detail information

Positive:

• Supports DVD+R9 DL writing
• Supports 16x DVD+R writing peed
• 16x CAV burns leads to faster burns when compared with 16x Z-CLV
• Reads CD-R/RW's at 48x and DVDs at 16x
• Read DVD+R/-R at 12x
• Different face plates to match the PC case
• Excellent writing quality on CD-R's
• Write some certified media at higher speed
• DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 DL/RW media
• 'Supports" Nero CD-DVD speed quality scans
• Can rip Cactus data shield 200 protected audio discs
• 'Two sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Supports 99 minutes CD-R discs

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• Questionable DVD+R/-R writing quality
• Write some certified media at lower speed
• Extracts CD-DA at low speed with EAC
• 8x reading on DVD-RW/+RW  
• Only 8x writing on DVD-R
• Uses Z-CLV on DVD-R's which is slower compared with P-CAV & CAV
• Can not rip Key2Audio v.3 protected audio discs

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points: The first point we would like to mention is the DVD+R9 DL support, the technology is quite young and it is an interesting format to experiment with. The next point is the 16x DVD+R CAV writing technique that leads to faster burns when compared with 16x Z-CLV. This AOpen drive also supports DVD-ROM booktype bitsetting on DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD+R9 DL which leads to high compatibility on i.e. DVD standalone devices. Nero CD-DVD Speed can be used to measure disc quality/conditions with this AOpen drive. The drive is an ok reader and it can read CD-R's at 48x, DVD-Rom/Video at 16x and DVD-R/+R at 12x. Due to 'two sheep" burner and the DAO-RAW writing mode - the drive can be used to backup copy protected CD's. It also supports 99 minutes CD-R's and the writing quality on CD-R's is excellent.

The main negative points: This drive has some issues, like the questionable write quality on DVD+R/-R. We also like to mention that some media will be burned on lower speed than certified. (I.e. DVD+R 16x with Philips media code and DVD+R 16x & 8x with Ritek media code will be burned at 4x). Another point is the 8x reading speed on DVD+RW/-RW other drives can do this at 10x and up. And at last we would like to mention that the drive only writes DVD-R at 8x and for this feature it uses Z-CLV, which is slower then P-CAV & CAV.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'An excellent CD-R recorder, but look elsewhere if you want a high quality DVD writer".

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber.com we found the drive listed at $ 69 (6. December 2004). And at www.getprice.de we found the drive listed at 68 EUR (6, December 2004).

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe - The Netherlands for providing the Traxdata DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 4x, DVD+R9 DL 2.4x, DVD-R 8x, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 24x used in this review.

EMTEC (MPOTEC GmbH) - Germany for providing the DVD+RW 4x, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 10x media used in this review.

MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 4x and DVD-R 8x, CD-R 52x media used in this review.

Sky Media Manufacturing sa - Switzerland for providing the DVD+R 8x, DVD-R 8x and CD-R 52x media used in this review.

Verbatim GmbH - Germany for providing the DVD+R 8x, DVD+R 16x, DVD+RW 4x, DVD+R9 DL, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 4x, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 24x media used in this review.