Holiday Shopping Roundup: Eight Dual Format Recordable DVD Drives

The upcoming holiday season has us swamped with recordable DVD drives. In the past few weeks, we have seen recordable devices from just about every major player in the optical storage forum. Typically, only about 5 or 6 unique devices exist in the market, making the life of a hardware journalist fairly easy. Unfortunately, right now, there are literally dozens of devices based on dozens of chipsets. We will take a look at some of these chipsets and burners, and see which one is right for this holiday market.

For some of these burners, we have done independent reviews in the past. The Nu Tech DDW-081, Plextor 708A, and ASUS DRW-0402P/D have all received extensive reviews from us. Remember, the ASUS DRW-0402P/D is identical to the industry standard Pioneer 106; and, the Nu Tech DDW-081 and DDW-061 are identical drives with different firmwares. In this review, we will add a few more drives to our existing mix, including Gigabyte's GO-W0404A, the new Sony DRU-530A, and the MSI DR4-A. Furthermore, we went on a shopping spree and purchased newer units from NEC and LiteOn to keep the analysis well-rounded.