detail information

Positive:

• First writer to support 8x DVD-R and 4x DVD-RW
•  Also supports 8x DVD+R and 4x DVD+RW.
• Good CD-R writing quality.
• Outstanding DVD writing quality
• Reads CDs at 40x and DVDs at 12x
• Very good DVD packet writing performance.
• Supports DAO-RAW writing.
• Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data.
• Quiet operation and good build quality.
• Supports reading and writing special sized CD-R discs.
• Able to rip audio from Key2Audio and Cactus Data Shield 200 protected audio discs.
• Price.

Negative:

•  Did not get perfect results in Nero CD-Speed advanced audio test.
• Slower at CD-R and CD-RW writing compared to the competition.
• Slower 8x DVD writing speed compared to the competition (Lite-On LDW-811S and Plextor PX-708A)
• Does not support Mt. Rainier.
• Reading of DVD-Video discs are locked to 5x CAV.
• Reads music and CD-RW discs at only 32x.
• Doesn't support 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns".
• Slow at reading safedisc protected data discs in CloneCD
• Media compatibility could still be improved to support all discs at certified speed.
• Problems with reading discs that is not in perfect condition. 
• Does not support reading CD's and writing CD-R's larger than 90 minutes.
• Can't rip music from Cactus Data shield 100 protected music discs.

Conclusion:

What could we say? Another review is finished and it's time to sum up our overall experience with this drive. It for sure has its strengths and its weaknesses. So let us first take a look at the strengths of this drive.

We have to admit that it's the first drive to support 8x DVD-R and 4x DVD-RW, this in itself makes the drive stand stronger than most competitors. We did get impressed by the writing quality of this drive, for CD-R discs it's only beaten by the Lite-On LDW-411S that we reviewed a while ago. But for DVD-R and DVD+R discs it simply outclasses all the other drives we have reviewed. Yes writing quality is important for you, in our opinion this is the most important thing to consider when getting a new drive as you do want your discs to work and last after you have written them, don't you? The drive is also very quiet in operation and the build quality seems good.

But we already mentioned that there were some weaknesses, so what are they? In our opinion the lacking ability to backup some games is one of the features that you may miss with this drive. Some of you may also like the ability to write discs larger than 90 minutes. If you rip movies to the hard drive you may also be annoyed be the speed lock that limits the speed to 5x CAV for DVD-video disc. And we have to face the fact that other drives like the Plextor PX-708A and Lite-On LDW-811S is faster at 8x DVD writing than this drive in addition to supporting 40x CD-R write speed and 24x CD-RW write speed.

But consider the price of $ 120 USD (Price from Pricewatch per 16.01.2004 ) for the OEM version, and you will see that there is quite some value in this writer as many 4X writers costs near the same as this writer. Even if the drive has some drawbacks the low price makes up for this and our conclusion this time will be "Amazing write quality and the first DVD-Writer to support 8x DVD-R and 4x DVD-RW, at a low cost". Due to the low price we do also hand out our "Best Value" award.

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