Philips DVDR16LS LightScribe DVD Burner


Review:
Philips
DVDR16LS
Reviewer:
Jan70
Provided by:
Philips Europe (NL)
Firmware:
P1.3 &
P1.4
Manufactured: January
2005

Philips Europe (NL)
was kind enough to send us their latest internal DVD-writer - the Philips
DVDR16LS. This drive is one on the first drives to support the new LightScribe
feature/technique. Further this drive supports 16x DVD+R writing, 8x DVD-R and
2.4x DVD+R9 DL writing technology, allowing dual layer discs of 8.5Gb to be
written. 

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Philips has enjoyed a
long history of developing optical drives and has in the past joined up with
BenQ for manufacturing and development. This strategic alliance seems to benefit
both parties. BenQ has the production facilities, while Philips designs
chipset/electronic components as well as being one of the main DVD+R/RW
developers.

Company
information:

We are sure that
most of you know Philips already, but let us take a look at some of the company
information found at www.philips.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

Royal
Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is one of the
world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of EUR 29
billion in 2003. It is a global leader in colour television sets, lighting,
electric shavers, medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, and
one-chip TV products. Its 165,300 employees in more than 60 countries are active
in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances,
semiconductors, and medical systems.

Global
Leader

Royal Philips
Electronics is tenth on Fortune's list of global top electronics corporations.
We are active in about 60 businesses, varying from consumer electronics to
domestic appliances and from security systems to semiconductors.

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We are a world
leader in digital technologies for television and displays, wireless
communications, speech recognition, video compression, storage and optical
products as well as the underlying semiconductor technology that makes these
breakthroughs possible.

We have world-class
solutions in lighting, medical systems (particularly scanning and other
diagnostic systems) and personal and domestic appliances where our investments
in design and new materials are critical to success.

Translated into
figures, we produce over 2.4 billion incandescent lamps every year, and some 30
million picture tubes.

Around 2.5 million
heart procedures (scans and interventional procedures) on X-ray equipment are
carried out each year using our technology.

One in seven
television sets worldwide contains a Philips picture tube, and 60 percent of all
telephones contain Philips products.

Thirty percent of
offices around the world are lit by Philips Lighting, which also lights 65
percent of the world's top airports, 55 percent of major soccer stadium, and 30
per cent of hospitals.

The strength of
Philips' global operations is reflected in its (value-based) leadership position
in many of the markets in which it is active:

World

Europe
Lighting

1

1

Consumer
Electronics (audio/video)

3

1

Monitors
(units)

4

3

Shavers

1

1

Steam irons

2

2

Semiconductors

9

4

Color picture
tubes

3

1

DVD
recorders

1

1

Medical
imaging equipment

2

1

Dental care
(electric toothbrushes)

2

2

If you are
interested in reading more company information, please visit
www.philips.com.

Drive specifications:


The listed
specification of this drive was found on the retail box:

Reading
Speed

  • DVD-ROM :
    16x
  • CD-ROM :
    40x 

Writing
Speed

  • DVD+R : 16x
  • DVD-R : 8x
  • DVD±RW : 4x
  • DVD+R Double Layer :
    2.4x
  • CD-R :
    40x 
  • CD-RW :
    24x

Reading
Compatibility

  • DVD-ROM
    (PTP, OTP)
  • DVD+R
  • DVD+RW
  • DVD+R
    DL
  • DVD-R
  • DVD-RW
  • CD-ROM
  • CD-R
  • CD-RW

Writing
Compatibility 

  • DVD+R
  • DVD+RW
  • DVD+R
    DL
  • DVD-R
  • DVD-RW
  • CD-R
  • CD-RW

Supported
Formats 

  • DVD+R
  • DVD+RW
  • DVD+R
    DL
  • DVD-R
  • DVD-RW
  • CD-Audio
  • Video
    CD
  • CD-Text
  • CD-ROM
    (XA)
  • CD-Bridge

Writing
Modes 

  • DVD and
    CD : Random write
  • TAO
  • DAO
  • Multisession
  • SAO
  • Packet
    Writing

Buffer

  • 2 MB

Access
time

  • DVD : 140ms
    (Random)
  • CD : 125ms
    (Random)

Interface

  • E-IDE
    ARAPI (UDMA 2)

Supported
OS

  • Windows
    2000 / XP

What's inside the
box?


On this page
we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the
drive and its technology.


Front


Back


Top


Bottom


Left side


Right Side

Below you will
see the contents of the retail box:

  • Internal
    drive itself
  • 3 Philips
    CD-R LightScribe medias
  • Nero
    Plug-in Rebate code

  • Nero 6 OEM LightScribe
    Edition
  • 4 Mounting
    screws
  • How to…?
    Manual/installation

Now it's time
to take a look at the drive itself:

The Philips
drive sets itself apart from most other drives we've had by providing a more
functional front bezel. The most interesting feature is the LEDs, which are both
fancy and useful. There are separate LEDs for showing if there is a CD or DVD
disc in the drive, as well as a long LED for showing the operation done. The
long LED glows red while writing and blue while reading. Look below for
examples.

The Philips
DVDR16LS is now writing a CD-R, the CD light is on and the function LED lights
red.

The Philips
DVDR16LS is now reading a DVD-Disc, the DVD light is on and the function led
lights blue.

If you try to eject the
disc while writing a CD or DVD the function LED will light
purple/pink.

On top of the
drive we found two stickers, and we can read it was manufactured in China, dated
January 2005.

On the back of
the drive there are from the left: digital audio connector, analogue audio
connector, pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master,
IDE connector, power connector.

We installed
the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info
tool:

 

From the
screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt.Rainier support and a larger
buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware P1.3 and was at the end of
this review updated to P1.4.

And another
shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

We do not
really find anything alarming here, but Mount Rainier and a larger buffer would
have been nice.

But let us continue
this review and see how it really performs.

On the next page we
will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features and the
included software…………


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