DIGISTOR DIG-79102 Portable 6x Blu-ray Disc Writer

Model: DIGISTOR DIG-79102 Portable 6x Blu-ray Disc Writer
Manufacturer: DIGISTOR
Provided By: DIGISTOR

DIGISTOR is a leading innovator, manufacturer and distributor of digital archiving products and secure storage solutions. Serving the industrial and global OEM market since 2001, DIGISTOR  now provides industrial-grade archiving and digital-video storage solutions to consumers and professional end users. Along with a number of DVD and Blu-ray burners, the company's product lineup includes portable hard drives, recordable Blu-ray media and other digital storage solutions.

One of the latest additions to DIGISTOR's line of Blu-ray Disc writers is the DIG-79102. Based on the Panasonic UJ-260, this portable, USB powered drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds, with a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 6x. It also offers support for BDXL media, which can hold up to 128GB of data on a single disc. What really makes the DIG-79102 stand out is its built-in battery and software bundle which includes Arcsoft's TotalMedia Extreme 2 suite as well as DIGISTOR's own REWIND archiving software for Mac and PC.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the DIG-79102 has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect from DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer, we'll take a look at some of  the drive's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is the DIG-79102 the best choice for the person on the go? Read on as we find out.

DIGISTOR offers a number of external Blu-ray drives. Aside from having either a slot or tray load mechanism, the biggest difference between them all is the accessories they come with. With the DIG-79102 you get ArcSoft TotalMediaExtreme 2 for Windows, REWIND archiving software for Mac and PC, a couple of USB cables, a quick start guide and a free 25GB Archive For Life BD-R disc.

DIGISTOR also sent along a few spindles of their 25GB and 50GB Archive For Life BD-R media as well as an 80 disc storage cabinet. The cabinet is stackable and features a gliding drawer and built in lock.

Physical Features:

If you're looking for a thin or lightweight Blu-ray Disc writer, the DIG-79102 is probably not for you. Thanks to its built-in battery, it's larger and heavier than most of the other portable drives on the market today. That being said, the DIG-79102 is still small enough to fit in your laptop bag and with its durable, matte black finish it should stand up well to every day use. 

On top of the DIG-79102 there are two LED's. The large, rectangular one lights up blue whenever the drive is powered on. The smaller, circular LED above it is the battery level indicator. As long as the battery is fully charged, this indicator will remain unlit. However, once the battery drops below 100%, it will light up and change colors to show how much charge is left. According to DIGISTOR, you can get 3-4 hours of use off of a single charge and the battery will automatically recharge while the drive is idle.

 The activity LED and eject button are located along the front of the DIG-79102. This LED lights up green when the drive is both reading and writing.

The rear of the DIG-79102 is pretty straight forward. From left to right you can see the drive's power switch, DC-IN jack and USB 2.0 port. The DIG-79102 can be powered off a single USB port with some assistance from the built in battery. If you're looking to use the drive for an extended period of time though, DIGISTOR recommends using the dual USB cable which plugs into both the mini-USB and DC-IN ports. 

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from DIGISTOR's website and by running a few simple tests.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that DIGISTOR's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as an "MATSHITA BD-MLT UJ260."

Nero also shows that the DIG-79102 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DIG-79102 can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 95:10 with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media. 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DIG-79102 is a "two sheep" burner. This means that DIGISTOR's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the DIG-79102's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the DIG-79102 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. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While Opti Drive Control gives us a quick glance at the DIG-79102'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 DIGISTOR's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.

Oddly enough, the DIG-79102 does not 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 DIG-79102 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.

The DIG-79102 comes with a relatively unique software bundle. Instead of turning to a company like Nero or CyberLink, DIGISTOR has included Arcsoft's TotalMedia Extreme 2 suite as well as their own REWIND archiving software.

ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 - TotalMedia Theatre 5 is your all-in-one media player for PCs. Whether playing Blu-ray and DVD discs, AVCHD or high-definition files on local machines or videos on a UPnP server and online, the program has it covered. With an intuitive and innovative user interface design, excellent playback quality and performance, and industry-leading playback technology, TotalMedia Theatre 5 brings the premium movie experience to you.

ArcSoft TotalMedia Studio 3 - Use the TotalMedia Studio application to capture, edit, and author customized high definition (or standard definition) content, like photo slideshows and home movies. It is for making discs that contain scene selection menus and chapters. Simply follow the steps along the top of the screen and design your own scene selection menus or use the provided templates. Then burn your content to Blu-ray, AVCDH disc or DVD.

ArcSoft ShowBiz 3.5 - Use the ShowBiz 3.5 application to capture and edit your standard or high-resolution home movies by combining videos, photos, music, and transition effects. You can also trim your videos, add a soundtrack, and personalize it by adding a logo, title, and credit screens. When finished editing, you can easily convert your movies to play on most portable devices like iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, PSP, PS3 and Xbox360; or you can share them by uploading to YouTube.

ArcSoft TotalMedia Backup and Record 2 - Whether your most important files are audio, video, email messages or Internet Explorer favorites, the TotalMedia Backup & Record and Utilities applications let you easily back up and restore everything you can think of. Simply click one button to select all your irreplaceable files, then click once more to back them up to CD, DVD or BD.

DIGISTOR REWIND - DIGISTOR's REWIND software enables permanent and secure archiving on Blu-ray discs. Designed for ease-of-use by both consumers and professional users, REWIND features a user-friendly interface as well as automatic file and folder tracking. It also has the ability to update existing archives, span multiple discs and pause an archive mid-burn, letting you finish it later. Along with that, it has an embedded restore application that ensures restoration of archived files to any computer, without having to install software.

While not the smallest or flashiest portable drive to come through the 'Labs, DIGISTOR's Blu-ray Disc writer is not short on features. Along with a heavy duty design, the DIG-79102 offers some of the fastest BD reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit. The drive is capable of 6x BD-R, 6x BD-R DL, 4x BD-R XL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD read speed of 6x. The DIG-79102 also features an internal battery and comes bundled with Arcsoft's TotalMedia Extreme 2 suite as well as DIGISTOR's own REWIND archiving software. With all this, it's easy to see why the DIGISTOR DIG-79102 gets an 8 out of 10 for its features.

DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer was very easy to install.  Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes.  With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB cable. Once connected to our test computer, it took only a matter of seconds for plug and play to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the drive was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DIG-79102 comes with two CD's full of software. The first of these contains Arcsoft's TotalMedia Extreme 2 suite.  If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the installation wizard will automatically launch and the window pictured below will appear when you insert the disc.

Installing TotalMedia Extreme is pretty straightforward. Once you've agreed to the license agreement, entered the serial number and selected the destination folder, you'll be presented with a list of components to choose from. Simply select the components you want and click next a few times. Once the files are copied over, you can start burning your own discs.

The second CD contains DIGISTOR's own REWIND archiving software. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the installation wizard will automatically launch and the window pictured below will appear. If it doesn't run automatically, you will need to locate and run the installer file on the CD.

The Documentation:

DIGISTOR really doesn't include much in the way of documentation. The closest thing to a manual is the drive's "Quick Installation Guide." This small guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. The instructions are pretty brief since there really isn't much to do other than plug in the USB cable and turn the drive on. The guide also goes over the battery level indicator on top of the DIG-79102 and explains what the colors signify. The guide finishes up with some information on the included accessories as well as the software options available. If you're looking for things like the DIG-79102's specs or system requirements, you'll have to check the DIGISTOR's website. You won't find that information in the guide.

For ease of installation, the DIG-79102 is hard to beat. Thanks to its bus-powered, USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a single cable. On the other hand, the documentation DIGISTOR has provided is brief and doesn't have a lot of drive specific information. However, it should be enough to get the drive installed and working correctly. With this in mind, 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.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is  used to test read speeds, access 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 CyberLink's InstantBurn 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 v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access 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 CyberLink's InstantBurn 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 v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access 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 Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

 

The DIG-79102 performed fairly well when reading pressed CD's. The drive started reading at 10.82x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 24.71x. Unfortunately, its access times were a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 DIG-79102 was a little slower when reading CD-R media. Nevertheless, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 24.42x in our tests.

DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DIG-79102  read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 26.81x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

 

The DIG-79102 also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, it had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - 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 DIGISTOR DIG-79102 supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

 

For a portable drive, the DIG-79102 did fairly well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 9.11x and reached a maximum speed of 20.45x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - 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 DIG-79102 was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 20.22x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 14.47x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the DIG-79102 was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and InstantBurn 5:

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 DIG-79102 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 11.10x and accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 24.21x at the end of the session. This gave DIGISTOR's new drive an average writing speed of about 18.88x.

To test the drive's writing times,  I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

The DIG-79102 took a little more than five minutes to write an entire 701MB CD. While most of the internal writers we've looked at lately can do this in half the time, this is fairly good for a portable drive.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Nero CD Speed. This utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors as well as the jitter level on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S and read the discs at 32x. 

HP 52x (CMC)

Taiyo Yuden 52x

Verbatim 52x

The DIG-79102's writing quality was very good. By looking at the 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 InstantBurn from CyberLink.. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The DIG-79102 also uses Z-CLV when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts writing at 10x and jumps to 16x at about the 20 minute mark. The DIG-79102 writes at this speed until about the 72 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed drops back down to 10x and stays there until the end of the session.

DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:08 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:04 to do the same with InstantBurn.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

 

The DIG-79102 performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.40x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.20x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's access times were a bit high.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 8x DVD-R and 6x 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
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	6.14x	3.41x	8.21x	182ms	202ms	331ms	13%	12%	22%	44%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	6.16x	3.41x	8.23x	185ms	243ms	370ms	13%	12%	22%	44%

 
Verbatim DVD-R DL

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	6.17x	3.44x	8.23x	189ms	213ms	332ms	13%	37%	96%

The DIG-79102 had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In all three cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	4.66x	3.06x	5.00x	264ms	217ms	445ms	17%	14%	23%

DIGISTOR's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 3x and then accelerates, reaching 5x at about the 1.5GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 8x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	6.15x	3.40x	8.22x	183ms	207ms	380ms	13%	12%	22%	44%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	6.17x	3.43x	8.24x	181ms	203ms	359ms	14%	12%	21%	44%

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The DIG-79102's performance 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 8x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x
DIGISTOR DIG-79102	3.03x	1.68x	4.06x	183ms	203ms	360ms	7%	12%	24%

The DIG-79102 wasn't nearly as fast when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of only 4x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well the DIG-79102 worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using the bundled version of TotalMedia Theatre 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of DIGISTOR's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x 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 DIG-79102 uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that DIGISTOR's new drive starts writing at about 3.4x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DIG-79102 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.

For the most part, the DIG-79102 performed as expected in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the internal DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some respectable times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the DIG-79102, 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? Using CD Speed we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner), PIF (Parity Inner Fail) and Jitter rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On iHAS424 and read the discs at 8x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? When testing with the iHAS424, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. 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. 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 DIG-79102'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.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

To test the DIG-79102's packet writing performance I used InstantBurn 5. Verbatim 6x DVD-RW, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DIG-79102, I used DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The DIG-79102 performed as expected when writing to DVD+R DL media. In our tests, the drive took 27:18 to write 8001MB of data to Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The DIG-79102's writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with the DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. While there weren't any readability issues, the error rates were very high throughout some sections of the discs.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-ROM:

To test the DIG-79102'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.

 

The DIG-79102 performed relatively well when reading single layer BD-ROM discs. In our tests, it started reading at 2.53x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 6.05x.

DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray writer had no problems playing back The Fifth Element and The Simpsons Movie using the bundled version of TotalMedia Theatre. Just keep in mind that if your monitor is connected to your video card using DVI or HDMI, both need to be HDCP compliant to play AACS protected titles. If not, you can still play them by switching the connection to VGA or using software like Slysoft's AnyDVD HD.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 TDK and then ran our BD read tests with CD Speed.

TDK BD-R DL

DIGISTOR's new drive had no problems reading BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media. In all three cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 6x.

BD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16:

To test the BD writing performance of DIGISTOR's new drive I used BD-R, BD-R DL and BD-RE media from MBI, 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 DIG-79102 could read them back.

While the DIG-79102 is rated at 6x when writing to BD-R and BD-R DL media, it never reached that speed in our tests. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive started writing at 2.59x but instead of reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc, it peaked at about 5x. I ran this test a number of times, using different media on various computers and never came close to reaching 6x.

Needless to say, the DIG-79102 did not perform as well as it should have when writing to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 6x. With its writing speed limited to 5x, it took more than 22 minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc and nearly 48 minutes to burn 50GB worth of data.

With a maximum BD-R writing speed of 6x, the DIG-79102 wasn't nearly as fast as some of the desktop Blu-ray Disc writers we've looked at recently. Nevertheless, the drive performed very well, taking a little more than 22 minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc. DIGISTOR's new drive didn't disappoint when writing to BD-R DL media either. Thanks to its 6x writing speed, the DIG-79102 took less than 45 minutes to burn 50GB worth of data.

Aside from the problems writing to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 6x, the only other issue we ran into was with Verbatim's 6x BD-R LTH media. Despite giving the option to write to these discs at 6x, the DIG-79102 limited the writing speed to 4x.

Sadly, I was not able to test the DIG-79102 with any BDXL media. The discs are not available in the United States or Canada and importing them from Japan really isn't feasible as they cost anywhere from $30 to $90 each, depending on the type and capacity.

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer was hit and miss. The DIG-79102 performed as expected when reading Blu-ray Discs, but failed to write to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 6x. On the other hand, the drive did reasonably well in our CD and DVD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, it read CD's at speeds as high at 24x and single layer DVD's at 8x. Writing CD's and DVD's wasn't a problem for the DIG-79102 either. For a portable drive, it turned in some respectable times and the writing quality was fairly good with most CD-R and DVD±R media. With all of these things considered, the DIGISTOR DIG-79102 gets a 7 out of 10 for its performance.

At first glance, DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer seems to have it all. Along with a solid design, the DIG-79102 offers impressive specs as well a number of useful features, including an internal battery to supply additional power to the drive. Of course, none of this really means much if the drive doesn't have the performance to back it up and unfortunately, in this case, the DIG-79102 came up short in a few key areas.

According to DIGISTOR, the DIG-79102 can write to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 6x. Unfortunately, no matter what I tried, the drive reached a maximum writing speed of only 5x in our tests. As a result, it took more than 22 minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc and nearly 48 minutes to burn 50GB worth of data. When I contacted DIGISTOR regarding this, they seemed to be well aware of this problem and attributed it to the limitations of USB 2.0. They said that the DIG-79102 handles these limitations by slowing down the writing speed in an attempt to keep the writing quality as high as possible. Considering the drive had no problems reading Blu-ray Discs at 6x, this function may be a bit too sensitive. Hopefully DIGISTOR can resolve this issue with a firmware update or upgrading to USB 3.0, which offers much greater throughput.

The DIG-79102 also has the ability to read and write to all standard DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. The drive performed relatively well when writing to DVD±R discs, taking less than 11 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. It also turned in some respectable times when writing to other types of media. However, the writing quality could have been better with some DVD+R DL discs. When it came to reading DVD's, the DIG-79102 was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 8x, but slowed to only 4x when reading DVD-Videos.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the DIG-79102 either. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read data CD's at speeds as high as 24x and ripped audio CD's at 20x. As a writer, the DIG-79102 performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R media and its writing quality was quite good.

DIGISTOR's portable Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. A truly portable drive, the DIG-79102 can be powered completely off a computer's USB bus. It also includes a built in battery for low power systems and for those times when you don't want to run down the battery on your laptop. To prevent buffer underruns, the DIG-79102 is equipped with a 2MB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. Last but not least, DIGISTOR has included a great software bundle that includes Arcsoft's TotalMedia Extreme 2 suite as well as their own REWIND archiving software.

The DIG-79102 is available now and can be purchased directly from DIGISTOR or through Amazon for $149. You can also save some money by buying the drive without the Arcsoft suite (DIG-79112) for $129 or any software at all (DIG-79092) for $99. (Editor's note: DIGISTOR is offering FREE 2 day shipping with coupon code FBVIP2DAY.)

Highs:

• Writes to BD-R, BD-R DL and BD-R LTH media at 6x
• Writes to BD-R XL media at 4x
• Writes to BD-RE, BD-RE DL and BD-RE TL media at 2x
• Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD±R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer BD-ROM's at 6x
• Reads BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and 16x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good DVD±R and CD-R writing quality
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• Powered off the USB bus
• Built-in battery provides extra power
• Includes Arcsoft TotalMedia Extreme 2 suite
• Includes REWIND archiving software for PC and Mac

Lows:

• Failed to write to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads DVD-Videos at only 4x
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R DL media
• High seek times
• Only a 2MB buffer
• Larger and heavier than other portable drives
• Does not support bitsetting