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Asus DRW-1612BL

We check out Asus's Lightscribe enabled DVD writer

Jayesh Mansukhani|Mar 06, 2007, 11:41:45 IST

Even as the battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD unfolds as to who will emerge as the leading standard, companies such as Asus, Benq, Pioneer and Liteon have kept up a steady stream of plain-jane DVD writer releases that keep improving on existing features and adding minor speed bumps. One such device is the Asus DRW-1612BL Lightscribe drive which is the focus of our review today.

The box-packed Asus DRW-1612BL is quite bare. The included accessories are 4-drive mount screws, a software installation guide, Nero OEM suite and a leather disc carrying case.

__PAGEBREAK__ Specification Table

Name	Asus DRW-1612BL
Write Speed	DVD-RAM: 12X DVD-R: 16X, 12X, 8X, 6X, 4X, 2X, 1X DVD-RW: 6X, 4X, 2X, 1X DVD+R: 16X, 12X, 8X, 6X, 4X, 2.4X DVD+RW: 8X, 6X, 4X, 2.4X DVD+R(DL): 8X,6X, 4X, 2,4X DVD-R (DL): 8X,6X, 4X, 2X CD-R: 48X,40X, 32X, 16X, 10X, 4X CD-RW: 32X,24X, 20X, 16X, 10X, 4X DVD-RAM: 12X
Read Speed	DVD-ROM (Single): 16X max. (CAV) DVD-ROM (Dual): 8X max. (CAV) CD-ROM: 48X max. (CAV) DVD-RAM: 12X DVD+R (DL): 8X DVD-R(DL): 8X CD-RW: 40X
Access time	DVD: 140 ms CD: 150 ms
Writing Mode	DVD-R & DVD-R (DL): DAO, Incremental Recording (Multi-Border Recording) DVD-RW: Restricted Overwriting, DAO, Incremental Recording (Multi-Border Recording) DVD+R & DVD+R (DL): Sequential Recording (Multi-Session Recording) DVD+RW: Random Recording CD-R/RW: DAO, TAO, SAO, Packet Recording (Multi-Session Recording)
Interface	Enhanced IDE (ATAPI)
Dimensions	148.5 x 42.6 x 173 mm
Weight	800 Grams
Warranty	1 year
Price	Rs. 3,500

As you can see from the specification table, the Asus writer comes fully loaded. Not only does it have a full 16x support for DVD-R and DVD+R, it has 8x support for dual-layer DVD writing in both -R and +R formats and in a great move has 12x support for DVD-RAM. It also supports Lightscribe out of the box which is a process where specially made recordable CD and DVD media can be labeled using a LightScribe DVD recorder.

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We tested the drive with a variety of media using Nero 7.5.9.0. The products we used were Moser Baer 16x DVD-RW, Moser Baer 16x DVD+R and Ridata 8x DL DVD+R. For our re-writing tests we used 4x media DVD+RW from Moser Baer. Though the drive supports 8x rewrites for the+RW format, we were unable to obtain media that could be run at that speed. We also ran into a problem with our RAM media tests. We were able to obtain only a couple of Maxell 12X DVD RAM blank discs after a hunt that involved calling up virtually most of the vendors that we are familiar with

Here are the results we got from our tests.

Name

Asus DRW-1612BL Write Speed Time Taken 16x DVD+R 6 Mins 02 Seconds 16X DVD-R 6 Mins 03 Seconds 8x DL DVD+R 18 Mins 34 Seconds 12X DVD RAM 16 mins 41 seconds 4x DVD+RW 14 mins 11 seconds