Toshiba SD-R5372

Toshiba entered the 16X DVD market, although with a slight delay, releasing its latest model the SD-R5372.

The brand new drive supports 16X recording for the DVD+R and DVD-R formats, 5X DVD+R DL, 48X CD-R and 24X US-RW.

The drive's specifications are summarized below:

- Specifications

Average Random Access Time:
DVD-ROM (16X)	120ms
CD-ROM (40X)	100ms
DVD-RAM (2X)	200ms
Average Random Seek Time
DVD-ROM (12X)	115ms
CD-ROM (40X)	100ms
DVD-RAM (2X)	160ms
Sustained Data Transfer Rate:
DVD-ROM	21,632KByte/s
DVD±R	16,224KByte/s
DVD+R DL	10,816KByte/s
CD-ROM/-R	7,200 KByte/s
DVD-RAM	2,704 KByte/s
Burst:
Multi Word DMA Mode 2 (ATAPI)	16.7MB/sec
PIO Mode 4 (ATAPI)	16.7MB/sec
Ultra DMA	33.3MB/sec
Physical Characteristics:
Dimensions	1.63" x 5.75" x 7.46" (41.5mm x 146mm x 189.5mm)
Weight	2.20 lbs. (1.0kg)
Supported Disc Formats:
Write	DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, CD-R, CD-RW, High Speed CD-RW, Ultra Speed CD-RW
Read	DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, CD-DA, CD+G, CD-MIDI, CD-TEXT, CD-ROM, 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)
Environmental:
Operation Temperature	41°F - 122°F (5°C to 50°C)
Other:
Buffer Size	2MB
Power Requirements	DC 5V/12V
MTBF	100,000 POH

The drive's main specs, as provided by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro, can be found in the following screenshots:

The SD-R5372 uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. For our tests, we set the region code to 2 (Europe).

- The drive / Retail Package

The retail package includes an IDE 40pin cable, an audio cable, four mounting screws, a marker, a CD-ROM with manual and drivers, Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD and Studio SE, a quick start guide, a DVD+R media certified for 8X and a 52X CD-R, both from Traxdata.

The front panel is the typical one found on most Toshiba drives:

On the rear panel you will find the analogue and digital audio outputs (SPDIF), the IDE master/slave/cs selection pins, the IDE connector and the power input.

Opening the device's case will void the drive's warranty, something we don't recommend. Press on the image below for an enlarged view.

Toshiba manufactures its own chipsets for their burners. The image below shows the main chipset for the SD-R5372 drive.

- Installation

The device was installed on our test PC and was identified as "TOSHIBA CD/DVDW SD-R5372" under WinXP.

The following pages include our test results for the Toshiba drive as well as a comparison against the Plextor PX-716A and Pioneer DVR-108.

- Testing software

In order to perform our tests we used: