LG Electronics WH08LS20 Blu-ray Burner

In Blu-ray speeds and feeds, the WH08LS20 is state of the art. It writes single- and double-layer BD-R at 8X, handles BD-RE at 2X, and reads BD-ROM at 8X. In my hands-on tests, it wrote to all of those media types at the rated speeds, and movie playback was silky smooth, with no stutters or hiccups. With DVD, the drive is fast, but less so, writing DVD+/-R at 8X, DVD+RW at 8X, DVD-RW at 6X, DVD-RAM at 5X, and DVD+/-R DL at 6X; it reads all those formats at 8X. CD read/write speeds are 24X across the board--more than fast enough for most users, but half what you'll find on drives like Matshita's SW5584 (a model that sometimes resides inside other vendors' products, such as the Buffalo BR-816SU2).

The bundled software that accompanies the LG WH08LS20 is a surprisingly powerful CyberLink suite that includes PowerDVD 7.03.4603 for Blu-ray and DVD movie playback, PowerProducer 5.0.1.0819 for capturing and manipulating video on CD/DVD/AVCHD/Blu-ray movie discs, MediaShow 4.0.22 for creating slide shows, and LabelPrint 2.20.3301 for creating labels and jewel-case inserts. For some reason, in my tests PowerBackup 2.50.4511 was deselected in the installation screen; however, you can still install it and use it to back up your files.