Digital Trends

Philips DVDRW228

March 3rd, 2003 | by Dan Gaul

Introduction

With features such as Seamless Link buffer underrun protection and Thermo-Balanced Writing, Philips initial DVD+R/RW offering appears to stand out from the crowd. Philips, a major player in the DVD+R/RW arena, attempts to sway consumers away from the DVD-R/RW format with their new DVDRW228 DVD+R/RW drive.

Features

The beauty of DVD+R/RW drives is that support for the new DVD+R discs is now more available. What's good about that you may ask? Well, the only advantage is that the price of media is cheaper, about half the cost of current DVD recording media. The drawbacks: Storage capacity is the same for both DVD+R and DVD+RW media, limited to 4.7GB of storage. If you plan on using this drive for data storage or back up purposes, it's my recommendation that you use DVD+RW media. DVD+R are great for recording media though, like your home movies.

I mentioned Seamless Link and Thermo-Balanced Writing above. Both of these technologies are Philips exclusive technologies and offer some great advantages.

Seamless Link is a buffer underrun technology that protects the disc during the writing process. Philip's states that the Seamless link does not actually prevent the occurrence of buffer underruns but rather acts to prevent buffer underruns from wasting a disc. If it is not a speed or quality optimization algorithm then how does it work? “Seamless Link constantly monitors the writer buffer level. If this level drops below a threshold value, the writing process is stopped in a controlled way. This means that the data stream from the buffer to the disc is halted, and it allows the buffer to be filled up again. The exact location on the disc, where the write operation was stopped, is stored in the drive's internal memory. In the meantime, the buffer level is continuously monitored and as soon as the buffer is full again Seamless Link resumes the writing process from the exact spot where the writing stopped. This type of writing eliminates the gap, which occurs between two individual writing operations during traditional writing. Hence the name Seamless Link.”

Thermo-Balanced Writing (TBW) Philips claims, assures data integrity by physically testing each disc, then tuning the output of the record laser and choosing the recording speed to suit each disc. It always chooses the safest but fastest speed to record for each disc used. The DVDRW228 is the first drive from Philips to incorporate this technology, but all future drives will also have TBW. TBW only applies to DVD+R/RW and not to CD-R/RW burns.

In short, these two technologies combined provide a powerful and comforting means of burning successful DVD's with confidence that you won't have a failed burn. I have yet to have a failed burn myself out of about 10 DVD burns of various types (media and data.)

Of course, another stand out feature is the ability to burn CD-R/RW discs at 12x10x respectively. The drive also reads at a maximum of 32x. Typical writing methods for CD-R/RWs are available: Track-at-Once, Disc-at-Once, Session-at-Once, and Pack Writing.

As for looks, the best part is the long led strip on the front of the drive that glows blue when reading a disc and red when writing. There are also LED indicators for what type of disc is inserted in the drive, CD or DVD. There is a headphone jack and volume control on the left side of the face and an extremely large eject button on the right. The eject button may look somewhat weird due to its large size, but I found it actually pretty solid and easy to use since you can't miss it.

A warranty is included with the drive with a guarantee against defects due to faulty workmanship or materials for a period of one year after purchase date. The warranty includes parts and labor.