Review: Samsung SE-S084C Reviewed by: Arachne Provided by: Samsung UK Firmware: TS01 Manufactured: June 2009

We at MyCE would like to present a review the latest
external slimline DVD-ReWriter from Samsung – the Samsung SE-S084C. The Samsung
SE-S084C supports 8x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 6x DVD+R DL and
6x DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be
written.

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

As a world leader in the field of digital media, Samsung
Electronics produces Optical Disc Drives (ODD) since 1994. In the past few
years Samsung was able to take a central market position in this field.

With subsidiaries all over Europe and a large part of the
former USSR, Samsung Europe can offer the consumer a complete selection of disc
drives, for all types of computers.

With large and continuous investments in research and
development Samsung is able to be more and more at the forefront of disc drive
technology.

As one of the first companies developing COMBO drives
(DVD-ROM and CD-RW combined in one disc drive), Samsung is a frontrunner in
this technology.

In the field of slim-line technologies, Samsung is expanding
the line-up, in order to meet the demands of the market for desktop and
notebook PCs.

Samsung offers a wide range of Optical Disc Drives, allowing
customers to choose the exact combination of capabilities and features. Our
products feature the latest noise suppression technologies. If you are looking
for a high performance Optical Drive, you need look no further than Samsung.

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

Drive Specifications

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Packaging

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Let's now take a look at the packaging that the drive is
shipped in.

The drive that Samsung sent was the retail version, and we
can see the package and contents below.

Box front

Box rear

Box left side

Box right side

Box top

What’s inside the box

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

Our package was the retail version.

The package contained the Samsung SE-S084C, USB cable,
software disc, and instruction manual.

Now let’s take a look at the
drive.

Drive front

The front of the Samsung SE-S084C is sparse but stylish. We
can see an eject button, emergency eject hole, and a green read/write LED.

Drive top

Drive bottom

On the bottom of the drive we found one label and we can see
that the drive was manufactured in the Philippines during June 2009.

On the rear of the drive we can see the USB connector.

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

 

Test machine

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

Hardware:

·        
Motherboard: Dell 0WG864

·        
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300

·        
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 533

·        
GFX: ATI Radeon X1300Pro

·        
Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC880
HD audio controller

·        
Hard
disk: Seagate
ST3250820AS 250 GB SATA-II

·        
PSU: Dell 250W

·        
Display: BenQ FP37G S 17” LCD

·        
Operating
System:
Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit) with Service Pack 2

System setup:

The Samsung SE-S084C was connected to a USB2 connector on
the main board of our review PC.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see
that the Samsung SE-S084C supports the main media groups. The drive came shipped
with firmware version TS01 (despite the label on the drive showing TS00).

Included software package

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The Samsung SE-S084C came supplied with the Nero 8 Essentials
software package, which should provide a good platform for burning your CD-R
and DVD recordable media.

Nero 8 Essentials

Note: We did not install this software on our review PC or
test it.

Installed software:

For conducting our various tests, we will be using the
following applications.

• Nero Burning
  Rom 8
• Nero InfoTool
• Slysoft
  CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy
• CD-DVDSpeed

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit
installed with Service Pack 2.

Features and techniques

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BookType (Bitsetting):

The Samsung SE-S084C supports bitsetting and is capable of
writing DVD+R/RW and DL media with DVD-ROM booktype via burning applications
such as Nero Burning Rom.

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

Start Nero DiscSpeed, click the Disc info button and you
should see something like this:

DVD+R with BookType
DVD-ROM

DVD+RW with BookType
DVD-ROM

DVD+R DL with BookType
DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero DiscSpeed and look at
the disc information:

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology
used by the Samsung SE-S084C.

For these tests we used CD-DVDSpeed, and wrote a full disc
at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it should
be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24x. This gives an average
speed of 18.76x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 2 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Samsung SE-S084C was the fastest drive
when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 16x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 16x. This
gives an average speed of 14.23x and a total writing time of 6 minutes and 38
seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

8x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 8x.

DVD+R

The Samsung SE-S084C uses CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average
speed of 6.10x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 44 seconds.

DVD-R

The Samsung SE-S084C uses CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average
speed of 6.12x and a total writing time of 11 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our table, the Samsung SE-S084C was the
fastest drive when writing our test DVD R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives
an average speed of 4.76x and a total writing time of 13 minutes and 44
seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Samsung SE-S084C was the slowest drive when writing our
test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives
an average speed of 4.56x and a total writing time of 14 minutes and 26 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Samsung SE-S084C was one of the slowest drives when
writing DVD-RW media.

6x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at 6x. This gives an average speed of
4.62x and a total writing time of 26 minutes and 8 seconds.

6x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at 6x. This gives an average speed of
4.63x and a total writing time of 26 minutes and 13 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Samsung SE-S084C was the fastest drive when writing
double layer media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed

According to the specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C, it
should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 5x.

The Samsung SE-S084C uses P-CAV (Partial Constant
Angular Velocity), to write at 5x. This gives an average speed of
4.49x and a total writing time of 12 minutes and 57 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Samsung SE-S084C was one of the fastest drives when
writing our test DVD-RAM media.

Summary:

The Samsung SE-S084C has excellent writing performance on
CD-R media. Writing performance on DVD R media is also very fast for a slimline
drive.

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

Reading performance

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

• DVD-ROM 8x
• CD-ROM 24x

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the
Hercules Radeon 9200 drivers that is slightly over 75 minutes in length. Below
you will see the produced result:

The Samsung SE-S084C reached 23.76x read speed.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Hercules Radeon
driver CD. The disc we used was an unbranded 52x certified CD-R disc manufactured
by Taiyo Yuden.

The Samsung SE-S084C reached 24.61x read speed.

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Hercules Radeon driver
CD; this time we used a Traxdata 4-12x CD-RW disc made in Taiwan by RiTEK
(thanks to Conrexx (BV) for sending us this media).

The Samsung SE-S084C reached 24.19x read speed.

100 minute CD-R:

The Samsung SE-S084C had no problems reading our 100 minute
test CD-R, reaching a speed of 26.50x.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Samsung
SE-S084C, again we used Nero CD-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 just over 77 minutes in length (77:07:10).

The Samsung SE-S084C reached 24.25x when reading our test
audio disc.

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 Sony Audio CD-R, manufactured by Taiyo
Yuden.

The extraction quality is excellent and supports the reading of CD text and sub channel data.

DVD reading performance:

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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 and double layer DVD-discs at 8x.

Pressed DVD Video:

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

DVD Video (single
layer)

DVD Video (double
layer OTP)

The Samsung SE-S084C read both our single and double layer
discs at 8x, which is pretty good for a slimline drive.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

---

For this test we used a HP 8x DVD+R and a Traxdata 8x DVD+RW
with about 4.4GB of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The Samsung SE-S084C read our DVD+R and DVD+RW discs at 8x.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

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For this test we used a Maxell 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

Once again the Samsung read our test DVD-R/RW discs at 8x.

DVD±R DL discs:

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DVD+R DL:

The Samsung SE-S084C read
our DVD+R DL test disc at 8x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Samsung SE-S084C read
our DVD-R DL test disc at 8x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

---

The Samsung SE-S084C read our DVD-RAM disc at 5x using a
P-CAV reading method.

Summary:

The Samsung SE-S084C has shown itself to be an excellent and
reliable reader.

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

The specifications of the Samsung SE-S084C state that the
drive is able to write CD-R discs at 24x and CD-RW at 16x. 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 burned a full disc
using CD-Speed (create data disc) function and burned the discs at the maximum
speed allowed.

Write quality:

---

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R
manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD”
function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the
drive supports. For the quality test, we used CD-Speed’s Disc Quality
Scan and combined this with a Transfer Rate Test to
test if the resulting disc was readable. Also note that different drives and
different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs.
We used a Lite-On SOHR-5239S drive with firmware 2S0B and scanned the discs at
48X speed.

There is more than one way to handle C1 and C2 error
detection/correction, but a simple and common way is to detect and correct up
to two errors per frame in each stage and detect three or more errors:

• E11: 1 error detected and corrected by C1 layer
• E21: 2 errors detected and corrected by C1 layer
• E31: 3 or more errors detected but not corrected by
  C1 layer

The sum of these (per second) is called the Block Error
Rate: BLER=E11+E21+E31

• E32: 3 or more errors detected but not corrected by
  C2 layer

Any E31 is un-correctable by the C1 layer and will result in
the bytes in that frame being redistributed into multiple frames which are
passed to the C2 layer.

Any E32 is un-correctable by the C2 layer and will result in
interpolation being used for Audio CDs or will result in third layer error
correction being used for Data CDs.

Different drives have different ways of reporting these
errors in a Disc Quality scan.  Lite-On CD-RW drives will report C1 and
C2 errors this way:

• C1=BLER=E11+E21+E31
• C2=E32

Here is an easier way to look at Disc Quality Scanning:

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.

In short, our analysis will be based on this guideline to
determine the quality of the burned disc:

CD-R/RW
quality scans guideline

Below are the obtained results:

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

Again, the result is excellent.

An excellent result from this TDK branded Ricoh CD-R.

Another excellent result.

The result is OK.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

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The result is excellent.

Summary:

Both CD-R and CD-RW writing quality with the Samsung
SE-S084C is excellent, however we would have liked to see a higher write speed
for CD-RW than 16x.

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

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should
write DVD±R at 8x 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.

Write quality:

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Disc Quality Scanning -
PI/PO:

DVDs use an error detection and correction system (ECC)
which is usually transparent to the end-user, but we can get an idea of the
"quality" of a disc by performing Disc Quality Scanning, which shows
how many errors the drive is detecting and correcting behind the scenes.

There are two layers or stages of error detection and
correction on all DVD media; these are called Parity Inner (PI) and Parity
Outer (PO). Data is arranged in ECC blocks containing rows and columns of user
data with additional columns of PI error correction and rows of PO error correction.

An ECC block contains 32 KByte of user data with some added
control data, scrambled and arranged in 192 rows and 172 columns with an
additional 10 columns of PI error correction and 16 rows of PO error
correction.

The Parity Inner stage is performed first, and up to 5 bytes
in a row can be corrected. Any row with one or more errors is counted as a
Parity Inner Error (PIE). Any row with more than 5 errors is considered un-correctable
and is counted as a Parity Inner Failure (PIF).

The Parity Outer stage is performed next and will detect and
attempt to correct any errors that are still left after the PI stage. Any column
that has errors is counted as a Parity Outer Error (POE), and any column that
has un-correctable errors is counted as a Parity Outer Failure (POF). If a POF
occurs the drive can sometimes re-read the problematic spot and correct the
problem; this happens only during normal reading and not during scanning,
however.

Disc Quality scanning is influenced by the drive performing
the test, and that's why different drives report different results and even the
same drive will report (slightly) different results when scanning the same disc
again. Please note that PI/PO and Jitter scans only test some aspects of disc
quality and that other important aspects are not revealed.

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

The scan above shows the results from a pressed, Single
Layer DVD-Video disc (Goldeneye).

The above scan shows the result from a pressed Double Layer
DVD-Video disc (The Green Mile).

The Lite-On DVD burners used in this review report errors
as follows:

• PIE per 8 ECC blocks (rows with 1 or more bytes in error)
• PIF per 1 ECC block (rows with 6 or more bytes in error)

We want to see as low error numbers as possible.
PIE per 8 ECC blocks should be no higher than 280.
PIF per 1 ECC block should be no higher than 4.

Both the pressed DVD-discs above are well within the
standards if we ignore the single PIF spike in the DL scan.

If you want to look at the standards for yourself, 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.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc
reflectivity, 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
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 an
Optiarc AD-5170S DVD-Writer which by default is able to read DVD±R media at 16x
speed. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs,
but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Jitter:

Jitter is
a very complex subject and even more difficult to explain when we start to use
optical drives designed for the home market to measure jitter values.

Let’s
first look at the DVD specification for pressed DVD discs (in the bold part courtesy
of Pioneer Electronics).

“The
DVD design target is that when the worst-case disc allowed by the
specification, considering the economics of production, is played using the
worst-case pickup that can be produced in volume economically, the byte error
rate after error correction will still be 1 x 10-^-20, which is good
enough to be acceptable for computer applications.

Since
the above target is for "after error correction," the error
correction capability must be calculated. Considering the trade-off between
error correction capability and the overhead of the added redundancy, the DVD
format was set to one ECC block per 32 KB. This requires a byte error rate
before correction of 1 x 10^-2.
In order to achieve good economy on both the part of the discs and the playback
mechanisms. The current disc tilt specification was determined as a result of
the efforts on both sides.

As
will be explained hereafter, it is difficult to make the error rate a
specification of the disc itself. Therefore, a jitter standard is set by the
DVD specifications. A simple calculation based on a normal distribution
requires that the jitter rate be under 15.4%, and experimental results indicate
that jitter must be under 16%, to achieve the required error rate. Since the
disc tilt varies within a revolution, it was decided to adopt the design
concept that jitter must remain within 16% at the instantaneous peak value of
tilt. Since it is actually very difficult to measure the peak value, the
concept became to measure the average jitter at under 15%, and the byte error
rate at under 5 x 10-3.”

What is
Jitter?

In basic terms, we could say
jitter is a product of “pit and land distortion” In other words, when the drive
reading the disc has to compensate by means of a “tilt servo” which constantly
tries to move and refocus the PUH lens for optimum tracking and tries to
compensate for the imperfections of pits and lands on the pressed or recordable
media. This is further compounded by the hardware used for recording and
playback. Not only is the record and
replay process limited by the resolution of the optical pickup, it is also
horribly non-linear. In addition, the playback of the pits is subject to
non-linear crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track, and also from pits in
nearby tracks.

The things that causes jitter divide into three main types.

• Variation in pit length and width.
• Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track.
• Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks.

 

Variation in pit length and width.

The recorded pits themselves are not perfectly accurate. Anything which
causes variations in the sizes of the pits will produce jitter. A prime culprit
of this is sudden variations in laser power (laser noise). If laser power
varies, then the laser beam itself changes and will vary in intensity and
possibly focus. This will cause the pit length and width to also vary and we
now have jitter.

Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track.

If the pits are not totally accurate, then the laser beam spot may
overrun a pit and gather data from the adjacent pit in the same track, or if
the “land” is to short, then the laser beam spot can be influenced by the
adjacent pit and this is called inter-symbol interference. Inter-symbol
interference is worse at low recording velocities, because the pits are shorter
and closer together. And it is the cause of "deviation" of the pit
lengths.

Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks.

Crosstalk between pits in adjacent tracks is caused by the laser beam
spot being larger than the width of the track. It is a largely random
contribution and is worse at lower recorded velocities, because the highest
frequency components of the readout signal in the wanted track, with which the
crosstalk is competing, are weaker.

Some
other factors to consider

There are
many aspects to consider when we add Recordable DVD media into the mix. We are
now dealing with an organic dye, which is inherently unstable. We must also
consider the equipment we are using to measure jitter is aimed at the home
market. So we must also take into account variations between drives that we are
unable to calibrate for such tests.

Now let’s
look at some of the hardware limitations of the drives we are using to measure
jitter.

If there
is no tilt, then the jitter value includes components from light source noise,
circuit noise, disc noise, standard interference between symbols (inter -symbol
interference), and some small amount of crosstalk from the neighbouring tracks.

Next we consider
manufacturing variation in the circuitry.
Variation due to the circuitry have noise-like characteristics, and increase
the minimum jitter level, but are thought to have a very small effect on tilt
margin. Factors such as offset in the servo circuit, however, both increase the
jitter level and decrease tilt margin.

How we
will measure jitter.

We will be
using a Lite-On DVD writer to conduct these tests along with Nero CD-Speed at 4x scanning speed. In the screen
shot below we can see a PI/PIF scan including a jitter test (the purple graph
in the lower window) we carried out on a single layer DVD+R media.

Now, let's
find a reasonable average jitter level. Experimental results indicate that 8% average
value or less is a desirable figure, based on the DVD specification. That does
not mean that jitter average values above 8% are bad. In fact, many optical
drives will quite happily read recordable DVD media with jitter values of more
than 14% average without any problems. Other drives, including standalone DVD
players may begin to struggle reading discs with average jitter values above
10%. So there is a fairly wide range of acceptable values. One must test their own
playback devices to see what they can cope with.

However,
for the purpose of having a basic guideline we can use in our reviews, we
present a rating system for average jitter values.

·        
Less than 8% (average) = Very good

·        
8% - 9% (average) = good

·        
9% - 12% (average) = average

·        
Above 12% (average) = poor

Here is an easier explanation on how to read the test results

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to
look for in your Nero DiscSpeed/CD-Speed Quality Scans?

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.

·        
Jitter: An average jitter value of 8% or less is considered very
good. You should not worry too much if the average value is slightly above this
figure.

And as always; lower is better

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

---

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1H with
firmware LL0D along with CD-Speed to measure the disc quality. We will also be
using the Optiarc AD-5170S with firmware 1.12 along with CD-Speed for our
read-back tests.

An excellent result, PI and PIF errors are low and jitter
average is good.

The result is very good.

An excellent result from this 8x media manufactured by Taiyo
Yuden. Jitter average is once again good.

An excellent result from this Maxell media. Jitter average
is good at 8.41%.

The result is good.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

---

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

Below are our obtained results.

A very good result.

Summary:

The Samsung SE-S084C writes DVD+R with mostly excellent
writing quality. Write speed is also very fast for a slimline DVD writer.

On our tested DVD+RW media, writing quality was very good.

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

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

---

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1H with
firmware LL0D along with CD-Speed to measure the disc quality. We will also be
using the Optiarc AD-5170S with firmware 1.12 along with CD-Speed for our
read-back tests.

The result is good.

Jitter average is nice and our read back curve smooth, but
there are a couple of PIF clumps, and PI errors are once again a little on the
high side.

The result is good. Nice jitter average and smooth read back
curve. We do have more of those re-link PIF spikes, however.

PIF errors are pretty constant throughout the whole disc and
there’s a PIF spike right at the beginning. Jitter is about average, and once
again our read back test is good.

PI level is high, and PIF errors are pretty constant. Once
again, we have those re-linking spikes, but our read back test is good.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

---

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

We have one pretty high PI spike near the start of the disc,
and PI errors and jitter rise during the 6x stage of the burn. However PIF
levels are very nice.

Summary:

The DVD-R writing quality on our tested media was quite a
mixture, especially when compared with the drive’s DVD+R writing performance. Re-linking
spikes also spoiled our DVD-R burns a little. These re-linking spikes shouldn’t
cause a problem for most users, but they are known to cause a problem with
certain reading drives. Results on some media could also be a little better.

On our tested DVD-RW media, writing quality was good.

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

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

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The Samsung SE-S084C 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 6x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we wrote an image file of a DVD-Video
compilation of as near full capacity as possible with CD-Speed. We then used a Lite-On
LH-20A1H along with Nero CD-Speed to test the disc’s quality; we then finally
ran a read-back test on our Optiarc AD-5170S using Nero CD-Speed.

We have a pretty high spike of PI errors where the write
speed shifts to 6x, but otherwise the result is good.

DVD-R DL:

PI errors are quite high at the start of the first layer,
and all through the second layer, but within specification. Once again, we have
many re-link spikes. This result could be better.

Summary:

The Samsung SE-S084C writing quality on our tested DVD±R DL
media seemed to be something of a mixed bag. Writing quality on our tested
DVD+R DL media was good, however writing quality on our tested DVD-R DL media
was spoiled by a clump of PIF errors and lots of PIF re-link spikes. These
spikes may not cause a problem for most people.

Now let's look at DVD-RAM writing performance on the next
page....

 

DVD-RAM writing performance:

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The Samsung SE-S084C is a so-called Multi drive, meaning it
also supports the DVD-RAM format.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 disc that we wrote:

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

Verbatim 5x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the Samsung SE-S084C wrote our 5x DVD-RAM
media at its rated speed of 5x in 12 minutes and 54 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Samsung SE-S084C can read our test
disc.

The Samsung SE-S084C had no problems in reading our test
disc at 5x.

We then ran CD-Speed’s Scandisc function to check the disc
for errors.

As we can see, the disc has no errors.

Summary:

There were no problems to report with DVD-RAM and our tested
media.

Let’s round off this review with the Authors page, with
some real world and advanced tests....

Author’s page:

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Introduction:

On this page, the author of the review has the freedom to
run tests that she/he thinks will enhance the review. These tests are unlike
our standard tests, which we try to keep consistent throughout the whole review
team, so that our reviews are as consistent as possible. This page gives the
reviewer the opportunity to show some advanced and real world tests that other
review team members may not be able to run.

Real World tests:

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Real world tests are designed to simulate what normal users
might use their drives for in everyday use. For example, writing discs with a burning
application.

Audio Extraction:

For this test we used Exact
Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio to our hard drive. According to EAC the Samsung
SE-S084C does not support caching, but it does
support Accurate Stream and C2 Error Info.

Below are the results produced by EAC:

Burst mode

Secure mode

The Samsung SE-S084C performed OK in the “Burst mode” test
but a lot slower in the “Secure mode” test.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility test:

We only have 1 standalone DVD-Recorder available to test the
DVD+R DL media (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type: DVD-R):      

• Philips DVDR-5500

Compatibility results:

Our DVD Standalone device played the DVD+R DL media burned
by the Samsung SE-S084C without any problems.

However, our DVD Standalone device had problems with our
burned DVD-R DL media, failing at the layer break.

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
SE-S084C or media format used.

Advanced tests:

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To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on
the Samsung SE-S084C. These tests are: “Sheep Test”, and some special disc
tests.

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

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

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

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Lite-On
iHAS324 supports everything.

The Samsung SE-S084C supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode,
which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

As we can see from the results, the Samsung SE-S084C is a
two sheep burner; in addition, it can also handle Safedisc 2.90.

CD-R Over-burn test:

For this test, we used a Mediastar CD-R manufactured by
Taiyo Yuden (thanks to SVP UK for providing this media).

The Samsung SE-S084C reported a maximum over-burn capacity of
82:59.54. We then setup a test burn with CD-Speed of slightly less than maximum
and burned the disc, 81:20.15 to be exact.

As we can see, the Samsung SE-S084C had no problems in
writing our test disc. Now let’s see if the Samsung SE-S084C can read back our
created disc.

The Samsung SE-S084C had no problems reading back our over-burned
disc.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the Samsung SE-S084C
would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a Video-CD with Nero Burning
ROM 8, and used Nero CD-Speed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The Samsung SE-S084C had no problems in reading our test
VCD.

This concludes our Samsung SE-S084C review. To read the
conclusion, click on the link below

Positive:

·        
Generally good/excellent DVD+R/RW writing quality and performance.

·        
Generally excellent CD-R/RW writing quality.

·        
Sleek and stylish design.

·        
Excellent reading performance and reliability.

·        
Supports 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW writing speeds.

·        
Excellent build quality.

·        
Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R/RW/DL.

·        
Fast at writing DVD-/+R media.

·        
Fast at writing DVD-/+R DL media.

·        
Good community support here at MyCE.

·        
Good software bundle.

·        
Small size and portable.

·        
USB powered.

Negative:

·      
DVD-R writing quality on a few media could be improved.

·      
DVD-R DL writing quality could be improved.

·      
Slow compared to standard-sized drives.

Conclusion:

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

The main Positive points:

The Samsung SE-S084C was able to burn all our tested CD-R
media with excellent/very good quality..

The Samsung SE-S084C wrote our tested DVD+R/RW media with
very good/excellent quality.

The software bundle is also of a high standard and should
provide all the essential tools for burning CD and DVD media.

Reading performance and reliability was excellent.

The Samsung SE-S084C is small and easily portable.

Our retail drive was also supplied with Nero Essentials 8,
and should be very capable of meeting most people's media burning requirements.

The Samsung SE-S084C is beautifully designed and has a very
sleek look, and the build quality is excellent.

The main negative points:

There are not many negative things to say about the Samsung
SE-S084C. The drive is slow at reading and writing compared to a modern 20x/22x
DVD Re-Writer.

Writing quality on our tested DVD-R and DVD-R DL media could
be improved – all of our DVD-R and DVD-R DL test discs had re-link spikes.
While these may not cause any problem for most users, we would rather these
spikes were not there.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The Samsung SE-S084C is beautifully designed and
reliable and has a great feature set. It’s small, portable, and it performs
extremely well”.

 

You may comment on this review below.

Thanks to:

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