Roland Marianna

Between the alphabet soup of the different standards and the disparity between vendors' claims and true speeds, choosing the right DVD writer is not much fun. To spare you the headache, we detail the latest DVD writers available from NEC ND-3540A, Pioneer DVR-110D, Plextor PX-740A, Sony DRU-810A and Toshiba SDR-5472 and gauge their true speeds.

Pinnacle's new Showcenter 200 brings HD features after "broadcasting" sound, video and photographs around the home. More compact, the 200 also provides a front-mounted USB socket (for connecting a hard disk) and uPnP compatibility.

With little left to differentiate DVD recorders, manufacturers are looking for new ways of staying ahead of their competitors. One such novelty is LightScribe, which lets a recorder actually label the CD or DVD directly. You can produce professional-style labels using the same laser that burns data, right inside your own CD/DVD drive! Is it worth it? Read on to find out.

Have you ever misplaced your Unreal CD somewhere before finding it two days later buried among hundreds of other discs long after you lost the urge to frag? With Disc Stakka, Imation says you'll never run into such a problem again with a carousel that offers automated storage and retrieval of 100 optical discs - and database capabilities for file retrieval.

Nearly all manufacturers have come out this year with a DVD burner rated at 16x writing speed, and we tested 10 of them. We found that performance differs between devices, but only slightly; the exception is dual-layer writing, where speeds still vary a great deal. The real distinction is in how the burners recognize 16x media; the results here are rather astonishing!

The arrival of a new generation of DVD burners from Pioneer usually heralds new upgrades across the feature spectrum, and the vendor's DVR-A08XLA DVR-108 is no different. With speeds of 16x for writing and 4x for re-writing, dual-layer 4x speeds for 2.4 media also represent a pleasant surprise.

Double-layer technology, which makes it possible to store 8.5 GB of data or four hours of DVD quality video (MPEG-2) on a DVD, is finally here. We tested the Lite-On SOHW-832S, the LG GSA-4120B and the BenQ DW-1600 to see what this technology is about.

MSI's latest mini-PC, the MEGA 180, was designed to appease gamers with an nForce2 chipset for AthlonXP processors. For interior-decorated-minded users, the MEGA 180 comes in a nice-to-look-at colorful box. While the system has the Hi-Fi sound features of its predecessor, the MEGA 180 represents a major revamp, with new features such as Wi-Fi wireless networking capabilities built in.

The race for Xs is still on and Plextor has gone into the lead with the PX-708A, what Plextor claims is the first commercialized 8X DVD recorder. At this speed, a 4.38 GB DVD+R takes under 9 minutes to record. That is about the same as a CD in just over a minute. What we wanted to know was whether the reliability and compatibility of blank supports suffer from this breakneck speed.

The famous Finnish mobile phone manufacturer has decided to take on the mobile game deck sector. Now this being the sole reserve of Nintendo and its range of Gameboys, the task will not be an easy one. But Nokia has gone for an extremely versatile product with high technological potential. So, does such a combination give it the edge?

Two years after the launch of the first mass-market DVD writer, Pioneer has brought out its sixth generation device, the DVR-A06 boxed version and the DVR-106 OEM version. The Japanese manufacturer, a member of the DVD Forum and an enthusiastic advocate of the -R and -RW standards, is nevertheless offering a hybrid product that the company says can read and record to multiformats. We put the company's compatibility claims to the test.

With the huge amounts of information that now have to be stored, the CD-RW is beginning to run out of steam. The DVD boosts storage capacity to 4.5 GB, and, in addition to data, can also record videos. So here is the lowdown on what the market is offering.