Double-Layer DVD Burners on Parade

Toshiba's SD-R5372--one of the fastest drives on the chart--and BenQ's competitively priced DW1620 capture Best Buy awards.

If you've been on the fence about upgrading to a new internal DVD burner, you're officially out of excuses. In the 12 months since our last major DVD roundup (in April 2004), disc capacities have nearly doubled, write speeds have increased twofold, and average drive prices have dropped by more than half.

Formerly an exotic feature, double-layer support--which permits users to write up to 8.5GB to a write-once DVD+R disc--is now de rigueur, and speeds are increasing from 2.4X. Double-layer's superior capacity is especially valuable for people who need to burn up to 2 hours of high-bit-rate video or to copy data folders that exceed a conventional DVD's 4.7GB space limit.

The current 16X write speed for both DVD-R and DVD+R is a maximum rating; the drive commences writing at a slower speed (say, 6X) on the inner part of the disc, and only approaches its full stride of 16X as the recording progresses toward the outer edge of the disc. The write time per full disc running at 16X is a little over 6 minutes, as compared with 8.5 minutes at 8X. That's an improvement, certainly, but not the doubling you might expect from the specified maximums. Because the rate of improvement in performance is not linear and would continue to diminish above 16X, we may not see burners that push beyond the 16X barrier.

Read "DVD on the Edge" to learn more.