ASUS DRW-2014L1T DVD±/RW DRIVE with LightScribe Review

Technical Specifications


Some of the features in the new ASUS DRW-2014L1T are:

• Over-Speed Burning
Burn 2.4X DVD±R (Double Layer) Disc at 8X Speed
• FlextraLink™ Buffer Underrun Errors Prevention Technology
Built-in FlextraLink™ prevents users from buffer underrun problems and eliminates the creation of unusable disc's. Throughout the recording process, FlextraLink™ consistently monitors the data buffer status to ensure best recording quality under high-speed operation.
• FlextraSpeed™ Optimal Writing Speed Adjustment Technology
Built-in FlextraSpeed™ and AI Auto Speed Adjustment Tech. enhance accuracy and reliability when reading / writing / re-writing across a broad range of certified media in different formats. FlextraSpeed™ continuously monitors the recording media and sets the optimal writing speeds to ensure best recording quality. The ASUS proprietary FlextraSpeed™ occupies minimal system resources so the PC remains full operational and available for other applications even during recording process.
• Auto Vibration Reducing System (AVRS)
The AVRS technology is designed to minimize the vibration caused by the spindle motor and resonance between components as well as the drive and PC cases. AVRS is designed to reduce vibration and noise induced by unbalanced mass of rotating machinery. With AVRS, ASUS DRW-2014L1T provides high readability and playability.
• Compatible with a Wide Range of Disc Formats
• Operates on Horizontal or Vertical Mounting
• ASUS Unique Live Firmware Update Tool
• Windows XP/ NT/2000/VISTA Supported


Here are the different media specification numbers:



How It All Works


For those of us who were never brave enough to open our DVD drive, don’t be embarrassed, we weren't brave enough either. There are always other people crazy enough to demolish their hardware and that’s how we found this picture bumping around the internet (We are still searching for someone to give credit to for this image. Ed.). The laser emitting diode (in this picture, it is the blueish lens) is located just behind the spinning center of your drive (the aluminum wheel with black rubber lining). At the very top of the picture you will see a small little motor that drives the lens back and forth along the CD/DVD surface.

Now this is how "burning" a disk works: The optical disc's, CD/DVD/Blu-ray, usually have one very thin layer of aluminum on it that is being pitted by the laser beam (Of course two layers of aluminum for the DL disc's). The pits and bumps that are generated by the laser are used for storing data on your disc.

The laser wave length that was used is 780nm. The write spot on the CD itself is 2.11µm(1µm = Also called a micron, a unit of measurement of length, equal to one-millionth of a meter or approximately 0.00003937 inch) large which allows for a total of 700MB of storage space. A DVD laser is even smaller; at 650nm the laser read / write spot is only 1.32µm large and therefore you can pack an astonishing 4.7GB on one DVD. The new Blu-ray technology beats them all: It uses a blue-violet laser (instead of red) at a laser wave length of 405nm which makes for a write spot of 0.32 µm large which creates a massive 25GB of storage space on one disk. There is of course a whole lot more involved with this technology, but we don’t want it to get too boring right?