Memorex MRX-500N 16x DVD±RW

Model: Memorex MRX-500N 16x DVD±RW
Manufacturer: Memorex
Provided By: Memorex

Memorex is one of the most widely recognized and respected names in the storage industry. Founded in 1961, they got their start by manufacturing data backup tapes for the developing computer industry. With the introduction of their own line of recordable audio and video tapes, they soon had the world asking itself "Is it live or is it Memorex?" More recently, Memorex has made the shift from analog to digital and has turned themselves into one of the world's leading providers of CD and DVD media.

While best known for their recordable media, Memorex offers a wide range of storage products, including their own line of CD and DVD writers. Recently, they quietly introduced a new 16x DVD±RW, the MRX-500N. Based on the NEC ND-3550A, the MRX-500N is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Memorex's new drive also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds and an impressive software bundle from Nero.

With features and specs like this, it's hard not to be impressed by Memorex's new DVD writer. To give you an idea of what to expect from the MRX-500N, we'll take a look at its features and then see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does Memorex's new drive have what it takes? Is it the fastest DVD writer around? Read on to see what we had to say.

What's in the box?:

• Memorex MRX-500N 16x DVD±RW Drive
• Software Installation CD
• Hardware Guide
• Software Map
• 1 Memorex 8x DVD+R Disc
• Audio Cable
• Mounting Screws
• IDE Cable

Physical Features:

The drive Memorex sent us for this review was manufactured in November of 2005 and had firmware 1.A3. For this review we used firmware versions 1.A3 and 1.A4.

Looking at the front, it's pretty obvious that the MRX-500N is based on NEC's new 16x DVD±RW, the ND-3550A. While both drives are almost physically identical, Memorex has tried to set theirs apart by giving it a black and silver bezel. As you can see, the MRX-500N also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Memorex" logo, you can see a few showing off its support for DVD-R/RW, DVD+ReWritable, DVD+R DL and Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

Below the tray you can see the MRX-500N's single LED. Instead of lighting up green like on the ND-3550A, it is bright blue.

The rear of the MRX-500N looks very similar to some of the other NEC based DVD writers we've reviewed. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and analog audio output connector.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the drive's jumper comes set to master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. To the left of this is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Memorex's website and the guide that came with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Memorex's new DVD writer is identified as a "Memorex 16X-DDL-IN".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the MRX-500N has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the drive can also write CD-Text and overburn. Unfortunately, like some of the other NEC based DVD writers we've tested, it wasn't able to recognize our 99 minute CompUSA discs at all.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that like most other NEC based DVD writers, the MRX-500N is a "two sheep" burner. This means that the MRX-500N 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 MRX-500N's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the MRX-500N 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. While a patched RPC-1 firmware is available for the NEC ND-3550A, there isn't one for the MRX-500N yet.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the MRX-500N'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 Memorex's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The MRX-500N also supports a feature called "bitsetting." While the drive automatically sets the book type of DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM", you can manually do the same with single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media using CD Speed or the bundled Nero software. This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

Memorex has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the MRX-500N contains copies of Nero Express 6, NeroVision Express 2, Nero ShowTime, Nero Recode 2, InCD, BackItUp and PhotoShow Elite.

Nero Express 6 - 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. While the interface has been simplified, Nero Express still supports more advanced features like VCD and DVD creation, CD/DVD duplication, overburning, CD-Text and realtime audio filters.

The version of Nero Express that Memorex included with their new DVD±RW drive is 6.6.0.8. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

NeroVision Express 3 - NeroVision Express 3 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Using a user friendly interface very similar to that of Nero Express, NeroVision Express 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.

NeroVision Express 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 Ahead'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 BackItUp - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This new program from Ahead Software lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard disc, image recorderor another computer on your LAN.

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 or AVI files you might have on your hard drive.

Nero Media Player - Nero Media Player features on-the-fly encoding of audio CD's to MP3, HE-AAC, TwinVQ, WMA, and WAV format.The MP3 encoder uses the latest audio codec technology from Fraunhofer.While most of the plugins are unrestricted, the MP3 encoder included with this version of the program is limited to only 30 audio tracks.If you need to encode more you will probably want to upgrade to Nero's NeroMIX.

InCD 4 - 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 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 Elite - Memorex's new drive also comes with Nero's all in one photo suite, PhotoShow Elite. 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.

Like Memorex's previous DVD writers, the MRX-500N definitely isn't short on features. The drive supports most CD and DVD formats and offers some pretty impressive specs. The MRX-500N is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Memorex's new drive also includes features like buffer underrun protection and bitsetting as well as an impressive software bundle from Nero. With all this it's easy to see why the MRX-500N gets a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Like the other Memorex drives we've reviewed, the MRX-500N was very easy to install. From start to finish, the entire process 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 33. 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 MRX-500N comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu you see below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

By now most people should be pretty familiar with this menu. From here you can choose to install the OEM version of Nero (Nero Express), NeroVision Express, Nero Media Player, InCD 4, the InCD Reader or PhotoShow Elite. Memorex gives you the option to install each component individually, or everything but InCD in one shot. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

In case you run into trouble and need some help, Memorex has included a small "Software Guide." This guide includes some brief instructions on how to install and use the various applications included in the Nero 6 suite.Because the guide is fairly small, these instructions only go over the basic features of each application. If you need to go beyond the basics, additional documentation can be accessed through Nero's SmartStart launcher.

Documentation:

Most of the MRX-500N's documentation is located in the "Hardware Guide." While smaller than the ones included with Memorex's previous drives, this fold out guide is well laid out and contains a fair amount of information. It starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new DVD writer. The first section goes over the drive'sfeatures, system requirements and package contents.

From here, the guide jumps right into the physical installation of the drive. The instructions take the user step by step through the entire installation process and cover 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, the guide also has a few example configurations along with their corresponding jumper settings. Last but not least, the guide finishes up with a few short sections on how to operate the MRX-500N and troubleshoot some of the common problems that people might experience.

As usual, Memorex has tried to make the installation process as painless as possible. If you need help for some reason, the documentation they've provided is quite good, even though it has been slimmed down some from their previous drives. With this in mind, the MRX-500N scores a 9 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.

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 v4.10 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 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 v4.10 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.

Memorex's new DVD writer did pretty well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. In the transfer speed tests, it started out at 19.6x (2940 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.5x (6380 / 150). While this helped give the MRX-500N an impressive overall score, its access time and CPU utilization were not as low as some of the other drives.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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.

	Memorex MRX-500N	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B	Sony DRU-810A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.58x 20.55x 47.03x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x	35.63x 20.45x 47.28x	36.39x 20.64x 48.13x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	136ms 147ms 220ms	137ms 145ms 219ms	114ms 126ms 183ms	106ms 123ms 176ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	17% 1% 3% 6%	17% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 36%	1% 1% 3% 6%

Memorex's new writer didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While the drive is rated at 48x, the MRX-500N came up a little short of this number in our tests. Looking at the other scores, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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.

Like the other drives, the MRX-500N 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. Unfortunately, its seek times were again a little high.

Memorex's new DVD writer also had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. If the session on the CD was larger than 90 minutes in size, the MRX-500N would not recognize the disc correctly. Using a disc with about 90 minutes worth of data, I was able to reach a maximum read speed of about 48.11x.

CD Speed v4.10 - 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 MRX-500N can read pressed and CD-R media at 48x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.10 - 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 Memorex MRX-500N supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	Memorex MRX-500N	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B	Sony DRU-810A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.95x 17.96x 40.16x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes	30.81x 17.50x 40.79x 10 Yes	36.76x 20.90x 48.59x 10 Yes

The MRX-500N did pretty well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from Sony, it hadno problems reading pressed audio CD's at 40x.

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 Memorex's new DVD writer 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 v4.10 - 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.

While the MRX-500N was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 48x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Memorex's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.18x. 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 MRX-400N was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well Memorex's new drive 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 MRX-500N didn't handle scratched discs as well as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at recently. While there weren't any unreadable sectors on the disc, the drive considered more than 69% of the CD to be "damaged."

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 MRX-500N didn't do as well as some of the other drives in this test either. The scratches on the disc not only slowed it down considerably, but the number of errors was higher than what we'd like to see.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16 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. 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 MRX-500N 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 21.45x and reached a maximum speed of 48.05x at the end of the session. This gave the MRX-500N an average writing speed of about 36.40x.

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.

Memorex's new DVD writer did fairly well in our tests. While not as fast as the DRU-810A, the MRX-500N took less than 3 minutes to write an entire 650MB CD.

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 MRX-500N's writing quality is 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 MRX-500N 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 four "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 20x and jumps to 24x at about the 5 minute mark. When it reaches the 13 minute mark, the drive changes to 28x and then to 32x at the 22 minute mark.

Memorex's new DVD writer did very well in our rewriting tests.Thanks to its 32x rewriting speed, the MRX-500N took 2:02 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:00 to do the same with DLA.

The MRX-500N also erases at 32x. While it didn't have the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in an impressive 3:10.

Nero CD Speed v4.10 - 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.

Memorex's new drive wasn't as fast as some of the others when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. While it came very close, the MRX-500N again had a hard time reaching its rated speed in our tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.10 - 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 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. The results are below.

The MRX-500N performed very well when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-RW discs at 13x and DVD-R media at an impressive 16x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

Memorex's new DVD writer had no problems reading Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The MRX-500N started reading at 3.03x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 7.29x.

Nero CD Speed v4.10 - 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 MRX-500N'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 13x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't an issue for the MRX-500N either. While not nearly as fast as the drive from Sony, it reached a maximum transfer speed of 7.30x.

Nero CD Speed v4.10 - 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 MRX-500N 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 15.82x. Memorex's new drive was also surprisingly fast when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at an impressive 11.90x.

To see how well the MRX-500N 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 6.6.0.16 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Memorex'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 16x, the MRX-500N uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the drive starts writing at about 6.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The MRX-500N 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.

Memorex's new drive performed relatively well in our DVD writing tests. While the MRX-500N's Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage when writing to DVD-RW discs, it turned in some pretty good times with DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD+RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the MRX-500N, 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 (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 MRX-500N's writing quality was pretty good when tested with KProbe. Looking at the graphs above, you can see that aside from a few isolated PIF spikes, the error rates remained fairly low. When we scanned the discs with the BenQ DW1640, there was a large PI/PIF spike at the 2.25GB mark. We've seen this with other NEC ND-3550A/4550A based drives and we're still not sure what is causing it. This spike only shows up when testing with BenQ drives and can be eliminated by writing the disc at 8x or slower.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. As you can see, the writing quality was pretty good with most of the discs we tested. Aside from the occasional PI/PIF spike, the results stayed within acceptable limits.

Something to point out is that while the MRX-500N had no problems erasing DVD+RW discs at 8x, it erasedDVD-RW media at only 4x.

To test the MRX-500N's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

When writing our test data, the MRX-500N turned in some good times with both DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. The drive was also fairly quick when reading DVD-RW discs, but for whatever reason took longer than expected to read back our test data from DVD+RW media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the MRX-500N, I used Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 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.

For whatever reason, the MRX-500N had some problems writing to Verbatim's DVD+R DL media at 8x. While the drive was able to write to the first layer at this speed, it quickly slowed to 4x when writing to the second layer. An example of this is pictured below.

Unfortunately, due to the drop in speed, the MRX-500N was considerably slower than the drives from the competition. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was very good with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. As you can see, the PI/PIF rates remained very low from start to finish. Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media also yielded some pretty decent results. While higher than what we saw with their 8x media, the PI/PIF remained well within acceptable limits.

Unfortunately, Memorex's own DVD+R DL media did not fair quite as well. While written at a much slower speed, the PI/PIF rates were considerably higher. When tested with the BenQ DW1640, there were also a number of PO Failures which caused some minor readability problems.

The MRX-500N also features 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

The MRX-500N performed fairly well when writing to DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 6x writing speed, it took the drive only 20:48 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The MRX-500N's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed.Unfortunately, when the disc was read back by the DW1640, there were a number of dips in the transfer rate graph.

Performance Revisited:

While Memorex's new DVD writer has a few rough spots, it performed as expected throughout most of our tests. When writing DVD's, the MRX-500N turned in some good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD-R DL media, but for whatever reason, it had some problems writing to DVD+R DL discs at 8x. Nevertheless, the MRX-500N was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD's and DVD±R discs at speeds near 16x and DVD±RW media at a respectable 13x.

The MRX-500N also did relatively well in our CD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for Memorex's new drive either. The MRX-500N turned in some very impressive times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the Memorex MRX-500N gets a solid 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

The MRX-500N is, for the most part, a good example of what we've come to expect from Memorex. Based on the NEC ND-3550A, this consumer friendly drive offers good looks, a number of useful features and some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. Unfortunately, as you saw in this review, the MRX-500N also has a few rough spots that need to be worked out.

Like the NEC drive it's based on, the MRX-500N can write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 6 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. This level of performance carried over to our rewriting tests where Memorex's new drive turned in some very goodtimes with both DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. The MRX-500N was also fairly quick when writing to DVD-R DL discs. However, it had a tendency to slow when writing to DVD+R DL media at 8x. Hopefully Memorex can address this in a future firmware update.

Finding compatible media really wasn't an issue with the MRX-500N. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed or better and was even able to write to some 8x DVD±R discs at 16x. The MRX-500N's writing quality was also fairly good for the most part. However, like other NEC ND-3550A/4550A based drives, we saw a large PI/PIF/POF spike on many of the DVD±R discs we tested. While this spike is a little concerning, it only showed up when testing with BenQ drives and didn't seem to have any effect on the MRX-500N when reading the discs back.

The MRX-500N also performed pretty well in our DVD read tests. While its seek times were higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read single layer data and video DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at speeds as high as 16x. The MRX-500N also read DVD±RW media at an impressive 13x but slowed to about 7x when reading DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the MRX-500N either. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. Memorex's new drive wasn't as fast in our DAE tests. However, it still ripped audio CD's at a respectable 40x. As a writer, the MRX-500N performed as expected. The drive turned in some very impressive times thanks to its 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds and its writing quality was quite good.

Like Memorex's other DVD writers, the MRX-500N also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the drivehas a 2048KB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. While this buffer is a little smaller than what we'd like to see on a 16x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The MRX-500N also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, Memorex has included a great software bundle from Nero.

The MRX-500N should be shipping by the time you read this and is expected to run about $80 at places like Best Buy and CompUSA.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW media at 13x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 7x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• Good CD writing quality
• Can write to select 8x DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Nice looking design with blue LED's
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media

Lows:

• Problems writing to DVD+R DL media at 8x
• Large PI/PIF/POF spike on some DVD±R discs
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed CD and DVD discs
• Erases DVD-RW media at only 4x
• Problems recognizing discs larger than 90 minutes
• Only a 2048KB buffer