Keeping up with the ever - changing DVD - burner market could be a job in itself . Every few months , profligate thrust are announced , new feature film get introduced , and competing ( and confusing ) phonograph recording data formatting continue to wreak leapfrog in the pursuance for mart control . The most recent technical maturation in DVD writers is duple - stratum combustion . This bully technology allows you to double the capacity of a DVD , from 4.7 GB to 8.5 G , by writing to two unlike layers on the same side of the disk . You ’ve been rent double - layer DVDs for a while , but now home substance abuser can burn their own .

Recently , Macworld Lab put seven of the latest driveway to the test . There were more differences between the drives than we had anticipated , and in the end , the LaCie d2 DVD±RW 16x FireWire with Double Layer driving force took the crown .

Dual-ing Devices

In the world of DVD burner , there are two vie standards groups that create two types of vacuous videodisk : DVD+R and DVD - R. They do the same thing , and both are compatible with most habitation - entertainment videodisk players and with the DVD drive in many computer . One group will fare out with media and predict faster DVD - write speeds , and the other will before long survey or jump ahead . Though it may be perplexing , the upside to this heated rivalry is that it keeps the monetary value of media down and hie up ontogenesis of fresh features . All the drive we looked at can write to both DVD+R and DVD - universal gas constant medium , as well as dual - layer medium ( also called either DVD+RW DL or DVD+R9 ) .

Faster DVD, Burn, Burn

The speed at which a cause will burn a DVD depends on three component : the drive chemical mechanism ’s speed , the upper of its joining to your Mac , and the platter ’s rated speed . Each of the drives we tested claim to cauterise a single - layer videodisk at up to 16x , and all the drive have FireWire ports , except the Iomega , which has only a USB 2.0 port wine . Because all current Macs admit FireWire , which is as degraded as or faster than USB 2.0 , we tested all the private road except the Iomega using FireWire . We try the Iomega using USB 2.0 .

The Sony parkway was the fastest when burning 4.7 GB of data to a 16x - scab DVD+R phonograph recording , at just 5 min and 56 seconds . The Plextor , Kanguru , and LaCie drives were a shade slower , but three drives — the EZQuest , the OWC , and the Iomega ( due to its slower , USB 2.0 connection)—took considerably longer to write the disk .

We also blob - tested USB 2.0 write speeds using the Sony and Plextor drives , which offer both USB 2.0 and FireWire . The Sony took about three and a half transactions longer to burn up 4.7 GB to the same media using USB 2.0 . The Plextor demand nearly two moment longer .

The fastest dual - layer media available at press metre are rated at only 2.4x , but the movement rated at 4x for dual - stratum burning can in reality burn these 2.4x discs at 4x velocity , taking about 27 instant to burn an 8.5 GB disk . The Sony and Iomega drives are the exception : they are tell on at 2.4x for dual - layer burning and aim almost 44 proceedings to burn a disc . So if you plan to use the dual - layer characteristic often , you ’ll definitely want to corrupt a burner rat at 4x for three-fold - layer burning .

We also try simulate data from the external thrust to our Mac to test the drives ’ read speeds . When we imitate 655 MB of data that had been burn to a three-fold - layer disc , the Plextor was quite a bit faster than the rest , land up the task in just 1 hour and 15 second , probably owing to its 8 M of cache storage ( all the other drives have 2 MB ) .

You’re Nowhere without Software

At present , OS X does n’t recognize any of the drives let in in this review , but each movement add up with software that lets you apply it with OS X. You just ca n’t utilize Apple ’s Disk Burner computer software , iTunes , or iPhoto to burn discs . iDVD is another chronicle all told ; you’re able to burn a DVD right away from iDVD only if you have an internal Apple SuperDrive . The late released iDVD 5 ( , April 2005 ) , let in in the iLife ’ 05 suite , will let you create a disc image that you’re able to then burn to an external Apple - supported DVD ride , or you’re able to use a disc - burn down utility , such as Roxio ’s Toast . Apple ’s DVD Studio Pro wo n’t glow directly to any of these drives until Apple supports them .

It sounds like a mussiness , right ? Do n’t despair — there are two other ways around this lack of sustenance . First , LaCie include with its private road a utility promise Disc Recording , which lets you use Disc Burner , iMovie , iTunes , and DVDStudio Pro to sunburn to the drive . The utility program is available only when you buy a LaCie drive . Second , possessor of other driveway brands can download a detached public-service corporation calledPatchBurn , which does the same thing as LaCie ’s utility . We tried PatchBurn on all the drive and had success using Apple ’s Disc Burner software package and iTunes . PatchBurn also offers a machine politician that permit you sting to a drive using iDVD 4 , but use it at your own risk . ( We encountered a few crashes while trying to use it . )

All the burners include third - party lotion for burning audio , video , and other file onto compact disk and DVDs . Roxio ’s Toast isMacworld ’s magnetic disc - sunburn software of choice , and we perform all our tests using Roxio ’s Toast 6 Titanium (; December 2003 ) . Three of the drives — the EZQuest , the Plextor , and the Sony — ship with a Lite version of Toast , which has few features than the full version . The LaCie ride ships with the full version of Toast , which makes this repel even well in our optic . The other driving force ship with either NewTech Infosystems ’ Dragon Burn 4 or Charismac ’s Discribe 5 . In our trial , Dragon Burn wreak very well and had an nonrational exploiter interface , but we found Discribe difficult to use . The EZQuest and OWC drives also include EMC / Dantz ’s Retrospect Express , which allows you to automate backups of your data .

Dual-Layer 16X DVD Burners Compared

We connect each drive to a dual-2.5GHz Power Mac G5 go Mac OS X 10.3.7 and with 512 megabyte of read/write memory . We commemorate the clip it took each driving to burn 8 GB of data onto threefold - layer DVD+R direct metier using Toast Titanium 6.0.7 , and also the clip it took to burn 4.4 GB of data onto 16× DVD+R Verbatim media . We then timed the transcript of a 655 MB file cabinet from a burned dual - layer videodisk to the Mac ’s intragroup hard drive . The Iomega drive was link via USB 2.0 . The rest were plug into via FireWire 400.—Macworld research lab testing by Jeffy K. Milstead

Macworld’s Buying Advice

These fast young burner can be real time - savers , and the Modern threefold - level feature film can help you get much more datum onto one disc , so you ’re not traverse labor across , or endorse up to , two different discs .

We judge the LaCie d2 DVD±RW 16x FireWire with Double Layer drive to be the best value , because it offer the full rendering of Roxio ’s Toast and software that makes it compatible with OS X. The Plextor crusade , with its 8 MB of cache retentiveness , was the best all - around performing artist , and it has swell connective option , but it ’s also the most expensive . If you already own Toast Titanium , you might deliberate the Kanguru Quicksilver crusade , which is based on the same mechanism as the LaCie but costs about $ 30 less .