What's in the box?:
- I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U Blu-ray Disc Writer
- Ulead/InterVideo Software CD For BD
- Setup Guide
- 1 TDK BD-RE Disc
- Mounting Screws
- Safety Precautions
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive I-O DATA sent us for this review was manufactured in May of 2006 and had firmware version BDB2. At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the BRD-AM2B/U.
If I-O DATA's new drive looks familiar to you that's because it is based on the Panasonic SW-5582. While not the most eye-catching drive to come through the 'Labs, the BRD-AM2B/U is still nicely designed. Sporting a more traditional look, the bezel is black in color and is relatively flat. The BRD-AM2B/U also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Blu-ray Disc" logo, you can see a few showing off its support for High Speed CD-RW media and theDVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.
Below the tray you can see the BRD-AM2B/U's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up a bright blue whenever the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the BRD-AM2B/U is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture below you can see its IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.
Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default it comes set as master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is not used.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from I-O DATA's website and the manual that came with the drive.
| I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U Blu-ray Disc Writer |
|
| CD Write Speeds | 24x, 16x (Z-CLV) 12x, 8x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 16x (Z-CLV) 12x, 8x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Read Speeds | 32x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 24x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speeds | 24x Max |
| DVD Read Speeds | 8x Max (DVD-ROM) 8x Max (DVD±R) 8x Max (DVD±RW) 8x Max (DVD±R DL) 5x (DVD-RAM) |
| Buffer Size | 8 MB (BD) 2 MB (CD and DVD) |
| Access Times |
160 ms (CD) 170 ms (DVD-ROM) 220 ms (DVD-RAM) 210 ms (BD-ROM) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-R CD-RW Video CD Photo CD CD-I CD-Text CD Extra |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL |
| BD Formats | BD-ROM BD-R/RE BD-R/RE DL |
| CD Recording Modes | Track At Once Session At Once Disc At Once |
| DVD+R Recording Modes | Sequential Write |
| DVD+RW Recording Modes | Random Write |
| DVD-R Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental |
| DVD-RW Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Restricted Overwrite |
| BD-R Recording Modes | Sequential Recording Random Recording Sequential Recording with Logical Overwrite |
| BD-RE Recording Modes | Random Access |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as a "MATSHITA BD-MLT SW-5582."
The Nero screenshot also shows that the BRD-AM2B/U has a maximum CD writing speed of 32x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the BRD-AM2B/U can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.
Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the BRD-AM2B/U is a "two sheep" burner. This means that LG's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.
Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the BRD-AM2B/U's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the BRD-AM2B/U is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.
While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the BRD-AM2B/U's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while I-O DATA's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.
I-O DATA's new drive also supports a feature called "bitsetting." By default, the BRD-AM2B/U automatically sets the book type for DVD+R and DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". For whatever reason though, the drive does not let you set the book type of DVD+RW discs.
