detail information

Positive:

• Supports DVD+R9 DL writing
• Supports 16x DVD+R speed
• 16x CAV burns leads to faster burns when compared with 16x Z-CLV
• Reads CDs at 48x and DVDs at 16x
• Nice design and a short (length) portable device
• Ok writing quality on CD-R's
• DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 DL/RW media
• Supports Kprobe & Nero CD-DVD speed quality scans
• Fast and perfect audio extraction
• Can rip protected audio discs
• 'Two sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Supports 99 minutes CD-R discs

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• Questionable CD-RW writing quality
• Write some certified media at lower speed
• Only 8x writing on DVD-R
• Uses Z-CLV to DVD-R's which is slower compared with P-CAV & CAV
• Read CD-RW discs at 32x only
• 8x reading speed on DVD+R/RW/DL & DVD-R/RW media

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 Philips 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. KProbe and Nero CD-DVD Speed can be used to measure disc quality/conditions with this Philips drive. The drive is an ok reader and it can read CD-R's at 48x and DVD's at 16x (on some systems), even audio CD's can be read/ripped at high speed. 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 writing quality on CD-R's are quite good.

The main negative points: This drive has some issues, like the questionable write quality CD-RW's. We also like to mention that some media will be burned on lower speed than certified. (I.e. DVD+R 16x with Philips media and Ritek media code will be burned at 8x/12x). Another point is the 8x reading speed on DVD+R/RW/DL and DVD-R/RW - other drives can do this at 10x and up. The same goes for the reading speed on CD-RW which is locked at 32x. 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 leads is slower then P-CAV & CAV.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'Overall good/ok, but other external drives also offers DVD-R to be burned at 16x". Remember - this drive is not a native Philips/BenQ drive the same goes for its little brother the Philips ED8DVDR.

By using our price grabber feature http://cdfreaks.pricegrabber.com/ we did not find any price for the Philips ED16DVDR drive. But at http://www.getprice.de we found the drive listed at 116.85 EUR.

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 and CD-R 52x 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 32x media used in this review.