Holiday Shopping Roundup: Eight Dual Format Recordable DVD Drives
by Kristopher Kubicki on December 11, 2003 10:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Conclusions
Hopefully, our look at these eight burners was enough to help draw some conclusions about the burner that really is the drive to own. Typically, we do not give out Editor's Choice awards but for this cross-section of burners, we feel there is enough data to provide us with a winner for this holiday season.Sony's DRU-530A and Plextor's 708A were the most viable opponents in this roundup. However, it is very clear that Plextor's PowerRec II technology isn't just a cookie cutter optimization. Even though the 708A and the DRU-530A are based on identical chipsets, the Plextor 708A smokes the Sony DRU-530A in DVD+R writes and compatibility. The only real advantage of the DRU-530A was slightly higher media compatibility on poorer quality DVD-Rs, and slightly better technical support. Right now, the Plextor 708A is priced slightly better than the Sony DRU-530A ($199 versus $219, respectively, with MIR), but given Sony's leverage, the DRU-530A will probably be priced equivalent to the 708A after the holiday season. Kudos to Plextor for winning our well-deserved Editor's Choice award in this roundup.
For those who argue the NEC and LiteOn burners are “good enough” for $100, we feel that this is partially correct, but you get what you pay for. When you end up spending an additional $50 for decent burning software, the savings from these two burners isn't quite that dramatic. Our issues with customer support and media compatibility were something to be desired as well. Don't forget to check out the following second part of this roundup when we have first generation 8X DVD-R burners to evaluate.
We are not fans of honorable mentions, but we think Nu Tech actually deserves one here. Since they did not have a dual capable firmware in time for our roundup, it would not be fair for us to give them an Editor's Choice award in our Dual Format Roundup. However, if Nu Tech does indeed debut with their dual firmware on December 15th (as claimed), we will re-evaluate their burn speeds and price. After all, Nu Tech does have all the components right for winning this roundup (bitsetting, price tag, performance, software bundle). Good luck to Nu Tech, and we will see them again in a couple weeks.
Not only were we analyzing each individual burner in this roundup, we were also analyzing which DVD forum came out ahead in burn time and burn quality. Compatibility with various DVD drives has become less of an issue with DVD+R lately, particularly due to the die-hard fans and companies who write bitsetting utilities. It is slightly unfair to claim DVD+R the leader in this roundup because DVD-R does not support 8X burn speeds yet, but that is exactly what we feel is correct. Not only does DVD+R excel in 8X burn speeds, but DVD+RW outperforms DVD-RW with 4X and 2.4X burn times versus 2X.
Today, we looked at eight burners that make up the majority of this holiday season's DVD recordable market. Unfortunately, we couldn't include everyone. Within the upcoming weeks, we are anticipating 8X DVD+R and DVD-R capable drives from LiteOn, Pioneer, ASUS, and AOpen. Of course, had we waited for their debut, Anand would be wondering why I charged six dual format DVD drives to his credit card. Stay tuned in the next couple of months for the follow up — 8X DVD-R roundup!
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Icewind - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Last I heard, the dual layers wont be out till Summer 2004 #10 and your gonna be looking at major ouchy price too, especially for media.artifex - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
I have a Verbatim-badged Ricoh DVD+R(W) that's starting to get flaky, about a year and a half after I bought it and after burning less than 100 discs. Probably less than 50, actually.I'd like to see some tests that show burning/ripping a couple hundred discs, to see what really survives.
Also, anyone have a good guess as to when dual-layer-capable drives will be out? I'd really like to see those come to market soon. I won't wait for Blu-ray, but I will wait for dual-layer if it's next quarter. Maybe I'll buy one of the cheap ones in the meantime if it's longer.
BitByRabidAlgae - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Icewind. I can tell you from my own experience that a full 4.7GB DVD+R or RW takes about 15mins to burn at 4x with my LiteOn drive using the MySonic software that came with it. The elapsed time from hitting the record button can vary depending on what kinds of files your burning. The software caches small files, if you have a lot of those, it takes a few mins to cache them all. A handful of large files though goes pretty fast and takes about 15 mins at 4x.Icewind - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Wait I just noticed something, WHY are there no Burn TIMES anywhere? Thats what I like to know. How long TIME wise does it take to burn various media? How could you miss that AT?Icewind - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Would you like some cheese with that whine #5?BitByRabidAlgae - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
For the record, I have a LiteOn 401S, and it has performed flawlessly for me. Another thing that was not addressed was the Sony drive's pitiful read speed on pressed DVD's. This is NOT a bug. It is intentional. When the drive detects a copy-protected DVD, it locks the read speed at 2x. So, if you're looking for a drive to rip DVD's with, the Sony is a poor choice. Unless you don't mind waiting an hour to rip a 2 hour movie, when other drives can do it in 10-15 minutes. I suppose we should expect something like this from a company that owns a movie studio.Also, can anyone confirm the rumor that flashing the 411S BIOS in to my 401S will make it a dual format drive?
Belzer - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Imho there are too many errors in the review to be acceptable. It can't be that hard to get the specifications of the burners etc. correct can it? Because with so many errors at least I can't trust any of the numbers in the review. Anyway here are the errors I've found when I skimmed through the review:Plextor: "but it also claims 16X DVD read speeds"
Plextor, ASUS, MSI drives only read DVDs in max 12x, not 16x (the specs in the review are also wrong for these drives).
Sony: "Since the only real difference between the DRU-530A and the Plextor 708A is the 8MB buffer"
Sony DRU-530A also only has a 2 MB buffer, not 8 MB.
"The drive came with an average software package, including PowerDVD and Sonic MyDVD — not quite as complete as Sony or Nu Tech's bundle."
The Lite-On drive also comes with Sonic Recordnow and Sonic DLA (it's on the same CD as MyDVD).
"even if the drive is a slight step down from the LDW-401S, which can burn 8X DVD+R"
No, LDW-401S burns DVD+R in max 4x. LDW-811S on the other hand burns DVD+R in 8x.
NEC: "DVD+RW Rewrite Speed 4X, 2.4X (CLV)"
DVD+RW write speed is max 2.4x on the ND-1300A.
DVD+R: "MMC 003 — 4X DVD+R"
DVD-R: "MMC01RG20 — 4X DVD-R"
Should be "MCC 003 — 8X DVD+R" and "MCC 01RG20 — 4X DVD-R". MCC stands for Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and the MCC 003 is 8x media. MMC is Mitsubish Material Corporation and is not related to Mitsubishi's media manufacturing. MMC is also incorrectly mentioned several times in the text.
"PHILIPS 041 — 4X DVD+RW" and "RICOHJPNW11 — 4X DVD+RW"
No way that the Asus, MSI and NEC can have burned these media in 4x as they burn DVD+RW in only 2.4x.
DragonReborn - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
nice review...I think the ASUS/106 should get a little more attention. You can find that drive OEM for $120-130 and is really is awesome. The one "flaw" is that it doesn't read cd's as fast as the new boys...but who has a DVD burner that doesn't have a dedicated CD/burner? Now that I think of it...probably more than few. Well then.Icewind - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Wish I knew when The next speed DVD R/RW's are gonna come out so I know if it was worth waiting.I got 50+ burned CDs on my desk I just have to reduce.
wicktron - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
where's the 811s?