Quality scans SH-S203B vs SH-S203D

Well since I have both drives I figured I'd try some comparison results as I found SH-S203B to be an really poor drive (ref this thread: http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/writing...-winner-237523 ).

"Problems" encountered so far.

*My SH-S203D will not write TDK YUDEN000T03 at 20x, it writes at 16x, no matter if I kick the drive or not (ok I've not tried that yet). I have an similar problem with my Lite-On DH20A4P except when using 9A3A firmware. Both use MTK chipset.... maybe there is an exception.

*SH-S203D is a bit more conservative on media support, bit less media for overspeeding.

*SH-S203D seems to slow down writing speed easier than SH-S203B

Traxdata RitekF1 16x DVD-R

Wow, can you see the difference? See that WALL of errors 203B gave compared to 203D?

I'm in shock..... but let's try some more discs first!

Verbatim MCC03RG20 16x DVD-R, made by Prodisc.

imo, the build quality of the S203B is rather uneven. I had tried out 2 sets from the same batch - 1 burned and read better but can't do proper quality scanning at all, the other burned worse, read poorly but scanned well.

Heyyo MacClipper...........i have 2 of the ones in bold

Miflop TYG03, I've had some really outstanding results on this media before, so I had pretty high hopes. SH-S203D making an coaster was kinda an slap in the face, I didn't know samsung drives would be THAT bad. Unreadable TY?

The reading curve is from the SH-S203D written disc to prove it is as bad as the scan claims.

SH-S203B sure did better than SH-S203D here!

heheh, I love the burn quality of the former, returned the latter but still get envious of those whose burners can burn and scan well too. Pity the new SB03 fw still can't handle T03s well at 18x for my set.

@OC-Freak, have you tried more than 1 set of 203B yet?

I only have one 203B and one 203D, and not intending on wasting more money on samsung.

Samsung drives are not any different than the other manufacturers.........there is good and bad with all of them

True, but I've yet to have an poor Pioneer NEC, Lite-On, BenQ and now Samsung all has their ups and downs. I once got an REALLY poor DW1640 DVD-Writer, so BenQ shipped me an new one which happened to be perfect. But I rarely see as bad "samples" as these samsungs.

HP 16X DVD-R CMC.MAG.AM3

Not a whole lot of difference with this media

my DVR-111 been rather poor from day one, only reason why i still have it because of labelflash

That's to bad. There are some that are very good reader/writers

luck of the draw, probably but I would spring for another S203B to try if I can still find one, just for the incredible cost performance.

Also I guess making sure review samples and first batch is good is an good idea for getting some positive feedback to boost the sales a bit.

I have 2 of these on 111L fw too, a Asus rebrand and another Pioneer OEM. The Asus rebrand burns/rips better but both are great drives overall. Well, PATA is on the way out and I am still thinking of porting them over to future rigs cos they are among the better rippers I have, love the autobooktyping too.

Maxell 16X DVD+R RICOHJPN.R03

Oops looks like this media isn't that great! Guess there is a reason why many LG and Pioneer drives limits writing speed to 12x for this media.

These results doesn't tell much about the drives other than that SH-S203B had an OPC that made the drive slow down writing speed near end.

I still include the results so you can see what I see, after all I used 40 mins to make the testresults

On the other hand, Lite-On DH20A4P didn't have any problems with this media, but it supports it at 16x only. But as seen on the samsung scans the errors started to rise before the drives reached 16x, so it might - again - be an samsung issue, hard to know as I do not know of any other drives that supports this media at speeds higher than 16x.

As with Lite-On etc., when a manufacturer makes the same drive model in different locations, there seems to be a bigger variance in quality/performance of individual units. I think the 203 can come from either Indonesia, Malaysia or the Philippines? Perhaps they use different component suppliers and/or manufacturing/quality control isn't up to the same standards. I got me a 203N recently (only because it was 40% off ) and the first impression is better than expected.

This just proves how drives differs in performance, quality and speed.

BTW, a transfer rate test is mandatory when discussing scans and "quality"

My (now working again) 203B will burn TY-T03 at 18x on stock firmware when 20x speed is choosed.
But, with some of the CodeKing patched FB/FR firmwares 20x is no problems at all.

And with higher speed comes higher fail rates as you can see in my last pic (same disc re-tested next day).

Ridisc 16x DVD+R CMC.MAG.M01

Not much difference with this media.

TDK TDK003 16x DVD+R.

Fairly good with both drives.

TDK YUDEN000T03

SH-S203B wrote at 20x with ok quality, SH-S203D will only write this media at 16x no matter what I try, and writing quality is shit.

Hi
From what I've seen in models released since the 203B.
Implies some changes to drive mech/damper. In theory this should lead to some improvements.
However different sourcing of parts. Along with deliberate cheaper electronics. Prove that consistancy are a problem.
Add to that an apparent playing with the main chips instructions. (Hence differing letters at end of chip ID. Some letters like the additional L. Are meant to infer LS models. But results imply more than this.)
It is (or has been) common practice that models released for previews are often better than those that hit the high street. This applies to nearly all electronics & manufacturers.
Early batches may well be better too. As the increased competition & market prices force manufacturers to source for cheaper options.

This is the last test I'll do for now.

TDK TTH02 16x DVD-R.