Sony BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For Blu-ray Disc writers, the performance tests are normally broken down into six sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write, BD read and BD write. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

BD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the BD benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

BD Write Tests: To test the BD write speeds, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature is used to burn an entire BD-R/RE disc. Times are recorded.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer rate tests, the BWU-300S started reading at 17.7x (2650 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 42.1x (6310 / 150) on the outside. As you can see, this resulted in a very good overall CD Winbench score.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.19x 20.35x 46.52x	30.94x 17.80x 40.63x	31.11x 17.72x 41.13x	25.44x 13.94x 33.63x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	145ms 152ms 280ms	114ms 129ms 186ms	133ms 150ms 201ms	183ms 229ms 376ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 5% 2%	1% 1% 8% 9%	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 3% 5%

The BWU-300S didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While the drive is rated at 48x, Sony's new drive came up short of this number in our tests. Looking at the other scores, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.96x 20.51x 47.65x	31.08x 17.77x 40.83x	31.79x 17.97x 42.18x	25.93x 14.04x 34.40x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	161ms 169ms 304ms	123ms 156ms 229ms	136ms 154ms 204ms	186ms 236ms 366ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 6% 2%	1% 1% 8% 10%	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 3% 5%

The BWU-300S was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Unfortunately, even with this slight speed boost, it still wasn't able to reach 48x in our tests. On top of that, its seek times were again a little high.

Sony's new Blu-ray drive had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The BWU-300S read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 51.32x.

 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests. 

 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	24.85x 14.37x 32.82x	30.56x 17.74x 40.00x	31.22x 17.92x 41.21x	18.99x 10.89x 25.08x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	153ms 163ms 303ms	120ms 135ms 203ms	134ms 150ms 202ms	188ms 217ms 351ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 2%	1% 1% 8% 10%	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 2% 5%

While the BWU-300S is rated at 48x when reading pressed and CD-R media, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 32x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that the Sony BWU-300S supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.     

 

CD Speed	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	18.66x 10.96x 24.65x 10 Yes	30.72x 18.00x 40.30x 10 Yes	31.41x 18.00x 41.55x 10 Yes	25.59x 14.04x 33.84x 10 Yes

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by the BWU-300S DAE speeds. While the LG GGW-H20L and Lite-On DH-4B1S were able to rip audio CD's at 40x, Sony's new drive reached a maximum DAE speed of only 24.65x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

 

CD Speed	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	18.42x 10.88x 24.37x 10 Yes	30.44x 17.99x 39.86x 10 Yes	31.12x 17.95x 41.03x 10 Yes	25.40x 14.17x 33.46x 10 Yes

Sony's new Blu-ray drive was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. Nevertheless, this didn't keep it from reaching a maximum DAE speed of 24x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

The BWU-300S completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 17.55x. While the drive went through all of the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the BWU-300S was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.