Testbed and Methods

We used the following software to check out the operational characteristics of the drives:

• Nero CD-DVD Speed version 3.55;
• Nero Info Tool version 2.27;
• Nero CD DAE version 0.4B;
• Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.0.1;
• Andre Wiethoff Exact Audio Copy (EAC) version 0.95 prebeta 5;
• Nic Wilson DVDINFOPro version 3.23;
• Ziff Davis Media CD WinBench 99 version 1.1.1.

The configuration of the testbed:

• Intel Bonanza D875PBZ mainboard;
• Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz CPU;
• IBM DTLA-307015 HDD, 15GB;
• GeForce2 MX400 64MB graphics card;
• 512MB DDR SDRAM;
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 and DirectX 9.0b.

The drives were attached to the second IDE channel as “Master”.

Nero Info Tool and DVDINFOPro

• LG GSA-4082B

• LG GSA-4160B

• Sony DW-D22A

The two informational utilities we use in our tests point at the LG GSA-4160B and the Sony DW-D22A as having a wider functionality. The former drive reports its ability to process almost every existing media format, except CD+G. Sony’s drive has a higher speed formula, does not support DVD-RAM, but can process CD+G data. The drives all support the regional protection.