detail information

Philips Europe (NL) was kind enough to send us their latest internal DVD-writer - the Philips DVDR16LS. This drive is one on the first drives to support the new LightScribe feature/technique. Further this drive supports 16x DVD+R writing, 8x DVD-R and 2.4x DVD+R9 DL writing technology, allowing dual layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written. 

Philips has enjoyed a long history of developing optical drives and has in the past joined up with BenQ for manufacturing and development. This strategic alliance seems to benefit both parties. BenQ has the production facilities, while Philips designs chipset/electronic components as well as being one of the main DVD+R/RW developers.

Company information:

We are sure that most of you know Philips already, but let us take a look at some of the company information found at www.philips.com.

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 29 billion in 2003. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting, electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and one-chip TV products. Its 165,300 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, semiconductors, and medical systems.

Global Leader

Royal Philips Electronics is tenth on Fortune's list of global top electronics corporations. We are active in about 60 businesses, varying from consumer electronics to domestic appliances and from security systems to semiconductors.

We are a world leader in digital technologies for television and displays, wireless communications, speech recognition, video compression, storage and optical products as well as the underlying semiconductor technology that makes these breakthroughs possible.

We have world-class solutions in lighting, medical systems (particularly scanning and other diagnostic systems) and personal and domestic appliances where our investments in design and new materials are critical to success.

Translated into figures, we produce over 2.4 billion incandescent lamps every year, and some 30 million picture tubes.

Around 2.5 million heart procedures (scans and interventional procedures) on X-ray equipment are carried out each year using our technology.

One in seven television sets worldwide contains a Philips picture tube, and 60 percent of all telephones contain Philips products.

Thirty percent of offices around the world are lit by Philips Lighting, which also lights 65 percent of the world's top airports, 55 percent of major soccer stadium, and 30 per cent of hospitals.

The strength of Philips' global operations is reflected in its (value-based) leadership position in many of the markets in which it is active:

If you are interested in reading more company information, please visit www.philips.com.

Drive specifications:

The listed specification of this drive was found on the retail box:

Reading Speed

• DVD-ROM : 16x
• CD-ROM : 40x 

Writing Speed

• DVD+R : 16x
• DVD-R : 8x 
• DVD±RW : 4x  
• DVD+R Double Layer : 2.4x
• CD-R : 40x 
• CD-RW : 24x

Reading Compatibility

• DVD-ROM (PTP, OTP)
• DVD+R
• DVD+RW
• DVD+R DL
• DVD-R
• DVD-RW
• CD-ROM
• CD-R
• CD-RW

Writing Compatibility 

• DVD+R
• DVD+RW
• DVD+R DL
• DVD-R
• DVD-RW
• CD-R
• CD-RW

Supported Formats 

• DVD+R
• DVD+RW
• DVD+R DL
• DVD-R
• DVD-RW
• CD-Audio
• Video CD
• CD-Text
• CD-ROM (XA)
• CD-Bridge

Writing Modes 

• DVD and CD : Random write
• TAO
• DAO
• Multisession
• SAO
• Packet Writing

Buffer

• 2 MB

Access time

• DVD : 140ms (Random)
• CD : 125ms (Random)

Interface

• E-IDE ARAPI (UDMA 2)

Supported OS

• Windows 2000 / XP

What's inside the box?

On this page we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the drive and its technology.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Left side

Right Side

Below you will see the contents of the retail box:

• Internal drive itself
• 3 Philips CD-R LightScribe medias
• Nero Plug-in Rebate code
• Nero 6 OEM LightScribe Edition
• 4 Mounting screws
• How to…? Manual/installation

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

The Philips drive sets itself apart from most other drives we've had by providing a more functional front bezel. The most interesting feature is the LEDs, which are both fancy and useful. There are separate LEDs for showing if there is a CD or DVD disc in the drive, as well as a long LED for showing the operation done. The long LED glows red while writing and blue while reading. Look below for examples.

The Philips DVDR16LS is now writing a CD-R, the CD light is on and the function LED lights red.

The Philips DVDR16LS is now reading a DVD-Disc, the DVD light is on and the function led lights blue.

If you try to eject the disc while writing a CD or DVD the function LED will light purple/pink.

On top of the drive we found two stickers, and we can read it was manufactured in China, dated January 2005.

On the back of the drive there are from the left: digital audio connector, analogue audio connector, pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master, IDE connector, power connector.

We installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info tool:

From the screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt.Rainier support and a larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware P1.3 and was at the end of this review updated to P1.4.

And another shot from Nero Burning ROM:

We do not really find anything alarming here, but Mount Rainier and a larger buffer would have been nice.

But let us continue this review and see how it really performs.

On the next page we will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features and the included software…………