AOpen DSW1812P 18x DVD±RW/RAM

The DSW1812P is the latest addition to AOpen's growing lineup of DVD writer. Announced in September, the DSW1812P is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD±R DL and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Of course, AOpen's new drive isn't just about reading and writing DVD's. The DSW1812P also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds, Super Link buffer underrun protection and an impressive software bundle from Nero.

With features and specs like this, AOpen's new DVD writer sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from the DSW1812P we'll take a look at its features and then see how it stacks up against the 16x and 18x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does AOpen's new drive have what it takes? Is it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading to find out.

What's in the box?:

• AOpen DSW1812P 18x DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Nero Software CD
• Easy Installation Guide
• Accessory Checklist
• Bezel Replacement Guide
• Black Replacement Bezel
• Audio Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Emergency Eject Tool

Physical Features:

The drive we received from AOpen came with firmware version ZA31. For this review we used firmware versions ZA31 and ZA32.

The DSW1812P looks very similar to AOpen's previous 16x DVD±RW, the DSW1685L. Both drives share the same basic design and have many of the same logos. Along the front of the tray you can see a few showing support for the DVD Multi, DVD+R DL, DVD+ReWritable specifications, as well as Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

Below the tray you can see the DSW1812P's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.

AOpen also includes a black replacement bezel with the DSW1812P. As you can see, it lacks the logos found on the beige one. However, it makes up for it with a large "AOpen" logo.

The rear of the DSW1812P is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from AOpen's website and the documentation that came along with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that AOpen's new DVD writer is identified as a "DVDRW 18X18X12X."

Nero also shows that the DSW1812P has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Super-Link buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DSW1812P can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DSW1812P is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the DSW1812P's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the DSW1812P is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DSW1812P's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while AOpen's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

Unfortunately, AOpen's new DVD writer does not seem to support bitsetting. I tried a number of programs, including Nero and CD Speed, and none of them let me change the book type of DVD+R, DVD+RW or DVD+R DL media. After running a few tests, I found that the DSW1812P does not automatically set the book type either. This really is too bad as setting the book type to "DVD-ROM" can greatly reduce compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.

AOpen has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the DSW1812P contains the PhotoShow Express and the Nero 7 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero Recode, Nero ShowTime and InCD.

Nero Express 7 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that AOpen included with their new DVD±RW drive is 7.2.3.3. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Vision 4 - Nero Vision 4 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows.

Nero Recode 2 - This program from Nero can copy unprotected DVD videos onto recordable DVD media. If the source disc is larger than 4.7GB, Nero Recode 2 has the ability to remove unwanted material and compress the contents so that it will fit onto a single blank DVD disc.

Nero Recode 2 will also let you convert your DVD movies to Nero Digital. Using Nero's own MPEG-4 audio and video encoder, an entire DVD movie can be compressed so that it will fit onto a CD. Better yet, Nero Recode 2 does this without any loss of quality.

Nero ShowTime 2 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

InCD 5 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW or DVD±RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

PhotoShow Express - AOpen's's new drive also comes with Nero's all in one photo suite, PhotoShow Express. This software can do a number of things including edit and touch up your photos and organize them into various albums. PhotoShow can even be used to create musical slideshows. These slideshows can then be burned to disc or published to the web.

While affordably priced, AOpen's new DVD+RW drive offers a good number of features. The DSW1812P supports all major DVD formats and sports some pretty impressive specs. The drive is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. AOpen's new drive also includes features like Super Link buffer underrun protection and a great software bundle from Nero, but lacks support for bitsetting. Even then, the AOpen DSW1812P scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Installing AOpen's new DVD writer in our test computer took only a couple of minutes. I took the DSW1812P out of the box, left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 66. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DSW1812P comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

As you can see, this menu is pretty straight forward. To install the writing software, you will want to choose the "Install Nero Essentials" option. After that, you will be taken to the Nero installation menu.

By default the setup program will install the entire Nero 7 Essentials suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

The Documentation:

Most of the DSW1812P's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. While relatively brief, the user's manual covers a number of topics. It starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new DVD writer. The first section goes over the drive'ssupported formats, recording modes, and system requirements. The manual also spends a few pages going over the locations and the functions of the buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the DSW1812P. This section covers everything from setting the jumpers to hooking up the cables and mounting the drive in your computer. While the instructions are short, the diagrams AOpen has provided are pretty good. If you're not sure about how to configure your computer, the manual also has a few examples along with the corresponding jumper settings. Last but not least, the manual finishes up with a few short sections on how to operate the DSW1812P and troubleshoot any problems that might arise.

AOpen's new DVD writer also comes with a "Quick Start Guide." This fold out guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, there are plenty of diagrams showing what to do. For most people, the "Quick Start Guide" will be all they'll need to get the DSW1812P up and running.

In the end, installing the DSW1812P was very easy. I had no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working. If you do run into trouble, the documentation AOpen has provided is more than sufficient. However, I would have liked to have seen a little more drive specific information. Even then, the installation gets an 8 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.60 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.60 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

AOpen's new DVD writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. While the DSW1812P's overall score wasn't as high as the Plextor's, it had a low access time and some very good transfer rates. It started reading at almost 19.6x (2945 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 43.1x (6470 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.60 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

	AOpen DSW1812P	Samsung SH-S182D	LG GSA-H10N	Plextor PX-760A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.02x 21.16x 47.61x	36.54x 20.89x 48.30x	35.57x 20.42x 46.78x	36.76x 21.27x 48.63x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	95ms 108ms 167ms	105ms 114ms 178ms	114ms 130ms 175ms	96ms 113ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	2% 4% 8% 12%	0% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 21%	0% 1% 2% 4%

When reading pressed CD's, the DSW1812P is rated at 48x. Unfortunately, like the GSA-H10N, it came up short of this mark. In our tests, the drive started reading at a respectable 21.16x but reached a maximum transfer speed of only 47.61x. On the other hand, the DSW1812P's seek times were very good.

CD Speed v4.60 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The DSW1812P was a little faster when reading CD-R media.Thanks to this small speed boost, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48x in our tests. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were again quite good.

AOpen's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DSW1812P read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 52.49x! This is pretty good for a drive rated at only 48x.

CD Speed v4.60 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

When reading CD-RW media, the DSW1812P's transfer speeds are limited to only 32x. While AOpen's new writer had no problems reaching this speed in our tests, it was still the slowest out of the four drives here.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.60 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that the AOpen DSW1812P suppots accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

CD Speed	AOpen DSW1812P	Samsung SH-S182D	LG GSA-H10N	Plextor PX-760A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.42x 21.51x 48.12x 10 Yes	31.09x 17.78x 41.08x 10 Yes	30.73x 17.95x 40.68x 10 Yes	31.35x 17.97x 41.48x 10 Yes

The DSW1812P did very well in our DAE tests. With a maximum speed of 48.12, the drive had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While the DSW1812P started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.60 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The DSW1812P was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. While the drive still performed well, it wasn't able to reach 48x this time around. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

AOpen's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.32x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the DSW1812P was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well AOpen's DVD writer can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The DSW1812P did surprisingly well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 51% of the CD to be "damaged". On top of that, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The DSW1812P gave some mixed results in this test. While it had the lowest number of errors, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 5.20:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The DSW1812P has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.74x and reached a maximum speed of 48.92x at the end of the session. This gave AOpen's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 37.06x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

AOpen's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the DSW1812P was able to write an entire 701MB CD in 2:42.

To test the drive's writing quality I used AOpen IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

The DSW1812P's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the DSW1812P uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 13 minute mark.The DSW1812P writes at this speed until about the 54 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

AOpen's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the DSW1812P took 2:47 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:39 to do the same with DLA.

The DSW1812P also erases at 32x. While it didn't have the fastest full erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a quick erase in only 18 seconds.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The DSW1812P performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.75x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.24x.Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The DSW1812P performed very well when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at 16x, and both DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media at a respectable 12x.

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

AOpen's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.97x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.8GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The DSW1812P's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 12x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the DSW1812P either. While not as fast as the drive from LG, it reached an impressive 12.26 in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The DSW1812P didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.50x and reached a maximum read speed of 16.09x. AOpen's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 12x.

To see how well the DSW1812P worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of AOpen's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 18x, the DSW1812P uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that AOpen's new drive starts writing at about 7.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DSW1812P also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

AOpen's new drive performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the drives from LG and Plextor when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media, the DSW1812P turned in some of the fastest DVD+R and DVD-R writing times we've seen.

To check the media compatibility of the DSW1812P, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

The DSW1812P's media compatibility was a mixed bag. While the drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed, only two types worked at 18x.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The DSW1812P's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good with most of our DVD-R test media. The only exception was RiDATA's 16x media. As you can see, the PIF rate was fairly high, especially when scanned with the BenQ DW1640.

To test the DSW1812P's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

When it came to packet writing, the DSW1812P's performance was pretty mixed. While it turned in some very good times with DVD-RAM media, it wasn't as fast as the drives from LG and Plextor when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DSW1812P, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, RiDATA and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 8x was not an easy task. The only media I found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs.

I should also point out that the DSW1812P had a lot of trouble writing to Ritek manufactured DVD+R DL discs. When writing to RiDATA's 8x DVD+R DL media, the burn process failed, no matter what speed Iused. The burn process also failed when writing to Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 4x. For our tests, we had to slow the writing speed down to 2.4x.

While no match for the drives from LG and Plextor, the DSW1812P took a respectable 18:48 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media. In both cases, the error rate started out fairly low but jumped up considerably on the second layer. Memorex's DVD+R DL media didn't fair any better. While written at a slower speed, the PI/PIF rates were very high at the layer change.

The DSW1812P also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

The DSW1812P performed pretty well when writing to DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive only took 18:28 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, the other discs yielded some mixed results. With Verbatim's 8x and RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media, the error rates stayed well within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI rates were much higher than we'd like to see.

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of AOpen's new DVD±RW drive was pretty mixed. The DSW1812P turned in some very impressive times with DVD±R and DVD-RAM media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW discs. Writing quality was also an issue as the PI/PIF rates were a bit high with some DVD±R DL media. Nevertheless, the DRU-DSW1812P was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at an impressive 12x.

The DSW1812P also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R discs at speeds as high as 48x and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, AOpen's new drive gave us some mixed results. While the SHM-165H6S turned in some very impressive times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the AOpen DSW1812P gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

While the DSW1812P has a few rough spots that need to be worked out, its a marked improvement over AOpen's previous DVD writers. Affordably priced, the drive offers a good number of features and some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available.

The DSW1812P is the first drive from AOpen with the ability to write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 18x. At this speed, it took the drive about five and a half minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The DSW1812P also turned in some very good times with DVD-RAM and DVD±R DL media. However, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW discs.

When it came to media compatibility, the DSW1812P gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote tomost of our test media at its rated speeds, only two types were supported at 18x. On the other hand, the DSW1812P's writing quality was fairly good, at least with most single layer DVD±R discs. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for DVD±R DL media. As you saw in our tests, there were a number of cases where the PI/PIF rates were very high.

AOpen's new drive also did very well in our DVD read tests. It was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some very good seek times. The DSW1812P also reached some pretty impressive transfer speeds with other types of DVD media. In our tests, it read DVD±R discs at 16x and DVD±RW, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media at an impressive 12x.

The DSW1812P was also fairly quick when reading CD's. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 33x. On top of that, it was able to rip audio CD's at an impressive 48x. The DSW1812P also performed very well when writing to CD-R media. The drive not only turned in some impressive times, its writing quality was quite good. Unfortunately, the DSW1812P's Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests.

AOpen's new DVD writer also has its share of features. Along with support for all major CD and DVD formats, it has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Super Link buffer underrun protection. While this buffer is a little smaller than what we'd like to see on a 18x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. Unfortunately, the DSW1812P lacks support for bitsetting. Hopefully this is something that AOpen can add later with a firmware update. Last but not least, the drive comes with a great software bundle from Nero and a black replacement bezel.

According to AOpen, the DSW1812P should be shipping shortly after you read this review. Here in the US, the retail version of the drive is expected to run about $49.99.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 18x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Low seek times
• Supports 99 minute CD-R media
• Features Super Link buffer underrun protection
• Includes software from Nero
• Includes extra bezel
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• High media requirements when writing at 18x
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R DL media
• Problems writing to Ritek manufactured DVD+R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and CD-RW media
• Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
• Cannot set the book type
• Has a 2048KB buffer