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Sony BWU-100A detail information

Posted by agent009
Posted on 26/06/07 06:17
Number of views 20663
Manufacturer Sony
Product Sony BWU-100A
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DVD+R and DVD+RW writing quality

DVD+R writing quality

In DVD writing tests below, we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to write DVDs at the maximum speed supported by Sony BWU-100A.

We will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to write DVDs at the maximum speed supported by Sony BWU-100A.

We will then test their quality using a BenQ DW1680 drive and KProbe 2, a software tool developed by a Lite-On employee. Quality scans will be conducted at the scanning speed of 4x, our standard speed for Lite-On scanning. (Note that different scanning drives and speeds may dramatically alter results obtained in quality tests.)

In DVD quality tests, the testing drive reports two types of errors: PI (Parity Inner) errors (PIE) and PI failures (PIF).

In practice, a pressed or recorded DVD will always have some PI errors and PI failures. PI errors are easily corrected by the drive's error correcting decoder.

PI failures are the next level of errors. While PI failures are corrected by the second and last stage of the error correcting decoder, they are a more dangerous kind of errors because they can overwhelm the error correcting decoder if they occur in large enough numbers. A good-quality DVD should not contain PI errors above 280 or PI failures above 4.

Beyond PI failures, there are PO (Parity Outer) failures that are uncorrectable and make a disc unreadable.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and the readability of discs we will include reading curves from Nero CD-DVD Speed transfer rate tests performed on an LG GSA-H42N drive. We will be looking for any drops in transfer rates which would indicate readability issues with the discs created by Sony BWU-100A.

In the tests below, we will explore DVD+R writing speed and quality of Sony BWU-100A with media from several manufacturers.

Verbatim 16x DVD+R


Verbatim 16x DVD+R
(Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media)


Quality test


Transfer rate test

A nearly perfect burn.

Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R


Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R
(Thanks to Rima.com for providing this media)


Quality test


Transfer rate test

Another excellent result, as expected from Taiyo Yuden media.

Ridata 16x DVD+R


Ridata 16x DVD+R
(Thanks to Ritek USA | Advanced Media, Inc. for providing this media)


Quality test


Transfer rate test

An outstanding burn.

Imation 16x DVD+R


Imation 16x DVD+R


Quality test


Transfer rate test

Another beautiful burn, completed in 9 minutes flat.

Verbatim 8x DVD+R


Verbatim 8x DVD+R


Quality test


Transfer rate test

An amazingly good burn on now discontinued 8x media. PI errors and PI failures are very, very rarely this low.

Fujifilm 8x DVD+R


Fujifilm 8x DVD+R


Quality test


Transfer rate test

An excellent result that we have come to expect from Taiyo Yuden media, and one of the best we have seen with this drive.

Summary

Sony BWU-100A is a great DVD+R writer, producing consistently excellent results with all media we tested.

DVD+RW writing quality

In the tests below, we will explore DVD+RW writing speed and quality of Sony BWU-100A with media from several manufacturers.

Ridata 8x DVD+RW


Ridata 8x DVD+RW
(Thanks to Ritek USA | Advanced Media, Inc. for providing this media)


Quality test


Transfer rate test

Great DVD+RW quality at maximum speed, better than with many DVD+R media.

Memorex 4x DVD+RW


Memorex 4x DVD+RW
(Thanks to Memorex USA for providing this media)


Quality test


Transfer rate test

Another excellent DVD+RW burn, at 4x this time.

Summary

Sony BWU-100A is an excellent DVD+RW writer, producing very good quality burns with DVD+RW media we tested.

Want to submit your own review? Click here
Reactions on this item
"handles all optical media"

except HDDVD perhaps :S
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... :)
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.
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) :)
"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.
BD-R discs are 24.2GB unlike BD-RE which are 25GB? Why's that?
"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.
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
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.
"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.
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.
"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
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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