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

Model: Sony BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony America

When it comes to consumer electronics, there are few names as well known as Sony. For more than 50 years, this Japanese company has lead the way, producing innovative products for the audio, video and computer markets. Sony is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. From the development of the first compact disc standards to the introduction of the first dual format DVD writer, Sony has played a major role in much of the technology used today.

Sony has also been one of the driving forces behind the Blu-ray Disc format. The company offers a wide range of Blu-ray products, including a series of drives for the desktop computer market. This past fall, Sony announced its third-generation Blu-ray Disc writer, the BWU-300S. Based loosely on the Panasonic SW-5584, the BWU-300S is capable of 8x BD-R, 8x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 8x. The drive also sports an 8MB buffer and is backwards compatible with all major CD and DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. To top it all off, Sony has included a full featured software bundle from CyberLink and a copy of “Men in Black" on Blu-ray Disc.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take an in-depth look at the BWU-300S's features and then see how it compares to some of the Blu-ray Disc writers from the competition. Does the BWU-300S have what it takes? Is it the fastest Blu-ray Disc writer around? Keep reading to find out.

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.

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.

For the BWU-300S's software bundle, Sony has turned to CyberLink. The CD that comes with the drive contains the CyberLink BD Solution suite which includes PowerProducer, PowerDirector, Power2Go, PowerBackup, and PowerDVD.

CyberLink PowerProducer 3 - With CyberLink's PowerProducer you can create your own movie discs quickly and easily. Right from the start, this wizard based software gives you a number of options to select from. From here you can choose to produce a new movie disc, edit an existing one or record video directly to DVD or BD.

PowerProducer lets you create a number of different movie discs. Looking at the menu below, you can choose from a number of video format types including VCD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc and AVCHD. The software also supports various disc capacities and specific video recording formats such as DVD-VR, DVD+VR and BDAV.

While you can capture your own video, PowerProducer gives you the ability to import video files in a number of different formats. Once added to your production, you can use the built-in editor to trim, merge or split your video clips. PowerProducer also allows you to set chapters within the video content and add your own custom menus, backgrounds, fonts and titles.

CyberLink PowerDirector 7 - The BWU-300S comes with CyberLink's video editing software, PowerDirector. To create your own custom movies, simply drag and drop video footage onto the editing timeline and then add scene transitions, background music, or title effects.

You can also use PowerDirector's "Magic" editing tools to clean up video clips and images, condense long video segments and apply pre-designed style templates. When you're done editing your video, you have the option to save it to your hard drive, create a streaming file or write it back to DV tape.

CyberLink Power2Go 6 - Power2Go is the main disc burning program included with the BWU-300S. With this software, users can create various types of CD's, DVD's and BD's or make backups of existing discs. Power2Go also offers enhanced security features, allowing you to password protect and encrypt the names of files on your discs.

CyberLink PowerBackup 2 - If you're looking for a quick and easy way to backup your data, PowerBackup is the answer. Depending on your needs, PowerBackup can do full, differential, and incremental backups as well as fast stream-to-disc archiving.

Backup jobs can be scheduled to run at regular intervals so the data is always protected. PowerBackup also offers more advanced features like file filtering, compression and password protection.

CyberLink InstantBurn 5 - InstantBurn is CyberLink's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Nero's InCD, it allows you to use your CD, DVD or BD writer as if it was another hard drive or a huge floppy disk. Once formatted, you can cut, copy, and paste or rename files and folders on a CD-RW, DVD±RW or BD-RE disc.

CyberLink PowerDVD 8 - CyberLink's PowerDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market right now. Along with support for DVD's, it can be used to play back Blu-ray Discs and other high-def formats including H.264, HD MPEG-2, and WMV-HD. With its support for BD-Live, PowerDVD also gives you the ability to access additional content via the Internet.

Unfortunately, the version of PowerDVD bundled with the BWU-300S only supports 2 speaker output. If you want to take advantage of movies encoded with Dolby Digital or DTS, you'll need to buy the retail version of PowerDVD Ultra.

Like Sony's previous Blu-ray Disc writers, the BWU-300S isn't short on features. This Serial ATA equipped drive not only looks good, it offers some of the fastest Blu-ray reading and writing speeds available. The BWU-300S is also backwards compatible with all major CD and DVD formats and includes features like an 8MB buffer, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and a great software bundle from CyberLink. Unfortunately, it lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the Sony BWU-300S scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Along with smaller cable size, one of the biggest benefits of Serial ATA is its ease of installation. Because it uses a point to point connection, setting jumpers has become a thing of the past. In most cases, installation is as simple as plugging in the SATA and power cables and turning the computer on. Needless to say, it took only a couple of minutes to install Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer in our test computer. After making sure that the BWU-300S was recognized by Windows, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the BWU-300S comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. As you can see, the software and documentation is available in a number of different languages. 

Once you select a language from the list, you'll be given a short list of options. From here you can choose to install the bundled software, check out the manual or visit Sony's user support web page.

Installing the CyberLink BD Solution suite is pretty straightforward. After selecting your preferred language and entering your customer information, you'll be presented with a list of components to choose from. Simply select the components you want and click next a few times. Once the files are copied over, you can start burning your own discs.

Documentation:

Instead of including one big manual, the BWU-300S's documentation is spread out between a number of small, fold out "guides." To help people get their drive up and running as quickly as possible, Sony has included a "Quick Start Guide." This guide takes the user step by step through the entire installation process and covers all the basics including how to mount the drive into an empty drive bay, hook up the cables and install the bundled software. The BWU-300S also comes with a "Product Information" guide that contains information about the drive's package contents, features and system requirements. If you need additional help, Sony's support website has a number of resources including FAQ's, guides and software updates.

Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the BWU-100A was very easy to install. Even though Blu-ray is still a relatively new technology, there were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. If you need help for some reason, the documentation Sony has provided is more than sufficient. However, the way it is spread out can make it hard to find what you're looking for. Even then, the BWU-300S scores an 8 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.

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.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and DLA 5.20:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. 

The BWU-300S has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 7.49x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 47.57x at the end of the session. This gave Sony's new drive an average writing speed of about 35.63x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

Sony's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the BWU-300S was able to write an entire 701MB CD in 2:43.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x. 

Imation 52x (MBI)

Taiyo Yuden 52x

Verbatim 52x

The BWU-300S's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the BWU-300S uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 6 minute mark.

Sony's new drive did very well in our rewriting tests. Thanks to its 24x rewriting speed, the BWU-300S took 2:23 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:26 to do the same with DLA.

The BWU-300S also erases at 24x. At this speed, it took the drive 16 seconds to do a quick erase and 3:39 to fully erase the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	12.27x 6.80x 16.40x	12.28x 6.80x 16.42x	9.33x 5.12x 12.49x	9.09x 4.97x 12.16x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	153ms 158ms 291ms	121ms 141ms 213ms	138ms 158ms 209ms	183ms 214ms 298ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	4% 6% 9% 18%	4% 8% 14% 23%	5% 9% 17% 32%	5% 9% 16% 30%

The BWU-300S was fairly quick when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.80x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.40x. Unfortunately, its seek times were not as low as some of the other drives.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disk using some general use 16x DVD-R and 4x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R
 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	12.28x 6.80x 16.42x	9.23x 5.12x 12.33x	9.35x 5.14x 12.49x	7.62x 4.17x 10.19x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	166ms 170ms 317ms	102ms 125ms 183ms	139ms 158ms 212ms	193ms 238ms 366ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	4% 6% 10% 18%	3% 6% 12% 22%	5% 9% 17% 32%	6% 9% 16% 31%

Verbatim DVD-RW
 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.15x 3.41x 8.23x	7.69x 4.23x 10.29x	9.37x 5.13x 12.54x	6.26x 3.42x 8.37x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	156ms 228ms 352ms	110ms 136ms 206ms	138ms 159ms 212ms	213ms 258ms 402ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	4% 6% 10% 18%	4% 7% 13% 24%	5% 10% 17% 32%	6% 9% 16% 31%

The BWU-300S had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at 16x, and both DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media at a respectable 12x.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	4.99x 4.96x 5.00x	4.62x 3.00x 5.00x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	327ms 472ms 1135ms	139ms 156ms 206ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x:	18% 14% 74%	17% 27% 42%

The BWU-300S has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that it reads at this speed from start to finish.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disk using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R
 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	12.29x 6.78x 16.43x	9.22x 5.10x 12.33x	9.35x 5.13x 12.51x	7.63x 4.17x 10.20x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	165ms 171ms 303ms	100ms 130ms 196ms	137ms 162ms 213ms	190ms 240ms 382ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	4% 6% 10% 18%	3% 7% 15% 24%	5% 9% 17% 32%	6% 9% 17% 31%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.15x 3.41x 8.22x	7.69x 4.24x 10.29x	9.36x 5.13x 12.50x	6.25x 3.42x 8.36x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	156ms 169ms 330ms	110ms 129ms 191ms	138ms 161ms 213ms	214ms 263ms 402ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	4% 6% 10% 18%	4% 7% 12% 23%	5% 10% 17% 32%	6% 9% 16% 31%

The BWU-300S's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW. The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 12x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL
 

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't an issue for Sony's new drive either. The BWU-300S started reading at 3.43x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 8.23x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	4.55x 2.52x 6.09x	6.06x 3.36x 8.10x	9.24x 5.05x 12.35x	9.01x 4.92x 12.05x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	149ms 163ms 311ms	191ms 231ms 333ms	138ms 160ms 208ms	185ms 224ms 303ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	4% 6% 10% n/a	4% 6% 18% 24%	5% 9% 17% 32%	7% 9% 27% 31%

The BWU-300S didn't do as well as the other drives when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of only 6x when reading both single and dual layer discs. 

To see how well Sony's new drive worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using the bundled version of PowerDVD. The BWU-300S had no problems playing back either movie and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and DLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the BWU-300S uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Sony's new drive starts writing at about 6.7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The BWU-300S also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

The BWU-300S performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the 20x and 22x DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some impressive times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the BWU-300S, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The BWU-300S's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. The only real exception was Memorex's 16x DVD+R media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PI rate was pretty high throughout the second half of the disc.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. With the exception of RiDATA's 16x DVD-R media, the PI/PIF rates remained well  within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed.

To test the BWU-300S's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The BWU-300S performed fairly well in our packet writing tests. While not the fastest drive we've tested, it turned in some respectable times when reading and writing to DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the BWU-300S, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The BWU-300S had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its P-CAV writing method, the drive took 16:34 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 17:14 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with Memorex's 8x DVD+R DL media. When tested with KProbe, there was a large error spike at the layer change which caused some readability problems.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-ROM:

To test the BWU-300S's BD-ROM reading performance, I used the Blu-ray Disc version of The Fifth Element. This single layer disc is about 23GB in size.

 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.99x 4.14x 7.99x	3.61x 2.01x 4.82x	3.02x 1.67x 3.99x	3.05x 1.70x 4.07x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	91ms 171ms 479ms	117ms 175ms 223ms	108ms 4ms 3ms	148ms 275ms 385ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 0% 1% 2%	0% 1% 1% 2%	2% 1% 3% 4%	0% 1% 2% 3%

The BWU-300S performed very well when reading BD-ROM discs. In our tests, the drive started reading at 4.14x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 7.99x.

Sony's Blu-ray Disc writer had no problems playing back The Fifth Element and The Simpsons Movie using the bundled version of PowerDVD. Just keep in mind that if your monitor is connected to your video card using DVI or HDMI, both need to be HDCP compliant to play AACS protected titles. If not, you can still play them by switching the connection to VGA or using software like Slysoft's AnyDVD HD.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-R and BD-RE:

Next we'll look at the drive's BD-R and BD-RE reading performance. For this I created a few data discs using single layer BD-R and BD-RE media from Panasonic and Memorex and then ran our BD read tests with CD Speed.

Panasonic BD-R
 

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	7.02x 4.25x 7.98x	4.55x 2.58x 6.04x	3.02x 1.71x 4.03x	3.06x 1.75x 4.07x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	95ms 165ms 464ms	121ms 167ms 217ms	109ms 4ms 3ms	206ms 317ms 441ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 1% 2%	0% 0% 2% 2%	2% 1% 3% 5%	0% 1% 2% 3%

Memorex BD-RE

	Sony BWU-300S	LG GGW-H20L	Lite-On DH-4B1S	LG GGW-H10N
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	2.00x 1.99x 2.00x	2.30x 2.29x 2.30x	1.99x 1.96x 1.99x	2.51x 1.43x 3.34x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	101ms 219ms 391ms	150ms 263ms 766ms	111ms 10ms 10ms	223ms 330ms 441ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 4%	0% 1% 2% 2%	8% 9% 14% 24%	0% 1% 2% 3%

Panasonic BD-R DL

Sony's new drive had no problems reading BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media. In our tests, the BWU-300S was able to read both BD-R and BD-R DL media at about 8x and BD-RE discs at 2x.

I should point out that the BWU-300S will not read all BD-R and BD-R DL media at these speeds. If you want to read discs at 8x, you will need to use media that is capable of writing at this speed. If not, BWU-300S will limit the read speed is to the disc's maximum writing speed.

BD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16:

To test the BD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used BD-R, BD-R DL and BD-RE media from Panasonic, Sony, TDK and Verbatim. To get the writing times, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature was used. I also ran the discs through CD Speed's transfer rate test to make sure that the BWU-300S could read them back. .

The BWU-300S is one of the first drives that can write to both BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the drive starts writing at 4x and then accelerates, reaching 8x at the 13GB mark. 

The BWU-300S performed very well when writing to BD-R media.  It completed our tests in record time, beating the GGW-H20L by more than seven minutes. Sony's new drive didn't disappoint when writing to BD-R DL media either. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the BWU-300S took 27 and a half minutes to burn an entire BD-R DL disc.

The BWU-300S completed our Blu-ray writing tests without any problems. Take note that if you want to write at 8x, you're going to need to use 6x BD-R media from Panasonic or Sony. Currently, these are the only BD-R discs that the GGW-H20L will write to at this speed.

Performance Revisited:

While Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer has a few rough spots, it performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. The BWU-300S completed our BD writing tests in record time and reached some impressive speeds when reading BD-ROM's and both BD-R and BD-R DL discs. The drive was also fairly quick when reading DVD's and turned in some respectable times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media. Unfortunately, the BWU-300S didn't perform quite as well when reading CD's as it had a hard time reaching its rated speeds. With all things considered, the Sony BWU-300S gets an 8 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

It has been nearly two years since I reviewed Sony's first Blu-ray Disc writer, the BWU-100A. Since then, companies like LG and Pioneer have raised the bar, introducing drives with new features and faster BD writing speeds. With the BWU-300S, Sony has risen to the challenge. Based loosely on the Panasonic SW-5584, the drive offers good looks, a number of useful features and some of the fastest BD reading and writing speeds available.

The BWU-300S is the first drive from Sony with the ability to write to both BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x. At this speed, the drive completed our tests in record time, burning a full 25GB disc in less than 14 minutes and a full 50GB disc in a less than 28 minutes. The only real downside is the BWU-300S's media requirements, as it writes to only a few types at this speed. This normally wouldn't be an issue for enthusiasts, but the 6x BD-R media required to write at 8x is currently very hard to find in markets outside of Japan.

Using the bundled software, the BWU-300S played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including the BD-Live enabled features on the bundled copy of "Men in Black." The drive also performed fairly well in our transfer rate tests, reading BD-ROM's as well as select BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x. Unfortunately, its speeds were limited to only 2x when reading BD-RE discs.

Sony's new drive also has the ability to read and write to all standard DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. The BWU-300S performed very well when writing to DVD±R discs, taking less than 6 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. The drive also had no problems holding its own when writing to other types of media. However, there were a few cases where the writing quality could have been better. Nevertheless, the BWU-300S was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R media at 16x but slowed to only 6x when reading DVD-Videos.

When it came to reading and writing CD's, the BWU-300S's performance was a mixed bag. On one hand, the drive did very well in our writing tests, turning in some impressive times thanks to its 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds. On the other hand, the BWU-300S didn't perform as well as expected when reading CD's. It had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed and CD-R media and its DAE speeds were limited to only 24x.

Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the BWU-300S is equipped with an 8MB buffer that is backed up by Sony's Power Burn technology. The drive also has a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from as well as the ability to set the book type of DVD+R DL media. To top it off, Sony has included CyberLink's BD Solution suite, a black tray cover and the movie "Men in Black" on Blu-ray Disc.

The BWU-300S is available now and can be purchased directly from Sony or through retailers like Amazon for about $400.

Highs:

• Writes to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x
• Writes to BD-RE media at 2x
• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads single layer BD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads BD-R and BD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Features 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• 8MB buffer
• Good CD-R writing quality
• Features Sony's Power-Burn technology
• Includes software from CyberLink
• Nice looking design with bright blue LED
• Includes black tray cover
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media

Lows:

• High media requirements when writing to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R and DVD+R DL media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated CD read speeds
• Reads BD-RE media at only 2x
• Reads DVD-Videos at only 6x
• Rips audio CD's at only 24x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R and DVD+RW media
• Expensive