Holiday Shopping Roundup: Eight Dual Format Recordable DVD Drives

Burn Tests DVD+R Media

Higher burn speed averages are better.

RICOHJPNR00 — 2.4X DVD+R
Drive	Average Burn	Length	Mode
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	2.41X	4.38GB	CLV
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	2.43X	4.38GB	CLV
LiteOn LDW-411S	2.41X	4.38GB	CLV
MSI DR4-A	2.41X	4.38GB	CLV
NEC 1300A	2.41X	4.38GB	CLV
Nu Tech DDW-081	2.46X	4.38GB	CLV
Plextor 708A	2.42X	4.38GB	CLV
Sony DRU-530A	2.41X	4.38GB	CLV

MCC 002 — 4X DVD+R
Drive	Average Burn	Length	Mode
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
LiteOn LDW-411S	4.02X	4.38GB	CLV
MSI DR4-A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
NEC 1300A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
Nu Tech DDW-081	7.62X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Plextor 708A	7.67X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Sony DRU-530A	4.02X	4.38GB	CLV

MCC 003 — 8X DVD+R
Drive	Average Burn	Length	Mode
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	4.02X	4.38GB	CLV
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
LiteOn LDW-411S	4.02X	4.38GB	CLV
MSI DR4-A	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
NEC 1300A	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
Nu Tech DDW-081	7.62X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Plextor 708A	7.72X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Sony DRU-530A	6.63X	4.38GB	Z-CLV

RICOHJPNR01 — 4X DVD+R
Drive	Average Burn	Length	Mode
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
LiteOn LDW-411S	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
MSI DR4-A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
NEC 1300A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
Nu Tech DDW-081	7.65X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Plextor 708A	7.20X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Sony DRU-530A	4.05X	4.38GB	CLV

YUDEN000T01 — 4X DVD+R
Drive	Average Burn	Length	Mode
ASUS DRW-0402P/D	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
Gigabyte GO-W0404A	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
LiteOn LDW-411S	4.01X	4.38GB	CLV
MSI DR4-A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
NEC 1300A	4.00X	4.38GB	CLV
Nu Tech DDW-081	7.66X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Plextor 708A	7.65X	4.38GB	Z-CLV
Sony DRU-530A	4.03X	4.38GB	CLV

It was quite disappointing that none of the burners could find a better write descriptor for the 2.4X Ricoh DVD+Rs. We were severely upset with the lack of 8X burn speeds on the Sony DRU-530A. Even though we achieved some fairly good burn speeds, the fact that we could only get 8X write descriptors for “MCC 003” (Verbatim) media was not very comforting. “MCC 003” media is not nearly as easy to find as “MCC 002” DVD+Rs. Both Plextor and Nu Tech did a great job of sweeping up the DVD+R competition.