Blu-ray Features:

A Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a next generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of many leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of High Definition (HD) video, as well as high capacity of data storage.

More information on Blu-ray can be found from our own article: Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.

Blu-ray Format Type:

Similar to DVD-RAM, a Blu-ray disc can be formatted in the following types: UDF 1.50, UDF 2.00, UDF 2.50, UDF2.60, and FAT32.

Before using BD-R and BD-RE media for writing files on the disc, we must logically format the media. Once we have logically formatted BD-R or BD-RE disc, it can be use to write files just as you would do with a floppy disk, hard disk or DVD-RAM. In the illustration below we will use Panasonic UDF Formatter (DVDForm) version 5.1.1.0 to format a BD-RE disc.

DVDForm offers several format types for BD-RE disc

It took 37 seconds to quick format a BD-RE disc in FAT32

BD-RE Single Layer discs formatted with FAT32

Now we will attempt to do a quick format on a BD-RE media with format type UDF2.5.

Formatting a BD-RE disc in UDF2.5

BD-RE Single Layer discs formatted with UDF2.5

Let’s move along to check out the Sony BWU-200S’ reading and writing performance

Reading and Playability of commercial BD-ROM SL/DL: 

Here we will look at how the Sony BWU-200S performs when reading and playing back commercial BD-ROM discs.

BD-ROM SL

The Sony BWU-200S read our SL BD-ROM at its rated speed of 4X.

BD-ROM DL

Reading of BD-ROM DL is done at 4X.

Both discs also play back perfectly on our test system using PowerDVD Ultra which is included in the software package from CyberLink.

Now we well move along and take a look at the writing abilities for this drive…….

BD-R Writing Speed and Quality:

To demonstrate burning data on a Blu-ray disc, we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed with Create Disc feature. The ScanDisc test is performed in the Sony BWU-200S drive to check if there is any issue with the burned disc.

Now let us take a look how the drive performs on various BD-R media:

Verbatim BD-R 4x media with MID: VERBATIMc
Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media.

Writing Verbatim BD-R at 4x

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As we can see, the Sony BWU-200S writes these 4 X BD-R media from Verbatim with no problems.

RiDATA BD-R 2x media with MID: RITEK-BR1-000 is supported up to 2x speed.
Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek for providing this media.

Writing RiDATA BD-R at 2x speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The Sony BWU-200S had no issues with this media from Ritek Corp.

Memorex BD-R 2x media with MID: MEI T01.
Thanks to Memorex for providing this media.

Writing Memorex BD-R at 2x speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The drive has no problem writing and reading this Memorex Blu-ray media at 2X.

Sony BD-R 2x media with MID: SONY NS1.
Thanks to Sony USA for providing this media.

Writing Sony BD-R 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The drive read and writes Sony Blu-ray media without any problem.

BD-RE Writing Speed and Quality

Now let us take a look how the drive performs on various BD-RE media:

Verbatim BD-RE 2X media with MID: VERBATIM0.
Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media.

Writing Verbatim BD-RE 2X

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As we can see, the Sony BWU-200S wrote to the 2x BD-RE Verbatim media in about 45 minutes. Transfer rate test as well as ScanDisc show no problem.

TDK BD-RE 2x media with MID: TDKBLDWBA.
Thanks to TDK for providing this media.

Writing TDK BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The drive performs well with this TDK Blu-ray media. Smooth transfer rate test and very good ScanDisc test.

Memorex BD-RE 2X media with MID: MEI T01.
Thanks to Memorex for providing this media.

Writing Memorex BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem in writing and read-back with this Memorex Blu-ray media. Transfer rate test and ScanDisc test are both good.

Sony BD-RE 2X media with MID: SONY ES1.
Thanks to Sony for providing this media.

Writing Sony BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem with this Sony Blu-ray media.

Summary:

As we can see, the Sony BWU-200S drive supports writing Verbatim 4x BD-R media at 4x giving a write time of about 22 minutes. It also reads and writes BD-R/RE single layer discs without any problem. ScanDisc tests show no problem at all. The drive and software played back our High Definition Blu-ray movies without any issues.

This concludes our Sony BWU-200S review, lets head on to the last page to read our Conclusion…