Sony BWU-500S 12x Blu-ray Disc Writer

It has been more than two years since Sony introduced its third-generation Blu-ray Disc writer, the BWU-300S. Since then, companies like LG, Lite-On and Pioneer have raised the bar, introducing drives with new features and faster BD writing speeds. Sony has finally answered their challenge with the BWU-500S. While affordably priced, this new drive offers a healthy dose of features as well as some of the fastest BD reading and writing speeds available

The BWU-500S is the first drive from Sony with the ability to write to BD-R media at 12x. At this speed, it took a little more than 11 and a half minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc. While this wasn't enough to top the 12x Blu-ray Disc writers from Lite-On and Plextor, Sony's new drive gave them both a serious run for their money. The BWU-500S also performed fairly well when writing to BD-R DL media, burning a full 50GB BD-R DL disc in 33 minutes. The drive wasn't nearly as fast when writing to BD-RE media. However, its performance was on par with the other Blu-ray Disc writers I've tested.

Using the bundled software, the BWU-500S played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including those protected by BD+ and with BD-Live enabled features. The drive also performed fairly well in our transfer rate tests, reading single layer BD-ROM's as well as BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 8x. 

Sony's new drive also has the ability to read and write to all standard DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. The BWU-500S 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, the writing quality could have been better with some DVD-R and DVD-R DL discs. When it came to reading DVD's, the BWU-500S was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at 12x.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the BWU-500S either. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 39x. On top of that, it was able to rip audio CD's at an impressive 47x. As a writer, the BWU-500S performed as expected. The drive turned in some respectable times with CD-R media and its writing quality was quite good. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests.

Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the BWU-500S is equipped with an 8MB buffer that is backed up by Sony's Power-Burn technology. The drive also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, Sony has included a great software bundle from CyberLink.

In the end, it usually comes down to price. For what it offers, Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer is surprisingly affordable. Current prices vary depending on the seller, but the retail version of the BWU-500S can be purchased from Amazon or through some of the vendors on PriceGrabber for less than $150.

Highs:

• Writes to BD-R media at 12x
• Writes to BD-R DL media at 8x
• Writes to BD-R LtH media at 6x
• Writes to BD-RE and BD-RE DL 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 8x
• Reads BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads BD-RE DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±R DL and DVD±RW media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good DVD+R and CD-R writing quality
• Low access times
• Features Sony's Power-Burn technology
• 8MB Buffer
• Includes CyberLink Media Suite 8 software
• Supports 99 minute CD-R media
• Can do write quality testing with BD media
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD-R and DVD-R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to CD-RW and DVD-RW media