Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray Burner Review

Sony BWU-100A detail information

Posted by	agent009
Posted on	26/06/07 06:17
Number of views	20639
Manufacturer	Sony
Product	Sony BWU-100A

Conclusion

Introduction

Overview, specifications, retail package

Features and software

CD, DVD and BD (Blu-ray Disc) writing performance

CD, DVD and BD (Blu-ray Disc) reading performance

CD-R and CD-RW writing quality

DVD+R and DVD+RW writing quality

DVD-R and DVD-RW writing quality

DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL writing quality

DVD-RAM writing performance

BD-R and BD-RE writing quality

BD-R DL and BD-RE DL writing quality

Advanced tests

Text Size Text Size

CD, DVD and BD (Blu ray Disc) writing performance

CD writing performance

In the tests below, we will explore CD writing capabilities and performance of Sony BWU-100A. We will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to write various types of CDs.

Summary

The following table lists all writing speeds and strategies used by Sony BWU-100A when writing CD media:

Some of these strategies are presented below.

24x CD-R

Sony BWU-100A uses a 12x-16x-24x Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write CD-R media at 24x.

Average speed is 19.54x and full-disc burn time is 4 minutes and 43 seconds:

24x CD-R writing

16x CD-RW

Sony BWU-100A uses a 12x-16x Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write CD-RW media at 16x.

Average speed is 15.59x and full-disc burn time is 5 minutes and 11 seconds:

16x CD-RW writing

DVD writing performance

In the tests below, we will explore DVD writing capabilities and performance of Sony BWU-100A. We will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to write various types of DVDs.

Summary

The following table lists all writing speeds and strategies used by Sony BWU-100A when writing DVD media:

Some of these strategies are presented below.

8x DVD+R

Sony BWU-100A uses a 6x-8x Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD+R media at 8x.

An unusual 6x-8x Z-CLV writing strategy used in some drives with Panasonic chipsets extends the 6x area to about 2.1 GB, requiring an extra minute to complete an 8x burn.

Average speed is 6.79x and full-disc burn time is 9 minutes and 9 seconds:

8x DVD+R writing

8x DVD+RW

Sony BWU-100A uses a 6x-8x Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD+RW media at 8x.

Average speed is 6.88x and full-disc burn time is 9 minutes and 12 seconds:

8x DVD+RW writing

4x DVD+R DL

Sony BWU-100A uses a 4x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD+R DL media at 4x.

Average speed is 3.94x and full-disc burn time is 27 minutes and 18 seconds:

4x DVD+R DL writing

8x DVD-R

Sony BWU-100A uses a 6x-8x Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD-R media at 8x.

Average speed is 6.79x and full-disc burn time is 9 minutes and 9 seconds:

8x DVD-R writing

6x DVD-RW

Sony BWU-100A uses a 6x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD-RW media at 6x.

Average speed is 5.90x and full-disc burn time is 10 minutes and 10 seconds:

6x DVD-RW writing

4x DVD-R DL

Sony BWU-100A uses a 4x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD-R DL media at 4x.

Average speed is 3.94x and full-disc burn time is 27 minutes and 32 seconds:

4x DVD-R DL writing

5x DVD-RAM

Sony BWU-100A uses a 5x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write DVD-RAM media at 5x, without verification.

Average speed is 4.99x and full-disc burn time is 11 minutes and 4 seconds:

5x DVD-RAM writing without verification

With verification, average speed is 2.00x and full-disc burn time is a much longer 27 minutes and 35 seconds:

5x DVD-RAM writing with verification

DVD book type (bitsetting)

Sony BWU-100A supports bitsetting, and is capable of writing all types of +R media, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL, with the DVD-ROM book type:

The drive comes preconfigured with all +R media set to be written with the DVD-ROM book type. Though this configuration cannot be changed, it is not likely to be missed by many as bitsetting has become almost universally applied to all DVD+ media.

For more information about book types and bitsetting, see Increased compatibility: DVD bitsetting.

BD (Blu-ray Disc) writing performance

In the tests below, we will explore BD writing capabilities and performance of Sony BWU-100A. We will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to write various types of BDs.

Summary

The following table lists all writing speeds and strategies used by Sony BWU-100A when writing BD media:

Some of these strategies are presented below.

2x BD-R

Sony BWU-100A uses a 2x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write BD-R media at 2x.

Average speed is 1.99x and full-disc burn time is 45 minutes and 23 seconds:

2x BD-R writing

2x CLV BD-R writing of 2x-certified media is the standard speed at the time of this writing, with the exception of one drive that overspeeds some 2x media.

2x BD-RE

Sony BWU-100A uses a 2x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write BD-RE media at 2x.

Average speed is 1.99x and full-disc burn time is 45 minutes and 13 seconds:

2x BD-RE writing

All Blu-ray drives write 2x-certified BD-RE media at the same 2x CLV speed.

2x BD-R DL

Sony BWU-100A uses a 2x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write BD-R DL media at 2x.

Average speed is 2.00x and full-disc burn time is 90 minutes and 5 seconds:

2x BD-R DL writing

2x BD-RE DL

Sony BWU-100A uses a 2x CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) strategy to write BD-RE DL media at 2x.

Average speed is 2.00x and full-disc burn time is 89 minutes and 20 seconds:

2x BD-RE DL writing

BD book type (bitsetting)

Although this feature is not presented in the CD-DVD Speed bitsetting report, Sony BWU-100A supports Blu-ray bitsetting as well, and writes BD-R media with the BD-ROM book type, and BD-R DL media with the BD-ROM DL book type:

Conclusion

Sony BWU-100A is limited to 24x CD, 8x DVD and 4x DVD DL burning speeds, making it noticeably slower than the fastest burners available today. Users who expect to burn a fair number of CDs or DVDs with this drive will need some patience.

DVD+ bitsetting support described above is important for standalone player compatibility. Blu-ray bitsetting is a welcome feature as well.

Features and software

CD, DVD and BD (Blu-ray Disc) reading performance

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Reactions on this item

Posted by ProfessorDVD on Wednesday 27 June 2007 04:47

"handles all optical media"

except HDDVD perhaps

Posted by agent009 on Thursday 28 June 2007 04:01

Good point!

Unfortunately, 1x HD-DVD burners are just beginning to appear this summer [in notebooks], so HD-DVD burning has been no more than a theoretical possibility even though HD-DVD-R and -RW media has been out for months.

Toshiba's SD-H903A 1x HD-DVD burner is awfully late for a product launched/unveiled six months ago. They better hurry. You know: train... leaving the station...

Posted by electrox3d (guest) on Thursday 28 June 2007 19:47

why even bother, over a year has gone by and blu-ray has been pumping out 2x burners and now 4x, later 6x, and hd-dvd will finally have 1x and barely be able to store 15GB.... why?? 15GB?? come on, seems so last-gen, 50GB's where its at.

Posted by cd pirate on Sunday 01 July 2007 15:05

Hey Agent009, I like your review. Good to see some opinions here and there about the burns, which I agree with more than I usually do.

Just wondering if that benQ you used for scanning is a rebadged liteon? If it's genuine benQ, I wonder why you didn't use cdspeed for scanning + jitter, it would be nice to see how good the jitter was on some of those discs that had ridiculously low error levels (MCC003 in particular)

Posted by agent009 on Monday 02 July 2007 21:57

"Just wondering if that benQ you used for scanning is a rebadged liteon? If it's genuine benQ, I wonder why you didn't use cdspeed for scanning + jitter, it would be nice to see how good the jitter was on some of those discs that had ridiculously low error levels (MCC003 in particular)"

DW1680 is a MediaTek/Lite-On design [otherwise KProbe wouldn't have worked with it], equivalent to LH-16A1P.

We use KProbe for quality testing to keep reviews consistent, but you are right, CD-DVD Speed does provide more quality data.

In BWU-100A DVD+R burns, jitter is pretty low. It usually averages 9% +-0.4% when measured by either BenQ or Lite-On drives.

Posted by shae (guest) on Saturday 07 July 2007 00:57

BD-R discs are 24.2GB unlike BD-RE which are 25GB? Why's that?

Posted by agent009 on Saturday 07 July 2007 07:58

"BD-R discs are 24.2GB unlike BD-RE which are 25GB? Why's that?"

I believe this is the way CD-DVD Speed reports capacities.

25,025,xxx,xxx bytes is the so-called 'gross' BD-RE capacity before 12,288 clusters are allocated for the inner spare area (ISA0).

The same number of 64 KB clusters is lost with BD-R as well, but the 24,220,xxx,xxx number reported for BD-R is the 'net' capacity.

In both cases, usable space ends up being the same 24,220,xxx,xxx bytes.

Posted by ProfessorDVD on Thursday 12 July 2007 03:13

Whoah only 15GB?? - i didn't know that.
Havent payed much attention yet as its still sorta early to consider using anything newer than DVD as a cost effective measure..
But yeah, absolutely too small for next gen, which is sad because I hate sony and everything they are about.

btw nice writeup 009

Posted by Michael (guest) on Sunday 29 July 2007 13:06

Hi,

thanks for the review, I appreciate it, I was wondering if anybody here, maybe able to help me with a question, I am thinking of fitting one of these into a custom HTPC case. Is this the same same size dimensions as current DVD drives and also, does the front bezel remove easily as current drives, I need to remove to be able to fit the drive into my custom case, as long as it is standard sizeand the bezel comes off, I will be fine.

thanks for any feedback.

Posted by agent009 on Wednesday 01 August 2007 02:48

"Is this the same same size dimensions as current DVD drives and also, does the front bezel remove easily as current drives, I need to remove to be able to fit the drive into my custom case, as long as it is standard sizeand the bezel comes off, I will be fine."

Yes, the bezel is removable. It is held in place by plastic tabs, as with any other drive.

BWU-100A is a standard 5.25 inch drive that is 190 mm long. This is longer than usual and about the maximum length that 5.25 inch bays are designed for. It may be a tight fit in very small cases like Shuttle. I don't think you will have trouble fitting it in an HTPC case, but to be sure, measure the length of the drive bay.

Posted by simon (guest) on Monday 20 August 2007 20:02

I bought an oem bwu-100A on ebay a few months ago for under $500. It can only write BD-R and BD-RW at 1x. Several people in cyberspace mentioned that because of the "write verify" turned on at the hardware level and Nero doesn't have an option to turn it off. Though Imgburn has the option, it doesn't support the INCD UDF format Nero is using. It seems that new drives like that in this review doen't have the problem. I just wish Sony can release a firmware update to solve this problem.

Posted by plasm0 on Tuesday 23 October 2007 14:47

"I bought an oem bwu-100A on ebay a few months ago for under $500. It can only write BD-R and BD-RW at 1x. Several people in cyberspace mentioned that because of the "write verify" turned on at the hardware level and Nero doesn't have an option to turn it off. Though Imgburn has the option, it doesn't support the INCD UDF format Nero is using. It seems that new drives like that in this review doen't have the problem. I just wish Sony can release a firmware update to solve this problem."

...is this true? BD-R at 1x? Is this only on the OEM version? I am also looking at a (retail) version from ebay and wondering if anyone else had same experiences... thx

Posted by simon (guest) on Wednesday 14 November 2007 17:22

It seems that there are two different versions on the market. According to the CNET review, "Burning a BD-R with 23GB of mixed data files took 1 hour, 40 minutes, 11 seconds.". NOT 45 minutes in the review here.

http://reviews.cnet.com/dvd-drives/sony-bwu-100a-blu/4505-3212_7-31899197.html

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