Maxell 16x DVD recordable media review
Maxell is a well known media manufacturer that has been in the business for decades. They used to ship media of their own using Maxell’s media indetifiers (MID), but recently the manufacturer of their media has varied a lot. We tested their current 16x DVD recordable offering for both, DVD-R and DVD+R. The DVD-R discs are manufactured by RITEK and seem to deliver pretty nice quality, but the DVD+R by RICOH is somewhat disappointing. All the results are uploaded to MediaBase, but read on for some further discussion.
The Maxell DVD-R media carries a RITEK F1 media identifier. Opinions on the quality of RITEK F1 seem to vary a bit, but for us it has been a solid performer. In our tests this media gave nice results using the Pioneer DVR-115D and LiteOn DH20A3P drives. The Pioneer delivered an excellent results with very low error rates all the way. Using the LiteOn a few more errors were introduced, the PIE graphs going up and down and some slight PIF spikes as well. Overall their DVD-R media seems to be a high quality product, and definitely better than their DVD+R media.
However, Maxell’s DVR+R by RICOH is a different story. The results are far from impressive using both of these drives. First of all the recording speeds on both drives were less than certified 16x speed. The Pioneer uses a 12x approach for this media, but LiteOn delivers only a miserable 8x recording speed. Error rates using Pioneer are increased at the end of the disc, when the drive applies 12x recording speed. Using the LiteOn’s 8x approach the result would be quite nice, but is has some odd PIF spikes along the way.
So definitely, if you are shopping for Maxell media, go for their DVD-R offer instead of the DVD+R. The quality is simply better, at least in these test batches. On the other hand, Maxell is often similarily priced than premium media brands, like Verbatim, so be sure to check out the other alternatives as well.
As usual, the MediaBase is your source of media quality information, and the place where you can submit your own test results!
