Pacific Digital (U-30201) 8X DVD±RW Dual Format DVD Burner
Written: Jul 29 '04 (Updated Jul 29 '04)
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Pros: Reliable and fast burn, not media-picky, good value, DVDs play in home DVD player
Cons: Poor DVD/CD burning software supplied
The Bottom Line: If you have good DVD recording software or are going to get it separately, the Pacific Digital 8x Dual-Format DVD Burner is an excellent choice.
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| dkozin's Full Review: Pacific Digital U-30201 DVD±RW Burner |
The Pacific Digital 8x DVD±RW Drive (model U-30201) is a dual-format DVD recorder that can record to DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW as well as to CD-R and CD-RW.
I have managed to get this drive for $69 (after a mail-in rebate), which is a very good price for a Dual-format 8x DVD burner. And I am happy to report that I am very impressed by the drive's performance.
The drive comes with Roxio CD and DVD Creator 6.2 Basic software as well as with WinDVD DVD Video playback software from InterVideo. The actual drive can be produced by LiteOn (model 811S) or by NEC (NEC 2500a). I got the latter (and I believe that it is a good thing, since LiteOn is performs slightly worse with media of questionable quality).
Note: you can also get an OEM version of NEC 2500a drive, which comes with no software (you get the drive only).
Some Features
The drive can record on DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW discs as well as on CD-R and CD-RW. It supports CD Text recording but does not feature Mount Rainer support (drives with this feature have faster packet writing). The drive has 2Mb buffer and buffer underrun protection.
The burning speeds are: up to 8x for DVD formats, up to 40x for CD-R and up to 24x for CD-RW. The read speeds approach 12x for DVD-ROM, 8x for recordable DVDs, 40x for CD-R and 24x for CD-RW. Impressive indeed, but I have had some major frustrations installing this drive.
Installation
I have had BUSLink CD-RW drive and wanted to replace it with this DVD burner. I also had both Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum and NERO Burning ROM 5.5 software for CD recording.
The drive came with screws and the phisical installation took less than 5 minutes.
After replacing the CD-RW drive with this DVD burner (jumper set as Cable Select), my Windows 2000 Professional recognized the drive and I could read DVD and CD discs. However, after I installed Roxio CD and DVD Creator 6 Basic from the supplied CD, upon reboot, my computer refused to acknowledge not only the presence of the DVD Burner (secondary slave) but it couldn’t see my Artec DVD-ROM drive (secondary master) either.
In the device manager, I could see that the device driver for both of them “failed to load” (“error 31”). I spent 5 hours reconnecting drives and reinstalling Windows. I also downloaded various updates from the Roxio web site. Only after going to the Internet and researching the “error 31” did I find out that Roxio CD Creator 5 does not uninstall itself cleanly and leaves some garbage in Registry rendering your drives inaccessible.
Silly me, I should have searched the Net before starting to reinstall OS and doing other unwise things!
After I removed a couple of registry values and rebooted my computer, the drives were recognized and the supplied software started to work.
More Problems with Software
Soon thereafter, I discovered that the Roxio CD and DVD Creator 6 Basic has a DVD-Video creation tool that refused to work on my computer properly. I could not see the video preview (got an error message). Installing the update from Roxio web site did not help. Roxio also doesn’t provide support for software bundled with drives. Emailing Pacific Digital yielded no results other than the advice to go to Roxio web site.
I decided to use my existing copy of NERO Burning ROM 5.5 to write DVD-Video discs and it worked well (after I installed the latest update to it from the NERO web site). I do use Roxio 6’s packet writing software (called “Drag-to-disc”) and their Creator Classic tool, but most of the time I use NERO.
Also, I did not like the supplied WinDVD DVD playback software (I already have PowerDVD and use it).
Mysteriously, the Roxio DVD Builder started to work a couple of weeks later. I have since then burned about 7-8 DVDs with my footage (captured from my digital camcorder through the FireWire connection).
Performance
I have recorded about 15 CD-R discs (Imation, Maxell, Memorex, Sony), several CD-RW (Imation, Acer), about 15 DVD+R (KHypermedia by CMC, Philips by CMC, Verbatim DataLife Plus) and 3 Imation DVD-R. All recorded successfully with no coasters (nocking on wood).
The DVD discs were recorded at 2.4x (since the media did not support higher speeds). The CD-RW discs I have are 4x compatible and were recorded at 4x (which is agonizingly slow, especially in packet writing, comparing to other formats, but it is the fault of the old CD-RW discs I have, not the fault of the drive). CD-R were recorded at or close to their highest certified recording speeds.
The DVD-Video discs I made played perfectly in my Panasonic S35 DVD player, my girlfriend's Panasonic S25 DVD Player, my father's Panasonic RV31 DVD Player and the computer’s Artec DVD-ROM drive. They even play in my mother's (relatively old) Panasonic RV30 DVD Player (yes, I gave all of them Panasonic DVD players as gifts :-) ).
The CDs played in my DVD player, my car stereo and my portable CD player (everywhere I tried playing them).
The drive is pretty quiet in operation and has a sturdy disc tray.
I also noticed that the drive reads DVDs (be it DVD-ROM, DVD-R or DVD+RW) substantially faster than the Artec 16x DVD-ROM drive. As such, when I do DVD copying, I use the Pacific Digital drive for both the reading and recording operations.
I use both Nero 5.5 and Roxio Easy CD and DVD Creator 6.2, but for different purposes. To copy DVD-Video I use Nero in conjunction with DVD Shrink. To create my own DVD-Video discs, I use DVD Builder (part of Easy CD and DVD Creator). For burning music CDs, I normally use Roxio software. For packet writing, I use Roxio's software as well.
Small Annoyance
Every time the computer is rebooted, the drive access light illuminates for several seconds and the drive does something suspicious, even with no disc in it. My other CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and DVD-RW drives never did this.
Bottom Line
If you have good DVD recording software or are going to get it separately, the Pacific Digital 8x Dual-Format DVD Burner is an excellent choice.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69
Operating System: Windows
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dkozin
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Location: California
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I love to push buttons on electronic (audio and video) equipment. It makes me happy.
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