Samsung TS-H552U

Samsung TS-H552U Recorder - Page 1

Samsung's TS-H552B 16X drive, reviewed by Cdrinfo 3 months ago, now has a "twin brother"... Only a little bit faster... the TS-H552U is Samsung's brand new model supporting 16X DVD+R, 16X DVD-R, 5X DVD+R DL, 4X DVD±RW, 40X CD-R and 32X US-RW.

We were glad to see (after being previously informed by Samsung), that the DL writing speed has increased, supporting up to 5X, as in our case with Verbatim media which we will see in the following pages of this review.

- Specifications

Interface	EIDI/ATAPI
Average Seek Times	DVD-ROM/R/RW: 100ms, DVD-SL: 130ms, DL: 140ms, DVD-R/RW: 130ms
Buffer Memory	2MB
Supported Disc	DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-ROM/XA, CD-Audio , Video CD, Photo CD, CD-I (FMV), CD-Extra, CD-TEXT
Features	Media type	Write	Read
	DVD+R	16X (21.6MB/sec)	8X (10.8MB/sec)
	DVD+R Double	2.4X (3.24MB/sec)	-
	DVD-RW	4X (5.4MB/sec)	8X (10.8MB/sec)
	DVD-R	16X (21.6MB/sec)	8X (10.8MB/sec)
	DVD-ROM	-	16X (21.6MB/sec)
	CD-ROM	-	48X (7.2MB/sec)
	CD-R	40X (6.0MB/sec)	48X (7.2MB/sec)
	CD-RW	24X (3.6MB/sec)	32X (4.8MB/sec)
Burst Transfer Rate	PIO Mode 4 (16.6MB/sec) Ultra DMA Mode 2 (33.3MB/sec)

Below are the drive's main specs as provided by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro:

The drive 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 the internal TS-H552 drive, a setup guide as well as an audio cable, mounting screws and atapi cable. There is also a DVD included in the package with Instant CD/DVD 8 from Pinnacle with manual and Acrobat Reader.

The retail version of the drive comes in two versions, black and white. As you can see from the above image, the drive we had in our hands and reviewed was black.

On the rear panel you will find the analogue and digital audio outputs (SPDIF), the IDE Master/Slave/CS selector 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.

The main chipset is from Mediatek and is the same as that used on the LiteOn SOHW-1633S.

- Installation

The device was installed in our test PC and was identified as "TSST corp CD/DVDW TS-H552U" under WinXP.

For comparison reasons, the review includes two other drives, the NEC ND-3520A and the LG GSA-4163B, both 16X recorders.

We received the drive with the latest firmware revision, US03.

- Testing software

In order to perform our tests we used: