What's in the box?:
- Samsung SH-S203B 20x DVD±RW/RAM Drive
- Software Installation and Electronic User's Manual CD
- Setup Guide
- SATA Cable
- SATA Power Cable
- Mounting Screws
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive Samsung sent us for this review was manufactured in May of 2007 and came preloaded with firmware SB00.For this review we used firmware versions SB00 and SB01.
The SH-S203B looks very similar to Samsung's previous Serial ATA equipped DVD writer, the SH-S183A. While there are a few slight cosmetic differences, the two drives share the same basic design and have many of the same logos. Along with the large "Samsung" logo, you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications, as well as Ultra Speed CD-RW media.
Below the tray you can see the SH-S203B's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the SH-S203B is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from Samsung's website and the manual located on the software CD.
| Samsung SH-S203B 20x DVD±RW/RAM | |
| CD Write Speeds | 48x (CAV) 40x, 32x, 24x (P-CAV) 16x, 8x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 32x, 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 20x, 18x, 16x, 12x (CAV) 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 20x, 18x, 16x, 12x (CAV) 8x, (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 16x (CAV) 12x, 10x, 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 12x, 10x, 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RAM Write Speeds | 12x (P-CAV) 5x, 3x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 16x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 12x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 16x Max (DVD±R) 12x Max (DVD±RW) 12x Max (DVD±R DL) 12x Max (DVD-RAM) |
| CD Read Speeds | 48x Max (CD-ROM) 40x Max (CD-R/CD-RW) |
| DAE Speed | 40x Max |
| Buffer Size | 2 MB |
| Random Access Times |
110 ms (CD) 130 ms (DVD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-R CD-RW CD+E(G) CD-MIDI Mixed Mode CD Photo CD Video CD CD-Extra CD-I CD-I Bridge Multisession CD CD-Text |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-R/RW DVD+R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL DVD-RAM |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that Samsung's new DVD writer is identified as a "TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203B."
Nero shows that the SH-S203B has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer, which is backed up by MediaTek's Super Link technology. According to Nero, Samsung's new DVD writer can also 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 SH-S203B is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.
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 SH-S203B's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the SH-S203B is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The 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 SH-S203B'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 Samsung's new drive supports the Mt. Rainier format and can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media.
Samsung's new DVD writer also supports a feature called "bitsetting".Using software like Nero, you can set the book type forDVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM". This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.
