ASUS DRW-1604P DVD Burner

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What's inside the box?

Here we take a look at the ASUS DRW-1604P retail package and the contents included in the bundle.

The box has a snazzy design that highlights the 16x16 DVD±R capabilities and the 4X Double Layer writing ability. Next, we opened up the box and arranged all of the contents for easy viewing.

Let us look over the contents of the retail package.

The box contains;

• The DRW-1604P drive
• One emergency eject pin
• One 80 wire IDE cable
• Mounting screws
• Quick Installation Guide
• User Guide (Product manual)
• Nero OEM suite CD-ROM
• Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 Suite SE CD-ROM
• Audio cable
• ASUS motherboard flyer

This is a pretty nice bundle. Including both Nero and Ulead software packages gives the end-user the flexibility to choose their favorite CD/DVD software. The only thing we miss is one included blank DVD±R disc and preferably also one DVD rewriteable disc.  The Quick Installation guide uses very tiny text and only contains one small picture. Luckily, the included full User Guide contains better instructions and detailed pictures that will help novice users get the drive installed.

Now we shall take a closer look at the drive itself.

Notice the indented line and the contours on the drive tray. This gives the drive a unique and interesting appearance. What else is on the front of the drive? On the left-side and underneath the drive tray there is an emergency eject hole, to the right there is an LED indicator, and then at the far right is the eject button. For graphics, we have the ASUS logo printed on the center of the drive tray. Underneath the drive tray from left to right we have a DVD+R DL logo, a DVD Alliance (DVD+R/RW) logo, a DVD Forum (DVD-R/RW) logo, and finally a Compact Disc Ultra Speed ReWriteable logo.

Starting from the left of the back of the drive we have; one undocumented connection; analog audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector. There is no digital audio connector.

Above we have a view of the top
of the drive with 2 stickers placed on it. We can see that the drive was made in
China. The drive was manufactured in either October 2004 or November
2004 depending on which sticker you want to believe.

On the next page we will take a look at the test machine testing software, drive features and the included software…

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Test machine:

For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1533 MHz
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Motherboard: KT400-8235
BIOS: Phoenix 6.00 PG
Memory: 768 MB (60ns)
Sound: Avance AC97 Audio
Video: NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro
Hard disks: Maxtor 6Y080P0 80GB and Western Digital WD1600JB-00EVA0 160GB.

System set-up:

The ASUS DRW-1604P was connected as Secondary Master and identified as ASUS DRW-1604P. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

Software:

Windows XP Professional SP1 is installed on this computer. We will be using the following software in this review:

⋅         DVDIdentifier 3.5
⋅         Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.0.6
⋅         Nero CD/DVD Speed v3.61
⋅         Nero InfoTool v2.27
⋅         Slysoft CloneCD v5.0.2.2
⋅          K-Probe v2.4.2

Installation and supported
features:

Our drive came shipped with firmware 1.14. We quickly installed the drive without any problems. Upon installation, we immediately updated to the latest firmware version, 1.18.

After rebooting, we captured a screenshot from Nero Info Tool:

It is nice to see that the drive supports DVD-RAM reading, however we were unable to test this feature. It does not support Mt. Rainier, but very few drives support this feature. The buffer size is listed as 2MB, however some other drives are built with an 8MB buffer. A larger buffer is preferred, but this is a minor complaint. All in all, the supported features look very good.

Here is another shot from Nero Burning ROM:

We notice that the Book Type Settings dialog is missing from Nero. Further tests indicated that this drive does not support bitsetting, which is a negative and could lead to DVD+R compatibility issues in older standalone players.  (DVD+R DL discs are set with the DVD-ROM booktype automatically on this drive).

Included software:

Here we will take a look at the software that is included with the drive. Please take note that we may not use the included software in the performance testing part of the review.

The Nero program suite is owned and developed by Nero Software; it contains programs for creating most types of CD/DVD discs, a packet writing program, a media player etc. This is one of our preferred writing program suites, and we give ASUS a thumbs up for including this in their retail package.

Here we have a screenshot of the included ASUSDVD software. This software is a custom version of Cyberlinks' PowerDVD, which is one of the most popular software DVD players available.

Uleads' DVD MovieFactory 3.5 Suite is included on the other CD-ROM. MovieFactory 3.5 allows you to easily create CD and DVD projects as well as burn them to disc. Ulead DVD Player software is also included, which can also be used to playback your DVD Videos. Another thumbs up to ASUS for including multiple software solutions.

Now it's time to take a look at the reading performance! Head on over to the next page…

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Reading performance:

For these tests we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to read various CD and DVD's, including audio discs and DVD-Video. According to the product box, this drive supports a specified read speed of 16X for DVD-ROM's and 40X for CD-ROM's.

Pressed CD-ROM discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing Canon Digital Camera Solution Disk ver 9.0 that is 73:12.38 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

We can see that the drive reads pressed CD-ROM discs exactly as the specification suggests. 40X CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) reading. Let us compare this to some other drives;

The ASUS DRW-1604P is one of the slowest readers and it has some of the highest seek times. The drive is slower than the competition because other drives can support reading CD-ROM discs up to 48x.

CD-Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Canon Digital Camera Solution CD. The disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The results look almost identical to the CD-ROM reading graph. The drive has no trouble hitting 40x on CD-Recordable discs.

Again we can see the drive is slower than some of the competing drives due to its 40x CD-R read limitation. Seek times are once again high.

CD-ReWriteable discs:

Again we made a copy of the original Canon Digital Camera Solution CD. The disc we used was a Verbatim HighSpeed 12X CD-RW disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The drive reads CD-RW at a speed of 32x CAV (Constant Angular Velocity).

The drive is about average with CD-RW reading speed, but we would still rather see 40x or 48x CD-RW reading.

Audio - Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the ASUS DRW-1604P, we again used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is approximately 74 minutes long (74:02:70).

Here we can see that the CD-Audio reading speed is also 40x CAV with perfect DAE quality. Let's do another comparison!

The drive performs about average here, but the Seek Times
Full are a little too high for our liking.

Advanced Audio - DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we perform
one last audio test. This time we used the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature
in CD-Speed.

The drive performed as expected in these tests. The drive
was able to read CD Text and Subchannel Data, which is a positive. Unfortunately
it does not support reading from the Leadin or Leadout.

DVD
Reading
performance:

Again we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the reading
performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. According to the
specifications, the drive should read pressed single layer DVD-ROM discs at
16X.

DVD - DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start
with single and dual layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to
watch DVD movies, it is useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if
you're going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

Single Layer
DVD Video

Double Layer
DVD Video.

We can see that the drive is locked to 5x CAV (Constant
Angular Velocity) for both Single Layer and Double Layer DVD Video discs. This
5x 'riplock' is not desirable and will annoy users who wish to rip their DVD
Video discs at full speed.  How does this compare to other drives? Check
the table below to find out!

The ASUS DRW-1604P cannot compete with drives such as the
Memorex F16, that can read SL DVD Video discs at 16x. For comparison purposes we
also tested a single layer data DVD-ROM disc and found that the ASUS DRW-1604P
could indeed read the data DVD-ROM at full 16x CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity).

DVD - DVD+R(W):

For this test we used a Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD+R and a RICOH 4X
DVD+RW with about 4.4GB of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

DVD+R discs are read at 12x CAV (Constant Angular Velocity)
and DVD+RW discs are read at 8x CAV. Again, we present a comparison
table;

The ASUS DRW-1604P DVD+R reading speed at 12x is better
than many other drives, but it would be even nicer to see 16x DVD+R reading and
also faster DVD+RW reading speeds.

DVD - DVD-R(W) :

For this test we used a Taiyo Yuden 8X DVD-R disc and a
Verbatim 4X DVD-RW disc filled with approximately 4.38Gb of data. Our test
results are found below:

DVD-R

DVD-RW

DVD-R/RW reading speeds are almost identical to the
DVD+R/RW reading speeds. 12x CAV on DVD-R and 8x CAV on DVD-RW.

We have the same thoughts regarding the DVD-R/RW
performance.  12x DVD-R reading is nice and outperforms some of the
competition, but we would prefer 16x DVD-R reading and faster DVD-RW
reading.

Overall Reading Performance thoughts:

The ASUS DRW-1604P seems to be an ok reader, but how about
the read speeds? CD-ROM and CD-R discs can be read at 40x without any problems.
This is slower than the competition that can read CD media at 48x. Digital Audio
Extraction also reads at 40x and is accurate. The 5x DVD Video riplock is
disappointing and will cause DVD Video discs to rip very slowly. DVD-ROM data
discs can be read at 16x CAV. The drive can also read DVD±R discs at 12x, which
is faster than many other drives that can only do 8x CAV on the same disc types.
DVD±R reading at 16x would have been nice to have, but the 12x performance is
still pretty good.

But now let's head on to the next page for something more
interesting, CD-R Writing performance...

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The specifications of the ASUS DRW-1604P state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

CD-R Writing perfomance:

First, let us examine the CD-R writing technology used by the ASUS DRW-1604P by burning a data disc in CD-DVD Speed:

We can see that the ASUS DRW-1604P uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-R at 32x. This gives an average write speed of 24.92x. Let us compare this to a few other drives;

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 writer uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. This gives an average speed of 36.38x. The dips in the graph illustrate points at which the drive performs calibration to ensure superior burn quality.

The Memorex F16 DVD writer uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. This gives an average speed of 37.23x.

As you can see from the above writing graphs, the ASUS DRW-1604P is slower than some of the competitor drives due to the 32x maximum speed limitation and Z-CLV writing technique.

We also wrote a disc with 700Mb of data using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled.

The ASUS DRW-1604P used 4 minutes and 5 seconds to write the disc at 32x. For comparison we present the following table:

Here we can see that the ASUS DRW-1604P is slower at CD-R writing compared to most of the competing drives on the market. But what about the CD-R write quality?  We'll find out now!

CD-R
Write Quality:

Here we will test with a variety of different CD-R discs to
measure speed and write quality. To really measure the write speed, we used the
'create data CD" function in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The discs were written at the
maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test we used K-Probe 2,
which is a tool developed by a Lite-On Employee. Kprobe runs on Windows and
functions with drives made by Lite-On. Please note that different drives as well
as different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the
discs. Here we used a Lite-On LTR-32123S drive with firmware XS0Z and scanned
the discs at 40X speed (Actual speed is approximately 43X CAV on 80 minute
CD-Rs).

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1
errors are easily corrected by the drives' error correction capabilities. The
next level of errors is C2. C2 errors can also be corrected by most drives'
error correction capabilities, but they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A
good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1
error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below a 10.0 C1
average for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable
errors that will make a disc unusable.

We now present you with our results:

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus '“ (Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	12.74
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

These results
are not the best that we have seen with these discs. The Average C1 value is
acceptable and there are no C2 errors, which is good.

 

Brand:	Office Depot
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:59s
C1 Average/Sec:	6.89
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The C1 error
average looks good in this test. We can consider these good discs.

 

Brand:	Memorex '“ (Thanks to Memorex for providing this media)
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	40x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	46.91
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Results here
are not so good on this "Cool Colors CD-R". The C1 levels are way too high on
the last third of the disc, but at least there are no C2 errors. Some writers
have trouble with these discs. 

 

Brand:	Imation
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	40x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	12.52
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

We also
tested with an Imation branded CMC CD-R disc. We do not like the high C1 error
spiking reported near the end of the graph. ASUS needs to improve the support on
CMC CD-Rs.

 

Brand:	Harmony
Manufacturer:	Digital Storage Technology Co., Ltd.
Code:	97m27s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	6m:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.43
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

These 24x
certified discs were written at 32x. As you can see from the long Write time,
the drive had to slow down at some points during the burn to preserve
quality.  The results are good and ASUS did a great job supporting these
discs.

 

Brand:	GQ
Manufacturer:	Lead Data Inc.
Code:	97m26s54f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 4: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	10.38
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

This is a
pretty good result for these low quality discs. The Average C1 error value is
low and there are no C2 errors.

 

Brand:	GQ
Manufacturer:	Lead Data Inc. with SONY ATIP (SONY)
Code:	97m24s16f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	36.24
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

These results
are not so hot. We have seen much better quality discs produced when other
drives write to these discs.

 

Brand:	FujiFilm '“ (Thanks to FujiFilm USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Prodisc Technology Inc.
Code:	97m32s19f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.10
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Good results
with a 4.10 value for the C1 error average.

 

Brand:	RiDATA
Manufacturer:	RiTEK Corporation
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:02s
C1 Average/Sec:	18.00
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

These results
are questionable. We've seen better results with these discs on other writers.

 Writing data CD-RW discs:

The
specifications of the ASUS DRW-1604P state that the drive is able to write CD-RW
discs at 24x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and
quality. First, let us examine the CD-RW writing technique used by the
Asus.

 

The drive
writes CD-RW Ultra Speed discs at 24x using Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity). Three
zones are used to produce an average speed of 22.46x. Let's compare this to some
other drives.

 

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 uses only 2 zones
with its Z-CLV technique. This gives an average speed of
23.68x.

 

The Plextor
PX-708A uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to achieve a write speed of 24x. The Average
speed is 23.77x.

We also wrote
a disc with 650Mb of data using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used
is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc"
enabled.

For a better
overview we present the following comparison table:

*74min CD-RW
used.

The ASUS
DRW-1604P has about average CD-RW writing speed compared to the competition. It
can't compete with the Samsung TS-H552B, which can write CD-RW at 32x. Now we
will examine the CD-RW writing quality.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ (Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	74:43.00 (656MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	3m:45s
C1 Average/Sec:	888.80
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The C1 errors
are very high, but at least there are no C2 errors and the disc is fully
readable.  We've seen better results with these discs on other
drives.

Brand:	Memorex '“ (Thanks to Memorex USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Infodisc
Code:	97m25s31f
Disc Type:	CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	3m:45s
C1 Average/Sec:	567.90
C2 Average/Sec:	0.13

Results here
are not good. There are some very high C1 errors and the dreaded C2 errors also
make an appearance. This could be due to either poor quality discs or the ASUS
writing strategy.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ (Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	74:43.00 (656MB)
Certified Speed:	4-12x
Write Speed:	10x
Write Time:	8m:09s
C1 Average/Sec:	32.25
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Results here
are just fine for a CD-RW disc. No C2 errors and the disc is fully readable on
the Lite-On drive.

Brand:	Memorex '“ (Thanks to Memorex USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Infodisc
Code:	97m25s30f
Disc Type:	CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	4-12x
Write Speed:	10x
Write Time:	8m:28s
C1 Average/Sec:	18.58
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The ASUS
DRW-1604P did fine with these discs. This is an ok result for CD-RW
media.

CD-R/RW performance Summary:
The CD-R writing performance is ok, but it could use some
improvements with CMC and Ritek CD-Rs. CD-RW performance is also ok except for
the Infodisc made 24x CD-RW disc.

But after
all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance and DVD media compatibility…

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The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write both DVD+R and DVD-R discs at 16x. In this portion of the review we will measure the write time for various types of DVD-/+R discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

First, we shall take a look at the writing technology used for DVD+R and DVD-R writing.

16X DVD+R Writing speed:

The ASUS DRW-1604P uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16X.

16X DVD-R Writing speed:

The ASUS DRW-1604P also uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16X. Let us compare these to the write technologies used by some other drives:

 

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write to DVD+R and DVD-R discs at 16x. The dips in the graph are caused by the Active OPC technology, which improves burn quality.

 

The Memorex F16 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x.

Next we will test and measure the time for writing to DVD-R and DVD+R discs within Nero. We used Nero burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4483MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R test burn

DVD-R test burn

How does the ASUS DRW-1604P compare to other writers on the market? We have built a table to analyze these write times. Please reference below for our comparisons:

*Actual writing speed was 12X in these areas for the Pioneer A08.

The ASUS is one of the slowest 16x writers due to the Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) writing technique.

A more important question is; how is the DVD±R/RW write quality of this drive? After all, you do want to be able to produce discs that are readable and useful. Let us find out now!

Write quality:

You should first take note that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in the past, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers. So we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In these tests we use a Lite-On SOHW-1633S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can't be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PIF ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failueres) set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don't think will end soon. This is due to the fact that different drives report different amounts of errors, some players are more picky about media than others and many other factors. For comparison purposes we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs.

Please note that these 2 example scans below were performed with an older version of Kprobe. In this older version, PIF is mistakenly labelled as 'PO".

This scan shows the results from a pressed, Single Layer DVD-ROM disc (Baldurs Gate DVD-ROM).

 

This next scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (Indiana Jones and the last crusade). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below you will see that both of the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.

Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is
some data from the ECMA standards
(it is the same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random errors:

A row of an
ECC Block that has at least 1
byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before
correction shall not exceed 280.

Here we see what a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more
containing errors. And that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI
errors.

But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything
but if interested look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the
last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows
contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI
error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum
is of course 8 times higher giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8
errors. In practical use a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280
for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems
reading discs when the PI-8 errors are over 300 and most players start to have
problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity
Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity
Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:

'If a row of
an ECC Block as defined in 13.3
contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be 'PI-uncorrectable"."

In theory an
ECC block may in the worst case
have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the
ECMA 337 standard goes further
and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good
disc:

'- In any ECC Block the number of PI-uncorrectable rows should not exceed
4."  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1 the maximum error value should
not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will
make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF's.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc
reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the
readability of a DVD disc '“ but for this we do not have measuring equipment
available.

Another detail to note is that we have scanned the discs at
4X CLV speed, by lowering the
speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported
errors may drop on some discs. We use the 4X CLV scan speed for all of our PI/PIF
tests.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount
of errors and readability of the discs, we also include a transfer rate test
reading curve from the NEC ND-3500A DVD-Writer. A small speed reduction near the
end of the reading curve is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading
problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Easier explanation on how to read the test
results.

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to
look for in Kprobe
reports?

Use this as a guideline for
good discs:

PI(Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors,
do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280. Lower error
levels are always better.
PIF(Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas
on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high
single spikes that exceed 4. Lower error levels are always better.

What about the reading curve? If the graph looks clean with
no dips then the disc should be very good. A small slowdown near the end is
acceptable.

DVD+R media compatibility and write
quality:

Brand:	Memorex '“ (Thanks to Memorex for providing)
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAGM01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:48s
PI-8 errors Avg/Sec:	16.54
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.15

Results here are ok except for the very end of the disc
where there was a large slowdown in the reading curve.

 

Brand:	Verbatim '“ (Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Avg/Sec:	41.19
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Simply superb
quality results here! Unfortunately the drive can only write to these 16x discs
at 12x. It is interesting to note that a 16x burn only shaves 2-5 seconds off of
the total burn time compared to a 12x burn on the ASUS DRW-1604P. The reason for
this is due to the 16x writing technique utilizing an additional Zone (Zone-Constant Angular Velocity), which
adds extra calibration time onto the total burn process.

Brand:	Ritek '“ (Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Avg/Sec:	18.89
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

Good quality
results here with Ritek 16x DVD+R. Unfortunately the discs can only be written
at 12x.

Brand:	Fujifilm '“ (Thanks to Fujifilm USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Made at CMC Magnetics using Fujifilm dye
Code:	PHILIPS C16
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.83
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

These 16x
Fujifilm discs could only be written at 12x. Quality is very good as the PI/PIF
is low and the reading curve is perfect!

Brand:	FujiFilm '“ (Thanks to Fujifilm USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.98
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Great
results! This 8x media can be burned at 16x with good quality
results.

 

Brand:	Prodisc
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.08
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Next to
perfect results with this Prodisc 8x DVD+R. We can easily recommend this media
for use in the ASUS DRW-1604P.

Brand:	RiDATA '“ (Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R03 (Revision 02)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:48s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	96.18
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

This 8x Ritek
media was written at 12x! The PI/PIF results are ok and the reading curve is
excellent.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ (Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.36
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

This 8x
Verbatim media was written at 12x! Excellent results in the Kprobe scan, but the
reading curve had some trouble on the second half of the disc. Overall this is
just an 'ok" result.

Brand:	Memorex '“ (Thanks to Memorex USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMCMAG E01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.32
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

Beautiful!
This 8x Memorex DVD+R media was written at 12x with superb results. Highly
Recommended. It is also interesting to note that our burning software indicates
that 16x writing is available for this media. However, multiple tests indicate
that the ASUS will usually write to the discs at 12x, which is still very good
since it is only 8x certified media.

Brand:	GQ
Manufacturer:	Optodisc
Code:	OPTODISC OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.56
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The Kprobe
scan looks great but the reading curve had some major trouble near the end of
the disc. Not the best discs.

We also tested
some other media types to determine their supported write speed. Some of these
media types are not yet available on the market and will probably be supported
at 12x/16x in a future firmware.

It is
interesting to see that Maxell 8x DVD+R is supported at 12x, but Maxell 16x
DVD+R is only supported at 12x!

DVD+RW media compatibility and write
quality:

Brand:	Ritek '“ (Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Ritek using RICOH technology
Code:	RICOH JPNW11
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:43s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.08
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.32

Very nice
results here and we have no problems recommending these Ritek DVD+RW
discs!

Brand:	Optodisc
Manufacturer:	Optodisc
Code:	OPTODISC OP4
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:45s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.10
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	5.83

The ASUS
DRW-1604P performed well with this media compared to our other drives. The
reading curve is perfect.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MKM A02
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	217.70
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	4.73

Not the best
we've seen with this Verbatim DVD+RW media, but still acceptable for DVD+RW
results.

DVD+R/RW
Performance Summary: The ASUS
DRW-1604P uses a Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Angular Velocity) technique to write DVD+R at 16x. Z-CLV is
slower compared to the CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) &
P-CAV (Partial-Constant
Angular Velocity)
techniques that are used by the competition. We obtained mixed results when
testing the DVD+R media compatibility of the ASUS DRW-1604P. On the one hand, it
supports writing to some 8x discs at 12x and even Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R at 16x,
which is very positive. On the other hand, it only writes to some 16x certified
discs at 12x maximum. What about quality? The ASUS DRW-1604P impressed us with
the writing quality results that we measured. It can write very well to a wide
range of DVD+R & DVD+RW discs.

Head on to
next page and read about DVD-R/RW compatibility and write
quality...

---

 

DVD-R/RW media compatibility and write quality:

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Singapore
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:43s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.81
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

This is simply an excellent 16x burn. We've tested this media on a few different writers and this is the best results we have achieved.  Excellent job here ASUS.

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	SONY08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.81
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.44

This 8x DVD-R was able to be written at 16x! The quality is very good.

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Singapore
Code:	MCC 02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:46s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.12
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

Here we have some 8x DVD-R media burned at 12x! Kprobe results are good. The reading curve is slightly 'jittery", but there are no major slowdowns. Therefore we can consider this a good result.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:45s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.95
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

High Quality Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD-R burned at 12x. The transfer rate test is faultless. Highly recommended.  (We wish that 16x writing was available for these discs!)

Brand:	RiDATA (Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:49s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.81
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

Another 8x certified disc that the ASUS DRW-1604P can write at 12x. The quality here is very good.  The slight slowdown at the end of the reading curve is no big deal.

Brand:	Unbranded
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscF01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8X
Write Speed:	8X
Write Time:	7m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	18.73
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

These Prodisc DVD-Rs are not the best in the world, but this ASUS drive handled them very well and produced good quality results.

Brand:	Memorex '“ (Thanks to Memorex for providing)
Manufacturer:	CMC
Code:	CMC MAG. AE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.95
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.63

Again we have some 8x certified discs that were able to be burned at 12x. The quality here is not so great, but at least the disc is fully readable. Note the 'long" 12x Write Time, which is due to the drive slowing down the burn process to 8x near the end of the burn. Burning at 8x should produce the best results with these discs on the ASUS DRW-1604P.

 

Brand:	SpinX
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India
Code:	MBI 01RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:54s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.27
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.26

The results with Moser Baer made 4X DVD-R are acceptable. The slow down near the end of the reading curve is not too worrisome because this behaviour also occurs when these Moser Baer discs are burned with our other drives.

 

Brand:	Sonic
Manufacturer:	Unknown
Code:	LONGTEN 001
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	250.00
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	1.22

The PI/PIF levels look very high here, but these are actually some of the best results that we have gotten with this disc type. Please avoid these low quality discs!

Here we present a table containing a few other media types, to check supported write speeds. Some of these disc types are not yet available on the market and will probably be supported at higher speeds in a future firmware.

It is good to see that 8x Maxell DVD-R media is supported at 16x. CMC 16x DVD-R is also already supported at 16x.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ (Thanks to Verbatim for providing)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 01RW4X
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:49s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.60
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.24

No problem here with Verbatim 4x DVD-RW.

Brand:	RiDATA '“ (Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW04
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:28s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.17
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	2.58

Ritek 4x DVD-RW performance is also fine here.

DVD-R/RW Performance Summary: It comes as no surprise to us that the ASUS DRW-1604P is a very good DVD-R writer, since it is based on the Pioneer 108 drive. Pioneer based drives are well known for their excellent DVD-R burning skills. Many 8x DVD-R discs can be burned at 12x, and the 16x DVD-R writing performance is very good.

Now let us take a look at the DVD+R DL writing abilities of this drive…

---

 

DVD+R Double Layer writing speed and compatibility:

The ASUS DRW-1604P supports the DVD+R9 DL standard for writing Double Layer discs with a size of 8.5 GB, at a writing speed of 2.4x or 4x.

Testing procedure:

We wrote a DVD ISO image in Nero 6 using the Disc-at-once writing method: 

Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R9 Double Layer, written at 4x. Total writing time is 26 minutes and 58 seconds. 

RiDATA 2.4x DVD+R9 Double Layer, written at 2.4x. Total writing time is 44 minutes and 18 seconds.

Testing results:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ (Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media)
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Singapore)
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	26m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.29
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.18

The PI/PIF levels are acceptable and the disc is perfectly readable. Notice that the ASUS DRW-1604P can read DVD+R DL discs at approximately 8x CAV. This is faster than many other drives that are locked to 6x maximum for DVD+R Double Layer reading.

Brand:	RiDATA '“ (Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek USA for providing)
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	43m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.77
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

There is a slight elevation in PI errors near the end of the graph, but the Average PI/PIF values look good. This Double Layer disc was also fully readable on both of our transfer rate testing drives without any problems.

Here are the comparison results obtained with Verbatim DVD+R DL discs, measured against other drives:

Standalone Playability:

Both the Verbatim and the Ritek DVD+R9 DL discs written by the ASUS DRW-1604P were tested in our standalone players. Players that we tested on include the Philips DVP642, Koss KD365 and an older model: the Toshiba SD-2300. The ASUS DRW-1604P burns DVD+R DL discs with a DVD-ROM Book Type by default, which is a positive and helps to improve compatibility with standalone players. We ran into a problem with the Ritek DVD+R9 DL disc when testing on the older Toshiba SSD-2300 standalone DVD Player. The player would not recognize the Ritek DL disc, but it had no problems playing the Verbatim DL disc. For best results with older standalone units, stick with using Verbatim DVD+R DL discs on this drive.

DVD+R9 DL Summary: The ASUS DVD+R DL drive can write to Verbatim DVD+R DL media at 4x, producing discs with a DVD-ROM Book Type that can be played without hassle in a range of standalone DVD players. Results on Ritek DVD+R DL media are ok, but this media type might have trouble on older standalone units.

Before we round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next page…

---

 

To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the ASUS DRW-1604P.

Copy protection:

For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That is because the symbol of the first 1 to 1 copy program named CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer's ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns".

⋅        No sheep: Can't backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
⋅        1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
⋅        2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
⋅        3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators, Womble, has written a guide concerning the 'Sheep Test" that could be found here.

In the screenshot below we see that the ASUS DRW-1604P supports all available write and read features in CloneCD:

The ASUS DRW-1604P supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode. This means that the drive is able to write uncorrected data as well as subchannel data.

Below are our results from the 'Sheep Tests":

The ASUS DRW-1604P qualifies as a one sheep writer. This indicates that it will have trouble copying discs protected with newer versions of Safedisc and other copy protection schemes.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the ASUS DRW-1604P, we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.

The maximum capacity that we could reach is 81:57.69 when testing with an 80 minute Ritek CD-R. The drive may be able to overburn at a greater capacity when using other CD-R types that are more suited for overburning.

This completes our ASUS DRW-1604P review, head on over to the last page and read our summary and conclusion…

---

 

Positive:

• Solid retail bundle with multiple software packages.
• 12x DVD+R and 12x DVD-R reading speeds.
• Perfect DAE quality.
• Supports reading CD Text and Subchannel data.
• Good write quality on a variety of DVD+R/RW discs.
• Good write quality on a variety of DVD-R/RW discs.
• Able to burn many types of 8x DVD±R media at 12x or 16x.
• Automatically sets the Book Type for DVD+R DL media to DVD-ROM.
• Supports DAO-RAW writing.
• 8x reading on DVD+R Double Layer media.
• Good 4x DVD+R Double Layer writing performance.
• Low Price

Negative:

• Slower CD-ROM/R/RW reading speeds compared to the competition.
• High seek times.
• Does not support reading from the Leadin or Leadout.
• 5x DVD riplock on DVD-ROM Video discs.
• CD-R writing quality needs some improvement.
• Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) writing technique is slower than CAV & P-CAV used by the competition.
• 16x DVD writing is only 2-5 seconds faster than 12x DVD writing.
• Does not support bitsetting ( Book Type modification ) on DVD+R/RW discs.
• Only 12x support on some very popular 16x media types.
• Only a "1 sheep" writer.

Conclusion:

ASUS has managed to put together an impressive offering with the DRW-1604P DVD Writer. As with any DVD writer, it has some positive aspects as well as some negative ones. Here we will discuss what we feel are the most important points of this drive.

The main positive points: We enjoyed the concrete retail package that ASUS has put together with this writer. The package contains almost everything you could want from a DVD writer bundle, including software suites from Nero and Ulead Systems. The 12x reading speed on DVD+R and DVD-R media is faster than many other drives can handle and allows for speedy data transfer from recordable DVD discs. The DAE quality is perfect and the drive can also read CD Text and Subchannel data. But what about the DVD writing performance? This is a DVD writer afterall. For the most part we were impressed with the DVD writing of the ASUS DRW-1604P. A good amount of our 8x DVD±R discs were able to be written at 12x or 16x, which is very beneficial. Writing quality performance is also a very crucial factor to measure on a DVD writer. Fortunately, the writing quality of the ASUS DRW-1604 was good on most of the DVD±R/RW discs that we tested with. This should help to ensure minimal problems with the playback and use of recorded DVD media. The DVD+R Double Layer features worked as advertised. The ASUS DRW-1604P was able to write to Verbatim Double Layer media at 4x without any problems. We found the resulting Double Layer discs to be ok quality and the ASUS DRW-1604P was even able to read back this media at 8x. To ensure maximum compatibility, the drive will automatically set the Book Type to DVD-ROM on the DVD+R Double Layer discs that it burns. This is a positive feature and will prevent some disc recognition problems that could otherwise occur with Double Layer media.

The main negative points : The CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW reading speeds are slower than the competition and the seek times are high. The drive does not support the advanced reading features of reading from the Leadin or Leadout. For DVD-ROM Video discs, there is a limitation of 5x maximum reading. This limitation will definitely annoy some users who will want the ability to backup their DVD Video discs at full speed. Other drives offer 16x reading speed for SL DVD Video discs. The CD-R writing quality needs improvement on some popular disc types such as Ritek and CMC. The drive uses a Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) technique to write DVD±R discs at 16x. This Z-CLV technique is slower than some others that competing drives utilize, such as CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) and P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) writing technologies. We also miss bitsetting support for DVD+R and DVD+RW discs. The inability to alter the Book Type of DVD+R discs could lead to compatibility problems in older standalone players. The 16x media support was also disappointing for us. 16x certified DVD+R discs from Ritek, Fujifilm and Verbatim were only supported at 12x even though they have been available for quite some time already. The drive only qualified as a '1 sheep" writer, which means that it will not be good for backing up copy-protected discs.

The drive is available starting as low as $ 75.00 USD from some online retailers (Price from http://cdfreaks.pricegrabber.com per 02.02.2005).

To sum it all up, the best we could say is; 'A good quality DVD writer that can burn many 8x DVD±R discs at 12x, but CD-R writing quality needs improvement and it is not the fastest burner on the block". Hopefully ASUS can address a few of the negative points listed in this review with their next firmware release, which would make their drive an outstanding choice for a DVD writer.

You may discuss and comment on this review in this forum thread. This forum thread may also be used to ask questions about this drive or request additional tests.

Thanks to:

 For providing the Memorex media used in this review. Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

 For providing the Verbatim media used in this review. Verbatim provides high quality media all over the world and strives to be the standard for DVD hardware reviewing.

Advanced Media/Ritek-USA for providing some of the RiDATA media used in this review. RiDATA is an official Ritek brand and thus you are guaranteed to get quality Ritek manufactured discs when buying RiData media.

 For providing the Fujifilm media used in this review. Fujifilm makes high-performance media for video and storage applications.