detail information

Positive:

• Supports DVD±R/+R9 DL writing at 16x/6x
• Support DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R media *
• Excellent documentation/Owner's Manual on CD
• Very good Software package

* Firmware US06 is supporting DVD-ROM bitsetting under Nero & Pinnacle application (user needs to upgrade to the latest version of Nero/Pinnacle).

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• 16x certified DVD media is required for 16x writing  
• Media compatibility and quality (16x) could be improved

Conclusion:

As mentioned in the beginning of this review:

This review will 'backup" to the Samsung TS-E552U review we posted (10. of April 2005) and we are going to concentrate on the features that the Samsung TS-E552U 'failed" to do. Like real 16x DVD writing/reading, due to the USB-Bridge limitation in the Samsung TS-E522U.

We are only going to comment those features.

The 16x DVD+R/-R media compatibility and quality did not impress us, meaning there is room for improvement to make the write quality on both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x better.

One positive point though is that the latest firmware added support for Traxdata 2.4x DVD+R DL media with media-code RITEK D01 to be written at 4x. Another point is the DVD-ROM bitsetting support for DVD+R media under Nero and Pinnacle, which make the media more compatible with i.e Standalone DVD devices.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'A very affordably priced DVD-Writer, but with issues concerning 16x writing on DVD+R/-R media".

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we found the drive listed at $ 49.66 and at getprice for 46 EUR (May 2005).

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+R9 DL 2.4x and DVD-R 16x used in this review.

E-Net Distribution - United Kingdom for providing the DVD+R 8x and DVD-R 8x (Datawrite and RiDisc branded) medias used in this review.

MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the DVD+R 16x media used in this review.

NewStar Digital - South Korea for providing the DVD-R 8x media used in this review.