Verdict: DVD burning gets an 18x certificate
Although DVD writers have hit rock-bottom prices, 16x writing has been the speed limit on writing performance for single-layer discs for a while.
Now, at last, DVD writers that claim to go that little bit faster are appearing, presumably in a last fillip before HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives arrive in force. Samsung's update of its WriteMaster can write single-layer discs at 18x and, to herald this extra performance, it now has 'Super' added to its name.
Aside from the 18x single-layer writing, the Super-WriteMaster has almost identical specifications to those of its predecessor. It offers 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW rewriting, 48x CD writing and reading, and 32x CD re-writing. However, it also offers 8x writing to both dual-layer formats, whereas the original WriteMaster only offered 4x writing to dual-layer DVD-R, and 8x to dual-layer DVD+R.
We tested a LightScribe-enabled version of the drive in a full retail kit. This includes black and silver bezels in the box, should the default beige not fit your chassis decor, plus an EIDE cable and a quartet of screws. The retail kit also contains the Nero Suite 6. An OEM version of the drive itself is available for around £20.
To put the new Samsung drive through its paces, we first tried writing a 4.2GB mixture of files to all the single-layer DVD formats, then an 8.2GB mixture to the two dual-layer formats. Finally, we burned 700MB of files to CD-R. All of the tests were performed at the maximum speed possible with the media we had available.
We were expecting slightly better performance from the Super-WriteMaster than that of its not-so-super predecessor, thanks to its improved 18x rating. Although no media we know of is officially specified for this speed, the Samsung supports 18x writing with 16x Verbatim media. However, despite using these discs, the DVD+R writing time of five minutes and 22 seconds was only eight seconds faster than the original WriteMaster running at 16x.
We encountered even more disappointment when we tried to write to DVD-R. The Verbatim media supplied with the drive registered as 18x capable in Nero, but performance was way behind what we'd expect. The drive seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time writing the lead-out. When we checked with a second disc, the delay was even worse. The drive appeared to freeze in the lead-out stage, forcing us to abort the burn entirely. Unfortunately, we didn't have another brand of DVD-R media to hand to see if this was a brand-specific problem. However, we've come across reports of similar issues with both Samsung's SH-182D and SH-182M when using Verbatim discs. The Super-WriteMaster also refused to write to our only piece of 8x DVD+R dual-layer media, leaving us with 4x for testing in both formats. However, it performed as expected with this media.
Our findings were more encouraging with re-writable discs. We only had 4x DVD-RW, but the Super-WriteMaster despatched these in almost exactly the same time as that of its predecessor with the same media. We had 8x DVD+RW media, and the Super-WriteMaster dispatched these in ten minutes and 48 seconds, on a par with what we'd expect for 8x writing.
Although the drive claims to offer 48x CD-R writing, Nero only offered 40x, despite us using 52x media. The original WriteMaster had the same 40x limitation when we tested it. As you'd expect, the Super-WriteMaster took exactly the same time to complete the test as its predecessor did - three minutes and two seconds.
CONCLUSION
Among the multicore CPUs and dual-graphics setups, DVD writers are a cheap commodity. You no longer need to pay a premium for the performance. Like its predecessor, this model is excellent value for money.
However, the problems we encountered with Verbatim DVD-R discs were a worry. Although you don't need every format that a multiformat writer offers, we hope that Samsung sorts out the issues with a firmware update soon, as this mars an otherwise keen price for a LightScribe DVD writer.
