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Conclusion

Personal Opinions:

My overall impression of this media type is fairly good. The only real complaint I have with it is that for high quality burns, you are really restricted to what speeds you can burn at. On the other hand, this media *IS* certified to 12x, and is probably fairly old as well! So maybe I'm just being a bit too picky on this. I have to say though, that I was *VERY* impressed to see that the Plextor Premium drive could burn this media at 52x without it failing, or any C2 errors being reported on my tests! Now in order to accomplish a burn of that speed on this media, I had to turn PowerRecord off on the Plextor Premium (firmware version 1.03), However the latest firmware version (1.04) may have changed this, but I don't know since these tests were done before the new firmware was available. On a side note, I tried a few tests using this media in conjunction with the Plextor Premium's GigaRecord, and the results were less then encouraging. My tests were done at the GigaRecord setting of 1.4x regular capacity, and I burned a 99:57 audio CD. I burned one CD at 8x and one at 4x. Both processes completed successfully, but both were completely unreadable in the last 5min-8min of the disc, with many C2 errors starting around the 87min mark. The media may work better at the 1.2x GigaRecord setting, but I only have so much media I can use for testing, and only so much time I can spend working on a single review! Technically Speaking: Technically speaking, I found that these discs did not quite perform up to the "Mitsui Standard" that you hear about all the time. That being said however, there is nothing really WRONG with the discs either. Both the LiteON 48125W and the Plextor Premium were able to burn the media from 4x to 12x with very good to above average results. This media seemed to really perform at its' best at the speeds of 4x and 8x though, and that makes me wonder how it would of done if I had been able to burn it at 1x or 2x? According to the tests that I performed on this media: The optimal write speed on the Plextor Premium is 4x Speeds to avoid on the Plextor Premium: None (should burn free of C2 errors from 4x-52x) The optimal write speed on the LiteON 48125W is 8x Speeds to avoid on the LiteON 48125W: 24x and faster Scoring Plextor Premium: In combination with the Plextor Premium drive, I give this media a 9.5/10. The overall writing quality of the media was usually lower then that of the LiteON 48125W, but I'm awarding extra points due to the Plextor's ability to burn this media at 52x in a reliable manner, where as the LiteON could only go as high as 16x before C2 errors began to be reported on my tests. LiteON 48125W: In combination with the LiteON 48125W drive, I give this media a 9/10. The quality of the burns was quite high on all the speeds within the certified limits of the media, especially at 8x and 4x. The only drawback was (as mentioned above), the LiteON drive could only burn this media reliably at speeds as fast as 16x, and no higher.

Sincerely, The Digital Dolphin