I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U Blu-ray Disc Writer

Model: I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U Blu-ray Disc Writer
Manufacturer: I-O DATA DEVICE
Provided By: I-O DATA DEVICE USA

While a relatively new name in the United States, I-O DATA DEVICE has a history that goes back 30 years. The company got its start by designing interface boards for Japan's textile industry. Over the years, they expanded product lineup, establishing themselves as one of the country's leading manufacturers of computer peripherals. With their success in Japan, I-O DATA has set their sites on the US market, offering an array of memory, storage and multimedia products.

This spring, I-O DATA announced their first internal Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-AM2B/U. Based on the Panasonic SW-5582, this new drive supports both single and dual layer BD-R and BD-RE media, giving it the ability to store up to 50GB of data or four hours worth of HD video onto a single disc. The BDR-AM2B/U is also capable of playing commercial Blu-ray Disc movies and can read and write to all major CD and DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. To top it all off, I-O DATA has included a full featured software bundle from Ulead and InterVideo.

We've had I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer in the 'Labs for a few weeks now and have had the time to put it through its paces. To give you an idea of what to expect from the BRD-AM2B/U, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it compares to the Pioneer BDR-101A. Does I-O DATA's Blu-ray Disc writer have what it takes? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U Blu-ray Disc Writer
• Ulead/InterVideo Software CD For BD
• Setup Guide
• 1 TDK BD-RE Disc
• Mounting Screws
• Safety Precautions
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive I-O DATA sent us for this review was manufactured in May of 2006 and had firmware version BDB2. At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the BRD-AM2B/U.

If I-O DATA's new drive looks familiar to you that's because it is based on the Panasonic SW-5582. While not the most eye-catching drive to come through the 'Labs, the BRD-AM2B/U is still nicely designed. Sporting a more traditional look, the bezel is black in color and is relatively flat. The BRD-AM2B/U also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Blu-ray Disc" logo, you can see a few showing off its support for High Speed CD-RW media and theDVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.

Below the tray you can see the BRD-AM2B/U's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up a bright blue whenever the drive is reading or writing.

The rear of the BRD-AM2B/U is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture below you can see its 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. By default it comes set as master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is not used.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from I-O DATA's website and the manual that came with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as a "MATSHITA BD-MLT SW-5582."

The Nero screenshot also shows that the BRD-AM2B/U has a maximum CD writing speed of 32x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the BRD-AM2B/U can 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 BRD-AM2B/U is a "two sheep" burner. This means that LG's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

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 BRD-AM2B/U's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the BRD-AM2B/U is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the BRD-AM2B/U'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 I-O DATA's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.

I-O DATA's new drive also supports a feature called "bitsetting." By default, the BRD-AM2B/U automatically sets the book type for DVD+R and DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". For whatever reason though, the drive does not let you set the book type of DVD+RW discs.

For the BRD-AM2B/U's software bundle, I-O DATA has turned to Ulead and InterVideo. The CD that comes with the drive contains DVD MovieFactory 4.7 SE, BD DiscRecorder 2.5, Burn.Now 3.0, WinDVD 5 and WinDVD BD.

Ulead DVD MovieFactory 4.7 SE - With Ulead's DVD MovieFactory you can create your own CD's, DVD's and BD's quickly and easily. Right from the start, MovieFactory gives you a number of options. From here you can create a new compilation, copy or edit an existing disc, or record video directly to CD, DVD or BD.

Adding movie clips to your current project is as easy as drag and drop. MovieFactory lets you take any MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, VOB or QuickTime video clip and add it to your project. After that you can add your own custom menus, backgrounds, fonts and music or use one of the included templates.

Ulead BD DiscRecorder 2.5 - Using Ulead's BD DiscRecorder, you can transfer high-definition video from HDV camcorders directly to Blu-ray Disc. The program also lets you capture video to your hard drive for further editing. From there, you have the ability to trim, extract and combine your video clips. Once done, your movie can be burned to disc.

Ulead Burn.Now 3.0 - Burn.Now is Ulead's CD/DVD/BD mastering program. This easy to use software lets you do a number of different tasks. From the main menu, you can choose to create, edit or copy a disc. Burn.Now's disc tools will let you erase or UDF formatrewritable media.

InterVideo WinDVD 5 - InterVideo's WinDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market right now. Along with support for DVD's, it can be used to play back VCD's and SVCD's as well as other multimedia formats including MPEG, AVI and DivX.

Unfortunately, the version of WinDVD bundled with the BRD-AM2B/U only supports 2 speaker output. If you want to take advantage of DVD's encoded with DTS or use Dolby Pro Logic II, you'll need to upgrade to the Platinum or Gold version of WinDVD.

InterVideo WinDVD BD - Last but not least you have Ulead's BD playback software, WinDVD BD. This new program allows you to play back AACS-protected or non-protected recordable and rewritable BD discs. With its support for the BD-J specification, WinDVD also lets you to take advantage of features like subtitles, play modes, angles and direct Internet connectivity for content updates.

It should be pretty clear that I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer isn't lacking in the features department. Like the Panasonic drive its based on, the BRD-AM2B/U can read and write to single and dual layer BD media at 2x. On top of that, it supports all major CD and DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. I-O DATA's new drive also includes features like an 8MB buffer, support for some sort of buffer underrun protection and a software bundle from Ulead and InterVideo. Unfortunately, it lacks bitsetting support for DVD+RW media. Even then, the I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Installing I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer took only a few minutes. After taking the drive out of the box, I 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 BRD-AM2B/U comes with a CD full of software from Ulead and InterVideo. If autorun is enabled, the setup process will start automatically when you put the disc in the drive.

While installing the DVD MovieFactory 4.7 suite is fairly straightforward, I was a little surprised by the lack of options its setup program gives you. Unlike previous versions, you cannot choose which components you want to install. Instead, you're forced to install the entire suite. Fortunately, you can go and launch the setup program for each component manually.

Documentation:

Since this is my first look at one of I-O DATA's drives, I really did not know what to expect from their documentation. After examining the box contents, I was happy to see that they included a "Setup Guide" with the BRD-AM2B/U. While not very large, this printed guide is well laid out and contains a good amount of useful information.

The guide starts off by going over the BRD-AM2B/U's system requirements, specifications and box contents. It also includes a few diagrams showing the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive.From here, the guide jumps right into the physical installation of the drive. The instructions take you step by step through the entire installation process and covers all the basics including how to set the jumpers, install the drive into an empty drive bay and hook up the cables. If you're not sure whether the drive should be set up as a master or slave, it also has a few example configurations. Last but not least, there is a section on how to install the bundled software.

In the end, installing the BRD-AM2B/U was very easy. Even though Blu-ray is a new technology, there were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. Even then, if you do need a little help for some reason, the documentation I-O DATA has provided is more than sufficient. Overall, I give the installation 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 Blu-ray Disc writers, the performance tests are normally broken down into six sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write, BD read and BD write. 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 v4.53 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 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 v4.53 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 a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

BD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the BD benchmarks, CD Speed v4.53 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

BD Write Tests: To test the BD write speeds, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature is used to burn an entire BD-R/RE disc. Times are recorded.

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.

I-O DATA's Blu-ray Disc writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 16.1x on the inside of the CD and was able to reach 31.8x on the outside of the disc. While this helped give the BRD-AM2B/U a respectable overall score, its access time was not as low as some of the other drives we've looked at.

CD Speed v4.53 - 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.

I-O DATA's new drive performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The BRD-AM2B/U started reading at 14.32x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 32.85x. Unfortunately, its seek times were higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.53 - 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 BRD-AM2B/U was a little slower when reading CD-R discs. Even then, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 32x in our tests.

I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc drive had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. It read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 35.67x.

 

CD Speed v4.53 - 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.

While the BRD-AM2B/U can read pressed and CD-R media at 32x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 24x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.53 - 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 while the I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

I-O DATA's new drive didn't do as well as I would have liked in our DAE tests. Looking at the scores above, you can see that it reached a maximum DAE speed of only 24x.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.53 - 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 BRD-AM2B/U was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. Nevertheless, it still had no problems reaching a maximum DAE speed of 24x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 17.66x. While the drive wasn't able to pass all of the on the fly copying tests, it did not create any errors.If you look at the advanced features, you can see that it was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.

To see how well I-O DATA'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 BRD-AM2B/U did surprisingly well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 50.8% 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.

I-O DATA's new drive gave some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was pretty low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.95:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 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.

The BRD-AM2B/U uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, to reach its maximum writing speed. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach 24x. The drive starts writing at 12x and jumps to 16x at about the 8 minute mark.The BRD-AM2B/U writes at this speed until about the 39 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 24x and stays there until the end of the session.

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.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On 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 BRD-AM2B/U'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. More importantly, 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 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The BRD-AM2B/U also uses Z-CLV when rewriting at 16x. The drive starts rewriting at 12x, and then jumps up to 16x at the 7 minute mark.

I-O DATA's new DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 3:24 to write 400MB with Nero and 3:37 to do the same with DLA. The BRD-AM2B/U also took a mere 18 seconds to do a quick erase and 5:11 to fully erase the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.53 - 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 DVD 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.

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.15x 3.41x 8.23x	6.22x 3.44x 8.32x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	133ms 147ms 285ms	136ms 169ms 313ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	6% 10% 17% 32%	6% 10% 18% 33%

The I-O DATA performed as expected when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.41x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.23x. While this wasn't enough to top the drive from Pioneer, the BRD-AM2B/U's seek times were a bit faster.

Nero CD Speed v4.53 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

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 disk 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. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.15x 3.41x 8.22x	6.24x 3.46x 8.33x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	137ms 154ms 290ms	147ms 178ms 328ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	6% 9% 17% 32%	6% 11% 19% 35%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.16x 3.40x 8.24x	4.72x 2.61x 6.31x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	138ms 201ms 340ms	148ms 183ms 331ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	6% 9% 17% 31%	6% 11% 19% n/a

Verbatim DVD-R DL

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.17x 3.43x 8.22x	4.72x 2.63x 6.28x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	140ms 152ms 284ms	156ms 182ms 336ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x:	4% 8%	6% 11%

I-O DATA's new drive had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In all three cases, the BRD-AM2B/U reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.2x.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM

The BRD-AM2B/U has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that it reads at this speed from start to finish. Unfortunately, the drive's seek times were also very high.

Nero CD Speed v4.53 - 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 disk 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.

Verbatim DVD+R

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.15x 3.40x 8.22x	6.23x 3.46x 8.34x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	141ms 155ms 294ms	147ms 178ms 331ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	6% 9% 17% 32%	6% 10% 18% 33%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	6.15x 3.41x 8.22x	4.72x 2.60x 6.30x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	141ms 155ms 320ms	153ms 186ms 339ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	6% 10% 17% 32%	6% 10% 18% n/a

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The BRD-AM2B/U's performance with DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media.Once again, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.2x.

Nero CD Speed v4.53 - 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 BRD-AM2B/U wasn't as fast when reading single layer DVD-Videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of only 6x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well I-O DATA's new drive worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 5 and PowerDVD 5. The BRD-AM2B/U 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 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Pioneer's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW and 4x 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 8x, the BRD-AM2B/U uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that I-O DATA's new drive starts writing at 4x. When it reaches the 1.6GB mark, the writing speed increases to 8x and stays there until the very end of the session.

The BRD-AM2B/U also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc drive performed relatively well here. While not nearly as fast as some of the DVD writers we've looked at, it was a good minute faster than the BDR-101A when writing to DVD±R discs at 8x. Thanks to its 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds, the BRD-AM2B/U also had a considerable advantage when it came to rewritable media.

To check the media compatibility of the BRD-AM2B/U, 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.

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 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 DW1655. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1655 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 DW1655. 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 BRD-AM2B/U's writing quality was fairly good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. In most cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. The only exception being Memorex's 16x DVD+R media. In the beginning of the disc, the PIF rates were a little higher than we'd like to see.

When it came to DVD-R media, the BRD-AM2B/U yielded some mixed results. While the results were fairly good with KProbe, there were a small number of PO Failures on the discs from Memorex when scanned by the BenQ DW1655. Also, if you look at the transfer rate graphs for the Memorex and RiDATA media, you can see that they failed to complete our stress test, returning an error part way through.

To test the BRD-AM2B/U's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Unlike the BDR-101A, the BRD-AM2B/U had no problems completing our packet writing tests. Looking at the scores above, you can see that it took the drive about eight and a half minutes to write our test data to DVD±RW media and more than 25 minutes to do the same with DVD-RAM discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the BRD-AM2B/U, I used Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL and RiDATA 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

I-O DATA's new drive had no problems writing to the Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL and RiDATA 4x DVD-R DL media at 4x. Unfortunately, the drive would not write to the DVD+R DL media from RiDATA (RITEK D01) or PlayO (RICOHJPND00). No matter what speed I chose, the burn process failed.

With Nero, it took the BRD-AM2B/U about 27 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good 16 minutes faster than the drive from Pioneer. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with the DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. In both cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits and there were no readability problems. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. While there weren't any PO Failures, the PI rates were very high on the second layer.

Nero CD Speed v4.53 - BD-ROM:

To test the BRD-AM2B/U's BD-ROM reading performance, I used the Blu-ray Disc version of The Fifth Element. This single layer disc is about 23GB in size.

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	2.00x 2.00x 2.00x	2.00x 1.99x 2.00x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	125ms 208ms 399ms	56ms 174ms 385ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 1% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%

Pioneer's new drive has a maximum speed of 2x when reading BD-ROM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that the drive starts reading at about 2x and stays there until the end.I should also point out that CD Speed's CPU usage test does not seem to work correctly. The drive cannot read BD media at 8x, let alone 4x, so I'm not sure how its generating those results.

Using the BRD-AM2B/U and InterVideo's WinDVD BD software, I was able to play back the movie on our test computer. However, because it lacks an HDCP compliant video card, the movie was downsampled to 540p. Keep this in mind if you plan on playing AACS protected titles with the BRD-AM2B/U or other PC-based Blu-ray Disc drives.

Nero CD Speed v4.53 - BD-R and BD-RE:

Next we'll look at the drive's BD-R and BD-RE reading performance. For this I created a few data discs using single layer BD-R and BD-RE media from Memorex and then ran our BD read tests with CD Speed.

Memorex BD-R

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	2.00x 1.99x 2.00x	2.00x 1.99x 2.00x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	100ms 204ms 366ms	71ms 200ms 349ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%

Memorex BD-RE

	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U	Pioneer BDR-101A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	2.00x 2.00x 2.00x	2.00x 2.00x 2.00x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	100ms 203ms 360ms	70ms 200ms 345ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%

The BRD-AM2B/U had no problems reading Memorex's BD-R and BD-RE media. In both cases, the drive started reading at 2x and stayed at that speed throughout the entire session.

BD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero CD Speed v4.53:

To test the BD writing performance of I-O DATA's new drive I used BD-R and BD-RE media from Memorex, Sony, TDK and Verbatim. To get the writing times, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature was used. I also ran the discs through CD Speed's transfer rate test to make sure that the BRD-AM2B/U could read them back.

The BRD-AM2B/U writes to BD-R and BD-RE at 2x. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that it writes at this speed from start to finish.

As you can see, writing to BD-R and BD-RE media is not a speedy process. In all cases, it took more than 45 minutes to write an entire single layer disc.

Performance Revisited:

For the most part, I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer performed as expected. The BRD-AM2B/U worked well with all of the BD media we tried. However, it took a considerable amount of time to read and write an entire disc. Reading and writing to CD's and DVD's wasn't a problem for the drive either. Considering its specs, the BRD-AM2B/U turned in some good writing times and had no problems reaching its rated read speeds. Unfortunately, there were a few cases where the writing quality could have been better. With all of these things considered, I give the I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U a 7 out of 10 for its performance.

As a first generation drive, I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer is a little rough around the edges. Nevertheless, the BRD-AM2B/U's support for both single and dual layer BD media, as well as standard DVD's and CD's, make it the ultimate choice when it comes to flexibility and storage capacity.

Like the Panasonic drive it's based on, the BRD-AM2B/U can write to BD-R and BD-RE media at 2x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 45 minutes to burn an entire single layer, 25GB disc. It's media compatibility was also quite good as it was able to write to all of the BD discs we tried. Reading Blu-ray Disc media wasn't a problem for the BRD-AM2B/U either. However, with a maximum read speed of only 2x, it can take a considerable amount of time to read your data back.

Offering support for both the DVD-Multi and DVD+ReWritable specifications, I-O DATA's new drive can read and write to all standard DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. While no match for the current crop of DVD±RW drives, the BRD-AM2B/U beat out the Pioneer BDR-101A in all of our DVD writing tests. Unfortunately, there were a few cases where the writing quality could have been better. When it came to reading DVD's, the BRD-AM2B/U was able to read single layer data DVD's and most recordable media at 8x but slowed to 6x when reading DVD-Videos.

Unlike Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer, the BRD-AM2B/U also has the ability to read and write CD's. While the drive's seek times were a little higher than we would have liked, it had no problems reading pressed and CD-R media at 32x and CD-RW discs at 24x. As a writer, the BRD-AM2B/U performed as expected. With its 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW writing speeds, the drive won't break any speed records. However, they should be more than enough if you need to write an occasional CD or two.

I-O DATA's new Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the BRD-AM2B/Uhas an 8MB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. For whatever reason though, the drive seemed to use only 2MB of it when writing to CD's and DVD's. The BRD-AM2B/U also features a bright blue LED and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, I-O DATA has included a great software bundle from Ulead and InterVideo.

The BRD-AM2B/U is available now and can be purchased directly from I-O DATA through their online store for $899.

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Highs:

• Writes to BD-R and BD-RE media at 2x
• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8x
• 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 4x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 2x
• Reads Blu-ray Disc media at 2x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW writing speeds
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• 8MB buffer (BD only)
• Good CD-R writing quality
• Includes software from Ulead and InterVideo
• Overburns to 99 minutes
• Bright blue LED
• Automatically sets book type to DVD-ROM for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media

Lows:

• Expensive
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R and DVD+R DL media
• Failed to write to Ricoh and Ritek manufactured DVD+R DL media
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• Buffer limited to 2MB when writing CD's and DVD's