In House Review - ASUS DRW-1608P2 16x DVD±RW

[Ian]

CDRLabs finishes up the week with an in depth look at ASUS's new 16x DVD±RW, the DRW-1608P2. Based on the Pioneer DVR-110D, DW-1608P2 is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. More importantly, it's one of the first drives with the ability to write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 8x. The DRW-1608P2 also includes features like 40x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds, and support for technologies like FlextraLink and FlextraSpeed.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the DRW-1608P2 and see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does ASUS's new drive have what it takes? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=279]
ASUS DRW-1608P2 16x DVD±RW[/url]

As usual, if you have any comments or questions about this review or the ASUS DRW-1608P2, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

[MediumRare]

Rather disappointing.

8x write is sort of a threshold- higher speed don't bring much (6 min. vs. 8 min. for SL media) so that a drive with 8x capability for (almost) all media types is very interesting. But the writing quality and reading speed have to be good as well- they're not here. Maybe new firmware can fix the writing- how is Asus with firmware updates?

There are a couple of NEC remnant in the CD DAE section: NEC's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests and some more references to ND-3540A.

G

[Ian]

There are a couple of NEC remnant in the CD DAE section: NEC's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests and some more references to ND-3540A.

G

Oops.. thanks. I've been a walking zombie the last few weeks.

I emailed ASUS asking for the 1.39 firmware. I have not heard back from them yet. I'd like to at least see how the drive performs with Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 8x DVD+R DL media.

[TCAS]

As far as performance concern this drive must be treble shape since this is the first time I have seen in CDRLabs a drive gets 5 out of 10 for its performance, Thanks you for the nice and good review.

[CowboySlim]

A difficult task, but I did it.

That is, to see what is not there to be seen.

I did not see under the "Negatives" the usual notation that the subject drive does not support Mt. Ranier.

So what is the significance of that?
Well, to date, none of the DVD writers tested have supported Mt. Ranier.
Therefore, as a comparitive characteristic, that subject has no value.

That is, I've always wondered, until this review, the pertinence of noting the lack of that support when it is the same for all DVD drives.

10-4?

Slim

[ETP]

Crossflashed mine to a 110/A10 and works as well as an A10 so far!
The drive tray is a little cheaper than the 109/A10 but not bad for $38 from Newegg.com. One of my readers at present as it is a very fast reader as an A10!

[js26pub]

I noticed NewEgg has the DRW-1608P2S, which is supposedly the same as the Pioneer DVR-110 (not the 110D which the DRW-1608P2 is based on). It supports DVD-RAM 5X writes, and can be re-flashed with the Pioneer DVR-110 rev1.39 firmware (according to reports I've seen elsewhere).

My question is: any plans to review the 1608P2S, or is there any reason to believe it'll have the same (somewhat poor) performance (on non-DVD-RAM media) as the 1608P2? I've read reviews elsewhere that think the Pioneer DVR-110 has pretty good performance, but I trust cdrlabs reviews the most.

[eric93se]

I don't know Ian, maybe you recieved a bad drive or a bad batch of MKM001!
I have a 1608P2 crossflashed to a 110 using FW 8.37 modified to add RPC1+Bitsetting+removed riplock+RAM and its phenominal!


4x Burn.


6x Burn



6x Burn


8x Burn

[Ian]

It's possible. The results with the 110D seem to vary greatly from drive to drive. For whatever reason, the drives dolph and I have gotten just don't perform as well as some of the ones you guys have.

[dolphinius_rex]

Sadly Eric, it's more likely you received a GOOD drive