Author’s page:

Introduction:

On this page, the author of the review has the freedom to run tests that she/he thinks will enhance the review. These tests, unlike our standard tests, which we try to keep consistent throughout the whole review team, so that our reviews are as consistent as possible. This page gives the reviewer the opportunity to show some advanced and real world tests that other review team members may not be able to run.

Real World Tests:

Real world tests are designed to simulate what normal users might use their drives for in everyday use. For example, writing discs with a burning application.

Nero Burning Rom:

In the following tests we will burn discs from the main media groups with Nero Burning Rom.

CD-R:

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703Mb using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x)

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT burned our test CD-R at 48X in 3 minutes and 13 seconds.

DVD R:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4483Mb of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT burned our test DVD R at 20X in 4 minutes and 49 seconds.

DVD DL:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD R DL discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO DVD-Video compilation containing 8103Mb of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.  The DRW-20B1LT is capable of writing at 12X; however, we regret that we only have test media that will write at 8X.

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT burned our test DVD R DL at 8X in 20 minutes and 42 seconds.

LightScribe

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT as a LightScribe drive enables images to be burned onto LightScribe Discs, both CD and DVD.  Make a label whenever and wherever you want with your PC and burner.  It is Simple, Compatible and Flexible. 

On January 4, 2004, HP announced an innovative new technology to address the problem of labeling CD’s and DVD’s. LightScribe technology allows consumers to create silk-screen quality labels on their CDs or DVDs by burning text and graphics directly onto a disc, eliminating the need for adhesive labels.

But, before we continue – Let us first take a look at some information found at the LightScribe site:

 About LightScribe:

CREATE SILKSCREEN-QUALITY LABELS FOR ALL YOUR CDS AND DVDS, RIGHT FROM YOUR COMPUTER:

Until now there hasn’t been much choice when it comes to creating labels for your CDs and DVDs. Messy markers or sticky adhesive labels were pretty much the only affordable option. But imagine creating professional-looking labels using the same laser that burns your data-right inside your CD/DVD drive! Well, now it’s easy with LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology.

LABEL-MAKING REDEFINED:

LightScribe technology is an integrated system that combines the CD or DVD drive of your LightScribe-enabled computer with specially coated discs and enhanced disc-burning software to produce precise, laser-etched labels. You can design and produce labels to express your creativity and personality-the sky’s the limit!

With LightScribe, the disc is the label. This amazing technology is the no-hassle way to create elegant labels for all your CDs and DVDs. Simply burns your music mix, digital-video/photo archives, or business application. Then flip the disc and burn your own unique label.

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology is now available in PCs, external USB optical DVD writers, labeling software, and a variety of brand name discs. Remember, the LightScribe logo indicates a LightScribe-enabled product, so be sure to look for it at your favorite retail locations. Also check out the Looking for LightScribe page for a list of companies that make LightScribe-enabled products.

How it Works:

A RADICAL REVOLUTION IN DISC LABELING:

Once you’ve burned your first LightScribe label and experienced the amazing result, you’ll never want to use a permanent marker or sticky label again. LightScribe makes it easy. It truly is a revolution in disc labeling.

JUST HOW DOES IT WORK?

How can you burn a label onto your disc right from your computer? Suppose you have just created a music CD of your favorite songs. Now you want to make a label that contains the song titles, artists’ names, and some personal information and design elements to make it special.

Burn your tracks onto the data side of the disc. Flip the disc over to the label side and put it back in the drive. Burn your label by opening your favorite LightScribe-enabled label-making software and going to the CD template work area. Now you do all of your creative design work-imported pictures, copy, and artwork. When you are satisfied with what you have done, click "print." It really is that simple! No ink, no messy markers, no clumpy adhesive labels, just an amazingly beautiful label right before your eyes.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Your LightScribe-enabled CD/DVD disc drive contains a special laser that pumps light energy into a thin dye coating on the label side of the disc. The light from the laser causes a chemical change in the dye coating that shows up as a visible point on the disc. With laser precision, LightScribe delivers closely controlled light energy to multiple points on the disc as it spins in the drive. The result is a high-resolution reproduction of the artwork, text, or photos you composed in the software application.

In this review we decided to use SureThing Deluxe labeler instead of the supplied label making module in Nero.

The LightScribe Media:

Verbatim has come out with a set of different colored CD/DVD media which allows a wider choice of backgrounds to burn your designs to; below is an image of the colors available:

Designing and burning with SureThing Labeler:

The SureThing program is very easy to work with and we made a graphical label to test our LightScribe feature. After we were satisfied with the layout we pressed Print Label (LightScribe).

In the print option we selected “Best quality” and OK to print the label in the Print Dialog windows where we are presented with a warning to ensure that we have placed the disc in the drive with the LightScribe label side down.

After clicking on OK we find the label is being printed with our ASUS DRW-20B1LT drive.

Below is the result of our LightScribe label printing; as you can see the ASUS DRW-20B1LT does a nice job with our test media.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility test:

We only have 2 standalone DVD-Players available to test the DVD+R DL medias (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type: DVD-R):      

• Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-ray player
• Sharp TV/DVD Combo

Compatibility results:

Both our DVD Standalone devices played the DVD±R DL media burned by the ASUS DRW-20B1LT without any problems. 

CSS Encrypted DVD-Video ripping tests:

Most modern DVD burners don’t have Video riplock and in most cases will read a pressed DVD-Video SL disc at 16x speed. However, some drives use a CSS riplock when it comes to extracting data from the disc. If you attempt to rip a pressed DVD-Video with CSS encryption to your hard drive, the ripping speed may be locked at a much lower speed than 16X.

To test this feature, we needed a reference from a drive that we know does not employ CSS riplock. We choose the BenQ DW-1655 as a reference drive for this purpose and ripped a SL and DL pressed DVD-Video to our hard drive using DVDFab Platinum (full disc option).

We should point out, that ripping and compressing a DL DVD-Video disc to DVD 5 format is quite CPU intensive. The more power your system has, the less likely your system power will affect the results. The PC used in this review is equipped with a fast Intel Quad Core processor and fast hard drives. We checked to make sure our review PC was not having an impact on the results.

Below we can see our reference results.

SL CSS encrypted DVD Video disc “Flicka” (BenQ DW-1655 reference result)

Time taken = 8 minutes 55 seconds

DL CSS encrypted DVD Video disc “MI3” (BenQ DW-1655 reference result)

Time taken = 12 minutes 56 seconds

Now let’s test the ASUS DRW-20B1LT using the same testing procedures.

SL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (Flicka):

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT is not CSS riplocked and ripped our test DVD-Video SL disc quite quickly in 6 minutes and 47 seconds.

DL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (MI3):

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT is not CSS riplocked and ripped our test DVD-Video DL disc quite fast in 12 minutes and 15 seconds.

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT was fast at ripping our test discs; we must also say that it is also a relatively quiet drive.

MINI DVD discs:

In this section we are going to test if the ASUS DRW-20B1LT is capable of writing and reading mini DVD-RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

The Memorex media is made by Verbatim.  Thanks to Memorex for sending us this media.

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT had no problems in writing our test mini DVD-RW disc.

Now let’s check if the ASUS DRW-20B1LT can also read back our test disc.

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT read back our test mini DVD-RW disc without any problems.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the ASUS DRW-20B1LT would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a 76 minute Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 8, and used NERO CD-Speed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The ASUS DRW-20B1LT had no problems in reading our test VCD.

We are also able to play the VCD test disc with WMP.

This concludes our ASUS DRW-20B1LT review.  Let’s move on to our conclusions.