Sony BWU-100A detail information
| Posted by | agent009 |
| Posted on | 26/06/07 06:17 |
| Number of views | 20664 |
| Manufacturer | Sony |
| Product | Sony BWU-100A |
Test machine
We will be using a computer with the following configuration:
Hardware

Controller and optical drives

Sony BWU-100A is connected to the primary channel on the motherboard's ICH7 south bridge parallel ATA port.
It identifies itself as "SONY BDRW BWU-100A."
DMA (Direct Memory Access) is enabled, and connection mode is reported as Ultra DMA Mode 4:

Drive transfer mode
CD-DVD Speed reports burst rate of 41 MB/s, consistent with Ultra DMA Mode 4:

Burst rate
Software
The computer is running Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit (build 6.0.6000).
We will be using the following software:
- Nero CD/DVD Speed version 4.7.5.0 and 4.7.6.0b
- K-Probe version 2.5.2
- Nero Info Tool version 4.03
- Nero Burning ROM version 7.9.6.0
- Slysoft CloneCD 5.3.0.1
Installation
Drive installation was uneventful. We set the jumper to "cable select" and let the two drives sharing an ATA cable pick master and slave modes automatically.
Features
Feature summary
Nero InfoTool reports the following configuration and drive features:

Nero InfoTool report
The drive's hardware memory buffer used to ensure uninterrupted recording is 8 MB, four times larger than the 2 MB used in most DVD drives. This amounts to about one second worth of data at 2x BD speed.
Firmware update
Our drive came with firmware revision 1.0c, but we have updated to version 1.0e when it became available:

Firmware flash (1 of 5)

Firmware flash (2 of 5)

Firmware flash (3 of 5)

Firmware flash (4 of 5)

Firmware flash (5 of 5)
Software
Software CD contents
Our drive came with the 'Sony Software Disc for BD (Rev. 7.00W)':

Software CD
The following software is included on the CD:
- CyberLink PowerDVD 6.6 Blu-ray (BD and DVD playback)
- CyberLink Power2Go 5.5 Next-Gen (a complete burning solution)
- CyberLink InstantBurn 5.0 (packet writing)
- CyberLink PowerProducer 3.7 (video capture, editing, burning)
- CyberLink PowerDirector 5.0 (video editing)
- CyberLink PowerDVD Copy 1.0 (DVD copying)
- CyberLink Medi@Show 3.0 (photo editing/slideshow)
- CyberLink LabelPrint 1.0 (label design and printing)
- CyberLink PowerBackup 2.5 (backup/restore)

Software installation
This is a pretty complete set of major CyberLink products updated to support Blu-ray playback and burning.

CyberLink PowerStarter
Sony also provides PowerDVD (Blu-ray and DVD playback software) updates on its website.

except HDDVD perhaps



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...





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.




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.


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


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.


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.




...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


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

Overview, specifications, retail package
add a tag