ASUS DRW-1612BL - New Pioneer Drive With 12x DVD-RAM?

[Ian]

If you missed it, ASUS is demonstrating their new LightScribe capable DVD writer, the DRW-1612BL, at Computex. According to this it supports LightScribe and 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060606/20060606 ... html?.v=11

At first I thought this might be a new Pioneer drive as ASUS has been using them as an OEM for ages. Then I looked at the name: DRW-1612BL. I'm guessing L stands for LightScribe, but B is for.. BenQ? All of the Pioneer based drives have ended with a P.

Thoughts? Speculation?

[steven2874]

If you missed it, ASUS is demonstrating their new LightScribe capable DVD writer, the DRW-1612BL, at Computex. According to this it supports LightScribe and 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/060606/20060606 ... html?.v=11

At first I thought this might be a new Pioneer drive as ASUS has been using them as an OEM for ages. Then I looked at the name: DRW-1612BL. I'm guessing L stands for LightScribe, but B is for.. BenQ? All of the Pioneer based drives have ended with a P.

Thoughts? Speculation?

BL could even stand for black, who knows? I'm hoping for a PIONEER based drive of course and a continuation of the improvements shown in the 111 but I think PIONEER has opted out of an increasingly un-profitable arena to concentrate on "next generation" drives.
I like the 12X RAM capability like the new LG's.

[Ian]

I think many people are confusing their settop DVR's and their PC based DVD writers. Their settop DVR's have been losing money like crazy but I don't see any reason to get out of the PC drive market.. yet. They still have a sizable market share.

B could be the color but they're usually a bit more obvious about that. For example the model name of the black version of the DRW-1608PS3 is DRW1608P3SBLK.