The Panasonic drive arrived first, and I
used it for a few weeks before any of the other drives made
there way to the bench. Included in the box were necessary
screws, an audio cable, eject pin, software, 1 DVD-R disc,
and a DVD-RAM disc. This unit is the only one that supports
DVD-RAM in the round-up. The owner’s manual for this drive
is huge, and filled with three different languages. It’s
very difficult to maneuver in due to the languages all being
jumbled together though.
Installing the unit was easy as
expected, with no major speed bumps. The drive tray is very
fragile, and I absolutely hated it. It requires you to
position the disc in such a manner that actually takes a few
minutes to figure out. You just don’t drop the disc in and
roll, since it might not read it. You have to position the
disc perfectly, and kind of push it into its affixed
position in order for it to work. It’s not a difficult task,
just one I find annoying. The tray also felt very breakable,
which is something I don’t like since these drives are
expensive.
Included Software
B’s Recorder GOLD5 BASIC –This is the
DVD-R/RW writing software which is backwards compatible
with CD-R/RW. This software also supports DVD-RAM
DVD-MovieAlbumSE 3 –This is DVD video
recording software which enables you to make and edit
movies
MyDVD 3.5 – Software that allows you
to author using DVD-video format with MPEG2 motion
pictures
WinDVD 4 – InterVideo’s DVD player
FileSafe – This is simply backup
software
Test Drive
As stated before, the Panasonic
(Matsushita) drive is the only one in this review to support
DVD-RAM technology. DVD-RAM was the first re-writeable media
to hit the market, and is basically a hard drive on DVD
media. Now that DVD-RW media has gone mainstream, DVD-RAM
isn’t as lucrative as it once was. I personally don’t find a
need for it, but this is a decision you will have to make
based on your needs.
This was the slowest drive I reviewed.
The specs look like this:
Panasonic
LF-D512
DVD-R
2x
DVD-RW
1x
DVD-RAM
2x
DVD+R
-
DVD+RW
-
CD-R
12x
CD-RW
8x
DVD-ROM (read)
12x
CD-ROM (read)
32x
It’s pretty hard to ignore the fact that
the other drives in this review can write 2X faster than the
Panasonic drive, which obviously gives them the speed edge
in recording. But, if you are looking for DVD-RAM support,
than the Panasonic drive is the lone wolf. Other than the
speed differences, I had some problems writing .cue files
with this drive. For some reason, I could not use the drive
with Fireburner. Also, while burning many backups, I created
several coasters with this drive. DVD-R disks are expensive,
and creating coasters is no laughing matter. I burned a
total of 15 DVD discs with the drive, and had 3 coasters.
This could be a media incompatibility issue, but something I
did not come across with the others. The included software
was a bit cumbersome to use, with so many different
programs. I did appreciate the addition of WinDVD, possibly
the best DVD playback software available, at least a
personal favorite.
