I was pleased to see that MSI includes Nero Burning ROM along with the drive. Nero is a powerful, well supported CD/DVD burning program that's easy to get to grips with, even for beginners. Intervideo's software suite is great for those of you who want to convert those home movies on VHS tapes to DVD, as it has everything you'll need.

Nero's InfoTool shows us that the MSI DR16-B can read pretty much all types of recordable media except for DVD-RAM discs. As for writing methods, everything is supported except DVD-RAM and Mount Rainier.

Dual-Layer DVD Technology

As mentioned earlier, dual-layer DVD media can store more data than its single-layer counterparts. This is because DL DVD media has two dye layers for data recording. Heat caused by the drive's laser beam modifies the physical and chemical structure of each dye layer to form patterns which can be read by the same laser (at a lower intensity) as digital data.

Each dye layer is separated by a spacer and a metal reflector. The metal layer reflects the laser light, allowing the drive to 'read' the data by observing the reflections. The first reflector (positioned after the first dye layer) is semi-transparent; when the laser is focused a certain way, it will pass through this reflector and continue through to the second dye layer and bounce off the second metal reflector. This allows the drive to read the second layer of data. The second reflector is completely opaque and will not allow the laser beam to pass any further. Thus, by modulating the frequency of its laser beam, a dual-layer capable DVD-writer can read and write to dual-layer DVD discs.

There are a couple of ways to indicate dual-layer media. The most common is 'DVD+R DL' but it's also sometimes indicated as DVD+R9. Obviously, both the drive and the media need to be dual-layer capable in order to access the extra storage space afforded to these 8.5GB monster platters!

PCStats Test System Specs:

processor: intel pentium 4 3.0c clock speed: 15 x 200 mhz = 3.0 ghz motherboards: gigabyte ga-8knxp videocard: ati radeon 9800 pro memory: 2x 256mb corsair twinx3200ll hard drive: 40gb western digital special ed. cdrom: aopen drw8800 powersupply: vantec 470w stealth psu software setup windowsxp build 2600 intel inf 5.02.1012 catalyst 4.4 workstation benchmarks cd winbench 99 sisoft sandra 2002 nero cd speed