Taiwanese manufacturer, AOpen, has a wide and varied product line which includes motherboards, graphics cards, sound cards and other PC peripherals. For optical storage devices, AOpen has released a new IDE DVD burner, the AOpen DUW1608/ARR..

The burner supports writing speeds of 16X for DVD+R, 8X for DVD-R, 4X for DVD+RW and DVD-RW, and 2.4X recording speed for Double Layer media. When it comes to CD writing speeds, the drive can write CDs at 48X and rewrite at 32X.

- Features

• ATCS (Automatic Tilt Calibration System): The Laser adjusts and aligns to focus on warped surfaces to achieve best writing quality.
• Perfect Compatibility with writeable media: AOpen continues testing new brands of writeable media to extend the media compatibility and shares it with all AOpen users through firmware upgrades.
• Silent Technology: to ensure users get the most relaxed and quiet working environment, AOpen designs mechanical structures made especially for controlling noise and vibration
• Dynamic Damping System(DDS): DDS can decrease vibration by one-third or more. With this design, operating quality and read speed are improved significantly
• Noise-control System(NCS): NCS is implemented by improving bearing, disc tray and foam damping washers design so as to reduce wind noise.
• JustLink: enables stable writing in situations where buffer under-run errors may occur on a conventional drive.
• JustSpeed decides the optimum writing power and speed.

- Specifications

Interface	E-IDE/ATAPI
Recording Capacity	DVD+R (Double Layer) 8.5GB DVD+R/DVD-R 4.7GB DVD+RW/DVD-RW 4.7GB CD-R 700/650MB CD-RW 700/650MB
Data Transfer Mode	UDMA Mode 4 (66MB/sec) DMA Mode 2 (16MB/sec) PIO Mode 4 (16MB/sec)
Max. Recording Speeds	DVD+R DL (Double Layer) 2.4X DVD+R (Single Layer) 16X DVD-R 8X CD-R 48X
Max. Rewriting Speeds	DVD+RW 4X DVD-RW 4X CD-RW 32X
Max. Reading Speeds	DVD-ROM 16X CD-ROM 48X
Buffer Memory	2MB
CD Writing Mode	Track at Once (TAO) Disk at Once (DAO) Session at Once (SAO) Multi-session Fixed Packet Variable Packet Raw Mode Burning Over-Burn
DVD Writing Mode	Multi-session Recording (DVD+R) Random Recording (DVD+RW) Disc at Once, Multi-Border (DVD-R) Restricted overwrite, DAO, Multi-border (DVD-RW)
Weight	900g
Dimensions	149x42x189.5 mm (half height)
System Requirement	Pentium III 450 or faster 64MB RAM minimum Windows XP/2000/ME/98SE

Below are the burner's main specs as given by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro:

The drive also uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times before the drive remains locked into to the last region selected.

- European Retail Package

The retail package includes the AOpen DUW1608/ARR, a quick installation guide, audio cable, mounting screws, and a Chameleon Bezel Kit. This kit contains two extra faceplates in colours black and silver. That way, the front faceplate on the drive can be changed to match the color of the PC case in which it will be installed. Also included are two CDs containing Cyberlink's PowerDVD 5, and Nero 6 OEM Suite that will cover your writing/authoring and DVD playback needs.

The front panel has an activity led which lights up green when the device is active..

The rear panel has the usual analogue and digital outputs, IDE connector and power input connector.

Opening the device's case voids the warranty, so we advise against it. Instead, use the photos in this review for a closer look under the hood. Clicking on the image below will reveal a high resolution image:

- Installation

The drive was installed as secondary master and under Windows XP SP2, recognized as "AOpen DUW1608/ARR". For this review, the drive was flashed with the latest firmware version A070. Below is a screenshot from Nero Burning Rom, showing supported options such as overburn and buffer underrun protection.

During this review, we will be comparing the AOpen DUW1608/ARR burner with the LG GSA-4160, the LITEON SOHW-1633S and the Samsumg TS-H552U burners.