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

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	19m:05s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.07
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is
excellent.

Nero completed
the burn successfully with the Ricoh media in 19 minutes and 6
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:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	32.88
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.14

As we can see
from the KProbe scan the PI errors are a bit high, however around 50% below the
standard specifications.

Let us compare
the Samsung SH-W162L results with some other DL capable drives.

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

DVD-R
DL:

As mentioned
at the beginning of this page, the Samsung SH-W162L supports the DVD-R DL
standard at 4x. Again, we used Nero Burning Rom 7 to write the DVD
Image:

The Samsung
SH-W162L used 27 minutes and 23 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:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.51
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is
very good.

The Samsung
SH-W162L used 27 minutes and 37 seconds to write the Traxdata DVD-R DL 4x media
at 4x.

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RiTEK Corporation
Code:	RITEK P01
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:37s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	28.40
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	4.81

As we can see
from the KProbe scan there is very high PIF errors on the media, however the
media was still readable and we can see minor slowdowns in the reading curve
where the highest PIF levels are located.

 

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-W162L 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-W162L or media format
used.

Summary: Overall the results are
very good.

---

LightScribe:

On
January 4, 2004, HP announced an innovative new technology to address the
problem of labelling CD's and DVD's. LightScribe technology allows
consumers to create silk-screen quality labels on their CDs or DVDs by burning
text and graphics directly onto a disc, eliminating the need for adhesive
labels.

But, before we
continue - Let us first take a look at some information found at the LightScribe
site:

 

CREATE SILKSCREEN-QUALITY
LABELS FOR ALL YOUR CDS AND DVDS, RIGHT FROM YOUR COMPUTER.

Until now there hasn't
been much choice when it comes to creating labels for your CDs and DVDs. Messy
markers or sticky adhesive labels were pretty much the only affordable option.
But imagine creating professional-looking labels using the same laser that burns
your data-right inside your CD/DVD drive! Well, now it's easy with LightScribe
Direct Disc Labeling technology.

LABEL-MAKING
REDEFINED.

LightScribe technology is
an integrated system that combines the CD or DVD drive of your
LightScribe-enabled computer with specially coated discs and enhanced
disc-burning software to produce precise, laser-etched labels. You can design
and produce labels to express your creativity and personality-the sky's the
limit!

With LightScribe, the
disc is the label. This amazing technology is the no-hassle way to create
elegant labels for all your CDs and DVDs. Simply burn your music mix,
digital-video/photo archives, or business application. Then flip the disc and
burn your own unique label.

LightScribe Direct Disc
Labeling technology is now available in PCs, external USB optical DVD writers,
labeling software, and a variety of brand name discs. Remember, the LightScribe
logo indicates a LightScribe-enabled product, so be sure to look for it at your
favorite retail locations. Also check out the Looking for LightScribe page for a
list of companies that make LightScribe-enabled products.

 

A RADICAL REVOLUTION IN
DISC LABELING.

Once you've burned your
first LightScribe label and experienced the amazing result, you'll never want to
use a permanent marker or sticky label again. LightScribe makes it easy. It
truly is a revolution in disc labeling.

JUST HOW DOES IT
WORK?

How can you burn a label
onto your disc right from your computer? Suppose you have just created a music
CD of your favorite songs. Now you want to make a label that contains the song
titles, artists' names, and some personal information and design elements to
make it special.

Burn your tracks onto the data side of
the disc. Flip the disc over to the label side and put it back in the
drive. Burn your label by opening your favorite LightScribe-enabled
label-making software and going to the CD template work area. Now you do all of
your creative design work-imported pictures, copy, and artwork. When you are
satisfied with what you have done, click "print." It really is that simple! No
ink, no messy markers, no clumpy adhesive labels, just an amazingly beautiful
label right before your eyes.

LIKE TO KNOW
MORE?

Your LightScribe-enabled
CD/DVD disc drive contains a special laser that pumps light energy into a thin
dye coating on the label side of the disc. The light from the laser causes a
chemical change in the dye coating that shows up as a visible point on the disc.
With laser precision, LightScribe delivers closely controlled light energy to
multiple points on the disc as it spins in the drive. The result is a
high-resolution reproduction of the artwork, text, or photos you composed in the
software application. Seeing is believing!

 

The
LightScribe Media:

The surface of
the LightScribe media is gold-brown, also referred to as sepia coloured.

If we take a
closer look at the inner ring of the LightScribe media, we can see a bar code
indexing system. This is what the drive's laser uses to recognize the
LightScribe surface, but also for the indexing (for later re-burns).

In this
article we will use LightScribe media from Verbatim:

 

Designing
and burning with SureThing Labeler:

The SureThing program is
very easy to work with and we created a layout here to test out the LightScribe
feature. After we were satisfied with the layout we pressed Print Label
(LightScribe).

In the print option
dialog we also find a Diagnostic button and we clicked it of course.

We closed the LightScribe
Diagnostics windows and selected 'Best quality" and OK to print the label in the
Print Dialog windows.

The program gave us a
notice 'Please ensure that you have a LightScribe disc inserted in the drive
with the label side down". (As you can see you can choose '“ Don't show me this
message in the future." We went on with OK to print the label.

The SureThing LightScribe
printing dialogue showed us an estimated remaining time of 23 minutes and 8
seconds.

Writing process finished,
let us take a look at the result.

Very nice indeed, even if
we zoom in on the disc, the quality and contrast is very good. We decided to
print this design again in Best quality, to test the indexing
feature:

Excellent! The indexing
capability of the hardware and software worked out perfectly. The label is now a
lot darker and the graphic details are still excellent.

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-W162L. 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-W162L supports
everything.

The Samsung
SH-W162L 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-W162L 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-W162L, 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 96 minute and 48 seconds.

To test if the
Samsung SH-W162L 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-W162L 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-W162L can not overburn DVD+R media.

DVD-R:

According to
Nero CD-DVD Speed the Samsung SH-W162L can not overburn DVD-R media.

This
concludes our Samsung SH-W162L review, let us head on to the last page to read
our conclusion…

Positive:

• Supports CD-R/RW writing at 48x/32x
• Supports DVD+RW/DVD-RW writing at 8x/6x
• Overall good writing quality
• Supports Bitsetting for DVD+R/+RW/+R DL (BookType to DVD-ROM)
• 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 up to 96 min
• Can read 99 min CD-Rs
• Good Software package
• Can do disc quality scanning
• Supports LightScribe Direct Disc Labelling
• Lead free product  

 

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• Does not increase the burn speed (over-speed) of DVD±R media
• 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
• 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-W162L can write most DVD media with good quality and the writing performance on DVD±R is respectable with writing times starting around 5 minutes and 35 minutes and up.

The CD-R write quality is excellent with the Samsung SH-W162L, with most tested CD-R media returning impressive results. Write performance was also impressive with many burns well under 3 minutes.

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.

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

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.

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-W162L is an inexpensive and overall a good drive with really nice features".

 

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we found the drive offered at 39 $, and at getprice the drive is listed at 43 €. (April 2006).

 

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

 

Thanks to:

---

	Bell Technology spol s.r.o. '“ Czech Republic 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.
	E-Net Distribution '“ United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
	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.
	Plextor SA/NV '“ Belgium for providing the media used is this article.
	Ricoh Europe '“ For providing the media used in this review.
	SVP Communication '“ The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
	Ultron AG '“ Germany for providing the media used in this review.
	Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.