Samsung SE-406A Portable 6x Blu-ray Combo Drive

Model: Samsung SE-406A Portable 6x Blu-ray Combo Drive
Manufacturer: Samsung Electronics
Provided By: Samsung America

Samsung Electronics has been a leader in the electronics industry for more than 30 years. Since the introduction of their first television in 1970, this Korean company has grown to become one of the world's leading electronics manufacturers, offering everything from tiny semiconductors to large home appliances. Samsung is no stranger to the storage industry either. Along with an assortment of hard drive and flash based storage solutions, the company offers DVD and Blu-ray Disc drives for the the portable and desktop computer markets

Samsung recently introduced its first external slim Blu-ray combo drive, the SE-406A. This stylish and compact drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 4x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and can read Blu-ray Discs at speeds as high as 6x. The SE-406A is also USB powered and features support for Samsung's AV connectivity technology. When in AV connectivity mode, the drive can be plugged into a USB port on a TV or other AV device and used to play back the music, pictures and videos stored on a CD or DVD. To top it all off, the SE-406A comes with CyberLink's Blu-ray Disc Suite which includes software capable of playing Blu-ray movies in 3D.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what Samsung's new BD combo drive has to offer. Over the next few pages we'll take a look at the SE-406A's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is the SE-406A the best choice for the person on the go? Read on as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Samsung SE-406A Portable 6x Blu-ray Disc Combo Drive
• Software CD
• Quick Installation Guide
• USB Cable

Physical Features:

The drive Samsung sent us for this review was manufactured in May of 2011 and had firmware TS00. At the time of this review, this is the only firmware available for the SE-406A.

The SE-406A is one of the smallest Blu-ray combo drives to come through the 'Labs. Measuring 141 x 21.5 x 161 mm, it's not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. The SE-406A is also constructed out of a lightweight, black plastic which has an anti-fingerprint surface.

The SE-406A also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Blu-ray Disc" and "Samsung" logos, you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications as well as Ultra Speed CD-RW media. On the bottom, the SE-406A has four small rubber feet to keep it from sliding around when placed on a flat surface.

The LED and eject button are located along the front of the SE-406A. This LED lights up green when both reading and writing.

Along the rear, you can see the SE-406A's USB 2.0 interface. This connector not only transfers data but provides power for the drive.

Technical Specs:

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

AV Connectivity:

The SE-406A is the first Blu-ray drive from Samsung to offer support for their exclusive AV connectivity technology. This unique feature lets you connect the drive to a TV or other AV device via USB and play back the music, pictures and videos stored on a CD or DVD.

To put the SE-406A into AV connectivity mode, simply push the eject button twice within 1.5 seconds while the tray is open. When you do this, the drive will be recognized as a USB memory device rather than an optical drive.

Samsung's AV connectivity technology does have its limitations. It only works with CD and DVD (except DVD-RAM) media using UDF or ISO-9660 file systems. The number of files it can recognize is also limited to 330 and they must be located in the root directory or a sub directory just below the root. Furthermore, the number and size of the files determines the amount of time it takes the drive to recognize a disc. With a 4.3GB DVD, it can take up to two and a half minutes for the SE-406A to read the contents and convert it to FAT32 so that it can be used by AV devices.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Samsung's new BD combo drive is identified as a "TSSTcorp DVDWBD SE-406AB."

Nero also shows that the SE-406A has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Super Link buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the SE-406A 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 SE-406A is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Samsung'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 SE-406A's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the SE-406A 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 SE-406A'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 Samsung's new drive can read and write to most DVD formats and read back BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM discs.

The SE-406A 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 SE-406A's software bundle, Samsung has turned to CyberLink. The CD that comes with the drive contains the CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Suite which includes PowerProducer, Power2Go, PowerBackup, LabelPrint, MediaShow, InstantBurn and PowerDVD.

CyberLink PowerProducer 5 - With CyberLink's PowerProducer you can create your own movie discs quickly and easily. Right from the start, this wizard based software gives you a number of options to select from. From here you can choose to produce a new movie disc, edit an existing one or record video directly to DVD or BD.

PowerProducer lets you create a number of different movie discs. Looking at the menu below, you can choose to create a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc. The software also supports various disc capacities and formats including DVD-VR, DVD+VR and BDAV.

While you can capture your own video, PowerProducer gives you the ability to import video files in a number of different formats. Once added to your production, you can use the built-in editor to trim, merge or split your video clips. PowerProducer also allows you to set chapters within the video content and add your own custom menus, backgrounds, fonts and titles.

CyberLink Power2Go 6 - Power2Go is the main disc burning program included with the SE-406A. With this software, users can create various types of CD's and DVD's or make backups of existing discs. Power2Go also offers enhanced security features, allowing you to password protect and encrypt the names of files on your discs.

CyberLink PowerBackup 2.5 - If you're looking for a quick and easy way to backup your data, PowerBackup is the answer. Depending on your needs, PowerBackup can do full, differential, and incremental backups as well as fast stream-to-disc archiving.

Backup jobs can be scheduled to run at regular intervals so the data is always protected. PowerBackup also offers more advanced features like file filtering, compression and password protection.

CyberLink LabelPrint 2.5 - The SE-406A also comes with CyberLink's disc labeling software. With LabelPrint, you can design and print labels, covers and inlays in five easy steps. Just select your template type, disc information, text layout, background image and print destination. LabelPrint also supports LightScribe technology, allowing you to burn images and text onto the top of your discs.

CyberLink MediaShow 5 - With MediaShow, you can manage, enhance and share your photos and videos. The software features drag-and-drop functionality as well as automatic sorting, built-in search and face recognition technology. MediaShow can also be used to fix and enhance your photos and videos and create a slideshow which can be burned to DVD, turned into a screensaver or uploaded to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

CyberLink InstantBurn 5 - InstantBurn is CyberLink's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Nero's InCD, it allows you to use your CD, DVD or BD writer as if it was another hard drive or a huge floppy disk. Once formatted, you can cut, copy, and paste or rename files and folders on a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc.

CyberLink PowerDVD 9 - CyberLink's PowerDVD 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 Blu-ray Discs and other high-def formats including H.264, HD MPEG-2, and WMV-HD. PowerDVD 9 also supports Blu-ray 3D playback and with its support for BD-Live, you can access additional content via the Internet.

While small in size, Samsung's new portable BD combo drive isn't short on features. Along with a great looking design, the SE-406A offers some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit. The drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. More importantly, it can read Blu-ray Discs at speeds as high as 6x. Along with a great software bundle from CyberLink, the SE-406A includes features like Samsung's AV connectivity technology, Super Link buffer underrun protection and a USB 2.0 interface that provides power for the drive. With all of this, it's easy to see why the Samsung SE-406A gets a solid 9 out of 10 for its features.

Samsung's new portable BD combo drive 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 SE-406A comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

As you can see, this menu is pretty straight forward. To install the writing software, you will want to choose the "Install CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Suite" option. After selecting your preferred language and entering your customer information, the setup program will automatically install the entire suite onto your computer.

Documentation:

Most of the SE-406A's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. While I'm not usually a big fan of this sort of thing, Samsung has gone the extra mile here. Instead of just throwing a few PDF files onto the CD, Samsung has created an easy to navigate, HTML based manual.

The manual starts out with a few pages worth of safety precautions. It continues on by going over the buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the SE-406A. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are explained very well. This section of the manual also includes information like the drive's system requirements and a list of recommended media.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the SE-406A. The instructions are pretty brief since there really isn't much to do other than plug in the USB cable and turn the computer on. Nevertheless, Samsung has provided a few diagrams showing how to hook the drive up to a PC or TV. The manual finishes up by going over the basic operation of the SE-406A. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, there is a short troubleshooting section containing a list of common problems as well as their solutions. Last but not least, Samsung has provided a page full of specifications for the SE-406A.

The SE-406A also comes with a small "Quick Installation Guide". This small, fold out guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, Samsung has included a number of diagrams showing how the drive should be hooked up to your PC or TV and change to AV Connectivity mode. For most people, the "Quick Installation Guide" will be all they'll need to get the SE-406A up and running.

For ease of installation, the SE-406A is hard to beat. Thanks to its bus-powered, USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a single cable. If you need help for some reason, the documentation Samsung has provided is more than sufficient. With this in mind, the BP06LU10 scores a solid 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 Blu-ray Disc Combo drives, the performance tests are normally broken down into five sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write and BD read. 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 WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 are 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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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.

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.

Samsung's portable Blu-ray combo drive gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 10x on the inside of the CD and was able to reach 22x on the outside of the disc. While this is pretty decent for a drive with a maximum read speed of 24x, the SE-406A's access time and overall score were not as good as some of the other portable drives we've looked at.

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 SE-406A performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The drive started reading at 18.10x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 24.47x. 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 SE-406A was a little slower when reading CD-R media. Nevertheless, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 24.24x in our tests.

While Samsung's new BD combo drive had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media, it slowed down considerably when reading it back. As you can see, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of only 11.35x.

 

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 SE-406A 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 the Samsung SE-406A supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

 

For a portable drive, the SE-406A did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 10.97x and reached a maximum speed of 24.69x.

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 SE-406A was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 24.41x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Samsung's portable BD combo drive completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 17.61x. 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 SE-406A was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections 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 SE-406A 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 10.98x and accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 24.21x at the end of the session. This gave Samsung's new drive an average writing speed of about 18.74x.

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 SE-406A 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 pretty good for a portable drive.

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-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 

Moser Baer 52x

Ritek 52x

TDK (CMC) 52x

The SE-406A'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 InstantBurn from CyberLink. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the SE-406A uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive uses a total of four "zones." The SE-406A starts writing at 10x and jumps to 16x at about the 18 minute mark. When the drive reaches the 42 minute mark, it changes to 20x and then to 24x at the 65 minute mark.

Samsung's portable Blu-ray combo drive did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:08 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:02 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc. Erasing wasn't a problem for the SE-406A either. In our tests, it took 27 seconds to do a quick erase and 5:43 to fully erase the disc.

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 SE-406A performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.42x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.26x. 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
Samsung SE-406A	6.19x	3.42x	8.27x	148ms	173ms	271ms	15%	15%	28%	52%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Samsung SE-406A	6.20x	3.42x	8.28x	162ms	188ms	292ms	16%	16%	30%	51%

 
Verbatim DVD-R DL 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Samsung SE-406A	4.74x	2.62x	6.31x	140ms	152ms	275ms	8%	16%	n/a	n/a

The SE-406A had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to read DVD-R and DVD-RW media at 8x, but slowed to 6x when reading DVD-R DL discs.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Samsung SE-406A	4.67x	2.99x	5.05x	274ms	167ms	290ms	7%	29%	39%	n/a

Samsung'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 1.6GB 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
Samsung SE-406A	6.19x	3.42x	8.27x	151ms	167ms	270ms	16%	15%	28%	52%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Samsung SE-406A	6.21x	3.43x	8.30x	168ms	203ms	310ms	16%	17%	31%	50%

Verbatim DVD+R DL 

The SE-406A's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. The drive read DVD+R and DVD+RW media at 8x and DVD+R DL discs at 6x.

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	8x
Samsung SE-406A	6.12x	3.38x	8.18x	134ms	154ms	263ms	12%	14%	25%	48%

The SE-406A didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 3.38x and reached a maximum read speed of 8.18x. Samsung's new drive was also relatively quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 6x.

To see how well the SE-406A 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 PowerDVD. 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 and InstantBurn 5:

To test the DVD writing performance of Samsung'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.

The SE-406A uses P-CAV, or Partial CAV, when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Samsung's new drive starts writing at 3.46x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at about the 4.1GB minute mark.

The SE-406A 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.

The SE-406A 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 SE-406A, 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? 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 SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) 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 SE-406A'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 SE-406A's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. 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 SE-406A, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The SE-406A performed as expected when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive took 25:52 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 26:27 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The SE-406A's writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with Verbatim's DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. When tested with CD Speed, the error rates were a bit high throughout some sections of the discs.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-ROM:

To test the SE-406A'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.

 

While the SE-406A is rated at 6x when reading single layer BD-ROM discs, its speeds are limited to only 2.2x when reading AACS protected titles. According to Samsung, this was done to minimize the noise during playback.

Samsung's BD combo drive had no problems playing back The Fifth Element and The Simpsons Movie using the bundled version of PowerDVD. 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

Samsung's new drive had no problems reading BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media. In our tests, the SE-406A read BD-R discs at 6x and both BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 4x.

Performance Revisited:

Samsung's new portable BD combo drive performed as expected throughout most of our tests. The SE-406A had no problems playing back Blu-ray movies and was relatively quick when reading BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media. The drive also did reasonably well in our CD and DVD read tests. While its access times were a little higher than I would have liked, it read both data and audio CD's at 24x and single layer data DVD's at 8x. Writing CD's and DVD's wasn't a problem for the SE-406A 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 things considered, the Samsung SE-406A gets a solid 8 out of 10 for its performance.

The SE-406A is a good example of what we've come to expect from Samsung's optical drives. This compact and versatile BD combo drive offers good looks, a number of useful features and some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit.

Using the bundled software, the SE-406A played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including those protected by BD+ and with BD-Live enabled features. The drive also performed fairly well in our transfer rate tests, reading BD-R discs at 6x and both BD-RE and BD-R DL media at a respectable 4x. Unfortunately, the SE-406A slowed to only 2x when reading AACS protected BD-ROM's. While this doesn't have any effect on movie playback, there are better drives out there if you want to rip BD movies.

For a portable drive, the SE-406A performed very well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media, taking about 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 SE-406A was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 8x and most other types of recordable DVD media at 6x.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the SE-406A either. While the drive's access times were a little higher than I would have liked, it read both data and audio CD's at 24x. As a writer, the SE-406A performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R and CD-RW media and its writing quality was quite good.

Samsung's portable BD combo drive also has its share of features. A truly portable drive, the SE-406A is powered completely off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can watch a Blu-ray movie or burn a DVD wherever you go. The SE-406A also supports Samsung's AV connectivity technology which lets you connect the drive to an AV device via USB and play back the music, pictures and videos stored on a CD or DVD. To top it all off, Samsung has included a great software bundle from CyberLink which includes software capable of playing Blu-ray movies in 3D.

The Samsung SE-406A is available now in your choice of black or white and can be purchased from online vendors like Newegg.com for about $80.

Highs:

• Reads single layer BD-ROM's and BD-R media at 6x
• Reads BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 4x
• 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 and DVD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R media at 8x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 6x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good CD and DVD±R writing quality
• Features Super Link buffer underrun protection
• Supports Samsung's AV connectivity technology
• Compact and lightweight design
• Powered off the USB bus
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Anti-fingerprint surface
• Includes CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Suite
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R  DL media
• Reads AACS protected BD-ROM's at only 2x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• High access times