Earlier this year, I reviewed one of Samsung's first "Super-Multi" drives, the SH-S162L. While affordably priced, the drive offered a good mix of features and performance. With the SH-S182D, Samsung has brought much of the same to the table. However, they've upped the ante, adding things like 18x DVD±R and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds. While welcome additions, there were a few performance aspects that kept the SH-S182D from getting top marks in our review.
The SH-S182D is one of the first drives with the ability to write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 18x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than five and a half minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD, beating Plextor's 18x DVD±RW drive by a small margin. The SH-S182D also performed very well with DVD-RAM discs. However, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a disadvantage when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. The SH-S182D's DVD±R DL writing performance did make up for this somewhat. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took less than 19 minutes to burn 8GB of data.
When it came to media compatibility, the SH-S182D gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote tomost of our test media at its rated speeds, only three types worked at 18x. Also keep in mind that if you want to write to DVD±R DL media at 8x, you will need to buy media rated at this speed. On the other hand, the SH-S182D's writing quality was fairly good, at least with most single layer DVD±R discs. The same can't be said for DVD±R DL media though. As you saw in our tests, the PI/PIF rates were pretty high, especially with the discs from RiDATA.
Samsung's new "Super-Multi" drive also performed relatively well in our DVD read tests. The drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some very good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the SH-S162L either. In our tests, it read DVD±R and DVD-RAM discs at 12x and DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at a respectable 8x.
When it came to reading CD's, the SL-S182D's performance was a mixed bag. While the drive read pressed media at 48x, its CD-R and CD-RW read speeds were limited to only 40x. This is a bit odd considering most drives can read pressed and CD-R media at the same speed. As a writer, the SH-S182D performed as expected. The drive turned in some very good 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.
Like Samsung's previous DVD writers, the SH-S182D also has its share of features. Along with support for all major CD and DVD formats, it has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Super Link buffer underrun protection. While this buffer is a little smaller than what we'd like to see on a 16x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The SH-S182D also includes support for the Mt. Rainier format and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, Samsung has included a great software bundle from Nero.
For what it offers, Samsung's new "Super-Multi" drive is surprisingly affordable. Available in your choice of black or beige, the the SH-S182D can be picked up for less than $40 through some of the online vendors found on Pricegrabber.
| Samsung SH-S182D 18x DVD±RW/RAM |
|
| Features: Installation: Performance: |
9 8 7 |
| Overall: | 8 |
Highs:
- Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 18x
- 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 and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
- Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
- Reads DVD±R media at 12x
- Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
- Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
- Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
- Low seek times
- Features Super Link buffer underrun protection
- Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
- Includes software from Nero
- Supports 99 minute media
- Supports the Mt. Rainier format
- Affordably priced
Lows:
- Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R DL media
- Slower than other drives when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and CD-RW media
- Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
- Reads CD-R media at only 40x
- Has a 2048KB buffer
