Iomega SUPER DVD WRITER 16X ( 33068 )

Rating:
Summary: This USB DVD burner 16X (33068) is made by Lite-On !
Review: I am testing this USB DVD burner after receiving 3 days. Be aware of this USB drive if you intend to use your owned solfware to burn DVD. Because you sometimes need to use a different burning DVD solfware to match with every entire drive on your PC's, this drive is easy to be hung up due to the speed of its USB 2.0 connection and its microcode. Everytime it happens to be hung up, you have to unplug the AC connector at back of PC. This is a worse case to be avoid in multiple disconnection of the main power plug. About double layer! Only one format on every PC is a basic concept of application. Two formats between single and double layer can not be used on the same PC for reading and writing on both single and double layer drives. For example, the format of a disk making from a single layer drive can not be used on a drive of double layer. Therefore, the burning DVD solfwares are very different between the old and new drives.
Other words, this drive is made by Lite-On company. It is an OEM product.
So far during testing, its drive is recognized by Window XP right away because it is certified by the big PC Window operation. The speed is of course slower than its spec due to USB connnection.
Finally the hung up problem is very tough for every company that is making a USB 2.0 DVD burner. This hung-up depends on the mother board, the speed of CPU and layout/design of each PC company. So its microcode drive needs to be updated time by time for improving its operation if its company wants to do so.

After 9 days of testing, the pros and cons are as follow.
PROS.
_Read and Write movie files are faster than any 16X internal drive on P4 533FSB and 800FSB of desktop.
_R/W is also fast enough at = or >1.6GHz on Centrino laptop.
_Write compress movie files without any errors and its format (compress file on a single layer) is played smoothly on any progressive scan DVD player.

CONS.
_R/W mode is very slow on P4 Mobile 2.0GHZ 400FSB on laptop.
_Time response to CPU through USB 2.0 is slow as easy to be hung up if mouse button is pressed during this burner on its incomplete stage. This means hitting mouse button too fast should get hung-up.
_USB 1.1 is not acceptable to play any movie on this burner.
_Removing USB connector without stopping UBS bus should get hung-up.