Product Reviews

Until recently, DVD writers made you wait anything up to half an hour for a disc to burn. Not any more. In the past few months prices have plummeted and drives have got much faster.

But speed and price aren't the only concerns when buying a DVD writer. Until recently it was also important to get one that used the right disc format. DVD-R was an early favourite in the UK, but then DVD+R shot past it, with discs capable of being written at much higher speeds. These days, there's little to choose between the two. DVD-R speeds have caught up. And while many early set-top DVD players wouldn't play DVD+R discs, any player bought after 2001 should play either format.

But DVD-R and DVD+R aren't the only formats. DVD-RAM was the original writable DVD format, but it couldn't be read by set-top DVD players. It's now only used by archivists and video editors. If you plan to make regular backups of plain data files to DVD, it's worth considering, as these discs are far more robust than normal DVDs.

There's also the new DVD+R9 'dual-layer' format. This allows just under 9GB of information to be

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stored on one side of the disc. With such a wide range of choices on offer, things can quickly become confusing. This brings us on to LG's drive. It supports everything, so any disc you buy will work with it. It's also incredibly fast.

LG's GSA-4163B can write both DVD+R and DVD-R discs at 16-speed. It's only recently that 16x discs have become available. These can record information at over 20MB per second. So instead of waiting one hour to fill a disc (like the bad old days) it took just four minutes and 44 seconds to write our 4.35GB of test files to a 16x DVD+R. The drive also writes DVD-R discs at 16x, though there are currently only 8x discs on the market. Still, a speed of seven minutes and four seconds for this test was also fast.

There's a similar situation with the re-writable formats. This is the first drive we've seen that supports 8xDVD+RW discs and 6xDVD-RW discs. The trouble is, only 4x versions of each are currently available, so write times still took almost 14 minutes. Better news is that a 2.4x dual-layer disc can be written at 4x, meaning our 7.89GB of test files took 25 minutes flat. The only minor disappointment was that our 5x-rated DVD-RAM disc took only a minute less to finish our 4.35GB test.

So it's fast and it deals with every format at best-on-the-market speeds. The only downside to the LG is that it's a bare 'OEM' drive, designed for PC manufacturers, so it comes with nothing - no software, cables or screws (though you can just use your old ones if you're upgrading). Luckily, Scan.co.uk will include a copy of Nero Express 6 for an extra £3, including VAT. Overall, with such speed and versatility for just £52, it's a definite bargain.