AOpen bundles in a copy of Nero Express 7 burning software on the Nero 7 Essentials CD with the drive. Nero Express 7 is a good program for burning, it has all the features you're likely to need. Although, it would have been nice if AOpen could have included a full version of Nero Burning ROM instead.

Nero's InfoTool software shows us which standards the AOpen DSW1812P Triple format DVD writer is compatible with.

Dual-Layer DVD Technology

Dual-layer DVD media can store 8.4GB of data, which is exactly twice that of its single-layer counterparts capacity of 4.7GB. This is because Dual Layer 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 by these 8.4GB monster optical discs! The AOpen DSW1812P Triple format DVD writeris compatible with DVD-/+R Dual Layer media at up to 8x write speeds.

PCStats Test System Specs:

processor: amd Athlon64 X2 5000+ (AM2) Clock Speed: 13 x 200 MHz = 2.6 GHz Motherboards: Asus M2N32WS Professional Videocard: MSI NX7800GTX-VT2D256E Memory: 2x 1024MB Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4 Hard Drive: 74GB Western Digital Raptor WD740 CDROM: AOpen DSW1812P Heatsink: AMD Athlon64 FX-62 Refernece PowerSupply: PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510 SLI Software Setup Microsoft WindowsXP SP2 nVIDIA Forceware 9.35 nVIDIA Forceware 91.47 Workstation Benchmarks CD Winbench 99 SiSoft Sandra 2005 Nero CD Speed