TEAC DV-W50D 4x DVD±RW review @ CDRLabs.com

With the DV-W50D, TEAC has shown us again
why they are considered by many to be one of the top names in the optical
storage business. If you're a fan of their CD-RW drives, rest assured.
Their new dual format DVD writer offers impressive performance and
features to match.

If you're looking for a fast DVD writer, the DV-W50D definitely doesn't
disappoint. With its 4x DVD±R writing speeds, it's one of the fastest
drives currently available. The DV-W50D performed very well in our DVD
writing tests. In some cases, it was as much as a minute faster than the
Sony DRU-510A. TEAC's new DVD writer couldn't keep up with the Sony when
writing to DVD+RW media, but when you consider how hard it is to get 4x
DVD+RW media right now, this might not be a factor for some.

While most people will be buying the DV-W50D for its DVD writing
capabilities, you shouldn't forget that it can also read and write to
CD's. In our tests, TEAC's new DVD writer was able to read all types of CD
media at 32x and performed pretty well when it came time to rip audio
CD's. The drive was able to reach DAE speeds as high as 32x and handled
scratched CD's surprisingly well. The DV-W50D's writing speeds were
another story. With some of the newer DVD writers starting to offer
writing speeds as high as 40x, the DV-W50D's 16x writing speeds are a
little on the slow side. However, the drive can overburn up to 99 minutes,
something the DVD writers from Sony and NEC have problems
doing.