reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized
7 MAXIMUMPC july 2007
W
e’re not saying a high-definition
optical burner is a useless pur-
chase these days, but only a select
few folks can justify owning one. If data
backup is your bag, you can’t argue with
the convenience of Blu-ray’s large-capacity
discs—25GB for single layer and twice that
for double layer—but you can pitch a fit about
media costs: $20 and $40 apiece, respectively.
An external backup drive is a bargain by com-
parison. The most compelling reason we can
think of for owning a Blu-ray burner today is if
you have a high-def video camera and want
to author your own HD discs—for yourself or
other folks who own a Blu-ray player, natch.
Whatever your motivation, here’s what
we’ve learned about two of the latest models.
—Katherine StevenSonLite-on BD tripLe
Writer Lh-2B1S
As far as Blu-ray burners go, Lite-On’s Triple
Writer comes across as the most forward-
looking, with the simple inclusion of a serial
ATA interface—a feature that’s been sorely
lacking in all the other Blu-ray drives we’ve
tested. Really, it should be standard issue with
any so-called next-gen device, as parallel sup-
port will only get more scarce over time.The Triple Writer also stands out with an
illuminated indicator strip across its front bezel
that informs you of drive activity and whether
it involves BD, DVD, or CD media. Maximum
theoretical write speeds for the three formats
are 2x, 12x, and 32x, respectively. A 2x BD
burn speed is standard in today’s Blu-ray
drives; DVD and CD speeds are typically
capped at 8x and 24x, respectively.
In our DVD burn test, the Triple Writer
wrote 4.38GB of data to a single-layer
DVD+R in 7:09 (min:sec), besting all previ-
ously tested Blu-ray drives by a good two
minutes. As expected, the TW was with the
pack in BD-R burns, taking a leisurely 46:41
to fill a 25GB write-once disc, but its perfor-
mance with rewriteable media surprised us.
All the other drives we tested took approxi-
mately twice as long to write to BD-RE as
to BD-R—the result of a data verification
process. But Lite-On feels confident enough
with its Triple Writer to have disabled verifi-
cation in the drive in order to increase BD-
RE write speeds. In our admittedly limited
tests, we had no problems reading the TW’s
BD-RE discs.
In fact, taking into account the TW’s
relatively low price, its SATA inter-
face, and its superior CD and DVD
write speeds, the Triple Writer is
the closest thing to something we
might buy—not that we’re even
considering it.LaCie D2 BLu-ray Drive
Like the Plextor PX-B900A and the IO
Data BRD-UM2/U that we reviewed
in December 2006, the d2 is actually
a Panasonic-manufactured Blu-rayburner. The drive is encased in a LaCie-
branded brushed-metal shell that offers both
USB 2.0 and FireWire connectors. Roxio’s
Easy Media Creator 8.2 comes bundled with
the package.
As with all the Blu-ray drives we’ve tested,
other than the Lite-On above, the d2 is spec’d
to write CD, DVD, and BD at maximum
speeds of 24x, 8x, and 2x, respectively. And
not surprisingly, the d2 turned in benchmark
scores that were right in line with its similarly
spec’d brethren: 9:08 (min:sec) to write to
DVD+R, 45:31 to fill a 25GB single-layer BD
disc, and 99:38 to fill a rewriteable (BD-RE)
disc of the same capacity. Indeed, there is
nothing especially noteworthy about the d2,
besides the fact that it costs $400 more than
Lite-On’s Triple Writer.Blasé about Blu-ray Burners
We review two new choices in a market that holds little interest for us
LaCie’s d2 is actually a rebadged panasonic drive, like the plextor and io Data burners
we reviewed in December 2006.Lite-on’s triple Writer is the only Blu-ray
drive we’ve tested that sports a Sata
interface.$600, http://www.liteon.comlite-on bd triple writer lh-2b1sBLue veLvet
SATA interface, better-than-
average CD/DVD specs,
lowest price.
BLue L aGoon^8
Still expensive, limited usefulness,
BD burns take a long time.$1,000, http://www.lacie.comlacie d2 blu-ray driveBarney ruBBLe
USB and FireWire interfaces
are convenient.BurninG ruBBLe^6
We should pay this much money
to watch the paint dry during Blu-ray burns?!Best scores are bolded. All tests were conducted using the latest version of Nero CD-DVD Speed.
Our test bed is a Windows XP SP2 machine, using a dual-core 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-60, 2GB of
Corsair DDR400 RAM on an Asus A8N-SLI motherboard, an ATI X1950 Pro videocard, a Western
Digital 4000KD hard drive, and a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 850 PSU.Lite-On LaCie
DVD Write SpeeD AVerAge 8.95x 6.78x
DVD reAD SpeeD AVerAge 9.36x 6.16x
AcceSS time (rAnDom/Full) 138ms/216ms 159ms/305ms
cpu utilizAtion (8x) 31% 44%
time to burn 22.5gb to bD-r (min:Sec) 46:41 45:31
time to burn 22.5gb to bD-re (min:Sec) 46:36 99:39benchmarKS