What's in the box?:
- Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray Disc Writer
- Software Disc for BD v7.00W
- Operating Instructions
- HDV to Blu-ray Direct Recording Guide
- Mounting Screws
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in September of 2006 and had firmware version 1.0b. For this review we used firmware versions 1.0b and 1.0c.
The BWU-100A is one of the better looking drives we've had in the 'Labs. More subdued than Sony's previous DVD writers, it sports a sophisticated look thanks in part to its black bezel and silver colored tray. The BWU-100A also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Sony" and "Blu-ray Disc" logos, you can see a few showing off its support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and theDVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.
Below the tray you can see the BWU-100A's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up a bright blue whenever the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the BWU-100A 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. 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 Sony's website and the manual that came with the drive.
| Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray Disc Writer | |
| CD Write Speeds | 24x, 16x (Z-CLV) 12x, 8x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 16x (Z-CLV) 12x, 8x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Read Speeds | 32x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 24x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speeds | 24x Max |
| DVD Read Speeds | 8x Max (DVD-ROM) 8x Max (DVD±R) 8x Max (DVD±RW) 8x Max (DVD±R DL) 5x (DVD-RAM) |
| Buffer Size | 8 MB (BD) 2 MB (CD and DVD) |
| Access Times |
160 ms (CD) 170 ms (DVD-ROM) 210 ms (BD-ROM) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-Extra Video CD Photo CD Multi-session CD-Text CD-R CD-RW |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL |
| BD Formats | BD-ROM BD-R/RE BD-R/RE DL BDAV |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as a "SONY BDRW BWU-100A."
The Nero screenshot also shows that the BWU-100A has a maximum CD writing speed of 32x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the BWU-100A 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 BWU-100A is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Sony'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 BWU-100A's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the BWU-100A 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 BWU-100A'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 Sony's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.
Sony's new drive also supports a feature called "bitsetting." By default, the BWU-100A 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.
