Sony BWU-500S Review

Review Pages

1. Meet the Sony BWU-500S BD Burner
2. CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc reading tests
3. CD Error Correction tests
4. DVD Error Correction tests
5. CD/DVD writing quality testing platform
6. CD-R burning - TDK (Ritek) CD-R 48x
7. CD-R burning - Taiyo Yuden CD-R 48x
8. CD-RW burning - Verbatim CD-RW 32x
9. DVD-R burning - Ricoh (CMCMAG AM3) DVD-R SL 16x
10. DVD-R burning - Verbatim (MCC03RG20) DVD-R SL 16x
11. DVD-R burning - Ridisc (TTH02) DVD-R SL 16x
12. DVD-R burning - Taiyo Yuden (TYGO3) DVD-R SL 16x
13. DVD-RW burning - TDK (CMCW04) DVD-RW 6x
14. DVD-R DL burning - Verbatim (MKM03RD30) DVD-R DL 8x
15. DVD+R burning - Philips (INFOME R30) DVD+R 16x
16. DVD+R burning - Moser Baer India (MBIPG101R05) DVD+R 16x
17. DVD+R burning - Verbatim (MCC004) DVD+R 16x
18. DVD+R burning - Datawrite Titanium (PRODISC R04) DVD+R SL 16x
19. DVD+RW burning - Verbatim (MKMA03) DVD+RW 8x
20. DVD+R DL burning - Verbatim (MKM003) DVD+R DL 8x
21. DVD-RAM burning - Maxell DVD-RAM 5x, 12x
22. BD-R burning - Panasonic BD-R SL 6x (MEI RA1)
23. BD-R burning - Sony BD-R SL 6x (SONY NN3)
24. BD-R burning - Verbatim BD-R SL 6x LTH (VERBATIMu)
25. BD-R Burning - Moser Baer BD-R SL 6x (MBI R06)
26. BD-R burning - Verbatim BD-R SL 6x (VERBATIMe)
27. BD-R burning Verbatim BD-R SL 7.5GB 2x (VERBATIMa)
28. BD-R DL burning - Panasonic BD-R DL 6X (MEI RB1)
29. BD-R DL burning - Verbatim BD-R DL 6X (VERBATIMf)
30. BD-R DL burning - TDK BD-R DL 4x (TDKBLDRFB)
31. BD-R DL burning - Verbatim BD-R DL 2x (VERBATIMb)
32. BD-RE burning - Verbatim BD-RE SL 2X (VERBATIM0)
33. BD-RE DL burning - BD-RE DL 2x (VERBATIM1)
34. BD-RE DL burning TDK BD-RE DL 2X (TDKBLDWfa)
35. Summary of DVD, BD quality tests, Overburning, Booktype
36. Final words

The Sony BWU-500S BD is a very fast Blu-ray disc burner that will burn a complete 25GB disc in less than 11 minutes. The drive burned the Sony and Panasonic and BD-R SL discs at 12x fast most importantly, the Opti Drive Control utility indicated that the quality of the specific recordings was good. With BD-R DL discs, the drive will burn the Panasonic BD-R DL disc for 6x recording at 8x. Generally, quality of the BD burnings was high with most of the disc we used in our tests, with some exceptions. We also liked the to see the Sony drive supporting BD-R LTH discs.

When we tested the LiteOn iHBS112 BD burner some time ago, we had identified that the firmware needed some extra tweaking in order the drive to unveil its full potential. Sony's BWU-500S drive - which uses the same Mediatek chip and it is based on the same design - showed a much better behavior, in terms of burning stability with CD and DVD media. The result was a great CD/DVD burner that produces quality burns even at its maximum supported speeds of 48X for CD-R and 16X for DVD, although some extra work in the firmware could be done with the Verbatim MKM03RD30 DVD-R DL discs.

Regarding the reading capabilities of the drive, we have to say that it turned out to be pretty good and all the CD and DVD disc were read at speeds met drive's specifications. Most reading processes were nice producing smooth graphs. As far as error correction is concerned, we can say that the drive can handle defective CDs pretty well while there is space for improvement when it comes to reading defected DVDs.

Being compatible with all the optical media formats - CD, DVD and BD, the Sony drive could replace your current CD/ DVD burner and bring the Blu-ray disc experience to your desktop, in terms of both data storage and HD entertainment. A recommended solution if you are thinking of purchasing a fast and reliable BD burner. The drive retails online for less than $150.

Pros