- Specifications

Model Name	SD-R5112 Desktop
Supported Disc Formats	Read: DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, CD-DA, CD+(E)G, CD-MIDI, CD-TEXT, CD-ROM XA, MIXED MODE CD, CD-I, CD-I Bridge (Photo-CD, Video-CD), Multi-session CD (Photo-CD, CD-EXTRA, Portfolio, CD-R, CD-RW), CD-R, CD-RW, High-Speed CD-RW Write: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, High-Speed CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW
Interface	ATAPI
Average Random Seek Time	DVD: 120ms (Typ) CD: 105ms (Typ)
Buffer Capacity	2 MB
MTBF	100,000 hours
Mounting Orientation	Horizontal and Vertical
External Dimensions (W x H x D)	146 mm x 41.5 mm x 189.5 mm (excluding bezel)
Weight	1.0 kg

As you can see from the table above, Toshiba supports writing for DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW media both. The burn procedure can easily approach the 4x speed under CLV with DVD-R and 2X with DVD-RW media. As far as it concerns the CD part the writing speed for the CD-R is 16X P-CAV and 10X P-CAV for CD-RW Ultra Speed discs. The internal memory of the drive is 2MB while on the dimension part is half height in comparison with the standard size.

Toshiba SD-R5112 uses the RPC II region control, allows user to change the drive's region 5 times in total. For our tests, we set the region code to 2 (Europe). The drive supports reading of all the DVD recordable/rewritable discs including DVD-RAM but not Mount Rainier.

- Unpacking

The retail package includes the Toshiba IDE drive, one 4.7GB 4x DVD-R blank media by Traxdata, one 700MB 48x CD-R by Verbatim, a quick installation guide , a marker, an audio cable and mounting screws.

The package also includes the WinDVD 4 software for playback and navigate, Pinnacle INSTANT CD/DVD v.7 for authoring and Pinnacle STUDIO v.8 for editing.

The front panel of the drive is colored in ordinary gray with an eject/load button, a busy led indicator which is green at the reading/writing process and the emergency eject hole.

On the left of the disc loading tray you can see the CD-RW format logo while the DVD+RW format logo is placed in the middle of the tray.

On the rear panel you can see the analog output, the ATAPI interface connector and the power input.

The mainboard of the drive is available in the following picture. You can enlarge the photo by clicking on it but please be patient while it's loading.

Below is the main chipset of the Toshiba drive.

- Installation

Toshiba drive was connected to our test PC and was identified as "TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R5112" under WinXP. All tests were done with firmware revision v1031.

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2. CD Reading Tests

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CD Reading Tests

- Pressed CD results

On this test we used an 80 min data pressed disc and the latest version of NeroCdSpeed for testing the reading performance of the drive.

The disc was read under CAV mode and the reported start speed was 18.57X while the average speed was 31.52X. On the Seek times test with the same media the drive needed 197ms for the full seek mode and 101ms for the random seek mode.

- CDR Media results

On this test we used the same version of NeroCdSpeed with the previous and a 80 min cdr disc instead of the pressed disc.

The contents of both discs are the same but as we can see from the screenshot the performance of the drive was slower with the cd-r than with the pressed disc although the reading method of the drive was again CAV . Toshiba SDR-5112 starts reading the disc at 17.89X, a value that is much lower than the 18.57X of the pressed disc. The end speed is 41.77X and the reported average speed is a bit slower with the current tested disc at 31.44X. On the Seek times test the drive needed 197ms for the full seek time test and 105ms for the Random seek time test.

- HS-RW Media

For this test we used a Mitsubishi 24X HS-RW media. The drive, as we can see from the NeroCdSpeed photos, gave an average reading speed at 16.22X while on the Seek times test the results are familiar with the pressed disc with random seek time at 104ms and 188ms for the full seek mode.

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3. CD Error Correction Tests

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Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we check the drive's behavior when it comes to reading scratched / defected discs. The test discs that we are using are the ABEX Test Discs series from ALMEDIO.

- ABEX TCD-721R

Errors total	978630
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 49784	Avg: -73.1 dB(A)	Max:-12.4 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 9279	Avg:4.6 Samples	Max: 579 Samples
Skips Samples	Num:46	Avg: 6.5 Samples	Max: 12 Samples
Total Test Result	62.8 points (of 100.0 maximum)
C2 Accuracy	97.7 %

Toshiba drive had average quality results with the 721R Abex test disc, although the reported c2 accuracy of the drive was adequate. The 721Abex test disc is hard to be read accurate by most drives . The average error loudness was -73.1 dB(A) and according to EAC author, such level is acceptable and does not lead to audible problems in the output signal. However there are some high peaks, as we can see on the graph above (max -12.4 dB(A)), that may create some problems. The drive had to mute few samples but also skipped an average number of 6.5samples. The total score of the drive is 62.8 points out of 100, while the C2 Accuracy is 97.7%

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total	Num: 44
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 12	Avg: -85.3 dB(A)	Max:-62.5 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result	93.1 points (of 100.0 maximum)
C2 Accuracy	100.0 %

On this test, Toshiba SD-R5112 had a good performance, no samples were skipped or muted. The average error loudness is -85.3dB(A) and the total score of the drive is 93.1 points. The C2 Accuracy on this test is 100%

- Conclusion

Test Disc	Reading Speed	Score
ABEX TCD-721R	Max	62.8
ABEX TCD-726		93.1
Average Score		77.95

Combining the two scores from the 721R and 726 test discs we estimate an average total score of 77.95 points out of 100. The behavior i shighly acceptable.

- CDSpeed Quality Test

As we can see from the photo above the C2 accuracy of the drive is average at 76.13% while the quality score is 82.0. The software reports a lot of c2 errors while 250021 of them where missed. Nero Cd speed also report 297 Sync errors.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction / Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively difficult tests. These tracks are referred as Check Level-1 through Check Level-5.

The files are reproduced (played) through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone coming out from the speakers is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested device.

Each file was played 5 times. A 5/5 score donates that the file was played flawlessly without problems.

Toshiba successfully passed the first 4 Check Levels of the test. The performance reveals very good sound reproduction and error correction. The fifth level includes an error size of 1.5mm, and the drive gave back audible clicks.

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4. DVD Reading Tests

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DVD reading tests

- Single Layer DVD-ROM

On this test we used a single layer DVD-ROM. The reading procedure started at 5.18x and finished at 12.56x, having an average speed at 9.39x under CAV mode. On the seek times test the drive need 194ms for the full seek mode and 108ms for the random seek mode.

- Dual Layer PTP DVD-ROM

On the dual layer DVD-Rom reading test , the disc was read under CAV mode. NeroCDSpeed reports that the average reading speed was 6.28X, while the speed at the end of each layer was 8.39X. NeroCDSpeed reports that the seek times test of the dual layer dvd-rom are 212ms for the Full seek mode, 124ms for the 1/3 seek and 111 for the random seek mode.

- Dual Layer OTP DVD-ROM

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer of the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks toward the inner part of the disc.

The performance of Toshiba is very familiar to the previous tests, with reported average speed at 6.24x. The seek times values of the OTP dual layer DVD-ROM can be easily compared with the single layer DVD-ROM seek times. The full seek time is 196ms for the OTP dvd and 194ms for the single layer DVD-ROM.

- DVD Ripping Tests

We measured the DVD Ripping speed using the "Matrix" DVD Video title and the DVD Decrypter software.

Tested Drive	Average Ripping Speed
Toshiba SD-R5112	9.232 KB/s

The ripping process finished after 18:55 minutes with average speed at 6.7X. The maximum ripping speed according to DVDDecrypter is 8.4X. This is a very good speed.

- DVD Recordable/Rewritable Tests

The chart below shows the Nero CDSpeed results with the following media

• DVD-R
• DVD-RW
• DVD+R
• DVD+RW

On the graph above we can see the average reading speed of all available DVD writable discs. Toshiba SD-R5112 supports 5x maximum reading speed for all the DVD rewritable/recordable formats. All discs were read under CAV mode with almost the same average speed.

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5. DVD Error Correction Tests

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DVD Error Correction Tests

- Single Layer media

ABEX TDR-821

This is a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM with a 4.7GB capacity, in which there are scratches with dimensions from 0.4 to 3.0 mm. The following transfer rate picture comes from CDVD Benchmark v1.21.

The disc was read without problems. Toshiba finished the test fast, but had to slow down momentarily at the most effected area of the disc. No errors were reported.

ABEX TDR-825

This is also a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM with a 4.7GB capacity. The data structure of the disc is exactly the same as the TDR-821, with the difference that there not scratches on it but defected areas with dimensions from 0.5 to 1.1 mm. There also fingerprints sized from 65 to 75 micro meters.

Again the test was completed fast and without any read errors. The drive bypass the effected areas of the discs without slowing down and the reported end speed was about 12X.

- Dual Layer media

ABEX TDR-841

This is a 8.5GB dual layer, single sided DVD-ROM disc with artificial scratches with dimensions from 0.4 to 3.0mm, in both layers.

Both layers of the PTP DVD-ROM disc were accurately read. The drive gave back the same performance with the 821 single layer DVD-ROM slowing down momentarily at the end of the effected area on both layers. Once again no errors were reported.

ABEX TDR-845

The disc is a single sided, dual layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of 8.5GB. The only difference between the TDR-845 and the TDR-841 is that the first includes defected areas and fingerprints. The dimensions of the defected areas are ranged from 0.5 to 1.1 mm and the fingerprints are sized from 65 to 75 micro meters.

The TDR-845 test disc was read accurate by the Toshiba drive, which ignored the defected areas and the test finished successfully.

ABEX TDV-541

The TDV-541 is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc, with capacity of 8.5GB. The disc is based upon the TDV-540 series which is designed for inspection and adjustment of DVD-VIDEO players. The discs check the layer switch operation from layer 0 to layer 1 and also include test pictures and test signals for DVD sound files. The current TDV-541 checks also the error correction capabilities of the drive and includes scratches from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.

This disc was harder to be read. Although the first layer was read accurate, at the beginning of the second layer the speed was decreased from 8.2X to 6.2X. That speed is kept for a few sectors and then the drive spin up again to 7X and the test finish without reading errors. Because of this performance we check playability of the specific DVD Video disc with Power DVD software. We have to admit that there were no problems during the movie and the playback finished successfully.

ABEX TDV-545

The TDV-545 disc is based on the TDV-540 series. It is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc with a capacity of 8.5GB. The TDV-545 includes artificial black dots on the data surface, sized from 0.4 to 1.0 mm. It has also 65 - 75 micro meters fingerprints.

On this test the drive read the contents of the disc without any read errors. The reported average speed was 6.29X.

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6. Protected Disc Tests

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Protected Disc Tests

- Reading Tests

For this test we used a various of copy protected discs and tried to backup them to the hard disk with Alcohol 120%. In that way we could test the speed of Toshiba SD-R5112 on the image making process.We used each time the default settings of Alcohol according to the protection of each disc.

Game Title	Protection Scheme	Duration
PSX "NBA Jam Extreme"	Lybcrypt	1:00 min
VRally II	SecuROM v.2	13:00 min
The Sims Superstar	SafeDisc v2.9	2:50 min

From the above table we summarize that Toshiba performed fast with the psx and SafeDisc discs. The drive needed 60 sec to make an image of the psx game and 110sec for the SafeDisc v2.90. On the other hand the drive needed 13min to finish the image making process with the SecuRom v.2 protected disc, but this does not affect the validness of the image.

- Writing Tests

After the end of the image making process we checked the ability of the Toshiba writer to make copies of the specific games. We used Alcohol 120% for the writing process with the default settings according to the protection of each game. We repeat each image writing process twice, once with the EMF option of Alcohol enabled and once with EMF disabled. Toshiba SD-R5112 gave us valid copies of all the games we test with and without the EMF option enabled.

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7. DAE Tests

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DAE Tests

- Pressed and CDR AudioCD results

On this test we used a pressed and a CD-R audio disc, with the same contents, to test the ripping speed of the drive with audio discs.

After the end of the test, as we can see from the graph above, the drive performed in the same way with the pressed and the CD-R tested discs. The reported ripping speed was 15.5X for the pressed disc and 15.3 for the CD-R disc.

- Advanced DAE Quality

Toshiba after the end of CD-Speed Advanced Dae quality test got 87.2 out of 100.0. As we can see from the photo below the drive doesn't supports reading Lead in, Lead out but only CD Text and Subchannel Data. Also the software reports that the drive can be safely used for on the fly coping up to 12X. Finally we result that the average reading speed of the drive is 15.61X

- Ripping of 99mins AudioCDs

Tested drives	Ripping up to
Toshiba SD-R5112	94:57min

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 2 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with EAC) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony Key2Audio (Celine Dion - New Day Has Come)

* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island)

	Key2Audio	CDS200
	EAC
Toshiba SD-R5112	Recognize but cannot playback/rip	Recognize but cannot playback/rip

Toshiba SD-R5112 is not compatible with protected audio discs.The drive manage to read the contents of both discs we test but cannot playback or rip them.

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8. CD-R Recording Tests

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CD Recording Tests

We used the latest version of Nero Burning Rom. Toshiba SDR-5112 supports the 16X, 12X, 10X, 8X and 4X Z-CLV writing speeds.

The following screenshot comes from Nero CDSpeed writing simulation test with a blank 700MB CD-R disc. The drive starts writing at 11.90X and accelerates to 15.76x for the rest of the test. According to CDSpeed the average writing speed with a 80min disc was 15.09X.

- Recording Times

We created a 80min data compilation in Nero Burning Rom and we burned the same media brand in all available writing speeds with Toshiba. The results are illustrated on the photo below.

The following table comes from Nero after successful burning at 16X with several media.

- Other features

Overburning	Up to 95min
CD text reading/writing	Yes

The drive is capable to overburn CDs up to 95min and also can read and write CD text.

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9. Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

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Writing Quality Tests

We used 80min 48X CD-R media by Taiyo Yuden and burned the same AudioCD project at 8X,12X and 16X. In the following page you can see the 3T Pit & Land Jitter graphs.

- 3T Pit results

From the graph above we can see the Pit Jitter values of all written discs with the Toshiba SD-R5112 drive. As we can see the 8X and 16X discs gave back low results, under 35ns. The graph also shows that the 12X disc gave the highest results with higher value at 49ns, at around the 40min of the disc.

The average 3T Jitter values for all recording speeds are illustrated in the following table.

On the graph above we can see the average Pit Jitter of all written discs with the Toshiba drive. As we mention before the highest Pit Jitter comes from the 12X disc that gave an average score of 41.90ns , a value that is over the 35ns RedBook limit.

- 3T Land results

The Land Jitter values of the same discs are shown on the graph above. Just like the Pit measurement the highest value comes from the 12X written speed. Once again the area from 40min to 60min the disc gave high Jitter that reach the 49ns.

The average 3T Land results are slightly lower than in the previous measurements of the 3T Pit Jitter. However, the results are good for 8x and 16x since the jitter was kept lower than 35msec for all the discs. For 12x the performance was almost the same with the previous test with a maximum value again at 49ns.

- Summary

The average 3T Pit and Land jitter values are below the 35nsec standard for 8X and 16X speed. For the 12X speed both values are above 40 and with a max value at 49 which mean a slight possibility for more C1 errors. The CAV writing strategy, followed for 8X and 16X writing speeds, along with the low supported speeds maintain low jitter and allow us to expect high writing quality.

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10. Re-Writing Tests

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Re-Writing Tests

We used Nero Burning Rom for writing CDs in the maximum RW speed. Toshiba SD-R5112 supports 10X rewritable speed.

Toshiba drive starts reading the RW media at 9.95X and kept this speed for the rest of the test. The writing method of the drive with the HS-RW was CLV.

- HS-RW Packet Writing Tests

On the first step of the Packet Writing test we made a quick format on a Mitsubishi 24X HS-RW media with Nero. The formatted disc had 530 MB of free space. We used Incd to copy a 403 MB file (403.147 kb) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC as the writers) to the formatted RW media through the Windows explorer (drag and drop) and then we reversed the process.

	Average Writing	Average Reading
Toshiba SDR-5112	6:00 min	4:08 min

The Toshiba finished the quick format test at 20sec. The writing process with Incd finished after 360sec which is a slow result proportionally to the writing speed of the drive, while the reading test was faster by finishing after 248sec.

- DVD-RW Packet Writing Tests

On this test we used the same 412MB file just like the CD-R test.The tested media was a Ricoh 4X DVD-RW. The reading / writing speeds reported below were measured while the DVD-RW background formatting was in progress.

The results of the packet writing process with the DVD-RW media are shown on the table above. The comparison between the CD-RW and the DVD-RW discs shows that in both tests the reading process finished after almost the same time while the writing process was faster with the DVD-RW tested disc.

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11. DVD Recording Tests

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TOSHIBA SD-R5112 - Page 11

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

Toshiba supports DVD-R and DVD-RW writing. The maximum supported speeds is 4X and 2x respectively.

The following pictures come from Nero. The first one is from NeroCdSpeed and shows the writing behavior of Toshiba with a 4X Ricoh DVD-R media while on the second one, we can see the burning process of a same brand disc.

We used NeroBurningRom to write a 4316MB of DVD-Video. After 14:22 sec Nero reported that the burn process completed successfully at 4X.

We used NeroBurningRom to write a 4316MB of DVD-Video. After 28:29 sec Nero reported that the burn process completed successfully at 2X with a Ricoh DVD-RW media.

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12. Writing Quality Tests - PI / PO Error Measurements

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TOSHIBA SD-R5112 - Page 12

KProbe PI/PO measurements

In the following screenshots you can see the PI/PO scans for various 4X DVD-R and DVD-RW media, recorded with Toshiba SDR-5112 at the maximum speed.

The software we used for the measurements is the KProbe, and the reader is LiteOn XJ-HD-165H. The specific methodology is very depended on the drive we use as a reader, and the reliability of the PI/PO provided output is also not technically confirmed. As a result, we cannot safely come up with absolute results, but we are allowed to compare the behavior of the drive with various DVD recordable/rewritable media.

The recordable discs we used come from Mitsubishi Chemicals, Pioneer, Ritek and Princo. More information about each disc type is available in the bottom of the page.

• MC 4x DVD-R

• PIONEER 4xDVD-R

• RITEK 4xDVD-R

• PRINCO 4x DVD-R

• MC 4xDVD-RW

• PIONEER 4xDVD-RW

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13. Conclusion

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Conclusion

Toshiba SD-R5112
Pros	Cons
Good error correction with CD and DVD Fast CD reader Low seek times with CD/DVD Very good DVD writing quality Very fast DVD-Video ripping Overburning up to 95min Supports CD-Text (reading/writing) Working SafeDisc v.2.90 backups Read subchanell data Read DVD-RAM	Doesn't support Mount Rainer Cannot playback/rip protected Audio CDs High 3T jitter CD-R at 12X DAE speed could be higher DVD±RW reading speed could be higher

Toshiba SD-R5112 supports maximum writing speed 4x for DVD-R and 2x for the DVD-RW format. This means that the drive needs approximately 14min to burn a 4.4GB file. The drive was fully compatible with all the media we tested and the writing process was done at the maximum speed of 4x that the drive supports. The quality of the recorded DVD discs was measured with KProbe v1.1.23 software. The results are almost the same with all discs, even with -RW, although with the PRINCO 4x DVD-R media the average PI and PO rates was increased in comparison to the others.

On the DVD reading part Toshiba supports 9.39x (average) for a single layer and 6.2x for a dual layer DVD-ROM. The transfer rate tests confirmed the specifications of the drive, although we would prefer the drive to read DVD-RW media at a higher speed than the 6x CAV. The drive was also fast on the DVD-Video ripping process.

The DVD error correction of the drive is very good and this is confirmed by the reading performance of the Abex scratched/defected DVD-ROM media that were read accurately without read errors. Although with Abex TDV-541, which includes scratches from 0.4 to 3.0 mm, the drive found it difficult to read it and slowed down the speed at the second layer of the disc. However this behavior was not confirmed with a playback of the DVD movie through Power DVD software. Playback finished without problems.

Toshiba is also a reliable 16/10/40 CD recorder, providing fast reading and low seek times. The drive supports CAV writing strategy for all the supported burning speeds offering competitive recording times, adequate writing quality, with an exception when recording at 12x, where the 3T jitter was increased.

The average speed for DAE could also be higher than the supported 15x. In addition, Key2Audio and Cactus Data Shield 200 audio protections are not supported. On the other hand, the majority of your defected discs will be probably read accurately. Although assigning the error correction limits is risky, we could say that the drive handled successfully scratches sized up to 1.125mm.

Another important issue, however, is the ability of the drive to backup protected discs. Toshiba managed to make working back-ups even of the latest SafeDisc v2.90. On the plus side is the fact that the drive supports RAW DAO 96 writing, CD Text and reading of 95min discs.

According to Toshiba, and our Nero Info Tool, the drive also supports DVD-RAM media.

Toshiba SD-R5112 is available in the market at a very attractive price of $105~160. It is a very good 4x drive but we are still expecting the answer of Toshiba against the competition of 8x DVD recorders. If the recording speeds is not your major concern, the SD-R5112 will probably cover your basic needs.