Nero CD Speed v4.70 - BD-ROM:
To test the BWU-100A's BD-ROM reading performance, I used the Blu-ray Disc version of The Fifth Element. This single layer disc is about 23GB in size.
| Sony BWU-100A |
I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U |
Pioneer BDR-101A |
|
| Transfer Speed Average: Start: End: |
2.00x 2.00x 2.00x |
2.00x 2.00x 2.00x |
2.00x 1.99x 2.00x |
| Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full: |
123ms 228ms 407ms |
125ms 208ms 399ms |
56ms 174ms 385ms |
| CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x: |
0% 1% 2% 3% |
0% 1% 1% 3% |
0% 1% 2% 3% |
Sony's new drive has a maximum speed of 2x when reading BD-ROM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that the drive starts reading at about 2x and stays there until the end.I should also point out that CD Speed's CPU usage test does not seem to work correctly. The drive cannot read BD media at 8x, let alone 4x, so I'm not sure how it's generating those results.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play back the movie on our test computer using the upgraded version of CyberLink's PowerDVD BD software. Every time I tried to play the movie, PowerDVD returned an error stating that the graphics card was not supported. Switching to WinDVD BD yielded much better results. This software had no problems playing back the movie. However, because the computer lacks an HDCP compliant video card, the movie was downsampled to 540p.
Nero CD Speed v4.70 - BD-R and BD-RE:
Next we'll look at the drive's BD-R and BD-RE reading performance. For this I created a few data discs using single layer BD-R and BD-RE media from Memorex and then ran our BD read tests with CD Speed.
Memorex BD-R
| Sony BWU-100A |
I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U |
Pioneer BDR-101A |
|
| Transfer Speed Average: Start: End: |
2.00x 1.99x 2.00x |
2.00x 1.99x 2.00x |
2.00x 1.99x 2.00x |
| Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full: |
101ms 215ms 390ms |
100ms 204ms 366ms |
71ms 200ms 349ms |
| CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x: |
0% 1% 2% 4% |
0% 1% 2% 3% |
0% 1% 2% 3% |
Memorex BD-RE
| Sony BWU-100A |
I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U |
Pioneer BDR-101A |
|
| Transfer Speed Average: Start: End: |
2.00x 1.99x 2.00x |
2.00x 2.00x 2.00x |
2.00x 2.00x 2.00x |
| Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full: |
101ms 219ms 391ms |
100ms 203ms 360ms |
70ms 200ms 345ms |
| CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x: |
0% 1% 2% 4% |
0% 1% 2% 3% |
0% 1% 2% 3% |
Sony's new drive had no problems reading Memorex's BD-R and BD-RE media. In both cases, the BWU-100A started reading at 2x and stayed at that speed throughout the entire session.
