Iomega Super DVD Writer review: Iomega Super DVD Writer

When it comes to burning CDs and DVDs, what matters is speed. Whether you want to put your homemade movies onto DVD or burn a customised audio CD, the less time spent waiting for the final product, the better.

Iomega's Super DVD Writer is an external burner that boasts fast writing speeds across a wide range of optical media and includes a suite of software to assist you in whatever task you throw at the drive. With the bundled software you can back up data, author DVD videos, create audio CDs, burn photo discs, rip MP3s and manage your music collection.

Design
The external burner is a rectangular black box that connects via USB 2.0 to both PCs and Macs. Setting up the Super DVD Writer is quick and easy; simply plug in the power cord and connect it to a spare computer port via the supplied USB cable. The disc tray ejects from the front of the drive, a green light signifies disc access and there is a headphone jack and volume switch for audio CDs.

To prevent damage to its components, the Super DVD Writer has sturdier shielding than an internal DVD burner, which would generally sit safely inside the confines of a PC. It has a solid grey and black exterior and measures about 17cm by 24cm by 6cm.

Features
The Super DVD Writer supports a plethora of formats including CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW. It also supports DVD+R DL (dual-layer), which allows you to burn up to 8.5GB of video or data onto a single disc. In fact, the only format it doesn't support is DVD-RAM, which is sometimes used in DVD recorders, such as Panasonic's 400GB DMR-E500H.

Iomega bundles a heap of software to help with burning photos, videos, music and data discs. For beginners, Iomega includes a DVD wizard that prompts you with possible tasks and launches the corresponding application to help you get the job done.

Hotburn Pro creates audio CDs, data discs, MP3/WMA discs and duplicates non-copyright protected CDs and DVDs. One small gripe with have with this app is that it doesn't give the estimated time remaining to burn a DVD, but otherwise, it is a helpful program. It also includes a CD label designer to put the finishing touches on your creations. Sonic applications MyDVD and CinePlayer take care of video-disc recording and DVD playback, respectively. Automatic Backup is an easy-to-use safeguard utility to archive files stored on your PC in case of theft or data loss. You can choose which files on your computer to backup and also schedule automatic transfers.

Performance
During our tests, the Iomega Super DVD Writer took just under 15 minutes to burn a full 4.7GB DVD. Given that we used 4X media, we expect the burn times to be a lot less using newer 8X or 16X discs.

Iomega's online support for the Super DVD Writer is excellent, with driver updates, FAQs, documentation and warranty information all in one place.

All up, the Iomega Super DVD Writer is a formidable choice for anyone who wants to quickly burn DVDs. Its portability, quick setup and ease of use make it stand out against other burners on the market.

See the table below for read and write speeds on various types of media:

	DVD					CD
	-ROM	+R	-R	+RW	-RW	-ROM	-R	-RW
Write	-	16x	16x	8x	6x	-	48x	24x
Rewrite	-	-	-	8x	6x	-	-	24
Read	16x	8x	8x	8x	8x	48x	48x	32x