Aopen DRW8800

Review Pages

1. Package - Installation
2. Data CD Reading Tests
3. CD Error Correction Tests
4. DVD reading tests
5. DVD Error Correction Tests
6. Protected Disc Tests
7. DAE Tests
8. CD Recording Tests
9. Writing quality - 3T Jitter Tests
10. C1 / C2 Error Measurements
11. DVD Recording Tests
12. KProbe PI/PO quality tests
13. Conclusion

Aopen DRW8800/AAN - Page 1

Taiwanese manufacturer, AOpen, has expanded its product line to include motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards and other PC peripherals. With optical storage devices, Aopen has released the new DRW8800, commercially labeled as Aopen 8x8 DVD Dual.

- AOpen DRW4410 features

The drive supports DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-RW, DVD, CD while offering good compatibility with recording software. Aopen features the Just Link technology developed by Ricoh to prevent buffer under-run errors. During the writing process, the drive calculates the optimum laser power, adjusting it in real-time to compensate for a dirty disc.

- Specifications

Interface	IDE/ATAPI
Buffer Size	2 MB
Disc Diameter	12cm,8cm
Write Speed	DVD-R	8X ZCLV
	DVD-RW	4X CLV
	DVD+R	8X ZCLV
	DVD+RW	4X CLV
	CD-R	32 X ZCLV
	CD-RW	16x ZCVL
Read Speed	DVD+R	8x
	DVD+RW	8x
	DVD-R	8x
	DVD-RW	8X
	DVD-ROM	12x
	DVD-VIDEO	5x
	CD-ROM /CD-R	40x
	CD-RW	32x
Average Access Time	DVD	140ms
Average Access Time	CD	120ms
Supported formats	CD	DVD
Supported formats	CD-Audio CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-R CD-RW CD-I Photo-CD Video CD CD Extra CD Text	DVD+R DVD+RW DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-ROM DVD-Video
Writing modes	CD	DVD
Writing modes	Disc at Once Packet Writing Sesion at Once Track at Once	Disc at Once DVD-Video Incremental(DVD-R/-RW) Multi-Border(DVD-R/-RW) Multi-sesion(DVD+R/+RW) Random write(DVD+R/+RW) Restricted overwrite(DVD-RW) Sequential write(DVD+R/+RW)
Dimensions	Width 148mm Height 46mm Depth 190mm
Mass ( Weight )	Less than 1.02kg

According to InfoTool, the drive uses 2MB buffer memory. On the read features, the only unavailable read format is the DVD-RAM format while with the write features it does not support DVD-RAM and Mount Rainier. PacketWriting and all other writable/rewritable formats are supported. Under the modes tab, RAW DAO 96 writing (CD) is also supported.

Aopen uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times(3 shown above). For our tests, we set the region code to 2 (Europe).

- Retail package

The retail package includes a quick installation quide, mounting screws, an analog cable and the Aopen DRW8800/AAN. The software is provided on two CDs. The first includes Nero Express 6 and PowerDVD 5.0 for writing and playback tasks. The second includes Sonic MyDVD and Arcsoft ShowBiz for video authoring.

- The drive

The drive's front panel is pretty much standard, with all logos on the loading tray. The CD-RW logo , the +RW and -RW logos and the Aopen logo (colored black). Also on the front panel are the eject button, the activity led indicator, the emergency hole while there are no volume control and headphone jack.