All current Macs can read DVDs , but not all Macs can burn them . If you ’re suddenly feel the urge to unleash your intimate movie mogul , want to start backing up some important files to dual - bed disk , or just want a burner that does everything faster than your old internal optic effort , the easiest agency is to add an external FireWire videodisc burner like this one from LaCie . It does a swell job at all of these tasks .
Though we ’ve reviewed 16X videodisk burner in the past ( ) , this is the first movement we ’ve screen that feature 8X dual - bed burning speeds . In our testing , the driving was able to sunburn 8 GB of data in just over 19 minute , a task that took between 27 and 43 minute with 4X DL burners . In other testing , the unit was able to burn a 4.6 GB DVD+R disk in just over six instant , and re-create the same amount of information from a burn disc to our trial system ’s hard drive took about a min and a half . equate these two result to the last seven crusade we ’ve tested , the LaCie came in at a very close 2nd situation in both the electrocution and copy tests .
This is also not the first burner we ’ve refresh to use LightScribe technology , which allows you to thumb particular LightScribe discs over after burning and engrave customs recording label directly onto them . It ’s a pretty nifty thaumaturgy , but it take about 20 minutes to print one of the included templet designs onto LightScribe - enabled medium — which be about twice as much as non - LightScribe media .
LaCie ’s software bundle not only admit the LightScribe Labeler software , which lets you design and burn label , but also the full variation of Toast 7 Titanium , an $ 80 note value . Most hard drives that ship with Toast only ship with the Lite version .
To be clear , this campaign does not support any mellow - definition data format ( HD - DVD or Blu - ray ) . Very few machine now uncommitted can act these types of formats yet .
timed trials
plate = Minutes : Seconds
How We test : We ran all psychometric test with the FireWire drives connect to a dual-2.5GHz Power Mac G5 with Mac OS X 10.3.9 instal and 512 MB of RAM . We record the meter it lease each effort to burn down 8 GB of data onto double level DVD+R direct media using Toast Titanium 7.1 , and also the time it need to burn 4.4 GB of data onto 16x DVD+R Verbatim media . We then timed the written matter of a 655 megabyte single file from a burned dual bed DVD to the internal hard drive.—Macworld Lab Testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
specifications
Macworld’s buying advice
Whether you ’re looking to lend videodisk burning capableness to your system of rules , looking for an loose way to replicate optic media , or just desire the late and fastest effort for burning DVDs — even double - level DVDs — the LaCie d2 can easily and speedily deal all that and more . And if you want to burn off a custom design onto the disc , you may do that too — but be prepared to wait .
[ James Galbraith isMacworld ’s lab director . ]
