What's in the box?:
- Sony BWU-300S Blu-ray Disc Writer
- Software Disc for BD v8.70W
- Product Information Guide
- Serial ATA Cable
- Serial ATA Power Adapter
- Tray Cover Replacement Guide
- Tray Cover Replacement Kit
- Men In Black Movie on Blu-ray Disc
- Mounting Screws
- Warranty Card
Physical Features:
The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in September of 2008 and had firmware version 1.0a. At the time of this review, this is the only official firmware available for the BWU-300S.
As you can see, Sony has given the BWU-300S a slight makeover. While sporting the same color scheme as their previous Blu-ray Disc writers, Sony has made some changes to the drive's bezel, including a redesigned eject button. The BWU-300S also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Sony" and "Blu-ray Disc" logos, you can see a few showing off its support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.
Below the tray you can see the BWU-300S's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up a bright blue whenever the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the BWU-300S is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture above you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from Sony's website and the manual that came with the drive.
| Sony BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer | |
| BD-R Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (P-CAV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| BD-RE Write Speeds | 2x (CLV) |
| BD-R DL Write Speeds | 8x (P-CAV) 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 16x (CAV) 12x, 8x (P-CAV) 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 16x (CAV) 12x, 8x (P-CAV) 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (P-CAV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (P-CAV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RAM Write Speeds | 5x, 3x (CLV) |
| CD Write Speeds | 48x (CAV) 40x, 32x, 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 8x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 24x, 16x (Z-CLV) 12x, 8x, 4x (CLV) |
| BD Read Speeds | 8x Max (BD-ROM) 8x Max (BD-R) 8x Max (BD-R DL) 2x Max (BD-RE) 2x Max (BD-R LTH) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 16x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 12x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 16x Max (DVD±R) 8x Max (DVD±RW) 8x Max (DVD±R DL) 5x (DVD-RAM) |
| CD Read Speeds | 48x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 32x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speeds | 24x Max |
| Buffer Size | 8 MB |
| Access Times |
140 ms (CD) 170 ms (DVD-ROM) 1200 ms (DVD-RAM) 230 ms (BD-ROM) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-Extra Video CD Photo CD Multi-session CD-Text CD-R CD-RW |
| 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 BD-R LTH |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as a "SONY BDRW BWU-300S."
The Nero screenshot also shows that the BWU-300S has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 8192KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the BWU-300S 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 BWU-300S is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Sony'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 BWU-300S's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 8MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the BWU-300S 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 BWU-300S'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 Sony's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.
The BWU-300S doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, the drive automatically sets the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.
