Optiarc AD-7203A/S Results & Discussion

7203S @16x with CopyToDVD.
This 16x burn is as good and better than 4x. I wonder if there is any sense to burn important discs with lower speeds. Those are a collection of programs (freeware and some I also have bought) which are important and I take every month (at least) backups.

Another one with my Photos collection.
7203S @16x with CopyToDVD.

Using the CD/DVD.

Not really sure. I'm sure lower is better, with few [or no] sudden jumps, as it is for "normal" jitter, but I'm not exactly sure how it is scaled. I'm going to just say lower is better.

7203S, 1.05
First burn with this fw.
Verbatim MCC 03RG20
At 16x, 5:27
Burned with Nero CD-DVD Speed 4.7.7.15
Scanned with: same drive @5x and 20A4P @4x
Good PIF, perfect TRT, high PIE and 20A4P is optimistic as usual
Sorry, could not save Create disc image.

Burned @8x with CopyToDVD. Time 17:26.
DVD couldn't be recognized by 7191S@20A3L but by both LG20NS10 and 7203S.
Scanned with 7203S @5x. I don't know if this is a reliable result though. It doesn't seem like one.
P.S. But it has also been recognized by our laptop with a Pioneer K14 drive.

Just quick question - would anyone really recommend this drive, 7203S? Most important for me are quality of burn at 12x-20x (I see that these at 20 looks well) and quality of error correction on old or not so good discs. Or should I prefer pioneer 212 or 215? Thanks in advance.

I have tried 212 and personally didn't like it. From the scan of 215 I say 7203 might be a better drive but not that much. I think we will suffer untill LG or someone else will release a really good drive. I don't fall for 203B either that I own.
I have LG 62N,LG 20NS10,Samsung 203B,Optiarc 7200,Optiarc 7203S,Optiarc 7191S, Liteon 20A1S. I think that 62N might be the best of all but I use 7203 for some time now. And I will exchange 7191S with 20A1S for quality scanning and for some quick 20x writes which are not that important for archiving.

Thank you for opinion, I just grabbed one of these. It looks that this drive will correct nec reputation in my eyes which it lost with 4550 and 4571 ones.
I am attaching scan from my liteon made with kprobe. Burned at 16x with nero.

I have never had any faith In Nec. I tried a 7170 or 7173 I don't remember and I really hate it. With this one it seems things are way better.

16x burned with CopyToDVD.

Another excellent burn for 7203S. 16X with CopyToDVD. Both scans are very close.

Another very good 16x burn with Blindwrite.

Hey all, i just got my 7203A yesterday, installed it this morning and installed your 1.01 firmware, tested a few discs and noticed i can still only burn discs at the recommended speeds.

I'm not sure if things have changed, but with my trusty old 3500AG, the liggy & dee firmware upped the possible burn speeds for all media, usually letting me burn 4x discs at 6x, 8x discs at 12x, etc. Is the same thing possible on the 7203A?

I've installed the 1.04 firmware, and the speeds for my media are still limited to the recommended speeds (i've rebooted, etc).

It's not really a big issue, just i still have a good few cases of 8x media left, which i was used to burning at 12x, it's just a bit of an annoyance having to take extra time for each disc, especially if i'm doing a lot in one day.

Thanks in advance for any help.

That's not true the following burn was made on 7203S with CopyToDVD @20x. Obverspeeding might give you bad results in many cases and is not recommended. The new firmware is 1.05.

I do not trust that much CD/DVD Create Disc for measuring quality but the following is very good.
I think Dee will be happy with this.

---

Last edited by sverkalo; 17-02-2008 at 00:47.

4x with CopyToDVD.

And another one of the same @4x.

2 burns @8x with CopyToDVD.

3 16x burns.

1st burn with Nero.2nd with CopyToDVD.Both@16x.

There is a question here. What someone would prefer?
Verbatims DVD-R with more PIE Errors.
Or
Verbatims DVD+R with more PIF Errors.

I prefer the 1st of course.

Burned @12x with CopyToDVD.

Another 12x burn.All aspects are acceptable for me except the 3 PIF spikes.

It seems -and I have seen this with all the drives I have tested- that those media and drives are optimized for 16x burns and not for lower speeds. You can get almost the same results and some times even better with 16x burns than 12x for example. I must also add that 7203S is one of the few if not the only one that can burn 16x media @4x and @8x with very good results and this was what I really search for and didn't expect to find at an Optiarc drive.