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Verbatim UK was kind enough to send us some samples of one of their latest DVD recordable media products; the Verbatim 16x DVD-R Glossy Photo printable media. For the moment the media is available in the DVD-R format and is rated at 16x writing speed.

In this preview we will be testing the media on multiple DVD writers from different manufacturers, to test the writing quality. We will also be testing the image quality on the printing side of the media. 

Introduction: 

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Verbatim press release:

Verbatim presents new, printable DVD recordable media: The Verbatim DVD-R is now available with 4.7GB and 16x write and read speed, and a dazzling finish. Once your favourite image has been applied with an inkjet printer, the DVD will be every bit as good as the glossy photos in your family album. The Verbatim DVD-R Glossy Printable is available from March in a 25 pack spindle and in jewel cases in a 10 pack.

A new type of triple coating delivers photo-quality on the discs, guaranteeing even more accurate printing results. The coating material used for this absorbs the printer ink in a perfectly balanced ratio, with the result that the colours are depicted in a clear, fresh way, without the risk of smudging.

With the latest addition to its printable range, Verbatim is responding to the increasing demand for glossy printable media. Only last November Verbatim launched new printable media in a matt design: There are also printable DVD-Rs with a diameter of eight centimetres and a capacity of 1.4GB. The 8cm DVD media are ideal for recording in camcorders. Once your own video has been recorded onto the disc, the surface can be printed with your favourite picture. These are available in a 10 pack spindle.

As a result of the ever-increasing demand in the market, Verbatim launched the double layer DVD-R's in a new printable version. The 10 pack jewel case and 25 pack spindle are now available.

All Verbatim media are notable for their excellent recording stability and a long life thanks to the special AZO recording layer. They are ideal for video and data storage.

About Verbatim:

From the Beginning, man's progress has been linked to his capacity to remember information and pass it on to future generations.

This unique ability is as important to life as food itself.

It's not by chance that among all fields of endeavour, information processing has developed so rapidly. Science has been adept at creating the electronic memory necessary for our exploding needs.

Today's storage media provides simple yet sophisticated means of recording, storing, duplicating, handling and protecting all kinds of data. As well as facilitating its availability to massive numbers of people.

As innovators in this field, we at Verbatim are able to sense the potential of new storage media and be among the very first to bring new technologies to the end user.

If we've been fanatic about perfecting our products, it's simply because we're convinced of their importance in the overall scheme of things. This philosophy is applied to all our products, details of which can be read on our Product Info pages.

We're obliged to care. Because more people throughout the world trust Verbatim.

Verbatim is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Media and provides information storage products, computer and imaging consumables, and related accessories, which deliver valuable solutions to customers and end users.

We deliver products and services that exceed customer expectations by leveraging our technology leadership, as well as our world class manufacturing, marketing, and distribution capabilities.

We are able to market the latest and innovative products due to the extensive research and development that is undertaken by parent company Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation in Japan.

Our entire product range meets extremely high standards of quality that are set by Verbatim as a corporation. No matter what product, or where in the world it is manufactured, every product meets the Verbatim standard of quality - which is second to none.

Verbatim's current line up of products include CD-Recordable, CD-ReWritable, DVD-Recordable, DVD-ReWritable, Magnetic Tape, Floppy Discs, Memory Cards, Imaging and accessories products.

Thirty years ago, Verbatim was little more than an idea held by a small, dedicated group of engineers, scientists and managers. Today, it is a major corporation that is highly regarded as a world leader in premium quality storage and imaging products.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Overview

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation is an integrated chemical company that was created by the merger of Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd. on October 1, 1994. Mitsubishi Chemical's wide-ranging operations make it one of the top ten chemical companies in the world.

Pioneering Spirit, A Mitsubishi Chemical Strength

Mitsubishi Chemicals pioneering strength is both visible in its products and in the research and development constantly carried out in the Yokohama Research Center. As the Company's largest research facility, the Centre primarily conducts basic R&D activities covering a wide range of areas. A special focus is put on fields that are critical to the Company's future, including information, electronics and pharmaceuticals.

Information Storage Products (ISP)

Mitsubishi Chemicals ISP Department lineup of products include Optical Disks, Hard Disks, Magnetic Tape and Floppy Disks. Operations for each product are globalized, and MCC, together with its subsidiary Verbatim Corporation, is a recognised market leader. Optical disks in particular are experiencing stronger demand as a large-capacity storage medium. The Company has a lineup currently consisting of magneto-optical (MO) disks, CD-Recordable/CD-ReWritable Disks and Write-Once Digital Versatile Disks (DVD-R) as well as rewritable DVD disks (DVD-RW)

Imaging Materials and Equipment

Mitsubishi Chemical's main products in this field include pre-sensitized aluminum plates; toner for copiers and printers; organic photoconductor drums; and pigments and paper for heat-sensitive copying. For further detailed information please visit the Mitsubishi Chemical web site http://www.m-kagaku.co.jp/

Packaging:

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Now it is time to take a look at the packaging the discs are supplied in.

10 pack box

Jewel case front

Jewel case back

Jewel case with disc

Jewel case without disc

Test Machines: 

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For this review we will be using two computers with the following configuration.

PC 1 configuration:

        ⋅         Motherboard: ASUSTeK A8N-SLI DELUXE (nForce 4 SLI chipset)
        ⋅         Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice) 1000 MHz Hyper Transport
        ⋅         RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX 2CL DDR
        ⋅         GFX: Leadtek Winfast 6600 TD (PCI Express nVidia)
        ⋅         Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
        ⋅         Hard disk: 1X 200GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA): 1X 120GB Maxtor (SATA).

PC 1 had Windows XP Professional x64 edition installed along with SP 1 for x64.

PC 2 configuration:

• 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

PC 2 had Windows XP Professional installed along with SP 2 for Windows XP.

DVD Writers:

For this review we used the following DVD writers:

• BenQ DW1655
• Lite-On SHM-165P6S
• NEC ND-4571A
• Philips DVDR1660
• Pioneer DVR-111
• Plextor PX-760A

Photo Printer:

For our direct to disc printing we used the following printer:

• Epson R300

Software:

We used the following software in this review:

• Nero CD-DVD Speed version 4.50
• KProbe
• Epson Print CD version 1.20E

Now let us head on to the next page where we test read and write performance...

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Read and
writing performance:

For these tests we will
be using several different DVD Writers to burn data to our media. We will be
using CD-DVD Speed to create the test discs and for the read back tests. For the
quality scanning we will use a Lite-on drive with KProbe to check the quality of
the recorded media.

Before we start let us
take a look at the media code:

From the screenshot above
we can see that the media code is: MCC 03RG20

Now it is time to do the
test burns:

Disc
number 1 '“ BenQ DW1655:

The BenQ DW1655 used CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write the disc in 6 minutes
and 28 seconds. SolidBurn was activated while writing this media.

PI errors are rising a
little towards the end of the disc, PIF errors are low and we have a perfect
read-back curve, the result is very good.

Disc
number 2 '“ Lite-ON SHM-165P6S:

The Lite-On SHM-165P6S
used CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write the disc in 5
minutes and 51 seconds. HyperTuning was activated while writing this
media.

Once again, the result is
very good.

Disc
number 3 - NEC ND-4571A:

The NEC ND-4571A used CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write the disc in 6 minutes
and 4 seconds.

PI errors are a little
high, but PIF errors are low and we have a perfect read-back test; a good
result.

Disc
number 4 '“ Philips DVDR1660:

The Philips DVDR1660 used
CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write the disc in 6
minutes and 40 seconds. SolidBurn was activated while writing this
media.

PI and PIF errors are low
and we have a perfect read-back curve, once again we have a very good
result.

Disc
number 5 '“ Pioneer DVR-111:

The Pioneer DVR-111 used
CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write the disc in 5
minutes and 57 seconds.

PI and PIF errors are low
on this disc and we have a perfect read-back curve; a very good
result.

Disc
number 6 '“ Plextor PX-760A:

The Plextor PX-760A used
CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write the disc in 6
minutes and 19 seconds. AutoStrategy
was set to ON.

PI errors are very low
and PIF errors are also low, again the result is very good.

For a better overview of
the burned Verbatim media, we have made the following table:

Sum
up:

The Verbatim glossy
printable media has performed very well in our writing quality tests. Every disc
had a perfect read-back curve and PI and PIF errors were well within
specification.

Now let us take a look
at the label side of this media, and how it performs on the next
page….

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Printable label tests:

For these tests we will be using an Epson R300 photo printer, which is capable of printing directly to our media.  We will also be using Epson Print CD software to author our disc labels.

Epson Print CD

In the above screenshot, we can see one of the images we used for our review. In this case, the test image contains many colours and sharply defined lines, to fully test how well our Verbatim Glossy printable media will perform.

As we can see from the above screenshot the quality is very good. However too really see how well this image looks, we provide a high resolution scan, and can be viewed by clicking here.

What our scan really cannot show is how glossy the finish is on the label. The image quality is astounding.

We tried another print test, this time we used an old photo and added our CDFreaks logo.

Once again the print quality is excellent.

Sum up:

The label side of the Verbatim Glossy printable media has performed extremely well, to the naked eye the quality is astounding.

Now let us head to the final page for our conclusion….

Conclusion:

Positive:

• Good writing quality
   
  
• Excellent label
  printing quality
  
• Good compatibility
  with our DVD writers

Negative:

• Ink costs must be
  considered in addition to the price of the media.

Final
word:

In our
writing tests the Verbatim Glossy printable media performed very well, with all
of our DVD writers burning the media with good or very good quality.

On the label side of the
media, the results were spectacular with our two test prints. Unfortunately our
scanned images cannot show how professional the finish looks.

The only slight negative
is the cost of ink to print the label side of the media, but if you're looking
for a full colour and professional looking finish to your DVD recordable media,
the Verbatim Glossy printable media will not
disappoint.

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